Description:
Digital Epic Studio is looking for an experienced Unreal Engine 5 and MetaHuman Developer to support a confidential, real time interactive character project.
This is not a one off animation assignment. We are building a reusable, data driven MetaHuman framework in which external runtime values control character behavior, facial performance, materials, and visual states.
Responsibilities
- Set up and optimize MetaHuman characters in Unreal Engine 5
- Build layered Animation Blueprints for:
- Breathing and upper-body movement
- Natural blinking and eye gaze
- Head movement, nods, and speech accents
- Additive facial expressions and emotional states
- Integrate real-time lip sync using ARKit-style facial curves, Live Link, NeuroSync, Audio2Face, or a comparable solution
- Ensure facial expressions and animation layers do not interfere with speech and lip sync
- Create runtime-controlled skin and eye materials for effects such as:
- Sweat and wetness
- Pallor, flushing, and discoloration
- Eye and facial appearance changes
- Expose character controls through Blueprints, Data Assets, Data Tables, or structured external data
- Support smooth intensity-based transitions rather than simple on/off triggers
- Package and optimize the Unreal application for Pixel Streaming
- Support Linux builds, GPU containers, and browser-based real-time delivery
- Help establish a reusable architecture that can be applied to multiple MetaHuman identities
- The underlying system must allow multiple effects and behaviors to operate simultaneously while the MetaHuman is speaking.
Required Experience
- Strong Unreal Engine 5 and MetaHuman experience
- Advanced Animation Blueprint knowledge
- Layered blending, additive poses, bone masks, curve masks, and blend priorities
- MetaHuman facial rig and ARKit curve handling
- Unreal Material Editor, dynamic material instances, skin shading, wetness, roughness, and subsurface controls
- Live Link and real-time facial animation
- Blueprint-based, data-driven system architecture
- Real-time performance optimization
- Strongly Preferred
- Unreal Pixel Streaming experience
- Linux packaging and GPU-container deployment
- WebRTC, TURN/STUN, or browser-streaming experience
- Experience connecting Unreal to Python, WebSocket, REST, JSON, or external runtime systems
- Experience building reusable character systems rather than pre-rendered or one-off animations
- Familiarity with AKS, Kubernetes GPU nodes, or NVIDIA NVENC workflows
- Initial Assignment