Reimagining Characters with Unreal Engine’s MetaHuman Creator: Elevate your films with cinema-quality character designs and motion capture animation

Length: 356 pages
Edition: 1
Language: English
Publisher: Packt Publishing
Publication Date: 2022-12-29
ISBN-10: 1801817723
ISBN-13: 9781801817721
Sales Rank: #6622723 (See Top 100 Books)

Discover the power of Unreal Engine 5 and the MetaHuman Creator to develop realistic digital characters, infusing them with full body and facial animation

Key Features

Create realistic characters using the MetaHuman Creator using a mixture of preset and custom tools
Import your character into Unreal Engine 5 to access more editing options and begin animating it
Combine face and body motion capturing to fully animate your digital humans

Book Description

MetaHuman Creator (MHC) is an online, user-friendly 3D design tool for creating highly realistic digital humans that can be animated within Unreal Engine (UE) and enhanced with motion capture technology. This means that filmmakers and game developers now have access to a high quality, affordable solution that was previously only available to specialist studios.

This book will focus on using UE5 and MHC from a filmmaker angle. Firstly, you’ll understand how to use the online MHC to create a digital character, changing its facial structure, body type, and clothing. After that, you’ll learn all the necessary steps to bring the character into UE5 and set it up for animation. Then, using an iPhone and a webcam to capture face and body movements, you’ll mix these motion capture files, refine the animations using the MetaHuman Control Rig, and save these takes to be reused and edited again within the Level Sequencer. On top of that, you’ll learn how to create a rendered video file for film production using both the Level Sequencer and a VR Cinematic Camera. By the end of this book, you’ll have created your own MetaHuman character, as well as face and body motion capture data, and learned the necessary skills to give your future projects further realism and creative control.

What you will learn

Create your own bespoke character using MHC
Develop custom faces based on real people
Utilize Blueprints to take control of your digital character
Retarget animations using the Unreal Mannequin
Use DeepMotion and Live Link for complete body and face animation
Use the Control Rig to refine animations
Export and render your character

Who this book is for

This book is for filmmakers and hobbyists who are planning to make a film using Unreal Engine for the first time, having worked in live action or purely digital media previously, either professionally or as a hobby. No experience with Unreal Engine is required, however it is useful to have some knowledge of 3D development applications and concepts like wireframes, skin weights, transform tools, and motion capture. It is recommended that you have access to an iPhone X (or a later model). Alternatively, you can use a free or paid version of Faceware, along with a basic webcam.

Reimagining Characters with Unreal Engine’s MetaHuman Creator
Foreword
Contributors
About the author
About the reviewer
Preface
    Who this book is for
    What this book covers
    To get the most out of this book
    Download the color images
    Conventions used
    Get in touch
    Share your thoughts
    Download a free PDF copy of this book
Part 1: Creating a Character
Chapter 1: Getting Started with Unreal
    Technical requirements
    What is Unreal?
    What are MetaHumans?
    Setting up Unreal and the MetaHuman Creator
        Creating an Epic account
        Downloading and installing Unreal Engine 5
        Launching UE5
        Installing Quixel Bridge
        Booting up MetaHuman Creator
    Summary
Chapter 2: Creating Characters in the MetaHuman Interface
    Technical requirements
    Starting up Quixel Bridge
    Editing your MetaHuman
        Face
        Hair
        Body
    Using the Move and Sculpt tools
    Downloading and exporting your character
        Resolution
        Download considerations
        Export considerations
        Processing in the background
    Summary
Part 2: Exploring Blueprints, Body Motion Capture, and Retargeting
Chapter 3: Diving into the MetaHuman Blueprint
    Technical requirements
    What are Blueprints?
    Opening a Blueprint
        Using the folder structure to navigate around the Blueprint
        Navigating around the Blueprint without using folders
    Importing and editing skeletons
        Adding the Mannequin character
        Editing the Mannequin skeleton's retargeting options
        Editing the MetaHuman skeleton's retargeting options
    Summary
Chapter 4: Retargeting Animations
    Technical requirements
    What is an IK Rig?
        What is a rig?
        What is IK?
    Creating an IK Rig
    Creating the IK chains
    Creating an IK Retargeter
    Importing more animation data
    Summary
Chapter 5: Retargeting Animations with Mixamo
    Technical requirements
    Introducing Mixamo
    Preparing and uploading the MetaHuman to Mixamo
    Orienting your character in Mixamo
    Exploring animation in Mixamo
    Downloading the Mixamo animation
    Importing the Mixamo animation into Unreal
        Working with subsequent animations
    Summary
Chapter 6: Adding Motion Capture with DeepMotion
    Technical requirements
    Introducing DeepMotion
    Preparing our video footage
    Uploading our video to DeepMotion
    Exploring DeepMotion’s animation settings
    Downloading the DeepMotion motion capture file
    Importing the DeepMotion animation into Unreal
    Retargeting the DeepMotion motion capture
    Fixing position misalignment issues
    Summary
Part 3: Exploring the Level Sequencer, Facial Motion Capture, and Rendering
Chapter 7: Using the Level Sequencer
    Technical requirements
    Introducing the Level Sequencer
    Creating a Level Sequencer and importing our character Blueprint
    Adding the retargeted animation to the character Blueprint
    Adding and editing the Control Rig
    Adding a camera to the Level Sequencer
    Rendering a test animation from the Level Sequencer
    Summary
Chapter 8: Using an iPhone for Facial Motion Capture
    Technical requirements
    Installing the Live Link Face app
    Installing Unreal Engine plugins (including Take Recorder)
        Live Link, Live Link Control Rig, and Live Link Curve Debug UI
        ARKit and ARKit Face Support
        Take Recorder
    Connecting and configuring the Live Link Face app to Unreal Engine
    Configuring and testing the MetaHuman Blueprint
    Calibrating and capturing live data
    Summary
Chapter 9: Using Faceware for Facial Motion Capture
    Technical requirements
    Installing Faceware Studio on a Windows PC
    Installing Unreal’s Faceware plugin and the MetaHuman sample
    Setting up a webcam and the streaming function
        Realtime Setup panel
        Streaming panel
        Status bar
    Enabling Live Link to receive Faceware data
    Editing the MetaHuman Blueprint
    Recording a session with a Take Recorder
    Importing a take into the Level Sequencer
    Baking and editing facial animation in Unreal
    Summary
Chapter 10: Blending Animations and Advanced Rendering with the Level Sequencer
    Technical requirements
    Adding the MetaHuman Blueprint and body mocap data to the Level Sequencer
        Adding the MetaHuman Blueprint
        Adding previously retargeted body mocap data
        Adding additional body mocap data and merging mocap clips
    Adding facial mocap data to the Level Sequencer
        Adding a recorded Faceware take
        Editing the facial mocap
    Exploring advanced rendering features
        Adding and animating a camera
        Adding and animating light
        Using Post Process Volumes
        Using the Movie Render Queue
        ACES and color grading
    Summary
Chapter 11: Using the Mesh to MetaHuman Plugin
    Technical requirements
    Installing the Mesh to MetaHuman plugin for Unreal Engine
    Introducing and installing KIRI Engine on your smartphone
    Importing your scanned mesh into Unreal Engine
    Modifying the face mesh inside the MetaHuman Creator online tool
    Summary
Index
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