What do Lil Miquela, Noonoouri and Shudu have in common? They’re all virtual influencers – photo-realistic, digital human characters that can be created, augmented and animated to help tell your story. In recent years, these digital avatars have been gaining traction and becoming more popular as brands look to leverage their influence on social media. But how do you create a realistic virtual influencer? Enter MetaHuman Creator – a tool that allows you to create realistic digital human characters in real time by harnessing the power of Unreal Engine technology. We were able to take this technology and launch Extraordinary Grace, our client SCIEX’s very own virtual influencer, taking on D&I in the STEM space. Let’s take a look at the features it offers and how you can use it to your brand’s advantage.
What is MetaHuman Creator?
MetaHuman Creator is an Unreal Engine-powered tool that enables creators of all levels to quickly generate photorealistic digital humans for games, film, AR/VR and other real-time experiences. It provides users with a library of pre-made templates that range from male and female body types, age ranges and ethnicities.
Moving beyond the standard templates provided by Unreal, there are lots of ways you can customise your character further. From facial customisation options like hairstyles, eyes and noses, to clothing options like shirts, jackets and accessories – there are endless possibilities when it comes to creating unique looks for your virtual influencer. To make things even more interesting, you can also scan real human faces using RealityCapture software which will generate a mesh that you can use as your base model in MetaHuman Creator. This way you can make sure that your character looks exactly like someone in the real world. You may be asking why would you want to do this? The point of a virtual influencer is to create someone who isn’t real. But what this allows you to do is to have a character that can sit across multiple mediums and platforms. From TV commercials to games to social media platforms, you could have a consistent believable virtual influencer that can easily be incorporated into a through-the-line campaign.
What Should You Consider When Designing Your Character?
When designing your character it’s important to consider how it will fit into your brand or campaign goals. Are you creating a spokesperson for your company? A brand ambassador for a campaign? Or just someone who will appear in a few promotional videos? Once you decide what type of character you need, it’s time to start customising it using MetaHuman Creator’s tools. As you work on designing your character, keep in mind that making sure they look as realistic as possible is key. There are plenty of templates to start from, but to stand out, you will need to create someone who is bespoke, so you will need to think about everything from skin tone to hair colour to clothing, so that your character looks exactly how you need your Virtual influencer to look.
From product launches to music videos – brands are leveraging virtual influencers more than ever before due to their ability to captivate audiences across multiple channels at once while still being cost-effective compared with traditional models of marketing campaigns. Not only do they provide limitless creative freedom when designing characters but they also allow brands to target specific demographics based on interests or lifestyles without having any geographical restrictions – making them useful for global campaigns as well!
Here are some of our thoughts on what brands should think about when creating a successful and believable Virtual Influencer with MetaHuman Creator:
- Think about unique clothing and accessories – Whether it’s a distinct shirt with an eye-catching pattern or some statement jewellery, adding some unique pieces can help set your character apart from the crowd.
- Make subtle changes – Small tweaks such as adjusting skin tone or hairstyle can go a long way towards making sure your Metahuman looks distinctively different from everyone else’s.
- Give them unique characteristics – Whether it’s their voice or posture, adding small details can give them personality and help them stand out from other characters on screen!
Where once reserved for huge feature film productions, with tools like MetaHuman creator at our disposal we can now create truly believable digital human characters in a fraction of the time and for a fraction of the cost. Whether you’re looking for customisability or ease of use – this platform offers both along with features like scanning yourself for mesh data which allows users to design photorealistic characters in no time at all! With its wide range of uses ranging from product launches and music videos to global campaigns – virtual influencers are becoming increasingly popular among brands who want an edge over traditional methods of marketing campaigns. So if you’re looking to differentiate yourself from the competition while still being cost-effective – then leveraging metahumans could be just what you need!