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REAL-TIME CG HUMANS HIT THE BIG-TIME By IAN FAILES
Just as photoreal CG humans in film and television garner much attention, so too in recent times has the proliferation of real-time CG humans. These were once almost the sole domain of games, where they certainly still exist either in pre-rendered scenes or in fully interactive real-time rendered gameplay. But with game engines and performance capture tools being used more frequently in cinematic productions and in non-game experiences, real-time CG humans are finding their place elsewhere as well. Synthetic humans now tend to appear in shorts, trailers, AR and VR experiences, on-stage events, demonstrations and applications. VFX Voice checked in with a range of game-engine companies, studios and academic researchers for a wide overview of where things are with real-time CG humans.
valley. “Our team at 3Lateral have dedicated themselves to solving this problem for a number of years, and are relentlessly driven to not only capture accurate human likenesses, but to do so with all the subtleties and nuances required to craft believable, real-time digital humans.” Epic’s aim is to enable real-time digital humans for interaction and reaction with users, something of course not possible with
TOP: Actor Andy Serkis was replicated using an Unreal Engine workflow. (Image courtesy of Epic Games) BOTTOM: The central character in Unity’s The Heretic seen in the Unity user interface. (Image of courtesy Unity Technologies)
A WIDE RANGE OF PROJECTS IN UNREAL
TOP: Epic Games’ Unreal Engine was used in the Siren project to craft a photoreal digital actor based off of a live actor performance. (Image courtesy of Epic Games)
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Epic Games’ Unreal Engine lies behind many of the real-time digital humans in existence, in terms of projects emanating from Epic itself, through partners or by outside studios using Unreal. Last year, Epic also acquired 3Lateral, a leader in digital human tools. The result is an ecosystem casting a wide net over real-time humans, as Epic Games Lead Tech Animator Chris Evans describes: “From the Senua demo, a cut scene featuring both an actor and director in front of thousands, orchestrated in under five minutes to ‘Meet Mike,’ a VR project where a digital host interviewed many industry pioneers in a shared virtual space, to Siren, a high-fidelity character that interacted live with an audience and a virtual version of actor/director Andy Serkis.” In working within the realm of real-time digital humans, Evans says that 3Lateral, in particular, has been concentrating heavily on the issue of bringing creations out of the so-called uncanny
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