Reimagining Characters With Unreal Engine S Metahuman Creator

Discover the power of Unreal Engine 5 and the MetaHuman Creator in this illustrated guide 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 DescriptionMetaHuman 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.

Discover the power of storytelling with Unreal Engine 5's real-time technology, exploring storyboarding, character creation, world building, animating using sequencers and much more with the help of an Unreal Authorized Instructor Key Features Harness Unreal Engine’s real-time technology to create limitless, high-fidelity content Generate and animate near-photorealistic actors using the innovative MetaHuman technology Build expansive worlds with Nanite and Lumen Global Illumination and Reflections technology Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook Book DescriptionVirtual Filmmaking with Unreal Engine 5 is the first Unreal Engine book to guide you through the complete process of virtual film production. Encompassing the full spectrum of filmmaking, this book demonstrates the use of an industry-standard tool used by studios such as Disney, ILM, DNEG, and Framestore. Walking through the process systematically, you’ll first collect references and create a simple storyboard to plan your shots. Then you'll begin to create virtual environments, importing 3D models and adding materials and textures to create photorealistic, dynamic worlds. After that, you’ll learn how to create actors using highly customizable MetaHumans, understanding how to import, re-target, and animate them. Finally, you’ll bring it all together with cinematic lighting and camera animation before exporting your film. By the end of this book, you’ll have honed your skills, discovered new tools for your toolkit, and gained the confidence to work on your virtual film projects in Unreal Engine 5, leveraging Quixel Megascans, Lumen, Nanite, and MetaHuman technology.What you will learn Grasp the principles of photography and the art of storytelling Collect references and create storyboards Discover Unreal Engine's hidden features and useful keyboard shortcuts Explore the capabilities of Quixel Megascans, Lumen, Nanite, and MetaHumans Adopt cinematic techniques to achieve professional-looking shots Creatively apply Lumen Global Illumination and Reflections techniques Use multiple virtual cameras and apply post-production techniques Implement best practices for optimization, post processing, and rendering Who this book is for Whether you’re a beginner or intermediate filmmaker, 3D artist, animator, visual effects artist, or virtual production professional with just basic knowledge of the Unreal Engine, this book is designed to help you enter the world of virtual films and animations. While prior experience with the Unreal Engine would be beneficial, a deep working knowledge is not essential, as the book introduces the relevant tools and features needed throughout the activities.

"A thoughtful, practical read about the future of the flexible office."—Adam Grant “Office shock” is an abrupt, unsettling change in where, when, how, and even why we work. In this visionary book, three prominent futurists argue that the office is both a place and a process—offices and officing—with a new range of choices, including what they call the emerging officeverse. To see the possibilities with fresh eyes, we must use future-back thinking to ask, What is the purpose of your officing? What are the outcomes—especially regarding climate—you want to achieve? With whom do you want to office? How will you augment your intelligence? Where and when will you office? How will you create an agile office? Traditional offices were often unfair, uncomfortable, uncreative, and unproductive. This book explores how to seize this great opportunity to transform office work.

A stunning, content-rich update to this top-selling ZBrush guide! This second edition of ZBrush Character Creation has been fully updated for ZBrush 4, the newest version of this fascinating and popular 3D sculpting software. ZBrush enables users to create detailed organic models using a brush-based toolset and tablet. The startling results look as though they've been painted with real brushes and oils, and ZBrush is increasingly popular for use in film, game, and broadcast pipelines. Author Scott Spencer is embedded in the ZBrush community and his movie credits include Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix and the upcoming The Hobbit. Learn Spencer's invaluable techniques for texturing, chiseling, posing, costuming, and more with his newest ZBrush guide. Explains ZBrush 4, the newest version of the revolutionary software tool for creating 3D organic models in a way that appears to be traditionally painted or sculpted Shows you how get the most out of ZBrush, from the fundamentals to new tools for texturing, chiseling, and costuming Offers plenty of insights and professional techniques for creating characters for films and games, drawing from the author's own experience on such films as Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix and The Hobbit Demonstrates the author's own techniques of using traditional sculpting and painting concepts and applying them to digital art for greater artistry Discover the beauty of ZBrush with this colorful, in-depth guide.

Game AI Pro2: Collected Wisdom of Game AI Professionals presents cutting-edge tips, tricks, and techniques for artificial intelligence (AI) in games, drawn from developers of shipped commercial games as well as some of the best-known academics in the field. It contains knowledge, advice, hard-earned wisdom, and insights gathered from across the community of developers and researchers who have devoted themselves to game AI. In this book, 47 expert developers and researchers have come together to bring you their newest advances in game AI, along with twists on proven techniques that have shipped in some of the most successful commercial games of the last few years. The book provides a toolbox of proven techniques that can be applied to many common and not-so-common situations. It is written to be accessible to a broad range of readers. Beginners will find good general coverage of game AI techniques and a number of comprehensive overviews, while intermediate to expert professional game developers will find focused, deeply technical chapters on specific topics of interest to them. Covers a wide range of AI in games, with topics applicable to almost any game Touches on most, if not all, of the topics necessary to get started in game AI Provides real-life case studies of game AI in published commercial games Gives in-depth, technical solutions from some of the industry’s best-known games Includes downloadable demos and/or source code, available at http://www.gameaipro.com

Comics legends Dennis O’Neil and Denys Cowan reinvent DC’s faceless detective in this massive hardcover collection of the acclaimed 1980s series The Question! Just a few short years after co-creating Spider-Man, artist and writer Steve Ditko created the Question, who worked as an investigative journalist in public and a vigilante in secret. Two decades later, writer Dennis O’Neil and artist Denys Cowan unleashed their acclaimed reinvention of the Question for the late 1980s, coinciding with one of the most creatively thrilling periods in comics. While retaining familiar elements of the character—including his faceless mask—O’Neil and Cowan also imbued Vic Sage with a Zen philosophy and forced him to ask vital questions about his methods employed while fighting crime in the corrupt town of Hub City. But with deadly martial artist assassins and political intrigue to contend with, will one man—even a master of unarmed combat—be able to make a difference? This volume collects The Question #1-27, The Question Annual #1, Green Arrow Annual #1, andDetective Comics Annual #1.

Taking into account that many of today's digital artists -- particularly 3D character animators -- lack foundational artistic instruction, this book teaches anatomy in a coherent and succinct style. A clear writing style explains how to sculpt an accurate human figure, starting with the skeleton and working out to muscle, fat, and skin. Insightful explanations enable you to quickly and easily create and design characters that can be used in film, game, or print, and allows you to gain a strong understanding of the foundational artistic concepts. Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

This is the first textbook dedicated to explaining how artificial intelligence (AI) techniques can be used in and for games. After introductory chapters that explain the background and key techniques in AI and games, the authors explain how to use AI to play games, to generate content for games and to model players. The book will be suitable for undergraduate and graduate courses in games, artificial intelligence, design, human-computer interaction, and computational intelligence, and also for self-study by industrial game developers and practitioners. The authors have developed a website (http://www.gameaibook.org) that complements the material covered in the book with up-to-date exercises, lecture slides and reading.