EPIC GAMES REVEALS NEXT-GEN METAHUMAN AND VIRTUAL PRODUCTION TOOLS AT STATE OF UNREAL 2025
At Unreal Fest Orlando 2025, Epic Games showcased a major leap forward for digital storytelling with deeply integrated MetaHuman tools and virtual production upgrades in Unreal Engine 5.6—ushering in a new era of real-time filmmaking and character realism.
During the 2025 State of Unreal keynote, Epic Games unveiled a new chapter for cinematic storytelling through advancements in both MetaHuman and virtual production capabilities—two pillars of Unreal Engine that are rapidly redefining the boundaries of real-time VFX. Tucked into the heart of the keynote presentation developers presented major innovations that move MetaHuman from a standalone tool into a seamlessly integrated component of Unreal Engine 5.6. This shift represents a deeper convergence of character design and world-building in a unified real-time pipeline.
One of the headline improvements is the integration of MetaHuman Creator directly inside Unreal Engine. Artists and filmmakers can now sculpt fully rigged, performance-ready digital humans—including facial expressions, body types, and clothing—without ever leaving the engine. This integration is supported by major under-the-hood improvements, including advanced skin shading and a new adaptive rig system that allows MetaHumans to mirror the anatomy and body proportions of custom meshes with fidelity. For creators without access to expensive mocap gear, Epic introduced a real-time facial capture system that runs from a standard webcam, making high-quality performance capture more accessible than ever.
Epic didn’t stop at visual fidelity—they also broadened how MetaHumans can be used and shared. With new export capabilities and a more flexible licensing model, developers can now bring MetaHumans into Unity, Godot, Houdini, and Blender, expanding creative use cases far beyond Unreal’s ecosystem. In parallel, Epic opened its Fab marketplace to include MetaHuman assets, allowing creators to buy, sell, and collaborate on photoreal digital characters. This ecosystem-building move further reinforces Epic’s vision of Unreal not just as a game engine, but as a cross-disciplinary platform for real-time storytelling and virtual production.
On the virtual production front, Unreal Engine 5.6 also introduces powerful upgrades designed specifically for film and television workflows. New features include enhancements to World Partition and Lumen lighting systems, as well as procedural Megaworlds and biome generation for environment creation—allowing filmmakers to populate expansive, photoreal landscapes that run smoothly at 60Hz on LED volume walls. These tools are directly aimed at streamlining on-set workflows, where lighting consistency, fast iteration, and real-time previs are critical. When combined with the new MetaHuman tools, UE5.6 effectively closes the loop from character performance to final shot, all in real time.
