Elain Brown Tech 06.16.2022 01:Jun AM EDT

Krafton, the Company Behind PUBG, Teases Its Virtual Human Named Ana

Krafton, the publishing company behind the game PUBG, is releasing a virtual human named Ana.

The Krafton studio, which is also responsible for creating the immensely popular battle royale game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, revealed a pair of new photographs of Ana. The images revealed showed the head, or really just the face, of the virtual human.

Krafton's Ana

Krafton has presented the first photographs of Ana. The hyperrealistic production technology of the Unreal Engine was used to build Ana, and it boldly shows a hyper-realistic appearance, which blurs the distinctions between a synthetic character and a real human.

The aim of Ana is to attract users from all over the world and contribute to the development of KRAFTON's Web 3.0 ecosystem. According to the Head of the Creative Center of Krafton, Josh Seokjin Shin, "ANA is a hyper-realistic virtual human created by Krafton's unparalleled technology. We expect her to attract the interest and popularity of Gen Z around the world."

Shin added, "Ana will release an original music track and expand her scope of activity as an influencer into various areas across entertainment and esports," he added.

Since Krafton disclosed its first goal of creating a virtual person in February of this year through a technical demonstration, Ana is the first virtual human that the company has created and released. In-house efforts at the publishing company have resulted in the creation of a virtual human that has the potential to be accepted and approved by audiences all over the world.

Her appearance is absolutely distinct from that of any other virtual human that is now attainable through the use of other technologies. She has human-like characteristics such as baby hairs and fluff on her skin.

The very advanced face rigging technology not only permits natural joint movement across the entirety of the body of the virtual human, but it also allows for the sensitive expression of the movement of the pupil, fine facial muscles, and wrinkles.

Additionally, deep learning technologies, such as improved voice synthesis, help develop an artificially intelligent voice for Ana, which enables her to act and sing just like a real human would.

Krafton's Virtual Human

Krafton's photographs show that Ana has a convincingly lifelike appearance. According to techradar, there are still a few issues with her that make her look too perfect for a human. For example, her teeth, her skin looking too beautiful,and her fingers have a plasticky appearance when they softly touch her face.

On the contrary, it is undeniable that the development and creation of Ana are rather remarkable. It successfully showed some imperfections in human beings, just like defects in the skin, such as fine lines and wrinkles, small pores, and even tiny hairs.

Even while ANA has not yet released a full-body photograph or a moving movie of itself, there is reason to assume that it may turn out to be remarkable as well, just like how its face is created.

Aside from that, as mentioned, this virtual human from Krafton will also be able to act and sing, just like a normal human being due to the advanced technology, using deep learning and AI voice that is being used to bring her into reality, virtually.

As The Verge pointed out, these types of virtual influencers are not really a new concept. These virtual humans have previously made their way into a wide variety of media platforms, ranging from music videos and video games to Ikea installations, not to mention social networks such as Instagram and TikTok.