Devlog 02-02

More work on the Metahumans!!! My computer is incapable of running Unreal, so I stuck with modeling some humans. Most of my experience is with props, however, so I was curious how my skills would carry over.

I really enjoy how mirroring was on by default, as well as the different ways to try and model the figures.

To start off with the positives, I really did enjoy how easy it was to make the human look passable, as well as the plethora of presets to work with period they even allow you to take multiple presets and blend them together in order to create something different. It allowed for a wide range of humans, and I think I could create an army in a small amount of time.

A wave of issues

There are a few things I dislike, and they fall under the same complaint: all of your creations have to look “normal”. It is not possible to change the length of the fingers, or to create an amputee. You get a decent amount of customization in the face, but only presets for the body. My theory is that this is for rigging purposes, but it feels severely limiting. There is a special tab you have to click in order to give characters colored hair. Do NOT get me started on the teeth.

Oh yeah, you can only be on the site for about an hour. I do not know what happens when that time ends, but it is just enough time to create one human.

I was especially disappointed by the clothing options. My research shows that unreal advertises their creator as a way to make realistic looking humans with little to no effort. However, if you want to put your character in a skirt, you will have to take the Maya file and create the clothing yourself. As someone who tried to make a corset once with no knowledge of Blender…. Let me say modeling them at the skill level Metahumans advertised is next to impossible.

Compare this to Hero Forge, a token maker for fantasy games. I understand this is not the best comparison: Hero Forge is not about realism and is older than Unreal’s creator. But Hero Forge allows me to pose models in house and, unlike the metahumans, I am able to make an amputee. I know this is possible for Metahumans to do, but I do not know how long it would take them.

Next week, given how I cannot use Unreal on this glorified laptop, I should try to either get it working on the lab computers or learn how to export the figures so another group member can try.