Epic Games acquires real-time animation firm Hyprsense

Real-time animation company Hyprsense announced it's been acquired by Epic Games.

Hyprsense will collaborate with Epic's development teams, as well as 3Lateral and Cubic Motion, to build "new and better tools and systems for developers and players alike," the announcement said.

The acquisition will also allow for a better integration of Hyprsense's tech with Unreal Engine and further Epic's work "to make content production more accessible."

The company, formerly known as Binary VR, specialises in real-time capture of face movements, which can then be recreated as a fully animated 3D avatar. As Binary VR, the firm raised $4.5 million in 2018 to develop its capture tech, having previously worked on a developer kit for VR.

Epic Games' CTO Kim Libreri commented: "Bringing on the Hyprsense team enables us to continue pushing digital character innovation even further and approach the goal of giving all creators full control over expressing their vision down to the smallest nuance."

Jihun Yu, co-founder and CEO of Hyprsense, added: "We are proud and excited to bring our character animation technology into the Epic Games ecosystem. Joining Epic gives us the opportunity to deliver new solutions and experiences on a massive scale. We are so grateful to the Hyprsense team for their tireless work to get us here, as well as our customers, partners and supportive investors."

Epic Games acquired 3Lateral, best known for its "digital humans" technology, in January 2019. It also bought facial animation tech firm Cubic Motion earlier this year.