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

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.

發掘 Unreal Engine 5 和 MetaHuman Creator 的威力，開發逼真的數位角色，並賦予它們完整的身體和面部動畫。

主要特點：
- 使用 MetaHuman Creator 的預設和自訂工具創建逼真的角色
- 將角色匯入 Unreal Engine 5，以獲取更多編輯選項並開始進行動畫製作
- 結合面部和身體動作捕捉，完全動畫化您的數位人物

書籍描述：
MetaHuman Creator (MHC) 是一個線上、使用者友好的 3D 設計工具，用於創建高度逼真的數位人物，可以在 Unreal Engine (UE) 中進行動畫製作並搭配動作捕捉技術進行增強。這意味著電影製片人和遊戲開發人員現在可以使用高品質且價格實惠的解決方案，而這之前只有專業工作室才能使用。

本書將從電影製片人的角度介紹如何使用 UE5 和 MHC。首先，您將了解如何使用線上的 MHC 創建數位角色，更改其面部結構、身體類型和服裝。之後，您將學習將角色帶入 UE5 並進行動畫製作的所有必要步驟。然後，使用 iPhone 和網路攝影機捕捉面部和身體動作，混合這些動作捕捉文件，使用 MetaHuman Control Rig 進一步優化動畫，並保存這些動作以便在 Level Sequencer 中重複使用和編輯。此外，您還將學習如何使用 Level Sequencer 和 VR Cinematic Camera 創建用於電影製作的渲染視頻文件。通過閱讀本書，您將創建自己的 MetaHuman 角色，以及面部和身體動作捕捉數據，並學習必要的技能，為未來的項目提供更多的逼真感和創作控制。

您將學到什麼：
- 使用 MHC 創建自己的角色
- 基於真實人物開發自定義面部
- 利用藍圖控制您的數位角色
- 使用 Unreal Mannequin 重新定位動畫
- 使用 DeepMotion 和 Live Link 進行完整的身體和面部動畫
- 使用 Control Rig 進一步優化動畫
- 匯出和渲染您的角色

本書適合對使用 Unreal Engine 進行電影製作有興趣的電影製片人和愛好者，他們之前在實景或純數位媒體領域工作，無需 Unreal Engine 經驗，但對於 3D 開發應用程序和概念（如線框、蒙皮權重、變換工具和動作捕捉）有一些了解會很有幫助。建議您擁有 iPhone X（或更新型號）的設備。或者，您可以使用免費或付費版本的 Faceware，以及基本的網路攝影機。