Epic Games has acquired Manchester-based facial animation firm Cubic Motion.
The announcement was made by each Epic Games and Cubic Motion yesterday.
Cubic Motion is accountable for creating automated performance-driven facial animation for titles equivalent to God of War, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Anthem, The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Metro Exodus, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Call of Duty: WW2 and others.
It additionally creates real-time demonstrations such because the Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice reside character performances at GDC 2016 and the League of Legends reside character efficiency of Akali in the course of the LoL Pro League.
The firm mentioned it would proceed working with present builders and companions.
“We are delighted to be joining Epic Games and look forward with excitement to this next chapter in our story,” said Cubic Motion CEO Dr. Gareth Edwards. “Together, we are uniquely positioned to push the boundaries of digital human technology, bringing ever more realism and immersion to all forms of visual entertainment.”
“Our commitment to servicing the needs of the video game industry remains unchanged – we intend to remain the partner of choice for developers who need the most compelling digital characters,” said Cubic Motion in a separate statement.
“Facial animation that conveys the slightest nuance of human expression is crucial to crossing the uncanny valley, mentioned Epic Games CTO Kim Libreri in a press release (thanks, GI.biz).”
Last yr, Epic Games acquired Serbia-based 3Lateral recognized for its digital humans technology.
“We believe that holistically combining Epic’s Unreal Engine with 3Lateral’s facial rig creation and Cubic Motion’s solving technology is the only way to answer this challenge, and ultimately, to reach the pinnacle of digital human artistry with Unreal Engine,” Libreri added.
