Epic Games just created a scarily realistic human on an iPhone

Unreal Engine 5; a muddy-faced girl is animated for a video game
(Image credit: Epic Games / Ninja Theory)

When Epic Games took the stage at GDC this week everyone was blown away by the Unreal Engine 5.2 tech demo that showcased how easy it is to create incredible photo real characters, or MetaHumans. But few realised everything being shown was created in real time… on an iPhone.

Earlier in the week game developer Ninja Theory showed off the latest footage from the highly anticipated Senua's Sage: Hellblade 2, in which actress Melina Juergens is seen running through a range of highly realistic emotions and was created using the same MetaHuman Animator. The game is coming exclusively to Xbox Series X, but the tech used will be open to every game dev. (If you need to learn the basics, read our Unreal Engine 5 tutorial on character design.)

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Editor, Digital Arts & 3D

Ian Dean is Editor, Digital Arts & 3D at Creative Bloq, and the former editor of many leading magazines. These titles included ImagineFX, 3D World and video game titles Play and Official PlayStation Magazine. Ian launched Xbox magazine X360 and edited PlayStation World. For Creative Bloq, Ian combines his experiences to bring the latest news on digital art, VFX and video games and tech, and in his spare time he doodles in Procreate, ArtRage, and Rebelle while finding time to play Xbox and PS5.

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