Why MetaHuman Creator is a Game Changer

January 30, 2023
4
 min read

Successful video games and virtual reality experiences are powered by creating strong, authentic characters. MetaHuman Creator is a game changer because it empowers users to create their own characters in minutes with little or no experience in graphic design. 

With the proliferation of virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence, there’s a growing demand for new types of characters. Virtual avatars must be believable, engaging and customizable to meet the needs of different game genres and VR experiences. 

What is MetaHuman Creator?

MetaHuman Creator is a user-friendly, intuitive design tool that allows anyone to create their own virtual characters in minutes. Using MetaHuman Creator, you can quickly create characters with realistic facial expressions, gestures and body language (4). 

You can also use it to create different costumes and props for your characters. MetaHuman Creator is the first and only tool of its kind that combines face, body, costume and motion into one digital outfit. You don’t have to learn new software to create these different parts of the characters. Instead, everything is available in one place so you can create your character quickly and easily.

Créez vos propres humains virtuels avec Epic Games.
Metahuman creator

MetaHuman Creator - High Fidelity

MetaHuman Creator is known to have a high image fidelity. The important thing here is that it is the textures that matter. In order to achieve a high-quality look, the textures need to be perfect. This can be achieved by choosing the right texture size. The texture size matters for two reasons. First of all, larger texture sizes will take longer to load than smaller ones. This means that the player will see the "spinning wheel of death" for longer. Second of all, larger texture sizes will require more VRAM to store. This can be an issue for low-end computers, or when the game is being streamed.

Why is MetaHuman a Breakthrough for the Game dev Industry?

With so much potential for VR/AR, the need for more original characters is growing every day. The gaming industry faces a serious challenge: Create new IP characters that appeal to the new generation of gamers. 

To meet this challenge, companies are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) solutions to create realistic characters that are easily customizable and cost-effective. These solutions rely on a few key components, one of which is a robust character creation tool that empowers non-experts to create visually appealing characters quickly. MetaHuman Creator was developed based on this insight and other industry trends such as the rise of self-publishing, and the growing desire for realism in virtual characters.

Metahuman Creator is designed to be a game-ready 3D character creator. This means that it is designed to create a wide range of different characters. The game-ready 3D character creator allows game developers to create characters that look different, have different heights and proportions, and have different skin tones. 

The wide range of options that the Metahuman Creator offers will allow you to create a diverse range of characters. This will help your game stand out from the crowd, as it will have a large variety of characters to choose from. The Metahuman Creator's designers have made sure that the tool is fully customizable, so you can completely change the look of the model if you want to.

What MetaHuman Will Change for Game dev Jobs?

There’s no denying that the video game industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world. There is a growing demand for talented creators, especially those with experience in character creation. 

With MetaHuman Creator, anyone with a creative spark can create lifelike characters without any special expertise. This means that companies will be able to hire for a wider range of positions with less competition. This will make it easier for professionals to transition into the industry and stay in the industry, since they don’t need to be experts to create characters.

Metahuman Creator Game Artist

When creating Metahuman Characters for a game artist, it is important to know that the ideal workflow is to start with the textures. This is because the textures are the most important part of the model. The model itself can be very low-poly, as long as the textures are high-resolution, the model will look amazing. 

The textures also need to be optimized to make sure that they don't take up too much VRAM. This means that the texture size will need to be smaller than it would be for a still image. The texture resolution of a Metahuman Character can easily be 10x smaller than a still image (2). This is because a running game needs to constantly have assets being loaded and unloaded, so the assets need to be as small as possible.

Metahuman Creator Portability

The Metahuman Creator is known to be a very portable tool. This is because the tool is designed to be run both on a desktop computer and on a mobile device. The creators of the Metahuman Creator have taken great care to make sure that the tool is lightweight and efficient. Therefore, the tool does not require a lot of CPU power, RAM, or VRAM. The creators of the Metahuman Creator have also taken care to make the tool fully optimized for all parts of the design process. This includes designing the models, optimizing the models, and exporting them to a game engine. The designers of the tool have even made sure that the tool works while connected to a portable device through a hotspot.

Minimum Specs for MetaHuman Creator

The minimum requirements needed to run MetaHuman Creator really depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. High-end machines are recommended but not required. Requirements are:

  • OS: Windows 10 - 64-bit or macOS 
  • Processor: Intel Core i5 Processor or equivalent
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM 
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660, AMD Radeon 7870, Intel HD Graphics 530 or better with 2GB of video memory 
  • Storage: 2 GB of hard drive space 
  • Internet Connection: 1 Mbps upload speed or higher 
  • VR system requirements may vary and will be dependent upon your selected content and design choices

You will also need an Epic Games account to create your MetaHumans. Some assets require you to install the Quixel Bridge app if you’re running Unreal Engine 5, or enable the Quixel Bridge plugin if you’re using Unreal Engine 5 (3).

Other things to consider are level of detail (LODs). LODs need to be created or loaded. LODs help with blurring, meshing and groom characters based on their location on camera (1).

MetaHuman Creator Fully Rigged

The fully rigged character has a skeletal rig with joint controllers. The joint controllers will move the bones so that the model will move in a realistic way. The fully rigged characters can be dressed up with clothes, facial expressions, and accessories. You can also animate the fully rigged characters with the help of animation controllers. 

The fully rigged characters can be used in game engines that support the FBX file format. The fully rigged characters will have a lot of joints. The joints can be used to control different aspects of the model. The joints can control things like the model's facial expressions, the model's animations, and the model's clothes. This means that the model can be fully customized to look and behave exactly the way you want.

Benefactors of MetaHuman Creator

We look at all the possibilities that MetaHuman Creator will allow in the VR universe. We think to our selves about how beautiful the games characters will become in the short future, or how much easier it’ll be to create the characters. We, essentially get to PLay Doctor Frankenstein as we bring our creations to life. However, this technology can also be used in: 

  • AR/VR - Create photorealistic avatars for your AR/VR apps. 
  • Games - Expose your characters and scenes from the game in a realistic manner. 
  • Film - Create high-quality, photorealistic characters for your animated films and TV series. 
  • Education - Create and animate characters to learn about human anatomy, biology and etc.
  • Healthcare - Create and animate characters to educate and inform your patients. 
  • Architecture - Create anonymous citizens who stroll around your future building
  • Other - You can create whatever you want!

Truly, the possibilities are limitless. As the need for visual entertainment, education (think Covid), and research continues to evolve, so does the applicable uses associated with MetaHuman Creator

It All Boils Down to…

The demand for virtual characters is growing quickly, and new tools are constantly being created to meet that demand. Characters created with MetaHuman Creator are highly customizable, and they are fully controllable in real-time. These characters can also be used across different applications and platforms such as Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and games. In short, MetaHuman Creator is a game changer because it empowers users to create their own metahumans in minutes with little or no experience in graphic design. Unlike tools like Unreal Engine, MetaHuman Creator is completely open source, which makes it easy to customize and use in different projects.

MetaHuman Creator is available on UE5, if you are wondering which computer to choose to run this software, discover our article "Best configurations to run UE5".

At Flaneer we provide cloud workstations for creative studios. Feel free to reach out if yoy have any question!

(1) https://docs.metahuman.unrealengine.com/en-US/MetahumansUnrealEngine/RequirementsAndConfigSettings/

(2) https://docs.unrealengine.com/5.0/en-US/texture-format-support-and-settings-in-unreal-engine/

(3) https://quixel.com/bridge

(4) https://docs.metahuman.unrealengine.com/en-US/metahuman-creator-face-controls/

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