Bringing Anatomy to Life in Unreal Engine 5
What You Are Seeing
This demo showcases a first-of-its-kind pipeline developed by the LINDSAY Virtual Human Research Lab at the University of Calgary, in collaboration with the Entertainment Arts program at Bow Valley College.
In under two minutes, we demonstrate the full journey from live human movement to a medically accurate, fully rigged anatomy model — animated in real time inside Unreal Engine 5.
The Pipeline in Four Steps
1. Motion Capture at Bow Valley College
Performance begins in BVC’s professional Vicon motion capture studio. A performer wearing a full marker suit moves freely, and the Vicon system records precise skeletal motion data in real time.
2. MetaHuman Creation
Using Epic Games’ MetaHuman Creator, we build a photorealistic digital human — selecting body proportions, face, and skin from Epic’s diverse character library. The MetaHuman serves as both the visible surface character and the rigging foundation for the anatomy layer beneath.
3. Anatomy Model Integration
This is the core of what LINDSAY and BVC have built together. Beneath the MetaHuman’s skin, we attach medically accurate anatomy models sourced from SciePro’s clinical 3D atlas — the same models used in medical education worldwide. The musculoskeletal system is fully rigged to the UE5 skeleton hierarchy, so every joint, muscle group, and connective structure moves together with the character.
The side-by-side view in the video makes this visible: the MetaHuman character on the left, the underlying anatomy model on the right — same motion, same skeleton, two perspectives on the same virtual human.
4. Live Mocap Retargeting
With the anatomy model rigged and the mocap stream connected, movement transfers in real time. When the performer moves, the anatomy model moves with them — muscles deforming, joints articulating, the entire musculoskeletal system responding dynamically inside Unreal Engine 5.
Why This Matters
Medical education has historically been limited by what you can show. Cadaver labs, plastic models, and static textbook diagrams are the tools of a field that desperately needs better ones. Immersive, interactive, real-time anatomy visualization changes that equation entirely.
The LINDSAY project is building the foundational asset layer that makes this possible in Unreal Engine 5 — a freely available library of rigged, medically accurate anatomy models that any developer, researcher, or educator can use. This demo is the first public proof that it works.
For students in medicine, nursing, kinesiology, and the health sciences, a system like this means being able to explore the human body the way an engineer explores a machine — from any angle, at any speed, with any layer of tissue visible or hidden on demand.
What Comes Next
The LINDSAY 3D Medical Model Rigging Library is currently in active development. Building on the musculoskeletal work shown in this demo, we are extending the library to cover all major anatomy systems:
- Cardiovascular — heart with valve animation, major vessel network
- Respiratory — lungs and diaphragm with breathing mechanics
- Nervous system — brain, spinal cord, and major nerve structures
- Digestive and urogenital systems
- Skin and fascia layers — deformable tissue for cross-section visualization
We are hoping to make a model library of apps built on UE 5 available soon.
The Team
LINDSAY Virtual Human Research Lab — University of Calgary
Christian Jacob (PI), Eli Kinney-Lang (anatomy oversight), Shane Berezowski (3D modeling)
Bow Valley College / FluidPlanet
Andrew Charles (rigging, MetaHuman integration), Liza Samedov (MetaHuman integration), Hamish Harrison (team lead)
Fluid Planet
Dan Pigat (team lead)
SciePro
Sebastian Kaulitzki (clinical anatomy model source and medical oversight)
The LINDSAY Virtual Human project was launched with support from an Epic MegaGrant in 2021. This demo was produced in 2026 as part of our ongoing development of open-source medical visualization tools for Unreal Engine 5.
Learn more at lindsayvirtualhuman.com