This month on The Pulse, we look at the world of increasingly realistic, real-time digital humans and their impact on games, films, and social media.
Right after the announcement of Epic’s MetaHuman Creator, industry experts gathered on The Pulse to talk about the effects that the new crop of digital humans will have on character design, scripts, and storytelling.
Whether as game characters that can show subtle emotion, film characters that can be built and rigged in a matter of hours, or captivating social media stars, digital humans are becoming more ubiquitous and relatable than ever before.
If you missed the live broadcast, you can watch the replay below.
The Rise of Real-Time Digital Humans is hosted by Mike Seymour, a longtime researcher and writer on digital humans. Mike is joined by Jerome Chen of Sony Pictures Imageworks, Amy Hennig of Skydance Media, Isaac Bratzel of Brud, and Vladimir Mastilović of 3Lateral (now part of Epic Games).
On this episode of The Pulse, the panel discusses how digital humans technology opens the door to a wide range of possibilities in storytelling for game developers, filmmakers, and social media creators.
The group also discusses how, with digital humans, the subtleties of an actor’s performance can be more fully realized via performance capture, freeing creators from relying on dialogue to tell their stories.
There’s also bonus content, a focused discussion about the realism of CG eyes—how technology for CG eyes has improved, and how it currently brings increased realism and “life” through improved shaders and rigging.
If you’re inspired by this episode, you can also explore our Digital Humans hub, where you’ll find more info and resources on this growing field.