Miquela's famous space-buns were recreated for UE Grooms by Maria Zatorska.
Besides the odd music video and commercial, Miquela was largely animated for TikTok and Instagram Stories. The excellent animation team is lead by Blaine Toderian.
I resurfaced the entire model but the face and hands are of course the most important body parts for cinematics.
Xgen face groom first converted to ribbons for a Digital Human style in UE then later to Grooms for binding in UE.
Some fun tests in Unreal.
I took advantage of the examples provided by Epic before making some modifications to the skin shaders. Most of my mods were for region tuning and makeup.
I have had the great opportunity to upgrade and maintain Miquela since mid 2020. This included sculpting, topo, texture, lookdev, grooming, and CFX. She was rigged by a dedicated rigger. She intentionally resides in the uncanny valley.
Her animation and lighting requirements were immense and feedback was plentiful. Miquela's Design Director is the very supportive Isaac Bratzel, who also has a great eye for detail.
