This is the tenth year that we commemorate the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 in some form on Hype. The ideals of the Hungarian Civic Revolution and War of Independence have been a constant and much-loved theme since the magazine's inception, and we prepare for them under all circumstances.
This year is not only a special anniversary for the magazine but also the 175th anniversary of the Revolution and the 200th anniversary of the birth of the poet Sándor Petőfi, who was born on 1 January 1823. And since it's Petőfi's memorial year, he's the central figure in this year's creative material!
Previously, you had the chance to peek inside the Pilvax Café, one of the famous locations of the revolution, recreated in the Unreal Engine, and now we've brought Petőfi to life in MetaHuman Creator, also powered by the Unreal Engine, as he recites the first verse of the National Song.
In the browser-based MetaHuman, anyone can easily create their own character (with a fair amount of constraints), but "bringing him to life" is a more complicated process. After installing the Unreal Engine, you need an external integrator, in this case, Quixel Bridge, to insert your generated character. We can then use the Live Link Face app to pass our facial expressions to our generated character via IP address connection. Yes, our digital Petőfi mirrors my facial expressions while reciting.
Of course, the result is not perfect, but it's a huge step forward that what was previously generated by motion capture in film studios can now be produced at home in Unreal Engine and with an app.
Bárdos László
Bárdos László