Later, a friend assured me, “It’s really not that crazy. All this because his double chin looked weird sagging over his collar. Some actually thought Trump was being held prisoner in some secret location. Immediately, some otherwise sane people insisted this was a deepfake. In it, the president condemned the rioters and called for unity. 7, Trump released a poorly shot video from the White House. In the aftermath of the “deadly insurrection” on Capitol Hill, I heard equally crazy claims on the right.
But lefties aren’t the only ones losing their grip. Believe it or not, Joe Biden’s son has some serious issues. After all, who falls asleep with a crackpipe in his mouth? Some even insist that his abandoned laptop never existed.Īfter viewing a few clips for myself on GTV.org, let’s just say I’m skeptical of their skepticism.
Leading up to the election, I heard multiple liberals claim that Hunter Biden’s leaked nude videos are nothing but a Russian deepfake. Perpetual doubt is just part of the New Normal. Dick, and even shorter to presidential deepfakes. It was a short jump from Patty Duke to Philip K. Digital humans will thrive in an era of fake news, fake revolutions, fake insurrections, fake photos with invented quotes, fake memes with bogus statistics, fake hate crimes, fake bosoms, fake smiles, fake miracles, and an endless parade of phony celebrities. MetaHumans Creator is part of a natural progression. In a Phony World, You’ve Gotta Fake It to Make It If it gets bad enough, we might need a federal Reality Czar to sort it all out. The inevitable explosion of phony content will also strengthen our self-designated “legitimate news sources” as the sole arbiters of what is real. Any video evidence a person wants to ignore can be dismissed as a “deepfake.” As the fakes pile up, normal people will increasingly approach media with schizoid skepticism-a trend well underway. It starts with innocent pranks, and ends in international scandals.
Ultimately, this software will democratize deepfakes. You can place them anywhere on the gender spectrum, dress them up like digital dolls, and make them say whatever you like. You can give them a button nose or a big ol’ honker. You can make your digital humans fat or skinny, tow-headed or bald, hot or homely. Unreal Engine explains in a news release: “MetaHuman Creator…works by drawing from an ever-growing library of variants of human appearance and motion, and enabling you to create convincing new characters through intuitive workflows.” The creation process begins with a generic face that’s molded like mortal clay.
The facial palette offers a wide range of skin tones, hairstyles, and bone structures. Watching the demos, you’ll notice tiny pores, subtle wrinkles, hints of tooth crud, and even peach fuzz catching the backlight. Their facial movements mimic genuine emotions. MetaHuman’s first generation of digital androids is about as creepy as you’d imagine, if only because their presentation is so natural. If you’re a talentless game animator or a dating app con artist, now is your time to shine. Best of all, it’s so easy, any amateur can do it. The package allows users to build detailed humanoids for 2D videos or immersive virtual environments. MetaHuman Creator was developed for Unreal Engine, a top platform for game design, film effects, and live event production.
Just as Pro Tools gave burnouts the power to make techno, or PhotoShop let perverts alter celebrity images, soon anyone with a decent laptop will be able to generate a deepfake. The cloud-based app has an intuitive interface, allowing minimally competent users to create ultra-realistic digital humans “in less than an hour, without compromising on quality.” Epic Games just released the first demos for MetaHuman Creator, bringing us one step closer to living in a simulation.