Epic Games acquires facial animation tech studio Cubic Motion

Epic Games has acquired Cubic Motion, the studio whose facial animation tech has powered the likes of God of War and Marvel’s Spider-Man.

The move aims to bolster its Unreal Engine team with the acquisition, and follows in the footsteps of January’s acquisition of 3Lateral. Both buys, Epic notes in a press release, aim to further the company’s goal of “advancing the state of the art in the creation of believable digital humans.”

Cubic Motion itself is behind automated performance-driven facial animation tech offered to the video game and film industries, as well as other fields.

Its latest offering, the Persona system, is used to create immediate character facial animation in Unreal engine by capturing data from actors and mapping that to a digital model in real time. While the acquisition sees Cubic Motion ramping up its development of Persona and Unreal Engine, a press release notes that the company will continue to work with customers and industry partners even as a part of Epic Games.