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MetaHuman Now Available for UEFN: Bring Digital Human NPCs to Your Islands
The Fortnite Team
We’re excited to announce that MetaHuman is now available in Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN), further empowering creators to build islands in varied and distinct visual styles.
MetaHuman is a complete framework comprised of multiple features giving you the power to create, animate, and use high-fidelity digital human characters in Unreal Engine. These features are now available in UEFN for creating and animating non-playable characters (NPCs).
MetaHuman has been designed to enable anyone — regardless of game development experience — to quickly and intuitively create realistic digital humans with realistic facial animation.
Starting today, you’ll be able to easily create and animate high-fidelity NPCs for your Fortnite islands using MetaHuman Creator and MetaHuman Animator. To learn more, see the MetaHuman Overview in UEFN.
Use the intuitive editor to quickly create your own digital human starting from one of the MetaHuman preset characters. Select a starting point from the diverse range of preset characters, choose several more presets to contribute to your MetaHuman, and then blend between them. Finally, refine your character with easy-to-use sculpting tools and control guides.
With near-infinite variations of facial features and skin complexions, plus an array of different choices for hair, eyes, make-up, and teeth, you can create a huge variety of faces for your projects. Pick the body type you want for your character and dress them using a range of clothing sets.
MetaHuman Creator derives its data from real-world scans, so it’s simple to make physically plausible characters. Other factors, such as the carefully selected range of skin tones and hair colors, also help ensure realism.
Alternatively, using Mesh to MetaHuman, you can turn a custom mesh of a head created by scanning, sculpting, or traditional modeling into a fully rigged MetaHuman, ready to refine in MetaHuman Creator.
Once your MetaHuman is created, you can import them into UEFN in a few clicks. Your MetaHuman can then be added to your island as an NPC using the NPC Spawner device.
Facial animation created using MetaHuman Animator can be applied to any MetaHuman or any Fortnite character available in UEFN.
Every nuance of the actor’s performance is captured and transferred onto your digital human, enabling you to wow audiences with believable characters that deliver immersive experiences! To learn more about using MetaHuman in UEFN, check out the MetaHuman Overview document.
Want to see how MetaHumans and a high-fidelity environment can totally change the look and feel of your Fortnite islands? Check out The Talisman demo, first shown at the State of Unreal at 2024’s Game Developers Conference (GDC). This demo showcases how creators can use MetaHuman to bring believable human characters into realistic environments in UEFN.
Set in a custom and detailed spaceship, the Talisman demo also highlights the new Orbit Camera (now available in Early Access), which enables you to edit the third-person camera view. Furthermore, Talisman illustrates how recently released features like the Map Controller device and updated VFX Spawner device can help add depth and immersion to your islands.
The MetaHuman in the Talisman Demo is clothed with custom dynamic clothing. This is made possible thanks to a new Marvelous Designer and CLO integration that has been created as a result of collaboration between Epic Games and CLO Virtual Fashion.
The Marvelous Designer and CLO integration will debut with Unreal Engine 5.4 and provide more clothing possibilities for your new MetaHumans in UEFN. It will also bring a new USD export option for your garments, including geometry, materials, and the necessary data for simulation setup.
UEFN creators are eligible for a free one-year license of Marvelous Designer to create dynamic clothing using the new UE5.4 workflow, which can then be imported into UEFN projects. Stay tuned by following @FNCreate to receive updates on when sign-up for license claims will commence, beginning in late April. Licenses can be claimed within the two-month period following the opening of sign-ups.
Along with the ability to import your own custom assets, you can now populate your games with realistic human characters — making it easier than ever to customize the look and style of your Fortnite islands. Try out MetaHuman in UEFN today!
MetaHuman is a complete framework comprised of multiple features giving you the power to create, animate, and use high-fidelity digital human characters in Unreal Engine. These features are now available in UEFN for creating and animating non-playable characters (NPCs).
MetaHuman has been designed to enable anyone — regardless of game development experience — to quickly and intuitively create realistic digital humans with realistic facial animation.
Starting today, you’ll be able to easily create and animate high-fidelity NPCs for your Fortnite islands using MetaHuman Creator and MetaHuman Animator. To learn more, see the MetaHuman Overview in UEFN.
MetaHuman Creator
MetaHuman Creator is a free online application that enables you to produce realistic digital humans that are fully rigged and ready to use in UEFN or Unreal Engine in minutes.Use the intuitive editor to quickly create your own digital human starting from one of the MetaHuman preset characters. Select a starting point from the diverse range of preset characters, choose several more presets to contribute to your MetaHuman, and then blend between them. Finally, refine your character with easy-to-use sculpting tools and control guides.
With near-infinite variations of facial features and skin complexions, plus an array of different choices for hair, eyes, make-up, and teeth, you can create a huge variety of faces for your projects. Pick the body type you want for your character and dress them using a range of clothing sets.
MetaHuman Creator derives its data from real-world scans, so it’s simple to make physically plausible characters. Other factors, such as the carefully selected range of skin tones and hair colors, also help ensure realism.
Alternatively, using Mesh to MetaHuman, you can turn a custom mesh of a head created by scanning, sculpting, or traditional modeling into a fully rigged MetaHuman, ready to refine in MetaHuman Creator.
Once your MetaHuman is created, you can import them into UEFN in a few clicks. Your MetaHuman can then be added to your island as an NPC using the NPC Spawner device.
MetaHuman Animator
You can also bring your characters to life thanks to MetaHuman Animator — a tool that turns footage captured from an iPhone or stereo head-mounted camera into high-quality facial animation for your MetaHuman.Facial animation created using MetaHuman Animator can be applied to any MetaHuman or any Fortnite character available in UEFN.
Every nuance of the actor’s performance is captured and transferred onto your digital human, enabling you to wow audiences with believable characters that deliver immersive experiences! To learn more about using MetaHuman in UEFN, check out the MetaHuman Overview document.
“The Talisman” GDC Demo
Want to see how MetaHumans and a high-fidelity environment can totally change the look and feel of your Fortnite islands? Check out The Talisman demo, first shown at the State of Unreal at 2024’s Game Developers Conference (GDC). This demo showcases how creators can use MetaHuman to bring believable human characters into realistic environments in UEFN.
Set in a custom and detailed spaceship, the Talisman demo also highlights the new Orbit Camera (now available in Early Access), which enables you to edit the third-person camera view. Furthermore, Talisman illustrates how recently released features like the Map Controller device and updated VFX Spawner device can help add depth and immersion to your islands.
The MetaHuman in the Talisman Demo is clothed with custom dynamic clothing. This is made possible thanks to a new Marvelous Designer and CLO integration that has been created as a result of collaboration between Epic Games and CLO Virtual Fashion.
The Marvelous Designer and CLO integration will debut with Unreal Engine 5.4 and provide more clothing possibilities for your new MetaHumans in UEFN. It will also bring a new USD export option for your garments, including geometry, materials, and the necessary data for simulation setup.
UEFN creators are eligible for a free one-year license of Marvelous Designer to create dynamic clothing using the new UE5.4 workflow, which can then be imported into UEFN projects. Stay tuned by following @FNCreate to receive updates on when sign-up for license claims will commence, beginning in late April. Licenses can be claimed within the two-month period following the opening of sign-ups.
Along with the ability to import your own custom assets, you can now populate your games with realistic human characters — making it easier than ever to customize the look and style of your Fortnite islands. Try out MetaHuman in UEFN today!