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Using Realistic Humans in Unity – PART 1

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Matt Belshaw – Game Developer, Digital Artist, Educator

Matt Belshaw

Matt Belshaw is a British self-taught game developer and digital artist.

As a recreational workaholic, when he isn’t in the Gym or creating tutorial content for his popular YouTube channel – Game Developer Training, Matt will be working his full-time job as a teacher or creating content for his own video games

In this two part Unity tutorial series, Matt walks us through how he creates a full-rigged and animatable digital human for use in Unity’s High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) using Reallusion’s Character Creator, Auto Setup for Unity script, and iClone animation tools.

’Ello Mate! I’m Matt Belshaw, in this first of a two part tutorial we’ll create a character using Character Creator 4, add animations using iClone 8 and save our project ready for importing into Unity using the HD Render Pipeline extension.

Thanks to the work of Victor Soupday it’s now easier than ever to use realistic humans and animations created in Character Creator 4 and iClone 8 within Unity projects.

Many people want to harness the power of Character Creator, iClone and their many fantastic addons, but don’t have the time or desire to learn an entirely new game engine, which puts those people who have always preferred Unity to Unreal Engine at a disadvantage, until now. Using Victor’s Auto Setup addon, it’s now incredibly easy to get your favourite characters out of iClone, including all animations and use them in Unity.

Before we start working on the Unity side of things though, let’s build ourselves a character that we can use.

In order to follow this first part of the tutorial you don’t need to download any special tools, although I do recommend downloading the Auto Setup addon Download Here.

Also, since we’re downloading stuff, let’s browse the Reallusion Content Store for any skin, hair, clothing and mocap assets that we might want to use now that we can work in Unity.

Creating the Base Character

First things first. We need to create the base character which we’ll then customize. Inside Character Creator, with an empty scene, open the Modify window and click on the load neutral base button.

After a few moments our character will appear (undies added for safety). This androgynous character can now be customized to whatever shape we want using the extensive morphs available in Character creator 4.

Applying Morphs

Whilst still in the Modify window, note at the top a selection of sub-menus.

We’re going to click on the third icon from the left which looks like a square being squished by two arrows.

Ensuring you have the character selected and not one of the items of clothing that you’ve already added for modesty, you will see all the morphs that are currently available to apply to the character.

There are some morphs which apply to the whole body, some which apply to single body parts, all of which use a slider allowing you to apply these morphs to any degree.

Any character presets you own will also be available from this menu. This is your opportunity to get creative and design your character. Don’t expect to create the perfect specimen quickly, these things take time and a lot of fine tuning. Take your time and create the character of your dreams before moving on to the next step.

Applying a new skin

To apply a new skin to our character it’s as simple as double clicking on something!

Open the Content window and with our character still selected, browse to the “Skin” sub-menu.

From here, it’s just a case of browsing to the skin or skin-pack that you want to use and double-clicking on it to apply your choice to your new character.

If you’re happy with the way your realistic human looks, then you’re good to move on, but if you want to tweak the skin colour a bit, then it’s time to re-open the “Modify” window and select the materials sub-menu.

Within this tab we can select all the Digital_Human Skin materials using Shift-Click

Just below this within the materials tab, there will be a section called “Shader Settings”. Open it up and more options will be visible.

Open up the accordion tab for Skin Colour and check the “Activate Skin Colour” box.

Open up the Colour Adjustment tab and Check the “Activate” box

You can now customize the colour of your character using the three colour sliders within this sub-menu.

Once You’re happy with your colour, click on the Bake Skin Colour to Diffuse Map Button. This will make your changes permanent.

Add Clothing and Hair

Using the Content Menu, browse through your library, ensuring your character is still selected in the scene and double click on whatever clothing and hair you wish to add to your character.

Remember that there is no right or wrong thing to do here, what clothing and hair you choose to add is entirely down to your personal preferences. Once your new friend is sporting a nifty new hairdo and sharply dressed, move on to the next step.

Adding Wrinkles (good ones of course).

Back in the “Modify” window with our character selected, select the Expression Wrinkles sub-menu. (The icon that looks like a head with a vent on the side.)

Check the Activate Expression Wrinkles Box

iClone will now apply a default expression facial profile to our character.

Check the “Check with Expressions” box and double click on any of the facial areas to apply an extreme expression which shows the wrinkles in action, allowing you to tweak the strength, redness etc.

Once you’ve wrinkled / unwrinkled your character the desired amount, export your character as an iAvatar to save your progress and then move on to the next step.

Exporting to iClone

Now it’s time to open iClone. This isn’t mandatory as it should open automatically.

Once iClone is open, click on the “Send to iClone” button

iClone will start importing your character.

Once this has been completed, you can close Character Creator.

Adding our animations

Before we start, I highly recommend having a text document open and ready for you to record the start and end frame numbers for each of our animations, since once we import the character into Unity, we will have to manually chop up the animation into individual parts again.

Make sure the timeline window is open and visible.

Browse through your content library and add any animations that you want the character to be able to use. It’s not completely vital to get them all at this point but it does avoid unnecessary messing about later if you can get all the animations you need in the first place.

As you double-click on an animation you will see it being added to the timeline

Note down the animation start and end frame numbers and of course what the animation is. You can press the play button to see how your character looks doing each animation. This is often a good idea as it can identify any potential clipping that might occur or animations that just don’t suit.

Once you have all the animations that you wish to export added to the timeline, it’s time to move onto the final step!

Exporting our character for Unity

Click the menu option at File > Export > Export FBX…

In the dialogue box that appears, ensure that you choose the Unity 3D Preset. Set your frames per second to Project(60) and make sure that you check the “All” option in the Export Range. Adjust your max Texture size if you wish and then check the “Delete Unused Morphs” and “Delete Hidden Face” checkboxes.

Hit Export and save your character in an empty folder whose location you will be able to find later.

That’s it, you’ve completed this tutorial. In the next stage we’ll import the character into unity using the Auto Setup tool, break the animations up and apply them to our character.

Follow Matt Belshaw:

YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@GameDeveloperTraining/featured

Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/GameDeveloperTraining

Website:
https://gamedevelopertraining.com/


Featured Story

Filmmaker uses Character Creator and iClone to enhance MetaHumans and Unreal environments

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Robert Saitzyk – Independent filmmaker, Editor, Post-Production Manager

Robert Saitzyk

Robert is an independent filmmaker as well as an experienced editor and post-production manager who has a passion for not only the creative process but for all things technical.

He has written and directed three feature films. His first film, “After the Flood,” shot in 35mm film, was awarded the Grand Prize for Best Director at the 2002 Rhode Island International Film Festival. “White of Winter,” Robert’s second feature was an official selection to the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, and his third film, “Godspeed” – co-written with Cory Knauf – was awarded the Special Jury Award for Exceptional Artistic Achievement at the 2009 CineVegas Film Festival. The film was subsequently invited to screen at such festivals as the Austin Film Festival, also in competition, and the prestigious Stockholm International Film Festival. “Godspeed” was also awarded The Golden Ring for Best Film at the 2010 Ravenna Nightmare Film Festival in Italy.

Robert’s background also includes producing and editing high profile music videos for such artists as Keith Urban and he has also directed three music videos for singer-songwriter George Adrian. His latest project is entitled “Wicked Flower,” a short film to be made entirely using Unreal Engine, motion capture, and other 3D animation software such as Reallusion’s Character Creator and iClone.

“In addition to how good scenes could look in Unreal, the ease of creating great looking characters, including adding wardrobe and animating them, using Character Creator and iClone, made the whole process possible for someone like me without prior experience or training. The ease of adding, adjusting, and tweaking Character Creator characters in Unreal was also crucial to making the workflow and pipeline one that was both fluid and possible for essentially a beginner into this world.”

Robert Saitzyk – Independent filmmaker, Editor, Post-Production Manager

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Featured Story

Multiple Poses for League of Legends Character: The Making of Dragon Sorceress Zyra

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Spruce Up Game Characters with ZBrush Pose Tools & Character Creator

After winning the first prize in the student division of the Korea 3D Character Creator (CC) contest, Go Eun Kim has been diligently honing her 3D modeling skills. She is now exploring unconventional tools to enhance her real-time animation pipeline. In this interview, Kim discusses her innovative use of ZBrush Pose Tools & Pose Link in conjunction with Character Creator 4 (CC4) to enhance the poses of her cherished game characters, specifically Dragon Sorceress Zyra.

She also delves into leveraging the rich assortment of shaders offered by Auto Setup for Unreal Engine and offers valuable insights on seamlessly integrating various 3D tools, including 3ds Max and CC AccuRIG (an auto-rigging tool). Her expertise enables her to transform static ZBrush sculptures into dynamic, lifelike game characters.

Go Eun Kim

Hello, my name is Go Eun Kim, a college student majoring in computer engineering, and I am from South Korea. In 2021, I started studying character modeling through a graphics academy. At first, I studied using 3ds Max and gradually studied how to model characters using programs such as ZBrush, Substance painter, and Unreal Engine. And by participating in a contest held in Korea, I could learn how to easily implement high-quality characters using Character Creator.

Learning various programs was not an easy process, but visible results are satisfying and fun to me. Also, I was able to concentrate on studying 3D modeling with passion because I always get excited when I imagine people playing future game characters that I have made.

Go Eun Kim’s ArtStation

For this project, I decided to deviate from creating a typical human character and instead explore a different character archetype, such as an elf or monster. During my reference search, I came across the concept art of Dragon Sorceress Zyra from League of Legends. I found it particularly fitting for this project’s character concept, envisioning a formidable humanoid boss monster in an RPG game. You can follow my tutorial below to achieve similar results: 

Part I. CHARACTER CREATION

Step 1) Character Concept

Use Character Creator 4 to change the appearance of basic characters and create purple-colored skin and pointed ears to match the character concept.

To bring this concept to life, utilized the capabilities of Character Creator 4 to modify the appearance of the base characters, by introducing distinctive features like purple-colored skin and pointed ears to align with the envisioned character concept.

Step 2) Sculpting Characters, 3D Assets, Textures with 3ds Max, Substance Painter and ZBrush

After exporting the model from Character Creator, proceed to work on it in ZBrush. For example, to infuse a dragon-like essence, I meticulously sculpt scales onto the character’s skin.

Following that, I created a dragon ornament in ZBrush to embellish Zyra’s design.

Employ 3ds Max and ZBrush to design and create the accessories and clothing for yourcharacter. Generate both low-polygon and high-polygon versions of these elements and proceed to bake the normal map.

With the freshly baked normal map, proceed to work in Substance Painter. Here, you’ll need to apply the map to the model and meticulously craft a texture map, bringing the clothes and whatever prop, like my dragon, to their final completion.

You can also utilize the face and body texture maps provided by Character Creator 4 to further customize the character’s appearance. By making adjustments to the skin details and applying dragon-like textures and makeup in Photoshop and Substance Painter, I was able to achieve a distinct dragon skin aesthetic.

To achieve a suitable hairstyle for the character, employ hair cards in 3ds Max. These hair cards enable you to meticulously craft a hairstyle that complements the overall character design.

Additionally, you can utilize ZBrush’s FiberMesh to generate a hair texture, which is then applied to the hair cards, resulting in a realistic and visually appealing hairdo.

Part II. ZBRUSH POSE TOOLS

Q: Hi Go Eun, first of all, thank you for sharing your amazing idea of creating Zyra with her Dragon. Posing characters in ZBrush can be quite challenging. Could you please elaborate on how you utilized CC AccuRIG and ZBrush Pose Tools plugins to create multiple poses for your character?

Here’s how I created multiple poses using the “ZBrush Pose Tools” plug-in:

To begin, you need to send the character in either a T-pose or an A-pose state from Character Creator to ZBrush using the “ZBrush Pose Link” feature. Once in ZBrush, you can record the character’s pose by selecting “Record New Pose” in the “ZBrush Pose Tools” plug-in and saving the pose.

Creating additional poses follows a similar process. First, generate a new pose for the character in Character Creator. You can use an existing pose provided by Character Creator or create a new one by directly manipulating the bones through the “Edit Pose” function.

After creating the new pose in Character Creator, select “Record New Pose” in ZBrush and then click “Send Current Pose to ZBrush Pose Tools” in Character Creator to transfer the new pose. Remember to save the pose by selecting “Save New Record”. By repeating this process, you can switch between the T-pose and multiple poses as needed, storing them as “pose1”, “pose2”, and so on.

This method allows for the creation of various poses, providing flexibility and versatility to bring the character to life in different positions.

Q: In comparison to your previous method of posing characters in ZBrush or other 3D tools, what are the advantages of utilizing the AccuRIG+Posing workflow with Character Creator?

The benefits are manifold. With this workflow, you can effortlessly change poses within a single project, eliminating the need to create a new project for each pose. The “Edit Posture” feature in Character Creator enables swift pose adjustments that can be seamlessly sent back to ZBrush. Moreover, by utilizing layers, you have the ability to modify the mesh for each pose independently, without altering the mesh in the original T-pose. This grants greater control, allowing for the expression of distinct clothing folds and details.

Q: What are your thoughts on the overall experience of using the ZBrush Pose Tool plugin in terms of time and results?

Initially, setting and using a pose required exporting and importing it into other programs. Any modifications also involved going through the same process. However, ZBrush Pose Tools has simplified the workflow by establishing a seamless connection between CC and ZBrush with just one click. This not only saves time but also allows for quick adjustments. Additionally, leveraging the layer on/off feature enables the addition of intricate details by sculpting each mesh differently when capturing a screenshot.

Part III. ANIMATE WITH UNREAL AUTO SETUP

Step 3) Animation Process

To enhance the natural and lively feel of the dragon animation, incorporate the spring effect function in Character Creator 4 after integrating the bone structure in 3ds Max.

To transfer facial expressions and eye movements from 3ds Max, export them as an OBJ file. Then, utilize the iClone morph creator to update and refine the morphs. This allows for seamless integration of the facial expressions and eye movements into iClone, enhancing the realism and expressiveness of the characters.

Once you have updated the morphs using the iClone morph creator, employ the morph animator to seamlessly incorporate a range of facial expressions and eye movements into the specific sections of your desired animation.

Afterwards, export the animation and bring it into Unreal Engine 5 (UE5). Apply all the texture maps generated in step 2 to the material node in UE5.

Step 4) Lighting Setup

The CC4-to-UE5 AutoSetup provides a variety of shaders. By applying the skin shader, you can adjust the details of the skin using micro normals. The Eye Shader allows you to freely modify the color, reflective light, and more. The Eye Occlusion shader creates a realistic appearance for the eyes.

Once you have applied the materials to the character as described, proceed to select a background in the Unreal Engine that complements the character’s mood.

Enhance animation with lighting effects and camera movements for dynamic visuals. Capture a screenshot and record the video to complete the process.

Part IV. Conclusion

With the aforementioned steps completed, my “Dragon Sorceress Zyra” character is finished. I thoroughly enjoyed designing and adorning characters according to my desired concept. Undoubtedly, Character Creator 4 greatly facilitates this process, making it both easy and efficient. Thank you for following my workflow and tutorial.

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Learning

Generating Distinctive and Dynamic Wrinkles for Toon Characters

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Introduction

Greetings, this is Peter Alexander. In this video I’m going to demonstrate how to use the wrinkle system for a stylized character.

Overview

There will be two main sections to this tutorial: one for basic users, and one for advanced. The advanced section will delve into areas of normal map modification.

Software Used

I will be using Character Creator and an image editor known as Krita. I chose Krita because it has a height-to-normal map filter, which is very useful for non-3D generation of normal map details.

Part One: Basics

Understanding Wrinkle Maps

The wrinkle system uses three sets of maps, with 5 main maps in total for each set.

Loading a Wrinkle Map

The process of adding wrinkles to a character is very simple. Just find a preset in the Wrinkle tab of the Content window, which is a subsection of the actor properties.

Character Creator has some facial animations preloaded to the animation player, to allow you to check your wrinkles and other animation properties.

Choosing the Right Set

After experimenting with the realistic sets, I’ve decided to apply the stylized wrinkle presets included in the “Wrinkle Essentials” package.

Keep in mind that you can only apply one wrinkle preset at a time, meaning one preset will overwrite the other; but you can manipulate and combine maps from multiple sets.

Using Wrinkle Settings

Once your wrinkle preset is loaded, you can play around with various settings in the wrinkle panel under Modify.

You can adjust the overall influence of the set, and below that you can select parts of the face and apply strength settings to the active part. The strength settings are divided up by map effect. Normal maps provide much of the detail, while ambient occlusion and redness are significant components, especially for more realistic characters. There’s also the speed of the wrinkle effect, which I do not have much experience in using.

Adjusting the strength for part of the character’s face can be important for a character with, say, a large forehead but a small mouth, or other combinations of exaggeration.

Part Two: Advanced

In this part of the Demo, I’ll show you a method for combining wrinkle map effects with a custom expression.

Where to Find More Info

Without getting into the exact mechanics of this system, which I’d not be fully accurate in describing, I will say that the expression sliders are linked to the data, which triggers the wrinkle effects.

If you want a more in-depth overview of the relationship between the sliders, wrinkle data and textures, I highly recommend going to the Reallusion webpage linked here. There it kind of goes under the hood of the technology and its features. I’d especially point to this breakdown.

These texture maps are the final textures, which generate the wrinkle effects. Below this is the tier of textures I previously mentioned.

Which Map Normal to Edit

It can be a tad confusing, especially if you don’t know what all these textures do. That said, the final texture map is a combination of maps. For example, the character’s normal map, and the normal map, would blend together, like this.

However, you don’t want to edit the result, but the wrinkle part of this equation — which would be this map here:

Using Wrinkles with Custom Expressions

By default, custom expressions are not linked to the data which triggers wrinkles. Even if you were to use sliders with wrinkles and combine them into a new custom slider, the wrinkle data would be lost. There are ways to use wrinkle data with a custom slider, however. I will go over one such method.

Step 1)

Dial in your expression components or utilize one of the presets in the facial editor. These presets are linked to the expression components which trigger wrinkles. Once your expression is dialed in, save it as an expression asset.

Step 2)

Open the facial profile editor. Your expressions will be reset while in this editor for better editing. However, you can apply the expression preset you just created. This will dial in the various sliders which comprise your expression. Send your character to a sculpting application, preferably ZBrush. 

Alternatively, you can use the mesh editor, which can perform basic mesh sculpting functions.

Step 3)

As you edit your expression, note that the final expression should be a fix, enhancement or exaggeration of the original expression , as it will use the same wrinkle data.

Step 4)

While still in the facial profile editor, your character should now have the combined expression dials and the sculpted data. Now reset the expression sliders, leaving only the sculpted data. 

Step 5)

Bake the remaining changes, the sculpting data, as a custom expression.

Bringing it Altogether

You can apply both your expression preset and the custom slider you just created. This combined data can now be saved as another expression preset, which will trigger the wrinkle data.

This final expression is now a combination of many partial expression sliders, and one custom slider. Each of these can be adjusted independently.

Limitations

Keep in mind that unless another character has a custom expression of the same name, only part of this data will apply to other characters.

Choosing the Right Wrinkles

Now to apply a wrinkle set. I will start by experimenting with some of the realistic sets. While the realistic sets are great, it is not the style I am looking for. The stylized sets have some chiseled wrinkle effects, which suit this character better.

The “Groove” set is almost perfect, so I will export the maps and tweak them slightly in Krita, a free painting application.

Editing Wrinkles in Krita

What I am going to do is add a bit more emphasis to certain areas. I will do this by painting in displacement detail, then converting it to normal map detail with a filter Layer.

Why Krita

Krita is a great tool for 3D artists as it has been developed with texture artists in mind. There is a filter layer called “Height to Normal Map”. Add this layer below the original normal map, and then set the original normal map’s blending mode to “Overlay”. This will combine the two normal maps. A third paint layer will allow you to add height. However, to add negative height, you will need a gray layer below the paint layer. So, I will add a fill layer with gray selected.

The gray layer allows the “Height to Normal Map” filter to read black as a negative value.

I’m now painting on the paint layer with white, and occasionally some black. Black basically allows you to add deep cuts to your normal maps.

The original normal maps in this case are mostly cuts into depth, rather than elevation. As this expression is a boxer being struck in the face, I figured some height would add more emphasis. You can use tools and brushes like smudge and erase to soften and remove detail. The Layer above it calculates the changes, so you don’t have to worry about the technical aspects of painting a normal map. Since there are three normal maps to edit, you get to practice this procedure three times:

  1. Create a gray fill layer.
  2. Add a paint layer for displacements.
  3. Add a filter layer with “Height Map to Normal Map” selected.
  4. And drag your original normal map to the top, with blend mode set to overlay.

Other Methods

I’d also like to point out that you can use ZBrush, 3D-Coat, Blender or other applications to create and edit wrinkle maps. This is probably the best 2D method, but 3D sculpting and texture painting applications have significant advantages. Just remember that you do not have to start from scratch. Use the presets as both a guide and foundation for any changes you make.

Similarly, when crafting a custom expression, you can use the facial presets as a starting point, especially the components of those presets are linked to wrinkle data. Back in Character Creator, you can load the wrinkle maps from the folder containing the changes you were just working on.

Depending on your changes, the effects may be subtle or extreme. It takes a while to get the right look. The changes I implemented are not too extreme, but there is a noticeable difference compared to the originals.

Before and After

I hope these tools and tips will provide you with a foundation for altering or even creating your own wrinkle map set. Thanks for reading!

Free Download :

• Character Creator

Learn more :

• Peter Alexander (Mythcons): ArtStation. Facebook

• Wrinkle Essential: Expansion of Dynamic Wrinkle Patterns

• Reallusion

Learning

3D Sculptor Brings Ancient Deities to Life as Animated Performers with AccuRIG

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Marcel Brynard

My name is Marcel Brynard. I am a digital artist with a background in architecture, inspired by working some years at a bronze sculpture studio in Cape Town, South Africa  and by my travels to various archaeological sites.

My love for beautiful forms intertwines with a fascination for the chimeric and arcane, resulting in art that exudes story-telling and mysticism.

Embracing digital tools, I explore new possibilities intersecting architecture and sculpture. Fueled by a love for these things, I am working on an animation project titled “Transcendental Rebirth,” narrating the transformative journey of two shamans on a pilgrimage.

Image credit: Marcel Brynard

In this video I will be taking users through the process of auto-rigging my original models in AccuRIG and uploading to ActorCore for motion previewing and retargeting, as an easy workflow to achieve animation and concept art.

From a Static Sculpture to a Fully Rigged Actor

All my creations are inspired by ancient religions and lore from different places.  The Deer character that I have used in this project is inspired by an ancient Peruvian relic.   

In order to bring my model to the 3D production, I have chosen AccuRIG to do the magic.  There are other rigging tools.  But AccuRIG, new in the market, is not only free of charge but provides really accurate results. 

With only five simple steps and some very useful functions such as symmetry, I have completed the body rig and hand rig of my model in no time.  With minor adjustments, the end results are above my expectations.

Automatic rigging with AccuRIG.  Image credit: Marcel Brynard

Situate the Best Poses for My 3D Model

Next I uploaded my rigged Deer character to ActorCore on the cloud and tried out animations. In my account, I can see all my uploaded actors, and I can go ahead and test different motions in the 3D preview window.  There is a whole range to choose from, including 32 free motions; totalling over 2,000 animations on ActorCore — way more than I need!  

I can select and download any motion on the model that I have uploaded. Classic “Sneak”, “Wondering Walk”, “Normal Walk” — it’s all very straightforward.

Preview animations on ActorCore 3D asset store.  Image credit: Marcel Brynard

Flawless Export to Blender

I want to export everything included, not only motions.  I like to choose 24 frames per second, original size, and embed the texture. And it downloads in a zip folder containing the FBX, and I can easily import that FBX straight into Blender.

Now I have got the 3D character in Blender.  If I were to scrub through the timeline at the bottom, I can see that the animation is included in the FBX, as per the motion that I have downloaded. I can set it up with cameras and lights, and it is ready to render out.

Easy export to Blender for further production.  Image credit: Marcel Brynard

Conclusion

Overall it is really very simple, from rigging with AccuRIG, motion previewing on ActorCore and sending to Blender.  The AccuRIG to ActorCore workflow has given me an impressive result to continue my production in Blender.  I recommend other 3D character artists to give this pipeline a try and see for yourself how the workflow can be largely enhanced.

Free download AccuRIG auto-rigging tool: https://actorcore.reallusion.com/auto-rig

Visit ActorCore 3D animation store:  https://actorcore.reallusion.com/motion

Learn More

Marcel Brynard’s Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/marcelbrynard

Featured Story

Lyle, Lyle Crocodile’s Real-time VFX brings life to the dancing and singing crocodile

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This article is featured on befores and afters

The Sony Pictures movie Lyle, Lyle Crocodile brought the lovable childhood story to life by the crew at Actor Capture, responsible for the motion capture over the 16 week film production. The team worked with the VFX department and VFX producer, Kerry Joseph and VFX Supervisor Joe Bauer on Mocap and virtual production on location in New York City, at Shadowbox Studios, and locations in Atlanta. Actor Capture provided motion capture with Movella Entertainment – Xsens for the on-set stage performances, over 40 locations, and while even hanging out of taxi cabs in Manhattan.

Virtual Production with in-camera VFX visualized the dancing crocodile in real-time allowing the directors and VFX crew to see the Lyle, Lyle’s, performance as it happened through the simulcam.

The actors trained in real-time to personify and get familiar with Lyle using Reallusion iClone for visualization.

To bring the character of Lyle Lyle Crocodile to life, Actor Capture relied on Xsens motion capture suits, Reallusion iClone and Unreal Engine. These powerful tools enabled the team to visualize Lyle in real-time with mocap animation, and quickly meet the needs of the VFX crew for Sony Pictures’ blockbuster musical.

One of the most significant advantages of iClone for the Actor Capture team was the ability to give performers like Rudie Bolton, who played the young Lyle, the opportunity to see themselves as Lyle in real-time. Reallusion iClone helped them get into character more easily during their performances.

James Martin, Technical Director at Actor Capture, highlighted the importance of Xsens as their preferred body motion capture tool and Reallusion iClone for visualization . “The combination of Xsens’ Link Suit, Gloves, and Faceware enabled the team to capture full-body data with best-in-class quality. Enabling our dancers to see Lyle in real-time with iClone Motion Live was valuable to preparing for the dance sequence mocap.  From stunt Lyle actors to the main Lyle actor, Ben Palacios, Actor Capture captured every take for Lyle Lyle Crocodile”

Actor Capture’s success in bringing Lyle Lyle Crocodile to life was a testament to the power of Xsens motion capture, Reallusion iClone, Vanishing Point and Unreal Engine. As digital technology continues to advance into AI motion and other machine learning solutions, these tools still remain a vital solution for capturing and delivering authentic and endearing character performances on set or in the studio.

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The original article is also featured on befores and afters.

Pitch & Produce

Pitch & Produce | History YouTube Channel Selects iClone and Character Creator for Speedy Production

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This article is featured on Creative Bloq

War history YouTube channel Yarnhub has half a million subscribers who tune in weekly to watch heroic and captivating stories from famous wars retold as dramatic animated movies. Creating high-quality animated stories weekly isn’t easy. Not only do Yarnhub’s cinematics need to be engaging and high-quality, they must be historically accurate, which is why Yarnhub turned to Reallusion’s best tools – Character Creator for character design and generation; iClone for animation.

Yarnhub Animation Studios

Yarnhub is an entertainment company founded by industry veterans and employs talented young animators to produce history-related animated films. Led by CEO David Webb and Manager Sergey Peresleni, the team consistently produces incredible, awe-inspiring true stories that give you goosebumps and make you feel something for the amazing people who lived them. We try to do these incredible yarn justice by animating them in an amusing and informative way and bringing them to a broad international audience.

Since its inception in 2019, Yarnhub has grown in experience and wrinkles, moving from 2D cartoons to excellent 3D graphics, with more than 30 animators, comparable to some modern video games. The team heavily adopts Reallusion’s software into their daily production.

Why do we select Reallusion tools

The team at Yarnhub develops around 30 characters a week, and using Character Creator 4 they can create a huge number of characters in a short space of time.

Accuracy with Character Creator 4

The flexibility of Character Creator 4 ensures the team’s historian can create historically accurate costumes and characters in a quick time and with accuracy. The artists are able to use other apps, including Substance Painter, to create accurate and lifelike textures. The team takes their time to research a historical period and make use of photos of historical figures to create their meticulous characters.

The historians and artists Yarnhub use historical references in Character Creator 4 for accuracy

Those 30 characters we mentioned earlier can also be easily adjusted and edited to create further variations. Character Creator 4 has a material creation workflow that fits seamlessly with Substance Painter to ensure Yarnhub’s artists can iterate versions of the same character with pre- and post-battle looks, as well as civilian/military clothes and varying ages.

Character customization with the Modify Tab 

Character Creator 4 has new features that enable the animators to check lip-synching, body rig, and facial animation, says Webb, revealing this means the animators can “help us spot and fix any issues early on”.

CC4 enables animators to easily check facial animation, rigs, and lip-synching early in the workflow

“We try to release at least one movie a week and that puts huge pressure on our team to meet the deadlines. In order to succeed we have to use the latest technology and tools like iClone and Character Creator, to produce the best quality we can in the time we have available.”

David Webb, CEO of Yarnhub Animation Studios

iClone 8 makes cinematics easy

When the team needs to create more complex animations they take their characters into iClone 8, Reallusion’s real-time 3D animation software that delivers excellent animation for films, pre-vis, and video games. For the Yarnhub animators, it means they can make use of Reallusion’s ActorCore mocap libraries – a set of readily-rigged characters, including mocap motions and animated 3D humans – to build large-scale battle scenes with variety.

The studio found iClone 8 has a number of new features that perfectly suited a professional studio looking to make animations under tight deadlines. These include the new Control Rig, Advanced Hand/Foot Controller, and Pin Controls that have become go-to tools to provide the flexibility Yarnhub needs when creating and editing its animations. Particularly, the animators are able to save time and speed up their pipeline. Pin Control, for example, prevents joints from breaking.

Adjust hand or footprint position made easy

A key new feature, the improved Reach Target and new Offset function, is one Yarnhub has found incredibly useful. This tool means animators can attach the hands, including both hands together, to an object with ease. This means a character can be set up to interact with other characters, the scenery and objects in a natural way and avoids characters’ hands going through other models or their own bodies. For Yarnhub, which focuses on military animations, where its digital actors need to hold swords and guns it solves many attachment problems.

Crucial new features in iClone 8

Ease and speed of workflow are fundamentals to iClone 8 and Character Creator 4, and it’s been a major reason why Yarnhub has adopted Reallusion’s pipeline. For the team making its weekly content the Animation Layer Editing feature in iClone 8 has been a mainstay. 

iClone 8 offers new and improved tools, such as Reach Target and the new Offset function to make interaction easier

“Animation Layer Editing can help adjust the animation without needing to alter every key, or having to flatten the keys,” says Webb, adding: “It’s a useful tool that can save time when animation requires any adjustment.”

Everything created in Character Creator 4 and iClone 8 is taken into Unreal Engine

Making the most of mocap and Unreal Engine

Likewise, Motion Direction Control makes it much easier to combine animations to create more natural movement and transitions between movements with a couple of clicks – iClone 8’s UI is simple and natural, with clear icons dictating animation. “It makes a turn an organic part of a movement,” explains Webb.

iClone 8 is compatible with Rokoko Smartsuit Pro, too. This mocap setup has bee designed for small teams and indies, and is ideal for capturing specific, natural movements that can then be corrected and refined in iClone 8. 

Finally, all of Yarnhub’s work in Character Creator 4 and iClone 8 is taken into Unreal Engine where the cinematic comes together. Reallusion’s 3D animation pipeline works smoothly with Unreal Engine, ensuring professional results – 600k Yarnhub subscribers can’t be wrong.

Read the full article on Creativebloq.

Learn More

Visit Yarnhub Channel
https://www.youtube.com/@Yarnhub/videos

Get 36 FREE iClone tutorials for optimized animation editing
https://www.reallusion.com/iclone/maya-motionbuilder-alternative/mocap-animation-courses.html

Reallusion Character Creator
https://www.reallusion.com/character-creator/

Reallusion Pitch & Produce program

Pitch & Produce

Pitch & Produce | Reviving Historic Soldiers with iClone 8 and its Dynamic Wrinkle System

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Yarnhub, a popular historic YouTube channel, has been steadily gaining awareness and a growing fan base. Known for its meticulously crafted narratives and captivating animated stories, the channel garners an impressive 4 million monthly video views. To further expand its reach and maintain high visual standards, Yarnhub has once again chosen Reallusion’s top-notch tools, namely Character Creator and iClone, for their daily video production needs.

Yarnhub Animation Studios

Yarnhub is an entertainment company founded by industry veterans and employs talented young animators to produce history-related animated films. Led by David Webb and Manager Sergey Peresleni, the team consistently produces incredible, awe-inspiring true stories that give you goosebumps and make you feel something for the amazing people who lived them. They try to do these incredible yarn justice by animating them in an amusing and informative way and bringing them to a broad international audience.

Since its inception in 2019, Yarnhub has grown in experience and wrinkles, moving from 2D cartoons to excellent 3D graphics, with more than 30 animators, comparable to some modern video games. The team heavily adopts Reallusion’s software into their daily production.

Why choose Reallusion tools?

Yarnhub faced difficulties in creating captivating 3D animations featuring diverse characters from various historical periods and nations. However, the team has now upgraded their pipeline by incorporating the advanced features of iClone, Character Creator, and the Unreal Live Link Plugin. This enhancement allows them to efficiently produce high-quality historical animations with speed and precision.

Animating an authentic tank scene

Creating a realistic tank scene animation has been a thrilling collaboration between Yarnhub and Reallusion. In their recent video, titled “M26 Pershing vs T34-85“, Yarnhub found immense value in utilizing specific features from the latest iClone Unreal Live Link plugin update. This partnership has allowed them to bring their story to life and enhance the overall quality of the production.

Yarnhub began by implementing the two-way data link, which facilitated the transfer of mesh data from Unreal to iClone 8. Through this link, they were able to synchronize keyframe animations, aligning character positions with the surrounding environment. The following video demonstration showcases the seamless and accurate integration of their characters within the tank hull.

In their routine production, they frequently rely on the Curve Editor as a valuable tool. Within iClone 8, this integrated plugin proved instrumental in accomplishing fluid and lifelike animation.

They have integrated an additional Motion LIVE and Rokoko Mocap profile into their workflow, enabling them to directly capture motion data from a Rokoko suit into iClone 8. By utilizing a transferred static motion correction mesh as reference points, they can fine-tune character movements accordingly. Once the animation is completed and the character’s actions appropriately respond to the environment, they employ the bi-directional link to transfer all necessary elements from iClone to Unreal. The inclusion of the Timecode Sync feature addressed a long-standing request since iClone 7, allowing for seamless animation recording in the Unreal sequencer without frame drops. Lastly, they configured the lighting and camera setup to achieve the desired final shot.

Applying realistic wrinkles to aging soldiers

Known for its meticulous and comprehensive portrayal of historic military battles, Yarnhub caters to a vast audience of millions who appreciate the company’s commitment to objectivity and accuracy. However, they understand that war encompasses more than just the physical elements of planes, ships, guns, and bombs. Above all, YarnHub recognizes that war is fundamentally intertwined with human emotions.

“We are very happy to be the first to try a revolutionary new Dynamic Wrinkle System from our friends at Reallusion. It’s a fresh and powerful wrinkle-blending system for our character expression workflow.”

David Webb, YarnHub CEO

The Dynamic Wrinkle System proved to be remarkably advantageous and efficient when it comes to characters with both high and low polygon counts. Several shots featuring Yarnhub’s own characters were created and tested, showcasing the tool’s capabilities. Not only did it enable the addition of wrinkles and the creation of realistic emotions, but it also facilitated real-time triggering of subtle facial changes. Furthermore, they successfully applied the “Wrinkle Essential Pack” to optimize the appearance of certain soldiers.

And what was important for the pipeline was that with just a quick FBX export, the most complex wrinkles and facial expressions seen in Character Creator could be mirrored in the Unreal Engine, Unity, and Blender.

Learn More

Visit Yarnhub Channel
https://www.youtube.com/@Yarnhub/videos

iClone: Unreal Live Link Plugin Update
https://www.reallusion.com/iclone/live-link/unreal-engine/default.html

iClone: Get 36 FREE iClone tutorials for optimized animation editing
https://www.reallusion.com/iclone/maya-motionbuilder-alternative/mocap-animation-courses.html

Character Creator: Dynamic Wrinkle System
https://www.reallusion.com/character-creator/dynamic-wrinkle.html

Reallusion Pitch & Produce Program

Featured Story

Prompt Muse – Unleash the Power of AI to Create Next-Level Animations

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The rise of AI-powered animation has given rise to fresh aesthetics, yet due to the limitations of the current AI technology, the shapes of objects and characters from one frame to another tend to shift about in a sort of amorphous fashion. Some individuals view the instability of the generated images as an aesthetic side-effect of nascent technology — a je ne sais quoi, while others opt for incorporating additional tools into their pipelines to smooth over the animation, regarding the visual artifacts as unsightly glitches.

Amelia Player, co-founder of Prompt Muse, seamlessly incorporated Headshot, Character Creator, and iClone into her AI-generated animation workflow. By utilizing CC Character and iClone Animation, Amelia effectively addresses the instability that commonly occurs in video-driven AI animations. Reallusion’s tools were chosen for their user-friendly approach to 3D character creation, what she referred to as a “zero-learning curve” solution. These tools integrated with the animation pipeline, alongside MetaHuman and Blender, enhancing the overall user experience.

I use Character creator to create a puppet. You do not need to know any 3D. There is no learning curve to this software. You’re basically using sliders and dragging and dropping assets onto your 3D character. It is super simple to use.

Amelia Player, co-founder of Prompt Muse

After preparing the data and getting the AI model trained using Google Colab, Amelia simply uploaded her images into Headshot and AI-generated a 3D character of remarkable resemblance.

I’m going to be taking this bald image of myself and dragging and dropping that into the Headshot plugin, which then generates a 3D model of my face. I can go in and sculpt this further if I want to, but I’m just using this as a puppet or a guide for the AI.

Amelia Player, co-founder of Prompt Muse

Next, she explored Reallusion‘s content ecosystem, carefully selecting and incorporating her preferred hair and clothing options onto her 3D character.

Once I’m happy with the face and the body shape, I then add some hair. Again, it’s super easy. I’m just dragging and dropping from a library.

Amelia Player, co-founder of Prompt Muse

The extensive asset library included in Character Creator 4 and iClone 8 provides fully-rigged characters, over two thousand 3D outfits, hairstyles, dynamic wrinkles, expression morphs, light presets, and more. >> Learn more

Upon finalizing the design of her 3D character, Amelia proceeded to export it to iClone. Additionally, she downloaded the free facial motion capture application, LIVE FACE, with the intention of capturing her expressive performance data. The data was then used in iClone Motion Live to enhance the realism of the facial animation.

iClone is more of an animation programme. So this is where I’m going to be adding the facial animation as well as the body idle.[…] It’s super easy to use. All you’re doing is recording your facial movement and that’s being applied to your 3D model in real time.

Amelia Player, co-founder of Prompt Muse

After speaking with Amelia, her motivations for selecting Reallusion tools became evident:

  • Headshot and Character Creator conditioned the source videos, leading to more stable AI-generated animations.

  • Character Creator provided the flexibility to have complete control over the appearance of a character. It eliminated the need to hire a dress-up model for AI rendering.

  • With the extensive ecosystem of content available in Character Creator, including options for hair, clothing, shoes, and more, the desired look can be achieved effortlessly.

  • iClone provided the freedom to create top-notch animations, with adjustable camera distances and angles to capture the best visuals.

  • Different lighting setups were readily available to establish the desired atmosphere for each shot.

It has been truly delightful to witness how Amelia utilized Reallusion’s tools and resources to streamline her workflow and produce professional-level, AI-generated animations with such efficiency. To see the complete process, watch the detailed steps below, and for additional professional tips, be sure to visit Prompt Muse’s website.

How to create your own AI-generated animation with state-of-the-art techniques :

  • Step 1. Preparing Your Data for Training

  • Step 2. Training Your AI Model with Google Colab

  • Step 3. Creating and Animating Your 3D Character with Headshot, Character Creator and iClone

  • Step 4. Rendering and Finalizing Your AI-Generated Animation

  • Step 5. Batch Rendering Frames with Automatic 111

Free Download :

• Headshot

• Character Creator

• iClone

Learn more :

• Prompt Muse : YouTube, Website

• Fully Controllable MetaHuman Creation (CC to MetaHuman)