Alejandro de Pasquale – Motion Graphic Artist / 3D Animator / Filmmaker / Content Creator
Alejandro de Pasquale
Since the age of 9, Alejandro de Pasquale embarked on a creative journey, crafting his first rudimentary comics and discovering his fervent passion for storytelling. With each passing year, Alejandro honed his creativity, delving into diverse tools and skills to encapsulate narratives across a spectrum of challenges.
From scripting movies to producing motion graphics for various enterprises, Alejandro explored the avenues of storytelling, eventually finding his true calling in breathing life into characters and immersive 3D worlds. It was through the transformative power of software like iClone and Character Creator (CC) that Alejandro delved into the world of 3D animation, discovering new dimensions to his storytelling prowess.
SOLDIER FILM
In his latest short film – SOLDIER , Alejando has embarked on using several tools.
The concept involved utilizing characters and settings from the Unreal marketplace, depicting soldiers surrounding someone attempting to escape. Alejandro de Pasquale employed various tools for the animation process:
Motorica: Utilized for character movements, particularly for creating paths that adapt to the terrain, such as turning corners.
ActorCore Reallusion : Rifle Combat – Assault: This pack provided ideal animations for soldiers patrolling the scene. The animations were downloaded in iClone with the Dummy and then retargeted for use on military robot characters in Unreal.
Mixamo: Used for additional animations to complement the scene.
Epidemic Sound: Provided music and sound effects to enhance the atmosphere of the animation.
This exercise also served as a learning opportunity, allowing Alejandro to become proficient in managing a large number of characters on stage and refining his workflow. For instance, the process involved positioning each character, attaching weapons, executing actions such as shooting, and repeating these steps for all characters. The final assembly was done in Unreal Engine, utilizing Sequencer to orchestrate the movement of characters within the scene.
Welcome to Neriverso, where the captivating world of video games meets the expertise of Neri Neto, a seasoned technology journalist and skilled game programmer. Through Neriverso, Neri shares his profound insights and boundless passion for everything he adores, including video game development!
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If you have ever felt the urge or desire to be an animator, there is no better time than now with all the tools and features that are available today. When I got into 3D animation over twenty years ago tools like 3DS Max were thousands of dollars and you would be very thankful to work for a studio that provided a floating license but there was no cheap way to get into 3D animation at the time.
COST PER MINUTE OF ANIMATION
Nor was there a cheap way to produce 3D animation back then either. The cost per minute could be astronomical on even a small production. With real-time tools like iClone, the cost per minute has dropped dramatically. Big studio productions with teams of animators and support staff are still expensive but it is now possible for beginners, writers, producers, hobby animators, and just about anyone to produce animations or pre-visualizations at little cost.
If you are a one-person studio or hobbyist, the cost per minute is the cost of your software and other assets you gather up for a project. I’m not saying your time is not valuable, but that time can greatly offset the cost of production making it feasible to be a 3D animator without a huge budget or immediate commercialization.
The drastic drop in cost, including the associated software, opens the field for a lot of new animators, including hobbyists.
NO DRAWING SKILLS REQUIRED
Let’s get this out of the way. 3D animation is not cell animation or hand-drawn 2D animation. It is unique and being a 3D animator does not require drawing skills. It does require eye-hand coordination but nothing near fine art abilities. Imagination and problem-solving will be much more important.
EASY BUTTON
At present, there are a lot of ways to animate but there is still no single “Easy Button” to click that takes care of everything. While the future holds a lot of promise for innovative animation tools, software like iClone for animation and Character Creator for custom characters (actors/avatars) are already available. At present, few applications, if any, rival iClone and Character Creator’s ease of use for beginners and adaptability for professional animators.
When I say there is still no easy button, I don’t mean animation is as complex or as difficult as it used to be. Quite to the contrary, almost anyone with the desire and strong basic computer skills can become an animator. With iClone and its drag-and-drop motions, you can have your first animation produced within hours of downloading the software.
Drag & drop contents easily in Character Creator 4
A FEW THINGS TO BE AWARE OF
It’s a learning experience that depends on the 3D application you choose. The learning curve itself can be greatly reduced by applications like iClone and Character Creator where you start animating immediately and improve as you learn.
Animation is about bringing ideas to life. Creativity and strong storytelling skills are crucial for engaging audiences.
Whether dramatic or comedic, timing is a critical skill. You must understand and grasp the flow of storytelling. This doesn’t mean you have to be smooth and have perfect camera movement or animation. It just means you need to understand how things flow together to create a good animation.
By now some of you may be saying “Wait I’m not a storyteller I just want to be the animator”. YOU ARE a storyteller as an animator. It doesn’t matter if it’s your story or someone else’s, if you are an animator, your animations will shape (tell) the story.
3D animation can be time-consuming and complex if you let it get out of control. Develop good time management skills and be patient with the learning process. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither are great animations. Animation can involve collaboration with other artists, animators, and directors. Networking within the animation community can lead to opportunities for learning, feedback, and collaboration on projects.
TOOLS, TUTORIALS & CONTENT
Some new animators can fall into the trap of starting with tools that are overly complicated, slow, and lack real-time functionality and feedback. While these tools like ZBrush, Blender, Maya, Cinema 4D, and 3DS Max can turn out great animations they require equally great skill to do so. If you are just starting on your animation journey don’t over-complicate your learning experience with software that even some pros struggle with from time to time.
iClone and Character Creator have a huge library of tutorials. First, there are Reallusion Courses, the official and free tutorial resources that strive to provide as much information as possible in as short a time as possible. There is also my “WarLord’s Beginners Guide” section in Reallusion Magazine which is filled with articles and tutorials to get a quick start. Search YouTube and you’ll find many more iClone tutorials from users both amateur and professional. There is no shortage of tutorials available for Reallusion products.
Moreover, you get direct access to over 2,000 3D embedded assets with iClone and Character Creator. Characters, scenes, props, accessories, and other assets are available for download via the Smart Content Manager which keeps track of your free and purchased items.
TERMINOLOGY
I’m not going to list everything here but if you can learn the terminology of 3D animation, you will be ahead of the game. You are not expected to work at the level of detail concerning most of these terms as iClone and Character Creator take care of this for you. You need to be familiar with these terms as they will be mentioned frequently in tutorials and articles.
Modeling: Mesh: A collection of polygons that creates the 3D shape of an object. Vertex: A point where two or more edges meet in a mesh. Edge: A line connecting two vertices in a mesh. Polygon: A basic building block of a mesh, usually triangular or quad-shaped. UV mapping: Assigning a 2D image texture to a 3D model. Normal Map: Another method of detail projected by the map instead of vertex modeling. In the image below you can see the detail of the rifle improve as the normal and diffuse maps are applied. It is typical to model these details into the original mesh then saving the details as a normal map that is applied to a lower resolution version of the mesh to cut down on computational overhead as a map takes less resources.
This example of a high and low poly Character Creator mesh show the vertex, edges and polygons that make up a mesh.Left is a simple example of a 3D box with a map-checking texture applied. The red images on the right are the from box faces when flattened..A prop mesh created from an image utilizing the normal map to add higher-resolution surface details. (Rifle Concept Image by Eddie Mendoza -Deviant Art)
Animation: Keyframe: A point in time where the pose or position of an object is defined. Tweening: The process of automatically generating frames between keyframes for smooth animation. Rigging: Creating a bone structure to control the movement of a character or object.
One of my characters autorigged in AccuRIG with extra bones added in 3DS Max that could be added with Blender.
Materials and Textures: Material: Defines the surface properties of an object, like color, roughness, and reflectivity. Texture: An image map applied to a material for detailed visuals. Bump map: Adds surface detail without changing shape, affecting lighting and shadows. Displacement map: Physically displaces the geometry of the mesh based on the image information.
The rifle mesh and the diffuse texture map used to add visual color detail to the mesh. (Rifle Concept Image by Eddie Mendoza -Deviant Art)This prop rock in iClone 8 shows the mapping channels, in particular the BUMP and HEIGHT maps that provide additional surface details.
Rendering: Render: The process of generating a final image or animation from a 3D scene. Resolution: The number of pixels in the rendered image, affects quality and file size. Anti-aliasing: Smoothing out jagged edges in rendered images.
If this all seems very confusing at this point, don’t worry. As you gain in 3D animation proficiency, knowing the terminology beforehand can make the learning process easier when it all comes together over time.
SUMMARY
Community is key. Connect with other animators online and offline for support, feedback, and inspiration. Find your niche. Explore different animation styles and specializations to discover your passion. Have fun! Learning should be enjoyable. Let your creativity flow and celebrate your progress. You can be an animator with the right software, a little time, determination, focus, and creativity.
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.
Get Slapped, LLC, a vibrant indie game development studio and multimedia company nestled in Southern California, is renowned for crafting boundary-pushing games that defy convention. With a diverse team boasting decades of professional experience, their creativity flows like a fine jungle juice, blending seamlessly to concoct innovative gaming experiences.
Embracing fresh perspectives, the team welcomes new faces to infuse their ideas into the mix, while honoring the wisdom passed down by industry OGs. Amidst this collaborative spirit, Get Slapped!™ emerges as their latest creation—a slap-stick action comedy arena fighting game with an evolving narrative and an ever-expanding roster of fighters.
To bring their vision to life, the team joined the Reallusion Pitch & Produce program to leverage cutting-edge tools like Character Creator, AccuRIG, Cartoon Animator, and iClone, pushing the boundaries of gaming innovation and delivering an unforgettable gaming experience across multiple dimensions.
“When you’re starting out, finding a software suite that offers flexible aspects of production can be critical. Reallusion has been an amazing jump off point as we push to discover innovative visual storytelling, and hone our pipeline. There’s no doubt we’ll be continuously visiting these tools along our journey.”
Tk Gorgonia – Creative Director / Producer / Virtual Production Specialist
Q: Greetings, and congratulations for being part of the Reallusion Pitch & Produce program! Please share with us the premise of your game Get Slapped!™ and tell us about your team.
Hello! And thank you! We’re happy to be a part of it! Our game Get Slapped!™ is a slap-stick action comedy beat’em up fighting game, with an expanding narrative and roster of fighters. The idea came from fusing the idea of slapping competitions and South Park humor.
Our team is mostly based in Southern California. At our peak we had 40+ members, with many different skills and backgrounds, from over 6 different time zones, all across the globe ! I’m extremely proud and grateful to see what we have accomplished, and to be serving the team.
Q: Your team used AccuRIG to rig unconventional characters for your game. What are the advantages of using AccuRIG? and how were these characters originally created?
Reallusion’s AccuRIG was integral in getting a quick rig on our 3D models in order to test, and have for real time, when giving creative direction on our motion capture shoots. It also provided faster feedback and iteration when improving the overall rig’s movement.
Our Slapican characters are bipedal, but their eyes are essentially where our human chest would be. Early on we would take our character model, and AccuRIG it in less than 15-30 minutes, and be able to achieve improved eyelines for our performances.
Q: Get Slapped has also been experimenting with Cartoon Animator’s 2D capabilities for future updates. Can you share with us why you decided to use Cartoon Animator, and what future projects you have in mind?
Coming from a mocap background, Cartoon Animator always piqued my curiosity on “what if we could mocap 2D animation?”
Thinking of the possibility of exploring different styles and in-game slap dimensions where 2D and 3D characters interact is a fun challenge, and I believe there’s something innovative to be achieved by utilizing such software to explore the next level of 2D production.
Q: For your game, Character Creator has been used to characterize and retarget, to later view and clean up mocap data in iClone. What are the benefits of using iClone versus other mocap cleanup tools?
Utilizing iClonehas been handy for having specific tools and set ups for foot contacts, hand poses, and prop interaction. Overall it’s a more budget friendly solution when starting out and figuring out a pipeline, especially if you want to consider realtime solutions. The learning curve with any software takes some time, but documentation and support from other existing software can be scarce in comparison.
Q: Players will be able to download Get Slapped on STEAM. When will this be available, and where else can fans follow your game?
Early Access is available now on our website getslappedgame.com! Early Access is available for wishlist and soon coming to the Epic Game Store in the upcoming months.
Bradley, a seasoned 3D character designer and modeler, lives and breathes the art of crafting top-tier assets for games and animation. With years of experience as both a freelancer and a contributor at Bungie and Electronic Arts, he has honed his skills across various domains: from digital sculpting and character modeling to creature design, 3D visualization, rendering, and texturing.
Why I chose Reallusion Character Creator and ZBrush Pose Tools
I embarked on the Guyver project to explore what Character Creator Pose Toolscan really do. Posing hard surface objects in a way that ensures correct deformation typically demands a deep understanding of weight painting, binding positions, and, of course, time. However, using Character Creator’s Pose tools simplifies all of these tasks and makes them genuinely enjoyable! Additionally, the Hard and Soft skinning process streamlines rigging for characters. Hard skinning is ideal for objects that shouldn’t deform, while soft skinning allows for bendable parts. Creating a character like Guyver, who wears armor but also has flexible components, becomes both fun and challenging.
Detailed Walkthrough
ZBrush Modeling
Original Published Guyver look. Copyright Kadokawa Pictures Inc.
When creating most of my models, I begin by gathering references for the object, including anatomy images. Then, I embark on shaping the initial blockout. During this stage, my primary objective is to capture the essence of the character. This essence might manifest as unusual body proportions or, in the case of my current model, distinct silhouettes for the helmet, shoulders, arms, and leg armor. As I progress, I meticulously refine each section, ensuring a consistent level of finish throughout the entire character until it reaches completion.
Adding details for Guyver in ZBrush. The polygon count should not exceed 300K quads (600K triangles)
GoZ and AccuRig
Before proceeding with rigging, I ensure my ZBrush scene is tidy by doing the following:
Clean Up: Remove any unnecessary elements.
Naming and Splitting: Assign clear names to objects and split them as needed. This way, I can easily select the relevant components during the rigging process.
Grouping soft mesh and hard mesh accessories
After transferring my model from GoZ to Character Creator 4 (CC4) and positioning my guides, I proceed with the AccuRIG process. Within AccuRIG, I uncheck the ‘All Meshes’ option and instead select ‘Selected Meshes.’ The purpose behind this choice is to ensure that everything I specifically choose will be assigned the soft skinning algorithm, while any unselected elements will be categorized as ‘accessories’ or undergo hard skinning. This distinction is crucial, especially for hard armor components on my character, as it prevents undesired deformation.
After completing these steps, you’ll notice objects marked with a ‘glasses’ icon, which signifies they are accessories. Additionally, objects assigned to soft skinning will be ready. And just like that, you’re all set to begin posing!
Choose selected meshes for soft group accessories. Detailed hierarchy look for Guyver’s armor pieces.
Posing in Character Creator
Now that everything is set up, you have a couple of options for posing your character:
Manual Posing: Select the rig and begin moving and rotating the bones manually. This approach allows for precise control over each pose.
Pose Library: Explore the incredible pose library. Choose from a variety of animations or poses to apply directly to your model.
Hybrid Approach: Feel free to combine both methods for maximum flexibility!
The beauty of this process, as opposed to posing in ZBrush, lies in its flexibility. You’re not committed to a single pose—you can freely explore what feels right or visually striking. Save those poses along the way and continue searching for what truly makes your character stand out. The real magic? You can reuse these saved poses on other characters! Imagine creating a fantastic pose that doesn’t quite fit your current project—no worries, save it for later use!
(Left) Use the animation library and find suitable motions for character poses; (Right) I’ve found some nice poses for Guyver!
For this pose, I adopted a Hybrid Approach. First, I explored the fantastic animation packs available for purchase in Character Creator’s store. I selected a few fight styles and then manually customized them to achieve the unique look I desired.
For my final look, I opted to adjust everything manually. I came across a captivating pose in one of my art books that truly resonated with me. Although this approach might require some additional cleanup, it’s not a concern.
Fine-tuning in ZBrush
After finalizing my pose in Character Creator, which covers about 95% of the work, I turn to ZBrush for the remaining 5%. The advantage of using Character Creator (CC) is that it poses our character at the lowest subdivision level, preserving all the intricate high-level details. In ZBrush, my task is straightforward: I adjust and refine the shape to match the new position provided by the rig. Additionally, I address any clipping issues that may have occurred during the posing process. The end result? A fully posed model that is ready for rendering or 3D printing!
Fine-tuning Guyver’s body details in ZBrushGuyver’s body parts by different grouping
Splitting for 3D Printing
Here are some pro tips for cutting and keying a model in Zbrush for 3D printing:
Clean Splitting: When splitting your model into parts, use Boolean operations to cut and merge the sections that need separation. Keep the connections clean to ensure easy assembly once the figure is 3D printed.
Add Keys: To ensure proper alignment during assembly, add keys (slots or pegs) to the parts that need to be connected. These keys should have some space to account for material shrinkage and deformation.
Edge Cleanup: Create clean edges for each part to avoid gaps and light leaks when assembling the printed pieces. Use tools like “Union Meshing” and “Sharpen Mask” to refine the edges.
Dynamesh Unification: After splitting and keying, use Dynamesh to unify the mesh density and preserve sculpt details. This step ensures a consistent surface for printing.
Remember to consider the material properties (such as shrinkage) and test your design before printing.
Final thoughts
Since discovering and utilizing the Character Creator pose tools workflow, I’ve abandoned all other methods for posing my characters. The process is not only straightforward but also enjoyable and creatively fulfilling. I highly recommend it to anyone seeking a complete process for efficient character posing.
Simulating realistic crowds has long been a challenge in game design and character animation. Fortunately, Reallusion has created iClone Crowd Sim, an advanced tool that can handle these complex simulations in a way that is intelligent and consistent with the environment.
Adding to this great new development are advances in generative artificial intelligence technology, resulting in a truly dynamic solution that, until now, has involved purchasing several additional programs at a very high cost. This tutorial takes you step by step through the creation of crowds using AI to generate textures and the new features in iClone Crowd Sim.
Step 1: Prepare your base characters
The first step is to choose the base characters you will use to generate variations. You can use hyper-realistic character packs offered by Reallusion for Character Creator (CC) or create your own. It will be enough if you have a few to simulate a large population but to work properly, each one must have unique elements.
For this, you can use the “Hair Builder 2 – eGirl” package to increase the attractiveness of your characters with a wide variety of high-quality hairstyles. On the other hand, for clothing selection, you can purchase the “Jackets and coats” package to apply directly to your characters. This pack contains up to 8 types of jackets and coats scanned in 3D in high quality with a low poly methodology designed for video games and film productions.
Step 2: Generate AI facial textures
Export the facial texture of the base character you want to modify from Character Creator. To generate realistic facial textures from these textures we will use Stable Diffusion. An open-source diffusion model in which we will install “Mitsua Diffusion One”, an ethically developed model. Find and download the Mitsua Diffusion One model from its official website and place it in the corresponding folder of your Stable Diffusion model.
Then load the base texture in “Picture to Picture” mode and create a prompt such as: “hyper-realistic facial texture, highly detailed photograph, with very diffuse light”. Generate several images by adjusting the model settings without giving the AI too much creativity until you get satisfactory results.
Currently, it will not be easy for the AI to generate the texture at the resolution and hyper-realistic quality in the details we require. To make up for this we can use Photoaid.com or other similar software to increase the resolution of the generated texture and improve the overall definition.
Before applying the texture I recommend taking it to an image editor in which we overlay the original texture and the generated texture. This way we can replace the parts that the AI has not recreated well (such as ears or nostrils) and that might not put the texture back on the 3D model.
When we apply this texture to the face we will see that the character does not look the same, as we are looking for, but there is still one more step to generate a face different from the original; the texture of normals. To create a normal map taking as a reference our generated diffuse texture we must first convert it to a black and white image. Applying a contrast filter will further improve the result of the reliefs of the face and its definition. Finally, you can use free tools such as SmartNormaps to perform this conversion quickly and at the resolution you want.
Step 3: Generate textures for clothing
You can use AI to generate cool designs and patterns for your characters’ clothes. It is best to start with a basic sketch in a square format, in high resolution and light color so that the texture is easy to multiply on top of the clothing texture. It doesn’t have to be very concrete, the important thing is the silhouette and the space it occupies, create a simple sketch of the design you want to generate.
Generate the image in the same way you generated the face texture and make final adjustments in image editing software if necessary. You can even generate patterns to apply to clothing if your version of Stable Diffusion is available.
AI generates seamlessly tileable texture patterns for clothing texturing.
Step 4: iClone Crowd Sim
After preparing the characters for our simulation, we’ll proceed to import the scenario from our Unreal Engine project into iClone, where the crowd will be positioned.
Select the “Generate NavMesh” tool in iClone to define the traffic zones automatically. This intelligent tool delimits the areas where the characters can walk on the 3D mesh and generates the margins to avoid collisions.
After doing this we can also create paths for the characters to follow using the “Path” tool. This will allow you to control where you want a group of characters to move.
It deploys the “Generate Crowd” menu to populate specific areas with animated characters. The menu allows us to enter characters from our “Content” menu, on the one hand, and movements for the characters on the other.
When introducing several groups of people on stage, it may be necessary to use Navmesh barriers. They are useful because they prevent characters from overlapping during their animations and pedestrians can realistically dodge and avoid obstacles.
Step 5: Export your crowd to Unreal Engine
Finally, we are going to export, in a simple way, the crowd simulation we just created in iClone to Unreal Engine. My aim here is to render a beautiful animation. To do this you need to have the latest version of Unreal Live Link installed so that importing characters into Unreal Engine is faster and more efficient than ever. Remember that you have several tutorials about this process published by Reallusion.
I utilize the Unreal Blueprint to implement the random material feature, allowing for the application of AI-generated textures to both clothing and faces in a randomized manner.
To avoid the repetitive appearance of cloned characters in the imported Unreal Engine scene, we can utilize randomized materials in Unreal 5. These materials not only enable us to change clothing colors but also incorporate AI-generated facial and clothing textures.
While creating these textures involves multiple steps too complex to summarize here, I recommend watching the associated tutorial. It provides detailed explanations of the process, explores texture generation methods, and introduces a technique for creating textures tailored for CC characters, utilizing Reallusion’s hyper-realistic materials upon character import.
That is all! I hope you like the final result and that the tutorial has helped you.
Learn more
Explore iClone for creating 3D character animation
Create crowd animation with iClone Crowd Sim features
What if you have an old project that you want to bring to life using Character Creator, but it’s on legacy topology, or even just a sculpted dynamesh sketch in ZBrush. In this workflow, we’ll take an old ZBrush bust sculpt with arbitrary, non-CC topology, use Headshot v2 to update it to CC topology, which you can then decide if you want to go the body refine GoZ route (see the body workflow article) or the Face Tools route (see the Face Tools workflow article) to fine tune and finish out your character.
GoZ Neutral Base for Scale and Positioning
Our old projects might be in a weird location or scale — let’s bring a neutral base into ZBrush so we can use that as a guide for where our ZBrush mesh needs to roughly be placed. In CC, click Load Neutral Base, and GoZ that over to ZBrush. The pose doesn’t really matter, again we’re just going to use this for scale and positioning.
Load Neutral Base
GoZ Neutral Base to ZBrush
GoZ from Character Creator to ZBrush
Scaling and Repositioning Legacy Projects
In ZBrush, import, open, or load your legacy ZBrush sculpt, and append it to your neutral base. In our case, we’re going to move, scale, and rotate our dynamesh ZBrush bust sculpt to roughly match the head scale and position of the CC neutral base.
Moving and scaling your ZBrush sculpt into place
Prepping the Legacy Sculpt and Export
We’re going to animate our character’s expressions, so remove any “built-in” expressions from your ZBrush sculpt. Don’t worry about adding mouth bags or anything like that; Character Creator will add those for us when it converts our legacy sculpt to CC topology. You can go ahead and delete your neutral base subtools that we used for scale reference, and with your now properly scaled and positioned ZBrush mesh selected, choose Tool > Export > FBX.
Tool > Export
Tip – remove expressions from your sculpt before exporting into CC. We’ll be adding expressions later!
Polycount and Decimation Master
Try and keep your sculpt under 5 million triangles for a more responsive bake in CC later. If needed, go to the ZBrush Plugins menu > Decimation Master, reduce the resolution of your mesh, then export.
FBX Export Options from ZBrush
Importing into Character Creator
Import as Prop
Importing your exported .fbx into Character Creator is super easy; just drag your exported FBX into the CC viewport, and choose the Prop option. Select your prop, and click on the Headshot2 button in your menu toolbar
Launching Headshot 2.0
Align Points placement
Aligning Points
When Headshot v2 launches we’ll automatically be placed into Align Points mode; click the Auto Detection button to automatically place the points from the CC topology head onto your sculpted head. Click and move the points so they correspond to the same areas of the face, matching the placement between the CC head and the sculpted head. If you have shapes that deviate considerably from the base mesh forms, feel free to click to add more points as needed to help the base mesh find your sculpt, such as the exaggerated ears in our case. When you’re done, click on the Head Gen tab at the top of the Headshot v2 interface.
Adding a few more points for extreme shapes
Head Gen
Head Gen – Whole Head option
The Head Gen section allows us to choose what parts of the face or head you want the CC mesh to snap to. If you have a sculpt where only the face is viable, you can choose the face option, or use the Mesh Selection section to fine tune what areas are represented in your sculpt. In our case, since we have an entire bust, we’ll use the whole head.
Refine Mesh
Click on the Refine Mesh tab, and use the “Move”, “Smooth”, “Clone”, and “Project” brushes to match the CC mesh to your sculpt. If your mesh is symmetrical you can use the Symmetry Edit option to speed things up, and you’ll probably want the Conform to Source Mesh checked on, so as you move your mesh, it will snap to your sculpt.
Refine Mesh
Attach to Body
Attach to Body with Source Mesh for our Normal bake
When your meshes match, click the Attach to Body button, and choose the body shape/type that most suits your character. For the texture bake options, we don’t have a polypaint or texture for our sculpt, so we’re going to choose Textureless for diffuse, and From Source Mesh for our normal.
Changing Body Proportions
Right now our character has basic human proportions; let’s make our character a little more unique by using the Morphs tab sliders and/or Morph button in your toolbar to click and pull the proportions of your character around to dial in the exact body you want your character to have.
Using Morphs to change proportions
Attach to body default
Morphs to change proportions
Adding Skin Textures
Since we didn’t have any textures or polypaint to bake to our head, our character is textureless — let’s fix that! In the Content tab, navigate to the skin folder, and double click any of those options to apply a character skin. In our case, we’ll use CC4 Kevin’s textures.
Applying CC4 Kevin’s skin to our character
“Ignore Head Normal Texture” checked on
In the resulting dialog box, use the defaults, but check on Ignore Head Normal Texture; this will keep our baked Headshot normal map instead of replacing it with Kevin’s.
Applying Teeth and Eye Materials
We’ll apply teeth and eye materials in the same way; Navigate to the teeth and eye sections of your content browser, and double click any of them to apply it to your character.
Applying teeth to our textureless character
Applying eyes to our textureless character
Expression Wrinkles
At this point, you can also apply the neutral expression wrinkles, Kevin’s expression wrinkles, or wrinkles from the Wrinkle Essentials pack if you have those. You can use these expression wrinkles as-is, or as a base for your Face Tools fine-tuning pass, or get rid of them entirely and sculpt them yourself, again using the Face Tools plugin.
Expression Wrinkles content
Neutral Expression Wrinkles
Kevin Expression Wrinkles
Deep Saggy Wrinkles from Wrinkle Essentials Pack
Finishing Your Character
In conjunction with expression shapes and wrinkles, we also have the body to consider — at this point in the Headshot workflow, you can choose whatever workflow works best for you.
CC Model with skin textures applied
Updated ZBrush head and body sculpt
CC updated with the Substance Painter bake & texture pipeline
“The Goblin Body and Gear” article will walk you through refining the body sculpt and texturing in Substance 3D Painter, and the section just above this one will show you how to take the result of that workflow into Face Tools, where you can then refine the face shapes and expression wrinkles.
Goblin Body & Gear Workflow
Vampire Face Tools Workflow
Or, you can jump right into Face Tools: the “Vampire Face Tools” article will walk you through how to refine your base head, expression shapes, and expression wrinkles, and then show you how to follow back up with a refined body that matches your head.
Either direction you take is completely up to you; Character Creator can support however you like to work, and remember, you can ALWAYS open files, relink, and refine at any point, in any order. Character Creator is the ultimate flexible solution for character creation — the technical heavy lifting is provided by the suite of easy to access, low barrier to entry tool sets, and allows you, the artist, to focus on compelling visual storytelling!
About The Author
Michael Pavlovich earned a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Animation from RSAD in 2005. Initially, he contributed to the development of environment and character art for popular video games such as Madden and NCAA Football. Later, he relocated to Austin to join Daybreak Games, where he worked on the creation of art assets for DC Universe Online.
Presently, Michael holds the position of Director of Character, Weapon, and Vehicle Art at Certain Affinity. His expertise lies in implementing iterative pipelines for Certain Affinity artists helping develop renowned video game franchises, including Halo, Call of Duty, and DOOM. To stay updated on his latest tutorial projects, you can visit Michael’s YouTube or ArtStation page.
Intro- Continue the “Goblin” Project with ZBrush Face Tools
This article is a continuation of our “CC Topology GoZ Goblin Body” article. We’ve already sculpted and baked the body and head textures for our goblin, but we only have default face shapes and neutral default expression wrinkles. In this article, we’ll use the powerful ZBrush Face Tools plugin to update our face shapes, eyes, teeth, and tongue, and of course create custom expression wrinkles that match our unique character perfectly.
However, all of these articles have relied on CC topology projects in order to fully utilize the Reallusion suite of character solutions — what if you have an old character project that uses another base mesh, or even just a dynamesh bust sculpt? The last section of this article will cover using Headshot v2 to quickly and easily convert legacy projects to the CC topology, and from there you can decide if you want to use the body workflow shown in this article, or the ZBrush Face Tools workflow found in the previous article.
Customize Expressions & Wrinkles with ZBrush Face Tools
Relinking Filrs with GoZ in ZBrush
We worked on this goblin body project a while ago, so we need to relink them. Open your previous body file in Character Creator, as well as the corresponding ZBrush ZProject (.zpr) file we saved, with all our high-res details and polypaint. With both programs and files open, press the GoZ All button in ZBrush, then press the Update button in Character Creator with Current Pose selected. Your programs and files are now linked.
GoZ All from ZBrush
Update Current Pose in CC to Relink
ZBrush Face Tools
With the character selected in Character Creator, press the Face Tools button in the menu bar, and this time choose None for the expression wrinkles. We’re going to use the character’s existing “memory” face wrinkles, which will be sent over in the Normal Details layer (also checked on in this dialog box), to indicate where our expression wrinkles will end up. In other words, no need to send over neutral expression wrinkles this time, we’ll create our own unique expression wrinkles based on the character’s actual face.
Only Normal Details & shapes being sent over in this scenario – no baked in wrinkle details!
Transferring Base Color Texture to Polypaint with ZBrush Face Tools
Back in ZBrush, turn on the Diffuse button to load up your characters base color texture map, and once again use Tool > Polypaint > Polypaint from Texture to transfer your texture color to your base mesh polypaint. Once this is done, turn OFF the Diffuse button.
Transferring base color texture to polypaint
Sculpting and Polypainting Custom Expressions in Face Tools
Using the Face Tools plugin, click on an expression you want to update, and tweak your shapes, expression wrinkle details, and polypaint for each expression. With our Detail layer on, we’ll see exactly where the face memory wrinkles go when the face moves, and you can use those to inform where you need to enhance the wrinkle details as the skin compresses. You’re not limited to just changing or enhancing wrinkle detail (you can also change the overall shapes for each expression, for example) changing the mouth shape when the jaw opens, or the lip shapes on the mouth pucker!
Selecting Expressions
Default Jaw Open
Custom Jaw Open
Default Mouth Pucker
Custom Mouth Pucker
Default Neck Tighten
Custom Neck Tighten
Update to Character Creator
When you’re done updating expression shapes and wrinkles, hit the Update to Character Creator button in the Face Tools plugin menu. Since we didn’t make any updates to the base head, we can leave the left side unchecked, and check on anything we changed for our Expression Wrinkles side. This will send all of our SDiv 1 shapes back to CC, and any sculptural change / polypaint in SDiv 2-6 will be baked into texture sets and sent back to CC.
Update to Character Creator Expressions / Wrinkles only
Now your CC character will have your unique custom shapes and wrinkles as the character’s face moves during animation or posing.
Updated custom face shapes and expression wrinkles for our character!
Remeber, you can ALWAYS open files, relink, and refine at any point, in any order. Character Creator is the ultimate flexible solution for character creation — the technical heavy lifting is provided by the suite of easy to access, low barrier to entry tool sets, and allows you, the artist, to focus on compelling visual storytelling!
About The Author
Michael Pavlovich earned a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Animation from RSAD in 2005. Initially, he contributed to the development of environment and character art for popular video games such as Madden and NCAA Football. Later, he relocated to Austin to join Daybreak Games, where he worked on the creation of art assets for DC Universe Online.
Presently, Michael holds the position of Director of Character, Weapon, and Vehicle Art at Certain Affinity. His expertise lies in implementing iterative pipelines for Certain Affinity artists helping develop renowned video game franchises, including Halo, Call of Duty, and DOOM. To stay updated on his latest tutorial projects, you can visit Michael’s YouTube or ArtStation page.
Gone are the painstaking days of piecemeal 3D building assembly. The iClone BuildingGen plugin empowers architects, professional designers, and hobbyists alike to effortlessly create diverse 3D buildings using procedural Blueprints. This plugin streamlines the entire process by allowing the organization of 3D module collections into effective and cohesive packages.
Construction styles can be defined using interchangeable components and materials to enjoy maximum design flexibility. Best of all, BuildingGen’s nondestructive workflow ensures that design iterations can be made in confidence, with the integrity of the original design staying intact with impromptu modifications.
The key features of BuildingGen include:
Unlimited Architectural Styles: Harness a diverse range of modular components to craft a myriad of housing styles, whether it’s modern, sci-fi, sustainable, cartoonish, and beyond. BuildingGen can perfectly tailor each building to complement your 3D environment.
Creative Modification: Effortlessly modify the building structure by adding or removing selected Units, incorporating pillars, fences, or steps to fashion terraces, balconies, or open-air spaces. Watch Tutorial >
Adjusting Levels: Add or remove floor levels for the buildings at any moment in production. Or save time by duplicating certain floors and rearranging orders as you see fit. Watch Tutorial >
Refine Materials and Elements: Even after a building is constructed, a world of possibilities awaits. From replacing wall and facade materials to swapping out elements like door and window frames, this is where building aesthetics can be enhanced.
Smart Rebuild: Modify the entire structure, restyle levels or components while preserving the overall integrity of the building. Make precise changes without starting from scratch, thanks to BuildingGen’s nondestructive building process.
One-click Day/Night Switch: Building materials offer day and night modes, enhancing realism with realistic illumination and illuminated windows. Other details can also be added and enhanced such as realistic glass reflection and window dressing.
Optimized & Performant: BuildingGen optimizes performance by consolidating repeated textures and models, reducing redundancy. Its modular design allows multiple buildings to share resources, improving efficiency. Enjoy smoother operation and reduced frame rates, enhancing responsiveness while working with crowd simulation.
Free Sample Content: Access over 210 free assets, including 10 reconstructable iBuildings and 200+ 3D components and materials. Each building offers four distinct styles for easy customization, allowing users to fully experience all major BuildingGen functions.
Creative Expansion: BuildingGen packages streamline building deployment for specific styles, blending seamlessly with any motif. Customize packages by importing external content or incorporating your assets. The intuitive Packager tool assigns roles and materials to building components. Watch Tutorial: Setup > | Packager >
BuildingGen is poised to revolutionize the way architects and designers approach 3D architectural design. With its intuitive interface, powerful features, and unmatched flexibility, BuildingGen proves to be an indispensable tool in the arsenal of every 3D designer.
Expansion Pack: French Styles
Introducing “BuildingGen – French Style”, the premiere modular prefab package for constructing commercial, residential, or multifunctional buildings with French flair. Explore 10 premade structures and 8 extensible styles to effortlessly recreate architectural landmarks. Design traditional roofs, balconies, and terraces using over 600 component options. Adjustable day-night material settings enable dynamic window lighting and dressing, giving the impression of genuinely utilized and inhabited buildings.
