This Semi-Realistic UE5-Powered Virtual Avatar Gets Upgraded

In case you missed the news, 3D Artist and Generalist Hirokazu Yokohara wowed the audience back in late January by showcasing a beautiful virtual avatar, described as "semi-realistic" by the author, set up using Unreal Engine 5.3 Path Tracer.

Shortly afterward, the creator provided a comprehensive breakdown of the working process behind the project, showcasing how the character model was sculpted and textured, detailing the creation of its attire and hair, and explaining the use of captured facial and movement data for animation.

Additionally, Hirokazu revealed the full roster of software utilized to breathe life into the character, which included Maya, Ornatrix, Marvelous Designer, Substance 3D Painter, Mari, Cinema 4D, and ZBrush, along with materials from TexturingXYZ.

Several months later, Hirokazu continues his experiments with digital humans in Unreal Engine 5, unveiling a new and improved version of the avatar in a recent demo. As demonstrated by the creator, the updated avatar now sports black hair and is optimized to support Lumen, the engine's fully dynamic global illumination and reflections system. Additionally, the showcase offered a glimpse into the model's facial rig, which was set up using Unreal's MetaHuman. You can watch the full demo attached below or by visiting Hirokazu's Twitter page:

Previously, the artist also demonstrated a Unity-powered hair sim, a neat soft-body simulation created with UE5's Chaos Flesh system, a 2D-looking 3D animation inspired by 90s anime aesthetics, a real-time fur simulation made in UE5, a cool deepfake face made with Maya and DeepFace Live, a beautiful real-time red and blue fire and smoke FX, a delicious-looking cold rice sim, and a couple of neat smoke FX made in UE5 and Niagara.

Hirokazu also showed how to simulate clothes in Blender with mocap data, how to set up a realistic face with Maya and Ziva Face Trainer, and how to utilize Apple's RoomPlan for 3D environment modeling, experimented with soft body simulations in Cinema 4D, and turned a 2D image into a 3D mesh with Blender. You can check out all of these projects and more by visiting Hirokazu's Twitter page. 

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