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AI Studio Storytellers: Building a Connected World with Consistent AI Characters

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Consistency is one of the biggest challenges in AI filmmaking. Characters drift, environments change unexpectedly, and maintaining continuity across multiple scenes often becomes more difficult than creating the shots themselves.

In the latest AI Studio Storytellers, creator Max Thomas demonstrates a production workflow designed to solve those problems. Using AI Studio alongside traditional 3D production techniques, he created Sidewalk Syndicate, a neighborhood story that follows a recurring cast of characters through multiple locations, situations, and camera setups while maintaining visual continuity.

Rather than treating each prompt as an isolated image, Max approaches AI filmmaking much like a live-action production—developing actors, establishing locations, planning coverage, and using 3D when precise direction is required.

The Sidewalk Syndicate Experiment

At its core, Sidewalk Syndicate was never just about generating attractive images. It was an experiment in building a believable world populated by recognizable characters that audiences could follow from one scene to the next.

Instead of creating new characters for every sequence, Max developed a small recurring cast consisting of kids: Mason, Liam, Nolan, Oliver

Each character was given a distinct appearance, personality, wardrobe, and visual identity before production began. Once defined, these digital actors could appear throughout the story while maintaining consistency regardless of the scene, lighting, or camera angle.

The storyboard process can easily flow with shot ideas and characters. A good shot plan will keep production on schedule and allow for budgeting of points to achieve the goal.

This production-first mindset transforms AI generation from isolated shots into a cohesive narrative experience.

Building a Reusable Cast

One of the strengths of AI Studio is its AI Actor Library, allowing creators to establish reusable digital performers before building scenes. AI Studio has 200 ready to use actors that can be cast to your scenes or you can easily create custom AI Actors using images or Character Creator and iClone.

Once each character has been defined as an AI Actor, they become reusable assets that can be directed repeatedly throughout production. The AI Actors selected from the AI Studio library or AI Actors created by each user can be accessed and assigned to any scene, along with the included character prompts.

This mirrors traditional filmmaking, where actors remain consistent while the sets, camera positions, and story situations change around them. Because the characters remain stable, prompts become cleaner, direction becomes easier, and continuity improves dramatically over longer productions.

Creating Stable Environments

Just as important as character consistency is environmental consistency. Whether the environment is provided in images or as a concept, AI Studio image generation can build essential shots and alternate views of locations to get camera angles, and locations established before video generation.

Max begins by generating images that establishes the location’s architecture, lighting, mood, and visual language.

With a strong environmental reference established, AI Studio can produce different camera angles, compositions, and staging while preserving the identity of the location.

This allows scenes to feel like they all occur within the same physical space instead of unrelated AI generations. Whether following the boys through suburban streets, neighborhood hangouts, or new story moments, the world remains visually recognizable.

Directing Multiple Characters

As scenes become more complex, direction becomes increasingly important. Prompting scene elements, action and direction is essential to support the image input.

Max recommends treating AI actors much like performers on a film set by calling each character by name and assigning individual actions instead of describing the group as a whole. The character dialogue is capable inside prompts to allow the video model to generate the voices with text, audio or by using the Talking Actor feature inside AI Studio to create custom voices.

For example, instead of prompting: “Four boys stand together.” Each actor receives specific direction.

  • Mason reacts first. “Trust me. I definitely have a plan.”
  • Liam turns toward him.
  • Nolan laughs.
  • Oliver says: “That is what worries me.”

Follow some of these best practices for more believable staging while reducing confusion inside multi-character generations.

For dialogue scenes, Max also recommends:

  • Keeping spoken lines short and conversational.
  • Including dialogue directly inside prompts.
  • Building complete scene coverage using the AI Studio camera preset library:
    • Wide establishing shots
    • Medium shots
    • Close-ups
    • Reaction shots

Maintaining Continuity with AI Studio’s Edit Mode

Even with consistent characters, productions often require revisions. AI Studio’s Edit Mode provides a workflow for preserving continuity while refining individual shots. In this next shot, Max wanted another angle with closeup as the boys chatted at the hardware store.

Instead of regenerating an entire image, creators can adjust poses, expressions, compositions, or details while maintaining the established cast and environment. Max chose to edit the image and create a new camera angle for the interaction.

This iterative workflow allows filmmakers to improve performances without sacrificing continuity that has already been established earlier in production.

For longer-form storytelling, this becomes one of the most valuable tools in maintaining visual consistency from scene to scene.

Using 3D as a Production Foundation

While many scenes can be directed entirely inside AI Studio, some sequences require more precise control over camera placement, staging, and performance.

For these moments, Max incorporates a traditional iClone 3D workflow.

Characters and cameras are first blocked inside iClone, allowing complete control over Camera composition, Character placement, Silhouettes, Timing, Performance, Shot design.

The rendered frame then becomes the visual foundation for AI image generation. The frame can use the AI Studio tool to assign the AI Actors to the reference frame from iClone. The assignment allows Max to associate the intended actor’s performance, mood and gesture in the 3D reference to the AI Actors loaded into the AI Studio project.

Instead of asking AI to invent composition, the creator provides a carefully designed layout that preserves the original cinematic intent.

This hybrid workflow combines the precision of 3D filmmaking with the speed and visual quality of AI generation.

Production Mindset and Prompt Engineering

Perhaps the biggest lesson from Sidewalk Syndicate is that successful AI storytelling is less about discovering the perfect prompt and more about adopting a production workflow along with prompting.

By treating AI actors as a recurring cast, establishing reusable environments, directing performers individually, planning editorial coverage, and incorporating 3D when precision is required, creators gain significantly greater control over the final story.

The result is a workflow that scales beyond single images into connected narratives with consistent characters, recognizable locations, and cinematic storytelling.

As AI filmmaking continues to evolve, production-minded workflows like the one demonstrated by Max Thomas offer a practical blueprint for creators who want to build believable worlds instead of isolated scenes.

AI Studio Storytellers

AI Studio Storytellers highlights creators who are pushing the boundaries of digital storytelling through Reallusion’s AI Studio workflow. Through behind-the-scenes breakdowns, production insights, and real-world projects like Max Thomas’s commercial lifestyle campaign, the series explores how artists combine Character Creator, iClone, AI Studio, and leading AI models to develop consistent digital actors, direct scenes in 3D, craft effective prompts, generate music and performances, and transform creative ideas into polished productions. Each episode reveals practical techniques and creative workflows that demonstrate how creators can direct AI with purpose while maintaining artistic control from concept to final delivery.

Max Thomas is a Professor of Practice at Georgia State University’s Creative Media Industries Institute (CMII) and Co-Founder & CTO of Actor Capture. His work focuses on virtual production, digital humans, motion capture, real-time animation, and AI-assisted content creation. As an educator and industry practitioner, Max specializes in helping creators combine traditional production techniques with emerging AI tools to accelerate storytelling and creative development. He regularly speaks on the future of production workflows and the growing role of AI in media, education, and entertainment.

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Reallusion AI Studio is built for 3D artists who want to streamline their workflow with authentic AI render, and for AI creators seeking stronger consistency and more precise control with less trial and error—unlocking greater productivity by blending the best of both worlds. Tutorial

Learning

Headshot 3 AI Image Generation: From Prompt to 3D Head

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This is another one of those tasks I look forward to… reviewing a product that was made for beginners and pros by a company that understands both markets. I never thought I’d make that statement, as 3D work can be difficult and time-consuming, which leads me to my favorite keyword “tedious,” of which a product like this eliminates or at the very least greatly reduces it.

There was a time when making characters was so complex that advanced skills were applied from blocking out a mesh, sculpting it, then rigging it for animation. Sure, it was fun the first time, maybe even the first one hundred times, but after a while it just gets to be a buzzkill and was a major reason I focused on props and scenes to avoid burnout. I loved making the character mesh, but the rigging was the deal killer, particularly in 3DS Max, creating and tuning envelopes for each finger and knuckle.

For those of you new to these products, they have been a long time in the making, based on collaboration with users, including pros, hobbyists, and beginners, to put a tool into our hands that follows the philosophy of using what you need while not overcomplicating basic features for beginners. In fact, there are so many features in Character Creator 5 and iClone 8 that I can’t even remember them all, and I, like other original users, have been along for the entire evolution of these products.

For the current users of CC5, I’ll stop the history lesson here, and we will focus on what Headshot 3 has brought to the table in terms of IMAGE-BASED facial creation. The mesh-based side of CC5 remains the same, but the image side of it has been refined and improved with more AI functionality while not stifling the creative nature of its users.

AI as a Tool

Not all of us can agree on the use of AI in digital art, but that also leaves out the fact that when used as a tool to enhance creativity by eliminating the tedious nature of things that kill the creative urge, this tool can empower the digital artist by spending more time being creative and less time being technical. I’m not sure myself where I stand on all things AI, but I know if we don’t learn, we could be left behind, and Reallusion is not here to create the artistry for you but to facilitate the tech needed to create and showcase that artistry.

Let AI do the Sculpting

Not all of us are able to sculpt 3d mesh into a character, and even those of us who can are finding ourselves under decreasing time constraints. If you are a pro, then time is money; if you are a hobbyist, then time should be fun. Frustration comes if you are not using applications that remain consistent and approachable by anyone.

For example, ZBrush is great, but it’s the most oddball interface new users might ever see. While Maxon is mainstreaming some features of ZBrush, the interface is so unique that it can take weeks to months just getting familiar with it. Even after all the years I’ve used it, I haven’t scratched the surface of what it can do. That is what I call AAA complexity for AAA results.

Reallusion products, on the other hand, can produce AAA results with little to no experience in 3D animation. In its simplest form, Headshot 3 allows us to load an image for reference, then let the AI create the head and put it on the body. No sculpting unless you want to tweak the mesh, but even in this simple straight-through run, you can get an amazing custom character. As you learn how to refine characters with experience, you can use more of the advanced sculpting tools, but you don’t have to use them.

Test Character One – 2K Generation

This is my first run to test it for myself. The goal was to get a young Mexican female in her late teens or early twenties. To do this, I used the AI-Generation feature in Headshot 3. I’m not sure at this point how the AI interprets a prompt, so I had a chatbot prepare a generic prompt for me, as I’m not that flowery with prompting, and it gave me the prompt below:

Young, beautiful Mexican American woman with smooth sun‑kissed skin, no hair, warm brown eyes, soft natural makeup, calm, confident expression. Even studio lighting, crisp focus, ultra‑realistic detail, 85mm portrait lens look, clean professional aesthetic.

I let Headshot 3 AI create the three views as shown, so I could see how it worked for the head and body. The process is covered in the video linked at the end of this article. This was strictly a straightforward run through the system without major tweaking, letting the tool do the work.

The face could use a little reshaping along with the nose, but for an unaided run using just AI, it went well and produced a character in minutes. The process is easy, like its predecessor, even though there are a lot more tools to fine-tune the mesh to better match the image. For a few minutes’ work, it’s a quick way to get filler characters, and depending on the quality resolution, they will work for main characters, as this first test was at 2k and went very smoothly.

Test Character 2 – 4K Generation

For the 4K generation, I chose a Persian male and once again let a chatbot create a more detailed prompt based on my basic requirements.

A handsome, striking young Persian man with a clean‑shaven head and smooth jawline, facing the camera with confident, magnetic charm. His dark, expressive eyes hold a calm intensity, and his features are sharp and sculpted. Soft, cinematic lighting highlights the warm undertones of his skin. The background is white to keep full focus on his commanding gaze and poised posture. High‑resolution, portrait, headshot photography style.

Some elements of the prompt might have been unnecessary, but it produced good results the first time, so I’ll didn’t edit anything out. I also didn’t specify a specific age as Reallusion did in the manual, but that can be a part of the prompt as well.

Just as I did with the first run, I let the plugin AI handle most of the work. I did a few sculpting tweaks with the new, more refined sculpting tools, and it worked fine. I was able to easily adjust what little needed to be adjusted, and I wasn’t looking for an exact copy anyway. I just wanted to verify that the first run wasn’t a fluke, and it produced another great character that would be at home close to the camera or as a scene filler. The great thing about using Headshot 3 is that the character is fully functional with all the bells and whistles we’ve become accustomed to.

The end result produces a very good, high-quality 4K character that looks good on screen, has all the functionality of an iClone character, and projects a very nice image or screen presence. Again, this was done with only a few minor sculpts, mainly to test the sculpting features, but it wasn’t necessary to produce a good character. I also lengthened the jaw and lowered the mouth a bit with sliders.

Why No Hair or Facial Hair in the Prompt?

I do this in the prompt so I can use the Beard tool and packs to add more realism, as photo beards are more like the late 1990s and can detract from the production, causing the audience to lose the story and focus on the funny-looking beard. Having no beard in the reference image makes the face a lot cleaner on the character than having to deal with a beard plastered on the face in the image.

Test Character 3 – U.S. Historical Figure

For this test, I dug out an old Abraham Lincoln character I made a long time ago when Character Creator was still new. I hadn’t updated it in years, and I created the clothes in Marvelous Designer to match the suit he wore at a famous speech. The mesh turned out to be too old to use in the process, as you’ll see in the video, but CC5 took care of it by substituting a new compatible male mesh without missing a beat. I added a beard, hair, and his famous top hat to round out the character.

I did edit the processing time in the video so you wouldn’t have to wait it out, but it was only a few minutes at most, so it wasn’t that long of a wait, and in under 5 minutes, I had a fully functional, updated Abe Lincoln character, not counting the clothing.

You can see from the video that it was simple to update my Abe Lincoln character to a cleaner face. This was an older CC mesh, so it was incompatible, but Headshot 3 let us use other body meshes without skipping a beat. I didn’t tweak this character as I wanted you to see what it looks like just going through the process. The chin could be longer, the mouth lower, and the top of the head shorter, which you can do with more time.

I was amazed at Headshot 3’s ability to enhance the photo I used, as it was far from optimal and broke most of the good practices rules for image to face, but as you can see, it turned out just fine. I only needed the one forward-facing headshot, so a side and body generation were not needed. As you can see in the video, all I had to do was load the image and click a few checkboxes, then start the process. Perfect for beginners that don’t want to fiddle with the sculpting or other edits, as this character was usable straight out of generation without refinement, as many are.

Summary

I spent over two weeks with Headshot 3 before I wrote this article, and I rarely looked at the manual. For me, this is one of the biggest selling points, and I’ve brought it up many times: the ease of use. You can refine and sculpt to your heart’s content or just run it through the process and let AI handle the technical aspects, with many options in between.

Is it worth the upgrade? In my opinion, yes, the mesh part is the same as before, but the AI generation is a real step forward in how I used Headshot 3, so it might be the same for many other people. I can’t find any reason not to upgrade unless you will not be using the AI, but you will miss out on learning the new refinement tools that anyone can use, and Pros can really take advantage of.

Headshot 3 is another tool that is as easy or as complicated as you want it to be. Use only what you need while learning the more advanced features at your leisure. Even beginners can be pros within 6 months to a year of experience using tools like Headshot 3, which really simplifies the process.

Manual

MD McCallum - WarLord

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.

WarLord’s Workshop
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Product Release

AccuFACE 2 Grand Launch: Professional-Grade Facial Mocap for CC5 HD Characters

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When AccuFACE first launched, creators worldwide embraced its AI facial tracking capabilities in iClone. Thanks to invaluable feedback from the community, the development team continued refining and pushing the boundaries of performance capture.

Today, Reallusion is proud to announce AccuFACE 2, the new gold standard for facial mocap. Powered by GPU acceleration and specialized mouth-tracking optimizations, AccuFACE 2 enables real-time, full-frame tracking tailored specifically for Character Creator 5 (CC5) HD characters. It delivers reliable performance even under challenging conditions, ensuring smooth, precise tracking across dim lighting, diverse skin tones, aggressive head turns, and dynamic performer movement. 

GPU Power: The Engine Behind AccuFACE 2

At the core of AccuFACE 2 is a GPU-accelerated engine that drives the entire tracking process. By leveraging the power of your graphics card, AccuFACE 2 achieves ultra-low latency and full-frame tracking without overloading your CPU. This provides smooth viewport performance, instant real-time responsiveness, and maximum stability when tracking detailed characters under demanding conditions.

What’s really neat is in real time they’re able to leverage the RTX GPU, analyze the motion that’s there, figure out what the motion is, and then remap it and retune it.

Vincent Brisebois— Sr. Media and Entertainment Developer Relations Manager at NVIDIA

AccuFACE 2 x CC5 HD Characters: Next-Level Facial Mocap 

AccuFACE 2 introduces a newly trained AI facial tracking model engineered to unleash the full potential of Character Creator 5. By communicating directly with CC5’s native HD Expression Profile (262 blendshapes and 128 corrective morphs), the system captures intricate facial nuances with surgical precision, delivering full-frame tracking in real time. 

Capture Subtle Talking Performances: Driven by dedicated mouth-tracking optimization, AccuFACE 2 leverages CC5’s fine facial mesh to capture lip-puckers, micro-movements, and complex speech details for natural, precise lip sync across any language. 

Authentic Range of Emotions: From subtle eyebrow micro-twitches and eye-gaze shifts to extreme facial deformations, the enhanced AI model accurately translates the full emotional spectrum across both photorealistic and stylized characters.

You can see that we’re getting all the small minor details, a lot of times as a character creator artist, you get that uncanny valley and this is going to help you get past that.

Jonathan Winbush— Award Winning Artist & Influencer

Expression Curves for Highly Customized, Vivid Performances

Every project demands a unique artistic identity, and AccuFACE 2 gives artists total control over raw motion signals. While traditional facial capture tools lock users into linear tracking, AccuFACE 2 lets them sculpt how every tracking channel translates into motion directly inside the Expression Curves System to perfectly match any art style.

Non-Linear Signal & Timing: Break free from flat, linear mapping. Users can customize tracking sensitivity and non-linear response curves to add snappy physics and exaggeration for stylized characters.

Exaggeration & Follow-Through: Link a single tracking signal to drive secondary expressions automatically. This follow-through motion adds subtle anatomical fidelity to realistic characters, while unlocking dynamic exaggeration and unique personality traits.

Curve Presets: Instantly apply built-in curve presets tailored for specific facial zones and intensity levels. These presets allow animators to rapidly adjust animation rates and rhythm to suit different characters and scene moods without manual tuning.

You can go and adjust the strength of performance and really have a lot of control. So, as someone that really loves stylized characters, highly recommend this.

Edward Hassenfratz— Creative Director at School of Motion

Recording live video feeds is now available directly within AccuFACE 2, allowing animators to load reference footage side-by-side with 3D facial animation for precise editing. This live video recording feature has also been expanded to the LIVE FACE mobile app. 

Robust Capture Under Challenging Production Conditions

Real-world capture environments rarely provide ideal studio setups. AccuFACE 2 is engineered to maintain tracking stability across everyday webcams, mobile phones, and pre-recorded video feeds, eliminating the need for specialized head-mounted rigs or rigid neutral-pose calibrations. Built-in auto-gamma and adaptive vision algorithms handle severe real-world lighting, dynamic head movements, and performer variations:

Lighting Scenarios: The tracking engine automatically applies light compensation to handle underexposed, dimly lit environments as well as heavily overexposed studio lighting or severe directional shadows.

Extreme Head Movement & Rotation: Dynamic head rotation and pitch often lead to feature distortion or tracking lockup in traditional systems. AccuFACE 2 tracks reliably during aggressive head motion and side-profile turns, maintaining facial expression integrity without snapping or freezing.

Skin Tone Diversity: Adaptive recognition ensures stable facial feature detection across all skin tones and facial structures, preventing the tracking drift commonly caused by harsh contrast or low visual separation.

Unified Full Body Mocap with One Video Source 

AccuFACE 2 breaks distance constraints by maintaining exceptional tracking accuracy even when the performer is far from the camera. Engineered to withstand motion blur and reconstruct precise facial performances from head images as small as 120 × 120 pixels, the system eliminates the need for tight close-ups, enabling creators to use a single video source to simultaneously drive both facial expressions and iClone Video Mocap upper-body motion.

Long-Distance & Blur-Resilient Tracking: Advanced face detection reliably isolates and tracks facial features from wide or mid-shot footage, maintaining full performance fidelity despite low pixel counts or fast motion blur.

Single-Source Full Body Mocap: Process facial expressions and iClone Video Mocap body motion simultaneously from the exact same video feed. Solo creators can record a single shot on a smartphone or webcam and instantly generate synchronized face and body motion tracks in one streamlined step.

While AccuFACE 2 reconstructs performance from lower-resolution frames. For optimal tracking around subtle micro-expressions and intricate lip movements, closer camera framing is recommended. 

Seamless Cross-Platform Pipeline Versatility

Performers can capture and refine facial animation directly in iClone, then export clean motion data to Unreal Engine, Blender, Maya, or Cinema 4D. AccuFACE 2 offers direct compatibility with MetaHuman Animator (MHA) via Auto Setup. Facial performances captured on CC5 characters map directly onto MetaHuman rigs, and MHA sequences can be brought back into iClone for further editing. This makes iClone a powerful central hub for polishing and retargeting facial motion across any production toolset.

Get Started with AccuFACE 2 Today

AccuFACE 2 is available as an iClone plugin, offering tailored entry points whether users are upgrading an existing mocap setup or exploring the pipeline for the first time.

Existing AccuFACE Users: Take advantage of exclusive early-bird upgrade pricing to unlock next-generation CC5 HD tracking, full-frame GPU acceleration, non-linear curve controls, and dual-mocap capabilities.

New Creators & CC5 Users: Download iClone Personal, Reallusion’s permanently free, zero-cost edition with no time limits. Pair it with the AccuFACE 2 Free Trial to test the entire tracking and animation workflow on personal CC5 characters and discover what native facial mocap can achieve.

Free Bonus Included: Both trial and full users receive Ultra Head Scans – Meg ($79 value) as a free bonus, downloadable in the Content Manager via the Free Resource or Trial folder. Creators can use Meg as an ideal benchmark character to immediately test and see the best possible CC5 HD tracking results.

Related Links

AccuFACE 2 Product Page

Download AccuFACE 2 Free Trial

Buy AccuFACE 2

iClone 8 Product Page

Download iClone Personal

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Product Release

RTX Render Open Beta Begins: Path-Traced Quality Inside Character Creator 5 and iClone 8

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Reallusion has launched the RTX Render open beta, bringing a new path-traced rendering mode to iClone and Character Creator based on NVIDIA RTX Path Tracing technology. The update introduces physically accurate lighting, a new RTX material system with Transmission, Coat, Sheen, and dedicated Hair controls, real camera depth of field, and a dynamic procedural sky, letting creators reach near-offline render quality directly inside their existing workflow. The open beta is free for iClone and Character Creator users: sign up through the beta form, and the official download link will be sent by email when the beta goes live.

What is RTX Render

RTX Render is a new path-traced rendering mode inside iClone 8 and Character Creator 5, built on NVIDIA RTX Path Tracing technology. Instead of approximating light the way a real-time rasterizer does, it simulates how light actually bounces through your scene, so skin, hair, eyes, and PBR materials reach a quality much closer to an offline renderer. The goal is simple: you get near offline visual quality without leaving your app and without exporting to an external renderer.

RTX Render is added as a separate render engine alongside the existing DX11 engine. It does not replace DX11. You can switch between the two at any time, and switching back to DX11 does not require you to reset your scene.

What’s New in RTX Render

Path-traced digital humans. Subsurface scattering lets light pass through skin the way it does in life: ears glow against backlight, faces carry real translucency. A dedicated hair shader lights strands physically, with absorption control for deep, rich dark hair and true rim-light wrap. Eyes refract like real eyes.

A new RTX material system.

  • Transmission: true glass and liquids, with Volume Attenuation so color deepens with the object’s real thickness, plus IOR and Thin Surface for effects like bubbles
  • Coat: a clearcoat layer for car paint, lacquered wood, and carbon fiber, with its own roughness, tint, IOR, and mask
  • Sheen: soft fiber highlights that make velvet, silk, and linen read as real cloth
  • Emissive: unified glow controls where emissive surfaces genuinely light the scene, neon that actually illuminates

Physically accurate lighting. Soft shadows driven by light size, a new Angle slider for directional light, Radius controls for point and spot lights, and image-based lighting that now casts true shadows.

Procedural sky. A dynamic sky with sun position, time of day, cloud speed and density, acting as a genuine light source under path tracing.

Cinematic camera and color. Real f-stop depth of field that behaves like a physical aperture, plus ACES and AgX view transforms, false color exposure view, gamma, and white balance controls.

Preview and Final quality, separated. Samples, bounce count, and noise controls can be set independently for preview and final render, so you iterate fast and output clean.

A ready-to-use RTX content library. No parameter tuning required to get results: the beta ships with 

  • 55 ready-made RTX materials across four categories (clearcoat surfaces, transmissive glass, subsurface scattering, and fabrics),
  •  18 studio-style light presets built on real portrait-lighting setups from three-point to Rembrandt, and complete demo projects with DX11 vs RTX comparisons. Apply, render, and reverse-engineer the settings to learn.

How to Join the Open Beta

  1. Fill out the beta signup form: FORM LINK
  2. Once submitted and approved, the official download link will be sent to your inbox.
  3. Install the beta build and switch to RTX Render from Project Settings or the toolbar in iClone or Character Creator. Your existing projects convert automatically.

Full documentation is on the Reallusion Forum:

Founding testers get direct access to the development feedback channel, and the best RTX renders from the community will be featured across Reallusion channels, including the 2026 3D Character Contest spotlight.

Download a free 30 day trial of Character Creator 5
Featured Story

AI Studio Storytellers: Building a Brand Marketing Campaign

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Every commercial tells a story, but behind every successful advertisement is an even larger production process. Before a single frame reaches an audience, creative teams cast talent, develop branding, refine product photography, build marketing assets, and iterate through countless revisions. Traditionally, that process requires large teams and significant production resources. In this edition of AI Storytellers, Max Thomas demonstrates how Reallusion AI Studio brings those same production principles into an AI-powered workflow that allows creators to direct complete commercial campaigns with remarkable speed and creative control.

Using a fictional breakfast cereal brand called Coyote Crunch, Max showcases a workflow that extends far beyond image generation. His project reveals how AI Studio can function as a true creative production environment where consistent actors, stable products, organized assets, and iterative direction combine to produce advertising that feels professionally art-directed from beginning to end.

Every Production Begins with Casting

Professional productions don’t begin with cameras—they begin with casting. The same philosophy applies inside AI Studio.

Before creating a single commercial scene, Max establishes the campaign’s cast using AI Studio’s AI Actor system. Rather than generating anonymous faces for each prompt, he carefully selects performers who will represent the brand throughout the campaign. Bella becomes the energetic child who brings excitement and personality to the commercial, while Naomi plays the supportive parent whose warmth grounds the family story.

This seemingly simple step fundamentally changes the creative process. Instead of chasing character consistency through increasingly complex prompts, Max begins with AI Studio’s reliable digital actors who can appear naturally across multiple scenes, poses, expressions, and environments. Every subsequent image builds upon an established cast, allowing the production to maintain the continuity audiences instinctively expect from professional advertising.

The result with AI Studio is less time correcting identity drift and more time directing performances.

Thinking Like a Creative Director

One of the strongest lessons throughout Max’s presentation is that successful AI production depends on creative review rather than rapid generation.

Every scene begins with exploration. Multiple compositions are generated, compared, and evaluated before any creative decisions are finalized. Max carefully reviews subtle differences in facial expression, camera composition, lighting, wardrobe, and overall mood. Rather than accepting the first image that looks “good enough,” he approaches every generation with the mindset of a creative director reviewing photography proofs.

This iterative process mirrors traditional advertising agencies where dozens of concepts are reviewed before selecting the strongest visual direction. AI Studio simply compresses that process, allowing creators to evaluate possibilities in minutes instead of days while remaining firmly in control of every artistic decision.

Designing Around the Product

In advertising, the product is ultimately the hero. The design, packaging, presentation with your actors, and influence on scene and colors are why getting the product look and brand associated with the production is key. AI Studio helps you with multiple AI Actors, and elements of video, images, and audio. The elements are how the model is informed about what my product is and how the image and video models should handle the design. Preparing the assets ahead of time will save lots of time and iteration.

While memorable actors capture attention, consistent product presentation builds brand recognition. Throughout the Coyote Crunch campaign, Max spends time refining the cereal packaging until it becomes a dependable production asset. Logos remain consistent. Typography stays intact. Colors remain recognizable. Every future advertisement reinforces the same visual identity.

This level of consistency is essential for commercial work. A cereal box that changes from image to image immediately breaks audience confidence. By establishing the product early in the creative process, AI Studio allows every subsequent scene to reinforce the same brand rather than unintentionally redesign it.

The cereal box becomes another cast member and one whose appearance remains stable throughout the entire production. The hero AI Actors and product and scene images in AI Studio drive the visual prompting to ensure consistency is reached and maintained.

Building a Visual Language

As the campaign develops, individual images begin evolving into something much larger. Every approved generation contributes to a growing visual language that defines the brand. Assets that will define your look, actors, props, and color palettes begin repeating naturally. Camera framing develops recognizable patterns. The relationship between actors and product becomes increasingly refined.

Rather than generating disconnected artwork, Max gradually builds a complete visual identity that audiences immediately associate with Coyote Crunch. Every creative decision strengthens the campaign as a whole, making each new advertisement feel like another chapter in the same production rather than a separate experiment.

AI Studio Meets Traditional Design

Max’s workflow also demonstrates that AI Studio workflow with iClone (characters, scene, props, animation) and Maya (cereal box), complementing professional design tools. Once the product was established and the colors defined, Max used iClone to incorporate the cereal box as a prop and develop a scene with Meshy and import the textured 3D model into iClone, where the Coyote 3D character was added, animated, and used to flow into AI Studio.

Images generated inside AI Studio naturally move into traditional graphic design workflows where layouts, typography, packaging, promotional graphics, and marketing materials receive additional refinement. AI generation becomes the starting point for a broader creative pipeline rather than the final destination.

This hybrid workflow gives artists the speed of AI while preserving the precision and flexibility of incorporating iClone and Character Creator as a complement to other established production software, allowing creators to move fluidly between ideation, refinement, and final delivery.

Creating More Than a Commercial

One of the most compelling aspects of the Coyote Crunch project is how quickly a single commercial expands into an entire marketing campaign. The options to showcase and visualize concepts at speed as inspiration, pitches to internal partners, clients, or your own product ideas. Develop a brand and an entire world around products, advertising, and marketing with AI Studio.

Once the actors, product, and overall visual identity have been established, the same assets can be repurposed into social media graphics, promotional posters, digital advertisements, product hero shots, packaging concepts, and alternate campaign imagery. Because every asset originates from the same creative foundation, the campaign maintains a unified visual identity regardless of format.

Instead of producing one commercial, Max builds an entire brand ecosystem. This ability to scale content while preserving consistency represents one of AI Studio’s greatest strengths for marketers and creative agencies.

Developing a Brand Mascot

Commercial brands often rely on memorable mascots to create lasting recognition, and the Coyote Crunch campaign embraces that tradition. Starting with a character in iClone, Max chose the Coyote from the iClone character library to be the base for his mascot creation in AI Studio.

Rather than generating a single illustration and moving on, Max explores multiple mascot concepts before selecting the strongest design. Different visual styles, expressions, and personalities are evaluated as the character gradually evolves into an approved brand representative.

This process closely resembles traditional character development used in animation and advertising. The mascot is art directed, refined, and intentionally developed until it aligns with the campaign’s creative vision. From iClone, the product and mascot are well established and can be added to any scene or prompt in AI Studio for image or video generation.

Once finalized, the mascot becomes another reusable production asset capable of appearing consistently across future advertisements.

From Concept to Campaign

By the conclusion of the Coyote Crunch project, it becomes clear that AI Studio is about much more than generating beautiful images. It provides a structured production workflow that mirrors the way professional creative teams already work—casting talent, refining concepts, organizing assets, maintaining continuity, and expanding successful ideas into complete campaigns.

Max Thomas demonstrates that the future of AI-assisted advertising isn’t built on replacing creativity. It’s built on empowering creators with tools that allow them to direct AI with intention, consistency, and confidence. For filmmakers, marketers, and creative professionals, AI Studio represents a new production model where concept development, visual storytelling, and campaign creation all exist within a single creative ecosystem. The result is not simply faster content creation, but smarter production.

AI Studio Storytellers

AI Studio Storytellers highlights creators who are pushing the boundaries of digital storytelling through Reallusion’s AI Studio workflow. Through behind-the-scenes breakdowns, production insights, and real-world projects like Max Thomas’s commercial lifestyle campaign, the series explores how artists combine Character Creator, iClone, AI Studio, and leading AI models to develop consistent digital actors, direct scenes in 3D, craft effective prompts, generate music and performances, and transform creative ideas into polished productions. Each episode reveals practical techniques and creative workflows that demonstrate how creators can direct AI with purpose while maintaining artistic control from concept to final delivery.

Max Thomas is a Professor of Practice at Georgia State University’s Creative Media Industries Institute (CMII) and Co-Founder & CTO of Actor Capture. His work focuses on virtual production, digital humans, motion capture, real-time animation, and AI-assisted content creation. As an educator and industry practitioner, Max specializes in helping creators combine traditional production techniques with emerging AI tools to accelerate storytelling and creative development. He regularly speaks on the future of production workflows and the growing role of AI in media, education, and entertainment.

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Reallusion AI Studio is built for 3D artists who want to streamline their workflow with authentic AI render, and for AI creators seeking stronger consistency and more precise control with less trial and error—unlocking greater productivity by blending the best of both worlds. Tutorial

Featured Story

Cost-Effective Industrial Animations with ActorCore and iClone Video Mocap

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TL;DR:

  • Achieve convincing industrial character animations rapidly and cost-effectively using iClone 8.
  • Leverage ActorCore for diverse character assets and iClone Video Mocap for AI-powered motion capture from standard phone video.
  • Streamline your pipeline with direct export to Blender using the Reallusion Blender Auto Setup add-on.
  • This workflow significantly reduces animation production time and costs for industrial simulations and explainer videos.

This article details the most cost-effective approach to creating and animating industrial characters for simulation and explainer videos. It outlines a proven workflow that leverages iClone 8, Reallusion’s flagship real-time animation suite, and its powerful Video Mocap plugin, alongside the extensive ActorCore asset library, to deliver highly convincing yet efficient 3D character animations for AEC enterprises and industrial applications.

Immersive 3D Animation presents a proven, cost-effective industrial animation workflow utilizing ActorCore and iClone Video Mocap.

What is the most cost-effective way to create and animate industrial characters for simulation?

For AEC enterprises and industrial studios requiring compelling characters for simulations or explainer videos, balancing quality with cost and speed is paramount. The primary challenge lies in producing animations that are convincing enough to convey complex actions without over-investing in character development when characters aren’t the central focus. The solution involves a streamlined pipeline leveraging advanced real-time animation tools that minimize manual effort and specialized hardware.

“In this field, we usually have to visualize something really complex in a really simple way. And often, characters are needed to show specific actions. However, the characters are not in the focus of the video. Therefore, we need a fast and simple way to achieve character animations that still look convincing.”

Mensur Bukvarevic — CEO of Immersive 3D Animation
Product presentation is usually the main focus for industrial simulation, not character animation.
Product presentation is usually the main focus for industrial simulation, not character animation.

Leveraging ActorCore for Rapid Character Acquisition

The initial step in this efficient workflow is sourcing appropriate 3D characters. ActorCore, a massive 3D character animation library, offers a diverse range of production-ready assets, including specialized packs like AEC Workers. These collections provide a variety of different characters tailored for specific industrial fields, significantly reducing the time and cost associated with custom character modeling. Users can easily retarget motions online to selected characters, and the library boasts thousands of high-quality mocap animations suitable for simulation, game, film, and interactive projects.

ActorCore offers hundreds of ready-made industry-specific 3D characters.
ActorCore offers hundreds of ready-made industry-specific 3D characters.

How can AI-powered Video Mocap revolutionize animation production?

Traditional motion capture systems demand expensive hardware, sensors, and specialized suits, placing them out of reach for many studios focused on efficiency. iClone 8, paired with its groundbreaking Video Mocap plugin, eliminates these barriers. This AI-powered service transforms ordinary video footage—captured even with a smartphone—directly into precise, editable 3D animation data. This significantly democratizes high-quality motion capture, making it accessible and extremely cost-effective.

“This is the workflow I can recommend to anyone that needs fast and good-looking results.”

Mensur Bukvarevic — CEO of Immersive 3D Animation
Video Mocap can accurately generate 3D motion data from any source video.
Video Mocap can accurately generate 3D motion data from any source video.

Streamlining your animation pipeline with Blender integration

Once the initial character animation is refined in iClone 8, seamless integration with other leading 3D software like Blender is crucial for final scene assembly and rendering. Reallusion provides specialized pipeline tools, such as the Blender Auto Setup, to simplify this transition.

Exporting and Refining in Blender

After achieving a solid basic result in iClone, characters can be exported to Blender using the Blender Auto Setup. This tool optimizes the import process, ensuring characters retain their rigging and materials correctly. Further cleanup and interaction adjustments are often necessary in Blender, especially if characters need to interact with complex objects or environments. Animators can then render the final scene within Blender, capitalizing on its robust rendering capabilities.

Efficient Industrial Character Animation Workflow

StageTools UsedKey ActionsBenefits
Character SourcingActorCoreSelect rigged characters (e.g., AEC Workers).Fast asset acquisition, field-specific variety, production-ready models.
Motion CaptureiClone 8, Video Mocap, SmartphoneRecord video, import, trim, generate 3D motion.Cost-effective mocap, no special hardware, precise editable data.
Animation RefinementiClone 8Apply motion to character, perform initial cleanup and adjustments.Real-time feedback, quick iteration on motion.
Platform IntegrationBlender Auto Setup add-on, BlenderExport character/motion from iClone, import into Blender.Seamless data transfer, preserves rigging/materials.
Final Scene AssemblyBlender, Animation Layers add-onFurther cleanup, object interaction, animation layers for non-destructive edits, render.High-quality rendering, precise interaction, efficient refinement.

Immersive 3D Animation, founded by Mensur Bukvarevic, is an animation studio based in Austria specializing in creating impactful 3D product and explainer videos for industrial companies and specific use cases.

Immersive 3D Animation, founded by Mensur Bukvarevic, is an animation studio based in Austria specializing in creating impactful 3D product and explainer videos for industrial companies and specific use cases. With a growing team and a customer base exceeding 100 companies worldwide, Immersive 3D Animation excels at simplifying complex industrial processes through engaging visual storytelling. They continuously seek efficient workflows to deliver high-quality results under tight deadlines.

Immersive 3D Animation’s workflow for industrial character animation leveraging Reallusion tools involves:

  • Character Selection: Utilizing ActorCore packs to quickly find suitable, production-ready industrial characters.
  • Rapid Motion Capture: Recording custom motions with a smartphone and processing them into 3D animation data using iClone Video Mocap plugin. This bypasses traditional mocap costs and complexity.
  • Refinement in iClone: Applying and refining the captured motions directly onto the ActorCore characters within iClone 8.
  • Blender Integration: Exporting the animated characters to Blender using the Blender Auto Setup add-on for final scene integration, object interaction, and rendering.
  • Layered Animation: Employing animation layers in Blender to add non-destructive corrections and fine-tune character-object interactions.

Conclusion: Achieve Cost-Effective, High-Quality Industrial Animation

By integrating iClone 8, ActorCore, and iClone Video Mocap with Blender, animation studios can significantly reduce the time, cost, and complexity traditionally associated with 3D character animation. This workflow empowers creators to produce fast, convincing character animations essential for visualizing complex industrial processes, ultimately enhancing explainer videos and simulations.

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FAQs

How do I create convincing industrial characters cost-effectively for simulations?

The most cost-effective method involves leveraging pre-made character libraries like ActorCore for asset acquisition and utilizing AI-powered motion capture from video, such as iClone Video Mocap plugin. This workflow bypasses expensive custom modeling and traditional motion capture hardware, allowing studios to quickly generate high-quality, relevant character animations without a significant investment in time or resources.

What is iClone Video Mocap plugin and how does it work?

The iClone Video Mocap plugin is an AI-powered tool that converts standard 2D video footage (like smartphone recordings) into precise 3D animation data. Users simply record their desired motion, import the video into iClone, and the plugin analyzes and applies the motion to any 3D character. This eliminates the need for expensive motion capture suits or dedicated studios, making professional animation accessible and highly efficient.

Can I integrate iClone 8 characters and animations into Blender for my final renders?

Yes, iClone 8 characters and their animations can be seamlessly integrated into Blender. Reallusion provides tools like the Blender Auto Setup add-on that streamline the export-import process, ensuring that character rigs, textures, and animations are transferred correctly. This allows artists to leverage Blender’s powerful rendering capabilities for final scene assembly, lighting, and advanced visual effects, building upon the efficient animation created in iClone.

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Learn how to precisely control AI video generation using iClone 8 and Character Creator 5 mocap animation. This guide helps 3D artists and studios leverage existing skills to achieve consistent, high-quality AI-generated visuals, solving the challenge of maintaining character and scene integrity.
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AI Studio Storytellers: Motion Capture to AI Video Generation

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TL;DR:

  • Alejandro De Pasquale integrates iClone 8 and Character Creator 5 with AI Studio to precisely guide AI video generation.
  • The workflow leverages Perception Neuron MOCAP data for realistic character animation, ensuring consistent character identity across AI productions.
  • Users can choose between full texture transfer, gray model, or dummy character modes for varying degrees of AI creative freedom.
  • iClone PERSONAL is now free, removing barriers for new users to explore AI-guided animation workflows.

Welcome to AI Storytellers, a new series from Reallusion that explores the creative possibilities of AI Studio through the eyes of storytellers. In each episode, we’ll go behind the scenes with creators, filmmakers, artists, and innovators to discover how they’re using AI Studio to develop characters, build worlds, and bring their stories to life.

This article outlines a precise workflow using Reallusion’s iClone 8 and Character Creator 5 (CC) to guide AI-generated videos. It solves challenges of AI hallucination and character inconsistency. By integrating custom motion capture and CC characters with AI Studio, creators like Alejandro De Pasquale maintain complete control over character identity and movements, ensuring consistent, IP-safe digital actors for any production. This method ensures vision accuracy and intellectual property integrity, leveraging AI’s speed.

AI Studio Storytellers: Motion Capture to AI Video Generation
AI Studio Storytellers: Motion Capture to AI Video Generation

Why Traditional AI Video Generation Fails Filmmakers?

Traditional AI video generation relies heavily on text prompts, which inherently lack compositional and frame-by-frame structural control. Consequently, these systems often struggle with maintaining consistent character appearances, spatial coherence, and the artist’s original vision. These visual “hallucinations” stem from the probabilistic nature of generative video models. Because artists cannot predictably direct the outcome, they are frequently forced into frustrating cycles of trial and error, constantly regenerating clips, rapidly burning through platform credits, and facing significant cost overruns.

To eliminate this costly guesswork, filmmakers require a reliable method to exert precise, directable control over the generative process. Using a 3D environment as a precision control layer to prevent arbitrary AI interpretations is exactly what the iClone-guided AI Studio workflow is designed to address.

“Generating videos with artificial intelligence has never really caught my attention until now. This is different because what it does is connect all the 3D tools like Character Creator and iClone with AI Studio platform so we can generate videos and images precisely to what we need. Its a different approach to what we could previusly create.”

Alejandro De Pasquale — Unreal Artist, Filmmaker, Animator
iClone 8 AI Studio workflow: Alerender's AI Actor (EVA) in a cyberpunk robotics lab, surrounded by retro tech & MOCAP guides.
iClone 8 AI Studio workflow: Alerender’s AI Actor (EVA) in a cyberpunk robotics lab, surrounded by retro tech & MOCAP guides.

How to Guide AI-Generated Videos with Your Own Motion Capture and Character

Creating compelling animated content often involves precise control over character performance and visual style. The challenge with modern AI video generation platforms is maintaining consistency and preventing unwanted AI “hallucinations” that can compromise character identity or narrative integrity.

This workflow demonstrates how to achieve highly orchestrated AI-generated videos by using iClone 8 and custom Character Creator 5 avatars, driven by Motion Capture data, as a foundational guide for AI Studio.

Alerender's iClone 8, CC5, Perception Neuron mocap workflow for AI Studio: real-time animation, AI character integration, scene generation.
Alerender’s iClone 8, CC5, Perception Neuron mocap workflow for AI Studio: real-time animation, AI character integration, scene generation.

Animating Characters for AI Guidance in iClone

The first step in this pipeline involves bringing your custom 3D character to life within iClone 8. For artists like Alejandro De Pasquale, the preference is often for robust motion capture integration to achieve natural, fluid movements.

Alejandro utilizes his Perception Neuron MOCAP suit to capture animation data, which is then directly transferred to his Character Creator 5 characters within iClone. This real-time data transfer is facilitated by the iClone Motion LIVE plugin, specifically using the Perception Neuron Profile, which bypasses the need for extensive retargeting.

Animator Alejandro De Pasquale wearing a Perception Neuron MOCAP suit
iClone 8 Motion LIVE: Perception Neuron mocap drives a CC5 character in iClone.
iClone 8 Motion LIVE: Perception Neuron mocap drives a CC5 character in iClone.
Perception Neuron mocap, iClone 8 3D character, and AI Studio AI actor for guided AI video generation.
Perception Neuron mocap, iClone 8 3D character, and AI Studio AI actor for guided AI video generation.
Alerender's iClone 8 mocap for AI Studio. Shows Perception Neuron suit wearing human, controlling CG robot, and custom AI Actor in iClone UI and 3D environment.
Alerender’s iClone 8 mocap for AI Studio. Shows Perception Neuron suit-wearing human, controlling the CG robot, and a custom AI Actor in the iClone UI and 3D environment.

Once the motion capture data is applied, the animation is further refined in iClone 8. Multiple camera angles can be set up to capture different perspectives, establishing the visual guide that will later inform the AI. This detailed 3D animation, complete with intricate character movements and camera work, forms the core input for AI Studio.

Bridging iClone to AI Studio: Consistent AI Actor Creation

The crucial step for maintaining character consistency across AI productions is integrating your Character Creator 5 avatars into AI Studio as “AI Models” or “iModels.” This involves generating various angles and expression images of your iClone character to train and save them as an AI Model within AI Studio. This process allows the platform to recognize and consistently render your specific character, preserving multi-actor identity and IP across all AI productions.

Transferring Animation to AI Studio with Control

AI Studio offers three distinct methods for transferring the animated look of your iClone 8 character, providing varying degrees of creative freedom for the generative AI models:

  1. Full Texture Transfer: The character is transferred exactly as it appears in iClone, including all textures, clothes, skin, and accessories. This is ideal when maintaining a precise 3D feeling and realistic style, as Alejandro chose for his EVA character.
  2. Gray Model Transfer: All textures and material maps are removed, presenting the character as a simple gray model. This option provides generative AI models like Seedance 2.0 more freedom to interpret and generate new textures, clothing physics, and even stylistic elements.
  3. iClone Dummy Character: An iClone dummy character is used as a placeholder, allowing AI Studio to specify an entirely different AI Model Actor later. This offers the most creative freedom, enabling the AI to generate characters with new hair, clothing physics, and even subtle expressive variations, ensuring the output is more fluid and less constrained by the original 3D guide.
iClone 8, Character Creator 5: Full texture, gray model, and dummy character modes to be transferred to AI Studio for consistent AI Actors.
iClone 8, Character Creator 5: Full texture, gray model, and dummy character modes to be transferred to AI Studio for consistent AI Actors.

Pro-Tip: When you desire the AI to generate dynamic hair or clothing physics with greater creative freedom, intentionally omit these elements from your original iClone character. Instead, describe them directly in your AI Studio prompt. This approach signals to models like Seedance 2.0 that they have more latitude, allowing for fluid, AI-generated styles that would otherwise require complex simulations in 3D software, potentially saving roughly 4-6 hours of manual setup and simulation per character.

Generating the Initial AI Image from iClone

The first step in AI Studio is to generate a foundational image. Alejandro initiates this by capturing the first Start Frame directly from iClone’s 3D viewport using the ‘Capture Image From 3D viewport‘ feature, ensuring precise composition.

Within AI Studio, he selects an image generation model like Nano Banana PRO and then assigns his pre-trained AI Actor (Eva). For multi-character scenes, the ‘Assign Actors’ feature becomes crucial, allowing users to bind box-specific characters and map them to their corresponding AI Models.

Alejandro meticulously crafts his text prompts, often utilizing external tools like ChatGPT for detailed descriptions, to define elements such as lighting (e.g., Rim Light), render style (photorealistic), and even details like Eva’s hair, which was intentionally omitted from the iClone guide for AI interpretation.

AI Studio UI: AI Actor EVA guides AI image generation from iClone/CC5 3D Viewport; 'Capture Image' button highlighted. Cyberpunk arcade scene.
AI Studio UI: AI Actor EVA guides AI image generation from iClone/CC5 3D Viewport; ‘Capture Image’ button highlighted. Cyberpunk arcade scene.
Alerender's EVA AI Actor (Character Creator 5) plays arcade, guided by iClone 8 mocap, in AI Studio render.
Alerender’s EVA AI Actor (Character Creator 5) plays arcade, guided by iClone 8 mocap, in AI Studio render.

From Static Image to Dynamic AI-Guided Video

With the initial image established, the workflow transitions to video generation within AI Studio’s 3D-to-video section. The previously generated image is automatically assigned as the starting point. Alejandro selects Seedance 2.0 as his AI video generation model, noting its current superiority for photorealistic renders.

Reallusion AI Studio 3D to Video UI, Seedance 2.0 generation model selected for rendering AI Actors.
Reallusion AI Studio 3D to Video UI, Seedance 2.0 generation model selected for rendering AI Actors.

The core of the video guide is then imported by `capturing the video from iClone’s 3D viewport`, complete with the meticulously designed 3D camera movements, which are enabled via the ‘apply the camera movements’ checkbox in AI Studio.

AI Studio 3D to Video UI with "Capture Video from 3D Viewport" selected, showing an imported iClone character guiding a cyberpunk scene.
AI Studio 3D to Video UI with “Capture Video from 3D Viewport” selected, showing an imported iClone character guiding a cyberpunk scene.

Detailed action descriptions are added to the text prompt, guiding the AI to animate specific events, such as Eva raising her arm to take a mate tea from a robotic arm, ensuring precise execution of the narrative.

AI Studio 3D to Video UI: EVA AI Actor playing arcade using iClone Mocap guide & prompt.
AI Studio 3D to Video UI: EVA AI Actor playing arcade using iClone Mocap guide & prompt.

Incorporating Dialogue and Lip Sync

For scenes requiring character dialogue, Alejandro explores various approaches to maintain both visual consistency and expressive performance. He often tests different initial image generation methods, comparing fully realistic renders (using Nano Banana PRO directly in AI Studio) against those derived from iClone screenshots, opting for the latter to maintain a cohesive 3D aesthetic when blending with his other AI-generated content.

AI Studio UI for AI Actor EVA_AI from CC5/iClone 8. Appearance prompt, 'Capture Image from 3D Viewport' & generated AI character.
AI Studio UI for AI Actor EVA_AI from CC5/iClone 8. Appearance prompt, ‘Capture Image from 3D Viewport’ & generated AI character.

For video generation, he leverages the Kling 3.0 AI model.

Reallusion AI Studio UI guiding AI video: EVA AI Actor, Nano Banana Pro & Kling 3.0 models, detailed prompt.
Reallusion AI Studio UI guiding AI video: EVA AI Actor, Nano Banana Pro & Kling 3.0 models, detailed prompt.

Critically, AI Studio’s ‘Single Talking Actor’ section allows for direct audio input, automatically generating precise lip sync animations that align perfectly with the provided voiceover.

This ensures that character lipsync performances are not only visually guided by iClone data but also acoustically synchronized.

“What the AI video generation model does is directly add the same inputted audio and perform the lip sync in accordance.”

Alejandro De Pasquale — Unreal Artist, Filmmaker, Animator
AI Studio's 'Single Talking Actor' UI displaying the iClone-generated EVA character thumbnail, audio input, for lipsync AI output.
AI Studio’s ‘Single Talking Actor’ UI displaying the iClone-generated EVA character thumbnail, audio input, for lipsync AI output.

AI Model Selection Criteria

CriteriaSeedance 2.0Kling 3.0Google Veo 3.1LTX 2.3
Overall Quality (Motion smoothness, camera control, visual effects, character animation, etc.)★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
Character Consistency (e.g., facial features or outfit appearance)★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
Style Consistency★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
Multi-Shot (Generates multiple scenes in sequence for storyboard creation)★★★★★★★★★★★★★
Multi-Dialogue (Generates audio for conversations between multiple characters)★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
Output Speed★★★★★★★★★——
Celebrity Generation Support—VVV
Reference Support in AI Studio (v1.01) (AI Actor, Image, Video, and Audio Inputs)V———
  • Seedance 2.0: Highest overall quality but does not support celebrity generation.
  • LTX 2.3: Fastest model but lowest quality.
  • Higher-performance AI video models typically cost more, but they often require fewer attempts to achieve the ideal result.
Alerender's EVA AI Actor (iClone/CC5) rendered with AI Studio, recoils in a neon AI Studio lab with retro tech & robotic arms, guiding AI video.
Alerender’s EVA AI Actor (iClone/CC5) rendered with AI Studio, recoils in a neon AI Studio lab with retro tech & robotic arms, guiding AI video.
Alejandro De Pasquale (Alerender) at his studio desk, Character Creator 5 UI with EVA 3D character for AI video guidance.

Alejandro De Pasquale

Alejandro De Pasquale, known by his online moniker Alerender, is a storyteller whose creative journey began at the age of nine with rudimentary comics. Over the years, he has mastered diverse tools and skills, evolving from scripting movies and producing motion graphics to specializing in bringing characters and immersive 3D worlds to life. Alejandro’s current focus is the “EVA Project,” an animated series developed using Unreal Engine and Reallusion tools such as ActorCore, iClone 8, and Character Creator 5. The EVA Project chronicles a character’s awakening in a high-security complex with fragmented memories, driven by a quest for answers about a destroyed Earth.

Alejandro’s workflow involves meticulously crafting his EVA character in Character Creator 5 and animating her with his Perception Neuron MOCAP suit via iClone Motion LIVE. He then utilizes these high-fidelity 3D animations as guides within Reallusion’s AI Studio. This methodical approach ensures that the AI-generated visuals for the EVA Project maintain the exact character identity and motion fidelity he envisions, preventing the common pitfalls of AI hallucination and enabling him to produce consistent, high-quality animated content independently.

“Honestly, with this is AI Studio workflow I can do everything by myself in my mini studio. I can create precise iClone animations to strictly guide AI in a pretty independent way with all these resources.”

Alejandro De Pasquale — Unreal Artist, Filmmaker, Animator

Conclusion

The integration of iClone 8 and Character Creator 5 with AI Studio, particularly when leveraging precision motion capture data, offers an unparalleled workflow for filmmakers and directors seeking to create high-quality, consistent AI-generated videos without compromising on character identity or artistic vision. This approach empowers creators like Alejandro De Pasquale to master AI production, ensuring their stories are told exactly as intended.

Claim your iClone here

Reallusion's iClone 8, CC5, & Perception Neuron MOCAP workflow for AI Studio: 3D guide, live mocap, UI, AI-generated EVA character.
Reallusion’s iClone 8, CC5, & Perception Neuron MOCAP workflow for AI Studio: 3D guide, live mocap, UI, AI-generated EVA character.

FAQs

How do I export a rigged character from Character Creator 5 to AI Studio?

You first create your character in Character Creator 5, then transfer it to iClone 8 for animation and scene setup. From iClone, you capture either an image of the first frame or the full animation sequence using specific viewport capture features, which then feed directly into AI Studio as a 3D guide. This process trains the character as an AI Model (iModel) within AI Studio, ensuring its consistent appearance across generative video projects.

What is the difference between generating an AI video with a full texture transfer versus a gray model in AI Studio?

When generating an AI video, full texture transfer ensures the AI strictly adheres to your iClone character’s exact appearance, maintaining its original look, clothing, and skin. Conversely, transferring a gray model gives the AI significantly more creative freedom to generate textures, clothing physics, and even new stylistic elements, resulting in a less constrained and potentially more unique AI-generated aesthetic.

Can I use iClone PERSONAL to guide AI Studio videos without any time limitations?

Yes, iClone PERSONAL is a completely free version of iClone that offers all core animation tools and numerous character and motion assets. Unlike previous time-limited trials, you can use iClone PERSONAL indefinitely to create animations and seamlessly connect them with AI Studio for your AI-guided video generation projects, eliminating previous pricing barriers for new users.

* AI point credits required for 3rd-party AI video generation.

Why does Alejandro De Pasquale emphasize assigning specific AI Actors in AI Studio, even with a single character?

Alejandro De Pasquale emphasizes assigning specific AI Actors in AI Studio, even for a single character, because it ensures the generative AI model precisely uses the pre-trained character model. While AI Studio might automatically select the only character present, explicit assignment with the ‘Assign Actors’ feature removes any ambiguity, guaranteeing consistent character identity and appearance, especially crucial when dealing with intellectual property.

Related Posts

Reallusion AI Studio is built for 3D artists who want to streamline their workflow with authentic AI render, and for AI creators seeking stronger consistency and more precise control with less trial and error—unlocking greater productivity by blending the best of both worlds. Tutorial
Reallusion is heading to SIGGRAPH 2026 in Los Angeles! Join us at HP booth #513 from July 21st to 23rd to experience revolutionary NVIDIA RTX-powered tech, including AI Studio, RTX Render, and AccuFACE 2. Plus, we’re announcing the free iClone Personal, opening professional 3D animation tools to every single creator.
Events

Reallusion at SIGGRAPH 2026: with HP and NVIDIA RTX

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SIGGRAPH has always been the ultimate breeding ground for cutting-edge graphics tech, and this year’s show in Los Angeles is shaping up to be one for the books. We are thrilled to announce that Reallusion is heading to SIGGRAPH 2026, partnering with HP at Booth #513 from July 21st to 23rd!

Reallusion will be showcasing how we are pushing the limits of real-time 3D animation and digital human creation using state-of-the-art NVIDIA RTX technology. Whether you are an indie creator, a seasoned studio animator, or a student just starting your 3D journey, we have some massive updates that will change the way you work.

The Main Event: Cutting-Edge Tech Showcases

We’re packing some serious horsepower at the HP booth this year. Visitors will get a front-row seat to three of our most advanced, GPU-driven technologies:

1. AI Studio

Experience the official rollout of our 3D-guided AI rendering toolset. Integrated directly into the Reallusion ecosystem, AI Studio bridges traditional 3D artistry with next-gen AI workflows. Generate stunning, character-consistent visuals using AI models guided directly by your own 3D scene data.

2. RTX Render

Get a sneak peek at our highly anticipated, GPU-accelerated photorealistic render engine. Built specifically for iClone and Character Creator, RTX Render (entering open beta in late July 2026) lets you produce movie-quality, path-traced visuals directly inside the software. Say goodbye to lengthy external exports just to see your final look.

3. AccuFACE 2

Witness the next evolution of facial performance capture. AccuFACE 2 delivers ultra-precise, real-time facial tracking and expression capture. Animators can translate complex human emotion onto digital characters instantly using only a standard camera feed or pre-recorded video.

The Big Announcement: iClone PERSONAL is Now FREE!

We believe that the future of 3D storytelling should be accessible to everyone. That’s why at SIGGRAPH 2026, we are officially shining the spotlight on iClone Personal—our permanently free edition of iClone.

What does “permanently free” mean?

We have completely retired the traditional 30-day trial. With iClone Personal, you get unlimited, unrestricted access to the full iClone animation, production, and rendering toolset. You can learn, build scenes, direct virtual movies, and render your creations indefinitely—entirely for free.

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HP Booth #513NVIDIA RTX Demo (AI Studio, RTX Render, AccuFACE 2) & iClone PersonalJuly 21 – 23, 2026
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Featured Story

AI Studio Storytellers: Crafting Commercial, Advertising, and Lifestyle Content

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From Prompt to Production: Building Commercial Content

Storytelling isn’t limited to films and animation. Every successful advertisement, social campaign, and brand experience tells a story. The challenge for modern creators is producing that content quickly while maintaining quality, consistency, and creative control.

In this episode of AI Studio Storytellers, Max Thomas takes a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of a commercial lifestyle campaign produced using Reallusion’s Character Creator, iClone, and AI Studio. More than a showcase of AI-generated imagery, the project demonstrates how professional production techniques can be combined with AI workflows to create marketing content that is both visually compelling and production-ready.

The Challenge of Commercial AI Content

Creating a single AI-generated image is easy. Creating an entire campaign with consistent characters, environments, and visual storytelling is much more difficult. Commercial projects require continuity. A character must look like the same person from image to image. Wardrobe choices must remain consistent. Visual style, composition, and branding need to feel intentional across every deliverable. Without a structured workflow, these elements often break down. This is where Reallusion’s production-first approach provides a significant advantage.

Creating the Foundation with Character Creator

At the center of the project is Camila, a custom AI Actor created using Reallusion’s Character Creator, iClone, and AI Studio workflow. Max began by developing the character in Character Creator before preparing her for AI Studio through iClone. This same process can be used with Character Creator characters, other 3D characters, or image references to create consistent AI Actors for AI-powered productions.

Once established in AI Studio, Camila became the foundation for the entire campaign. From restaurant scenes and marketing imagery to musical performances, the AI Actor maintained a consistent appearance across every generation. By combining Character Creator, iClone, and AI Studio, Max was able to create a reusable digital performer that preserved character continuity while providing the flexibility to rapidly iterate on creative ideas.

This foundation becomes the basis for maintaining continuity throughout the entire campaign.

For commercial content, that consistency is critical. Whether creating a single social media post or an entire advertising series, recognizable characters help strengthen visual storytelling and brand identity.

The Art of Prompting Like a Filmmaker

One of the key educational takeaways from this project is the importance of prompt construction. Thomas used ChatGPT to refine prompts and increase the details of the original prompts.

Many creators approach prompting as a simple description of what they want to see. Professional results often require a more structured approach.

The prompts used throughout this project were built using the same language found in commercial photography and filmmaking, including:

  • Subject and character descriptions
  • Environment and location details
  • Wardrobe styling
  • Camera framing and shot design
  • Lens choices
  • Lighting direction
  • Mood and emotional tone
  • Marketing and brand objectives

By combining these elements into layered prompts, creators can guide AI toward a specific creative vision rather than leaving results to chance.

The process mirrors the collaboration between a photographer, cinematographer, creative director, and marketing team.

AI Studio: Turning Direction into Content

Changing Looks Without Changing the Character

One of the advantages of AI Actors is the ability to explore new wardrobe and hairstyle options without losing character identity. Rather than creating a new character for every scene, Max used Camila’s AI Actor as a consistent foundation and then described clothing, hair, and styling changes through prompting. This allowed him to quickly test different commercial looks while maintaining the facial features and overall likeness established in Character Creator. By combining AI Actors with detailed styling prompts, creators can generate a wide range of appearances while preserving continuity across an entire campaign.

With the visual foundation established and prompting strategy defined, AI Studio becomes the engine that transforms creative direction into finished content.AI Studio allows creators to generate, evaluate, and refine images while preserving the visual consistency established through Character Creator and iClone.This ability to iterate rapidly is one of the most valuable advantages of AI-assisted production.

Different wardrobe options can be explored, as in the image above, where Camila AI Actor was used, and a simple prompt to change the clothing to a red dress makes a quick wardrobe change. Camera angles can be adjusted. New marketing concepts can be tested. Entire visual directions can be evaluated within minutes instead of days.

What once required multiple photoshoots and extensive production resources can now be accomplished through a streamlined creative workflow.

Comparing AI Studio Image Models: Nano Banana, Flux Max, and GPT Image 2

One of the strengths of AI Studio is access to multiple image generation models within a single workflow. Rather than searching for the “best” model overall, Max demonstrated how different models excel at different creative tasks and how comparing results can help creators choose the right tool for a specific project. Using the same AI Actor and creative direction, Max generated variations with Nano Banana, Flux Max, and GPT Image 2 to evaluate how each model interpreted character consistency, styling, composition, and realism.

Nano Banana delivered some of the strongest results for character fidelity and reference adherence. When maintaining Camila’s identity was the priority, Nano Banana consistently preserved facial features, wardrobe details, and overall likeness, making it particularly useful for AI Actor workflows where continuity is critical.

Flux Max produced highly polished and visually striking imagery with strong photographic qualities. Its interpretation often emphasized cinematic lighting, commercial photography aesthetics, and refined image detail, making it well-suited for advertising and marketing visuals.

GPT Image 2 demonstrated impressive versatility, balancing prompt interpretation with image quality. The model responded well to creative direction and provided another option for exploring visual variations while maintaining the overall intent of the scene.

Rather than relying on a single model, Max used AI Studio’s ability to compare outputs side by side. This allowed him to evaluate strengths, identify the best result for a given shot, and iterate quickly without leaving the platform. The process highlights an important advantage of AI Studio: creators can focus on creative direction while leveraging multiple leading image models to achieve the desired outcome.

From Song to Performance: Using iClone, Suno, and AI Studio

Before generating the performance, Max used iClone to pose Camila exactly as he envisioned for the opening shot. By establishing the character’s stance, body language, camera angle, and stage presence in 3D, he was able to create a clear visual foundation before moving into AI generation. This step ensured that the performance started with intentional direction rather than relying on chance.

One of the most interesting aspects of the project was how Max approached music generation as part of the storytelling process rather than as a standalone audio exercise.

After developing the character of Camila and establishing her visual identity, Max used Suno to create an original Broadway-inspired musical performance designed specifically for the character.

The goal wasn’t simply to generate a song, but to create a performance piece that would feel authentic to the world and personality of the campaign.

The workflow began with lyrics written for the project, including references to storytelling, iClone, and AI Studio. Rather than relying on generic music prompts, Max structured the request around a specific musical format: a short Broadway-style performance with a clear opening, build, audience engagement, and finale. By defining the musical structure, emotional tone, and performance style upfront, he was able to guide Suno toward results that felt intentional and production-ready.

Once the song was generated, the audio became the foundation for the next stage of the pipeline. Using AI Studio, the vocal performance was paired with Camila’s visual identity and passed into video generation. In the example shown, the prompt emphasizes that the uploaded audio should remain unchanged while the character delivers the song with perfect lip synchronization, emotional singing, and theatrical stage presence.

This approach highlights an important creative principle demonstrated throughout the project: AI performs best when each stage of production has a clear role. Suno generated the music and vocals, while AI Studio transformed that audio performance into a fully realized visual experience. The result is a workflow where creators can develop original songs, generate vocal performances, and animate digital characters from a single creative concept.

A New Workflow for Storytellers and Marketers

The commercial lifestyle project featured in this episode demonstrates how AI is evolving from a creative experiment into a practical production tool.

By combining Character Creator, iClone, and AI Studio, creators gain the ability to:

  • Develop consistent digital talent
  • Direct scenes before generation
  • Apply professional prompting techniques
  • Generate campaign-ready imagery
  • Iterate rapidly
  • Scale content production
  • Maintain visual continuity across multiple deliverables

Most importantly, they gain creative control.

AI Studio Storytellers

AI Studio Storytellers highlights creators who are pushing the boundaries of digital storytelling through Reallusion’s AI Studio workflow. Through behind-the-scenes breakdowns, production insights, and real-world projects like Max Thomas’s commercial lifestyle campaign, the series explores how artists combine Character Creator, iClone, AI Studio, and leading AI models to develop consistent digital actors, direct scenes in 3D, craft effective prompts, generate music and performances, and transform creative ideas into polished productions. Each episode reveals practical techniques and creative workflows that demonstrate how creators can direct AI with purpose while maintaining artistic control from concept to final delivery.

Max Thomas is a Professor of Practice at Georgia State University’s Creative Media Industries Institute (CMII) and Co-Founder & CTO of Actor Capture. His work focuses on virtual production, digital humans, motion capture, real-time animation, and AI-assisted content creation. As an educator and industry practitioner, Max specializes in helping creators combine traditional production techniques with emerging AI tools to accelerate storytelling and creative development. He regularly speaks on the future of production workflows and the growing role of AI in media, education, and entertainment.

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