This is another one of those tasks I look forward to… reviewing a product that was made for beginners and pros by a company that understands both markets. I never thought I’d make that statement, as 3D work can be difficult and time-consuming, which leads me to my favorite keyword “tedious,” of which a product like this eliminates or at the very least greatly reduces it.
There was a time when making characters was so complex that advanced skills were applied from blocking out a mesh, sculpting it, then rigging it for animation. Sure, it was fun the first time, maybe even the first one hundred times, but after a while it just gets to be a buzzkill and was a major reason I focused on props and scenes to avoid burnout. I loved making the character mesh, but the rigging was the deal killer, particularly in 3DS Max, creating and tuning envelopes for each finger and knuckle.
For those of you new to these products, they have been a long time in the making, based on collaboration with users, including pros, hobbyists, and beginners, to put a tool into our hands that follows the philosophy of using what you need while not overcomplicating basic features for beginners. In fact, there are so many features in Character Creator 5 and iClone 8 that I can’t even remember them all, and I, like other original users, have been along for the entire evolution of these products.
For the current users of CC5, I’ll stop the history lesson here, and we will focus on what Headshot 3 has brought to the table in terms of IMAGE-BASED facial creation. The mesh-based side of CC5 remains the same, but the image side of it has been refined and improved with more AI functionality while not stifling the creative nature of its users.
AI as a Tool
Not all of us can agree on the use of AI in digital art, but that also leaves out the fact that when used as a tool to enhance creativity by eliminating the tedious nature of things that kill the creative urge, this tool can empower the digital artist by spending more time being creative and less time being technical. I’m not sure myself where I stand on all things AI, but I know if we don’t learn, we could be left behind, and Reallusion is not here to create the artistry for you but to facilitate the tech needed to create and showcase that artistry.
Let AI do the Sculpting
Not all of us are able to sculpt 3d mesh into a character, and even those of us who can are finding ourselves under decreasing time constraints. If you are a pro, then time is money; if you are a hobbyist, then time should be fun. Frustration comes if you are not using applications that remain consistent and approachable by anyone.
For example, ZBrush is great, but it’s the most oddball interface new users might ever see. While Maxon is mainstreaming some features of ZBrush, the interface is so unique that it can take weeks to months just getting familiar with it. Even after all the years I’ve used it, I haven’t scratched the surface of what it can do. That is what I call AAA complexity for AAA results.
Reallusion products, on the other hand, can produce AAA results with little to no experience in 3D animation. In its simplest form, Headshot 3 allows us to load an image for reference, then let the AI create the head and put it on the body. No sculpting unless you want to tweak the mesh, but even in this simple straight-through run, you can get an amazing custom character. As you learn how to refine characters with experience, you can use more of the advanced sculpting tools, but you don’t have to use them.
Test Character One – 2K Generation
This is my first run to test it for myself. The goal was to get a young Mexican female in her late teens or early twenties. To do this, I used the AI-Generation feature in Headshot 3. I’m not sure at this point how the AI interprets a prompt, so I had a chatbot prepare a generic prompt for me, as I’m not that flowery with prompting, and it gave me the prompt below:
Young, beautiful Mexican American woman with smooth sun‑kissed skin, no hair, warm brown eyes, soft natural makeup, calm, confident expression. Even studio lighting, crisp focus, ultra‑realistic detail, 85mm portrait lens look, clean professional aesthetic.
I let Headshot 3 AI create the three views as shown, so I could see how it worked for the head and body. The process is covered in the video linked at the end of this article. This was strictly a straightforward run through the system without major tweaking, letting the tool do the work.
The face could use a little reshaping along with the nose, but for an unaided run using just AI, it went well and produced a character in minutes. The process is easy, like its predecessor, even though there are a lot more tools to fine-tune the mesh to better match the image. For a few minutes’ work, it’s a quick way to get filler characters, and depending on the quality resolution, they will work for main characters, as this first test was at 2k and went very smoothly.
Test Character 2 – 4K Generation
For the 4K generation, I chose a Persian male and once again let a chatbot create a more detailed prompt based on my basic requirements.
A handsome, striking young Persian man with a clean‑shaven head and smooth jawline, facing the camera with confident, magnetic charm. His dark, expressive eyes hold a calm intensity, and his features are sharp and sculpted. Soft, cinematic lighting highlights the warm undertones of his skin. The background is white to keep full focus on his commanding gaze and poised posture. High‑resolution, portrait, headshot photography style.
Some elements of the prompt might have been unnecessary, but it produced good results the first time, so I’ll didn’t edit anything out. I also didn’t specify a specific age as Reallusion did in the manual, but that can be a part of the prompt as well.
Just as I did with the first run, I let the plugin AI handle most of the work. I did a few sculpting tweaks with the new, more refined sculpting tools, and it worked fine. I was able to easily adjust what little needed to be adjusted, and I wasn’t looking for an exact copy anyway. I just wanted to verify that the first run wasn’t a fluke, and it produced another great character that would be at home close to the camera or as a scene filler. The great thing about using Headshot 3 is that the character is fully functional with all the bells and whistles we’ve become accustomed to.
The end result produces a very good, high-quality 4K character that looks good on screen, has all the functionality of an iClone character, and projects a very nice image or screen presence. Again, this was done with only a few minor sculpts, mainly to test the sculpting features, but it wasn’t necessary to produce a good character. I also lengthened the jaw and lowered the mouth a bit with sliders.
Why No Hair or Facial Hair in the Prompt?
I do this in the prompt so I can use the Beard tool and packs to add more realism, as photo beards are more like the late 1990s and can detract from the production, causing the audience to lose the story and focus on the funny-looking beard. Having no beard in the reference image makes the face a lot cleaner on the character than having to deal with a beard plastered on the face in the image.
Test Character 3 – U.S. Historical Figure
For this test, I dug out an old Abraham Lincoln character I made a long time ago when Character Creator was still new. I hadn’t updated it in years, and I created the clothes in Marvelous Designer to match the suit he wore at a famous speech. The mesh turned out to be too old to use in the process, as you’ll see in the video, but CC5 took care of it by substituting a new compatible male mesh without missing a beat. I added a beard, hair, and his famous top hat to round out the character.
I did edit the processing time in the video so you wouldn’t have to wait it out, but it was only a few minutes at most, so it wasn’t that long of a wait, and in under 5 minutes, I had a fully functional, updated Abe Lincoln character, not counting the clothing.
You can see from the video that it was simple to update my Abe Lincoln character to a cleaner face. This was an older CC mesh, so it was incompatible, but Headshot 3 let us use other body meshes without skipping a beat. I didn’t tweak this character as I wanted you to see what it looks like just going through the process. The chin could be longer, the mouth lower, and the top of the head shorter, which you can do with more time.
I was amazed at Headshot 3’s ability to enhance the photo I used, as it was far from optimal and broke most of the good practices rules for image to face, but as you can see, it turned out just fine. I only needed the one forward-facing headshot, so a side and body generation were not needed. As you can see in the video, all I had to do was load the image and click a few checkboxes, then start the process. Perfect for beginners that don’t want to fiddle with the sculpting or other edits, as this character was usable straight out of generation without refinement, as many are.
Summary
I spent over two weeks with Headshot 3 before I wrote this article, and I rarely looked at the manual. For me, this is one of the biggest selling points, and I’ve brought it up many times: the ease of use. You can refine and sculpt to your heart’s content or just run it through the process and let AI handle the technical aspects, with many options in between.
Is it worth the upgrade? In my opinion, yes, the mesh part is the same as before, but the AI generation is a real step forward in how I used Headshot 3, so it might be the same for many other people. I can’t find any reason not to upgrade unless you will not be using the AI, but you will miss out on learning the new refinement tools that anyone can use, and Pros can really take advantage of.
Headshot 3 is another tool that is as easy or as complicated as you want it to be. Use only what you need while learning the more advanced features at your leisure. Even beginners can be pros within 6 months to a year of experience using tools like Headshot 3, which really simplifies the process.
MD McCallum – WarLord
Digital Artist MD “Mike” McCallum, aka WarLord, is a longtime iClone user. Having authored free tutorials for iClone in its early years and selected to write the iClone Beginners Guide from Packt Publishing in 2011, he was fortunate enough to meet and exchange tricks and tips with users from all over the world, and loves to share this information with other users. He has authored hundreds of articles on iClone and digital art in general while reviewing some of the most popular software and hardware in the world. He has been published in many of the leading 3D online and print magazines while staying true to his biggest passion, 3D animation. For more information, click here.
