• by Colin Kirkland , 5 hours ago

Epic Games has purchased the digital human company Meshcapade, with plans to bring its AI-powered 3D video-rendering technology to creators working in gaming, film, and virtual production across Fortnite and Unreal Engine.

By acquiring Meshcapade, Epic is planning to further digital human technologies, bringing to mind the company’s recent launch of “MetaHuman,” a framework for generating hyper-realistic human characters for games, animation and visual effects work in the latest version of Unreal Engine.

Building on the capabilities introduced by Epic's MetaHuman launch, Meshcapade’s proprietary technology is designed to use AI to transform video footage -- “from subtle social gestures to intense dynamic movements” -- into high-fidelity 3D data optimized for immediate integration into games, video projects, brand campaigns and more, according to a statement from Meshcapade.

The German AI company's original goal was to make it easier to develop digital humans with more human-like accuracies, while also making the generated product accessible to creators. 

Per the acquisition, Epic Games’ Fortnite studio plans to open a new office in Europe’s “Cyber Valley,” an AI research and development hub located in the German city of Tübingen, according to a report from GameSpot.

In the company's announcement, Epic's Vice President of digital humans technology Vladimir Mastilovi said that Epic believes Meshcapade's “long-term research and development strategy” complements the Fortnite-owner’s “existing goals and ideas.”