Meet Ana. This virtual person was created by Krafton in South Korea and is well-known for its battle royale game PUBG.
Krafton, a South Korean video game company, is well-known for releasing mass favorites like PUBG, BGMI, and BGBG. Ana has been introduced by the company's Web3 or metaverse activities as a meta-human influencer.
Ana's face in the promotional images has a hyper-realistic human cut and features. She is said to have the ability to talk, sing and move like a human being, thanks to mechanics such as rigging and deep learning.
Krafton states that ANA was created to engage a global audience to help establish KRAFTON's Web 3.0 ecosystem." This means that the AI-based virtual being in the company's current goal is to be an influencer and play a part in future plans related to the 'next generation internet' and associated businesses.
According to the company, Ana was created 'internally' by Epic Games' Unreal Engine. This includes Ana's 'baby hairs, fluff on her face, pupil movement, fine facial muscles, wrinkles, and natural joint movement throughout her entire body.
Josh Seokjin Shin from Krafton's Creative Center explained that ANA is a hyper-realistic, virtual human created using KRAFTON technology. "We expect her popularity to draw the attention of Gen Z all over the globe."
ANA will also release a new music track and expand its influencer role in entertainment and esports.
What are Virtual Humans?
Digital humans, also known as virtual humans, are human-like computer simulations. Their research focuses on their representation, movement, and behavior. It has various applications, including simulation, games, film and television productions, human factors, and ergonomic and usability studies in multiple industries (aerospace and automobile, machinery, furniture, etc.), clothing, telecommunications, medicine, and so on. Different applications necessitate specialized knowledge. Medical applications may require precision in simulating specific internal organs. The film industry expects the most natural movements and facial expressions and the highest aesthetic standards. Ergonomics research necessitates precise body proportions and realistic locomotion under constraints.
There are two major classes of virtual humans:
Avatars: Avatars (in computing) represent the user's graphical representation. Online worlds such as The Palace and Second Life have made avatars very popular.
Autonomous Virtual Humans: An independent agent with an embodiment, or an embedded agent, is an autonomous virtual human.
One example of a virtual human is the Virtual Actor. This virtual human (autonomous or avatar) acts as an actor in a film or series.