Hyperrealistic Digital Personas

1ST YEAR ON THE LIST

With hyperrealistic avatars, users can accurately re-create their likeness in the metaverse, allowing for remote communication that retains a greater sense of intimacy.

KEY INSIGHT

Avatars can be created in a variety of forms, but as users spend more time in XR and metaverse platforms virtually carrying out everyday tasks and interactions, there will be rising demand for avatars that can convincingly recreate their true human likeness.

EXAMPLES

Unreal Engine, a leading tool for generating 3D game visuals, launched its MetaHuman Creator in 2021. Users of the app, which promises “high-fidelity digital humans made easy,” choose from various templates to create highly customizable, hyperrealistic characters for use in games and virtual experiences, reducing a process that might previously have taken weeks to a matter of minutes. During the launch of Facebook’s rebrand as Meta, the company debuted its Codec Avatars, which use 3D-capture technology and artificial intelligence to efficiently create lifelike avatars for use in the sorts of metaverse environments that will play a central role in the company’s future business. Combining smart eyewear technology with hyperrealistic avatars will enable virtual interactions that approach the same level of intimacy as face-to-face engagement, and potentially allow users to replicate themselves in digital form and simultaneously occupy multiple virtual environments.

DISRUPTIVE IMPACT

Hyperrealistic avatars will allow users to accurately represent themselves in virtual environments and interfaces, helping to close the perceptual gap between remote and in-person communications. In the further future of the metaverse, hyperrealistic avatars will populate environments rendered with extreme realism, allowing virtual realities to accurately resemble our own.

EMERGING PLAYERS

• Epic Games • Meta’s Codec Avatars • Replica Studios • Unreal Engine’s MetaHuman Creator