Bringing compelling real-time digital humans to life is incredibly challenging and time-consuming. It can take months of research, costly scanning equipment, and an army of tech artists. What if we could make the process radically simpler, faster, and more scalable—without compromising on quality? That’s the question Epic Games developers asked while exploring what could be done to change the landscape.
The result is now available, and it has a name: MetaHuman Creator. Last February ProVideo Coalition shared with its readers an early preview of MetaHuman Creator, Epic Games’ tool to create a photorealistic digital human, fully rigged and complete with hair and clothing, in a matter of minutes. Now it is time to share that MetaHuman Creator is available in Early Access.
MetaHuman Creator is a cloud-based app for creating -let me write this again – high-fidelity fully rigged digital humans in mere minutes. When Epic Games shared a first look at the tool, the creators of Unreal Engine also introduced two free sample MetaHuman characters for users to explore. Now it’s time to take things further, and Epic Games says the company is “thrilled to officially open the Early Access program for MetaHuman Creator for anyone to create their own unique MetaHumans and download them for direct use in Unreal Engine.”
With the release of the tool Epic Games is also providing over 50 ready-made MetaHumans for users to download and use in their Unreal Engine projects directly from Quixel Bridge. Simply download the free application and click on the MetaHumans section. MetaHuman Creator has been decades in the making. Companies like 3Lateral and Cubic Motion have been pushing the limits of digital human creation for years. Now, as part of Epic Games, they’ve been able to push the technology even further—and make it happen in real time. Most importantly, they’ve made it accessible to everyone.
The meaning of the “everyone” term must be explained, though, before you rush to grab the tool. Epic Games says that “due to the cloud-based nature of the application, we need to add applicants gradually, so it may take a few days before you get your turn. Rest assured, we will do our best to get everyone on board as soon as possible!”
So, in the end there will be space for everyone to try the tool, but during the Early Access phase it may take a while longer for you to get access. But register now to join the MetaHuman Creator Early Access program, by visit unrealengine.com/metahuman-creator. In the meantime, while you wait, maybe it’s a good idea to meet some of the real humans behind the MetaHumans, watching the video published by Epic Games. In the video a few of the developers behind MetaHuman Creator talk about their inspiration and years-long dedication to building this technology and making it available to all.
There is also a User Guide for MetaHuman Creator available, which you can start to read so as to get ready to use the tool. The guide walks through all of the attributes you can use to edit and create your own digital humans with the MetaHuman Creator along with exploring the editing, quality, and lighting controls needed to preview your MetaHuman character.
Just a final note for those who go directly to the final lines of any piece of news looking after a link: to find out more and to register to join the MetaHuman Creator Early Access program, visit unrealengine.com/metahuman-creator.