Video recording animations: Epic Games buys TĂĽbingen-based company Meshcapade
Epic Games buys the start-up Meshcapade, a spin-off of the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. It develops AI animation technology.
(Image: Meshcapade)
Epic Games is coming to TĂĽbingen in "Cyber Valley": The game company behind the Unreal Engine is buying the start-up Meshcapade, a spin-off of the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. Meshcapade develops animation technology that is intended to enable digital characters to be displayed smoothly and precisely thanks to AI analysis of video recordings. The companies involved are remaining silent about the purchase price.
Meshcapade was founded in 2018 out of the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. The company's core business is creating animations based on video recordings. This is an alternative for video game developers and other creatives who cannot or do not want to invest in expensive motion capture setups. The technology was originally developed by Naureen Mahmood and Talha Zaman, the co-founders of Meshcapade, together with Michael J. Black from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems.
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Alternative to Motion Capturing
Motion capturing involves digitally capturing actors using numerous cameras and sensors to capture their movements for virtual characters. This is comparatively expensive because, in addition to the hardware, a studio and specialist personnel are needed to post-process the recordings. Since only a few game companies have their own motion capture studios, they often have to rent them.
Alternatively, animations can also be drawn by hand, which is demanding and rarely achieves the realism of motion capturing, especially with human figures. AI animations based on video recordings could be an attractive third, simpler option, especially for small and medium-sized studios.
"Lowering the hurdles for credible characters"
"From the beginning, our goal was to make the development of digital humans easier, more expressive, and more accessible," says co-founder Mahmood. The ability to produce avatars quickly and affordably has spread throughout the industry. Several interested parties have approached them, even though they haven't invested in traditional marketing. "Our customer portfolio grew almost exclusively through word-of-mouth, and the Meshcapade booth was a regular attraction for animators from leading game and film studios at industry trade fairs," says her co-founder Zaman.
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Epic Games wants to integrate the technology into the Unreal Engine to give developers a relatively simple way to animate characters. With the MetaHuman Toolkit, the company already offers tools that allow video game characters to be modeled without much effort.
"We want to lower the hurdles for credible, expressive digital characters and make them available in real-time for a wide range of applications," explains Epic's Chief Technology Officer Kim Libreri regarding the acquisition. "With the Meshcapade team and its industry-leading technologies, we are expanding our portfolio with powerful specialized tools for the generation of digital humans in gaming, film, and virtual production."
Bram Wijlands, Managing Director of Max Planck Innovation, is also pleased for Germany as an AI location: "This acquisition is a clear signal that 'AI made in Germany' can scale locally and be internationally competitive," he comments on the takeover.
(dahe)
