Page 5 – Reallusion Magazine

PavMike CC to ZBrush Workflow Tutorial (1/3): Base to Texturing

February 1, 2024April 15, 2024 hanschenrlLeave a comment

Introduction- How ZBrush Artists Benefit from Character Creator

Utilizing the Character Creator (CC) base topology will allow ZBrush users to take advantage of an endless playground of flexibility and fidelity! Not only can we quickly and easily dial in the look and feel of our character using Reallusion’s robust morphs, but we’ll also gain skin weights, access to powerful rigging and facial animation systems that will give us a completely animated character from the first step. Additionally, we have the ability to quickly and easily UDIM texture our character in Substance 3D Painter!

While this will require us to work with a specific topology, there is a HUGE range of potential — from stylized to hyper-real to exaggeratedly cartoony, you’ll be amazed at what you’ll be able to create, and have it animate while you work.

Part 1- Start with CC Base Model
Part 2- Character Creator to ZBrush and Back Again (GoZ)
Part 3- Character Detailing & File Saving
Part 4- Character Creator & Substance Painter Bridge

Flexible base mesh – stylized to hyper real to cartoony!

Part 1- Start with CC Base Model Before ZBrush Sculpting

Neutral Base

We’ll need to load up a neutral CC3+ character to start with. Launch Character Creator by opening Reallusion Hub and Character Creator 4. Under Modify section > Attribute Tab, click the Load Neutral Base button.

Morphs

Now that we have a generic base human, lets dial in the look and feel of our character. Hop into the Morph tab and begin working your way down the list, from large changes, to more specific detailed morphs to dial in your base body and head shapes. You can also type terms into the search bar to narrow your selection — for example, type in “scale” to access just the scale options for any particular body part.

In addition to sliders, you can also turn on the Morph option in your menubar to unlock viewport morphing. With this option enabled, you can simply click and drag portions of your character to change the shapes.

Relaxed A-Pose

Before we send our character over to ZBrush for more refinement, go to the Animation Player > Motion dropdown, and choose Pose > A-Pose, so we can sculpt our character in a relaxed, symmetrical pose.

Part 2 -Character Creator to ZBrush and Back Again

GoZ from Character Creator to ZBrush

Now is the time to refine our character in ZBrush using their sculpting tools. In order to send our Character to ZBrush, go to your Scene tab, shift select all character assets, then click the GoZ button in the menu bar. In the GoZ Settings panel, make sure the Template is set to “Create”.

Enable eyelashes and tear ducts under the Body Parts section to split them off into their own meshes, and choose Current Pose in the Pose section. I like separating eyelashes and tear ducts, so I only have the “skin” of my character as a subtool while I work.

Refining your Characters Shapes in ZBrush

Now that we have our character in ZBrush, select the “CC_Base_Body” subtool, and begin refining your character. Use your favorite brushes in ZBrush to sculpt and refine your body and face shapes. Also, feel free to press the Divide button to subdivide your mesh and work on the details that we’ll bake to a normal map later on in the series.

Subtool selection, subdivide, and brushes

Testing Animations and Utilizing Morphs

Once you’ve refined your mesh, you can send it back to Character Creator to see how your new shapes work with animation, as well as utilize CC’s morph system to make further changes. Simply press the GoZ All button in the Tool menu, and that will automatically drop your body subtool to “SDiv 1”, and send your mesh back to Character Creator. The GoZ option box in CC should default to Update, and choose Current Pose. Your CC model will now match the changes you made in ZBrush. Feel free to test animations from the Content tab or Animation Player, as well as continue using the morph system to make further changes. You can GoZ back and forth between CC and ZBrush as many times as you’d like, while you refine your character.

Sending a T- Pose so we can make proportional changes in ZBrush

Telling Character Creator to move the bones to adjust to the proportional changes we made
in ZBrush

Proportional Changes (Joint Positioning)

If you’re using the CC morph system to make proportional changes to your character, such as making the arms longer, hands bigger, etc., your character should always animate as expected. However, if you’re planning on making changes in ZBrush that will change proportions that affect joint positions, you’ll want to select the T- Pose option instead of A-Pose or Current Pose. Once your character is in a T- Pose in ZBrush, feel free to make as many proportional changes in ZBrush as you’d like.

When you’re done, GoZ all your meshes back to Character Creator, and make sure you check on the import option to allow mesh changes to update joint positions when GoZ-ing back to CC. Remember you can also GoZ back to CC and use their morph system to make proportional changes to joint positions as well, then GoZ those updates back to ZBrush, and continue detailing.

Part 3 – Character Detailing and File Saving in ZBrush

Detailed Body Sculpt in ZBrush

Now that we can bounce back and forth between Character Creator and ZBrush, utilizing morphs and ZBrush sculpting, continue subdividing, sculpting, and polypainting until you have a detailed, unique, awesome character base mesh.

While you can go to pore-level detail in ZBrush, keep in mind you can take your sculpt to “tertiary volumes” and allow SkinGen in CC to provide the pore level details, which is much less destructive and more flexible!

Our goblin character sculpted and polypainted

Saving Files

In ZBrush, go to File > Save to save a ZProject(.zpr) file. GoZ All to update your Character Creator file, and in CC, File > Save As .ccProject file. Do this whenever you want to end a session and pick up where you left off. All you’ll have to do is open them both up in their respective programs, and GoZ from CC to ZBrush, choosing the ReLink option.

Part 4 – Texturing with ZBrush & Substance Painter Bridge

In order to export our textures from Substance Painter so that Character Creator can quickly and easily import the texture files, download this preset file:

https://file.reallusion.com/cc/Character_Creator.spexp

And move the file to “C:\Users\ (UserName)\Documents\Adobe\Adobe Substance 3D Painter\assets\export- presets”.

Texture Baking and Substance 3D Painter Workflow

Right now, we have a detailed polypainted mesh in ZBrush, but our CC mesh is only the low res mesh — we need to bake those details to that low res mesh, so our character looks as detailed in Character Creator as it does in ZBrush. Before we get too far, make sure you GoZ over the final geometry changes from your ZBrush file back to Character Creator.

Opening the Mouth for Baking

In Character Creator with your character selected, go to the Motion tab, and choose Edit Facial. In the Edit Facial settings, go to the Modify tab, choose Jaw from the list, and change the value for “Jaw_Open” to 50 , then GoZ back to ZBrush to open your high-res ZBrush mouth file.

Exporting the Low- and High-Res Meshes

In Character Creator with your character selected, use the Substance Painter button dropdown in CC to export an obj file of your character.

Save this file in an easy to find folder. This is your low-res file we’re going to bake our details to. Toggle back to ZBrush, and with your “CC_Base_Body” subtool selected, make sure you’re at the highest subdivision level with all your details. With your polypaint enabled, click the Export button in the Tool menu. Choose FBX from the file type options, and in the FBX options, turn on Selected, so we just export our high-res body.

Substance 3D Painter Baking

Open Substance 3D Painter, and choose File > New. Press the Select button to import your obj file from Character Creator into Painter, with Use UV Tile checked on.

Once your low-res character is loaded into Painter, go to the Texture tab and scroll down until you can click the Bake Mesh Maps button. Uncheck all the objects except for “Std_Skin_head”, and in the UV Tiles dropdown, you can uncheck the box for “1006”, which is our eyelashes — we don’t need to bake that mesh! If you have a polypaint in ZBrush to bake, make sure to select Material ID and change Color Source from Material Color to Vertex Color. Click Bake selected textures, and when it’s done, click Return to painting mode.

Texture Set selection, Material ID location, Output Size, and High Res loading

Texturing

Using paint layers, fill layers, masks, generators, filters, and any number of powerful Substance Painter texturing options, texture your character however you’d like. Remember, you can load in your Color Map that was baked from your Material ID into a fill layer to use your ZBrush polypaint as a base for your textures.

Exporting Textures

Now we need to get our textures back into Character Creator. In Substance Painter, go to File > Export Textures, and select the sets that you want to export textures for. In our case, we’ll turn off everything but “Std_Skin_Head” in Global Settings; and with “Std_Skin_Head” selected, we’ll also turn off “UDIM 1006”, which is eyelashes. For the Output Template, choose the “Character_Creator” option we copied into our export-presets folder. Set Size to “2048”, and finally, Output directory should be the root folder of where you imported your .obj file — for example, “C:\Users\mpavlovich\Desktop\GoblinDemoSubstance” is the folder my .obj mesh is in.

Speaking of the root directory, I’ve found it useful to navigate to that directory in Windows Explorer, go into the “Std_Skin_Head” texture folder Character Creator made for me (in my case, “C:\Users\mpavlovich\Desktop\GoblinDemoSubstance\GoblinDemoBody\Std_Skin_Head”), and delete all the “Std_Skin_Head” textures for UDIMs 1001 to 1005, leaving just the eyelash textures behind. This way, I know when I export my textures from Painter, there won’t be any duplicate files or conflicts. When you just have “_1006” textures in that folder, hit the Export button in Substance Painter, and you’ll see this directory populated with all of your new, updated skin textures.

Importing Textures

Back in Character Creator, select the character, then choose the Update Textures from Painter option from the Substance Painter dropdown menu. This will bring up a windows explorer window. This time, we’ll go into the folder containing the organized folders. Press Select Folder, and Character Creator will automatically update all your body part materials to your new textures.

When importing textures into CC, you should be in this
organized folder

Diff erent textures loaded onto the same body in Character Creator from the Substance Painter bridge

Expression Wrinkles

Expression wrinkles are a great way to add life and believability to your characters. We can quickly and easily add the neutral expression wrinkle set by selecting your “CC3_Base_Plus” group in the Scene tab, then in the Expression Wrinkles tab in the Modify panel, turn on Activate Expression Wrinkles and Check with Expressions. This will apply a neutral expression wrinkle pack to your character. Click on the different regions on the face map to see wrinkles update on the character’s face, as well as adding enhancing wrinkles when playing the “Dramatic_Male” face animation. We’ll dive deeper into expression wrinkles, how they work, and make our own, in the “Face Tools” series.

Dramatic_Male face animation applied to our character

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.

PavMike’s CC to ZBrush Workflow Tutorial (2/3): Cloth & Accessory

PavMike CC to ZBrush Workflow Tutorial (3/3): Posing & Animation

See More Tutorial in “ZBrush Master Class”

Learning

Crowd Sim: Social Group Bundle Review

February 1, 2024January 31, 2024 WarLordLeave a comment

MODERN PEOPLE SAMPLER

ONE CHARACTER, DIFFERENT LOOKS

ROSTER EXPANSION & CUSTOMIZATION

SUMMARY

The recently released Social Group Bundle for the new iClone 8.4 Crowd Sim tool is a combination of professionally created characters, accessories, props, and motions that work with the new Crowd Sim tool to create a high-quality crowd. These assets come with features not found in most Character Creator or iClone characters like multiple clothing materials for a more varied crowd and handheld devices for related motions.

The Social Group Bundle is comprised of two products, the Modern People Sampler, and the Social Actions motion pack. Both packs are full of great drag-and-drop 3D assets that can bring a scene to life by quickly adding background characters in various motions and tasks. Let’s take a look at what the packs contain.

Inserting bench-sitting crowds with Actor Groups and the Social Group Bundle

MODERN PEOPLE SAMPLER

This huge bundle is a combination of Street People vol.1, Business vol. 4, Business vol.6, Young Fashion vol. 5, Senior People vol.4, Kids vol.1. This includes 31 ActorSCAN/ActorBUILD characters with 7 to 10K quads (ActorSCAN) and 15 to 20K tris (ActorBUILD).

The types of characters in this pack can make a contemporary crowd for many different occasions from old to young, business, formal, or casual. It can work for a bustling downtown crowd to a more suburban mall or even a street party.

This “people pack” provides 31 drop-in characters with five texture variations each that the new Crowd Sim tool can use to pump out a randomized crowd in minutes or less. Whether it’s a harried businessman or a street performer this pack has the character. It includes grandma and grandpa too with the Senior characters along with the grandchildren in the kid’s pack.

ONE CHARACTER, DIFFERENT LOOKS

One positive thing about crowds is the ability to liven up a scene and add a little more realism. One bad thing about crowds is the repetitive use of characters. This is nothing new as crowds require a lot of resources to operate so duplicating characters is one way of dealing with the problem. Over at ActorCore, they solved this with multi-texture options for diversity in crowd generation.

Each multi-textured character, such as the characters in the Modern People Sampler, has five color variations available to the Crowd Sim tool. This Is not something we have to keep up with as all we need to do is check a box for material variations when generating a crowd using these characters. Like camouflage, this helps break up the easily spotted pattern of repetitive characters with a crowd.

The varied age groups, body types, heights, and weights all combine to make a more believable crowd as the camera pans by or draws back to a wide shot. These characters look great from any distance and close to the camera.

Reallusion: Each character in this pack comes with color masks, allowing for easy apparel changes and character switching. This feature enhances flexibility and customization options, ensuring that you can achieve the desired look and feel for your crowd simulation projects.

Below you find a video about texture options for ActorCore characters which applies to these packs as well.

Another asset needed to create crowds are the appropriate motions both stationary and moving as crowds tend to be both. Reallusion has you covered here with the Social Actions motion pack for Actor Groups.

If you aren’t familiar with Actor Groups, I’ll be covering them in a later article but for now, you can get more information about what a time-saving tool they are, how to deploy them, and how to create your own Actor Groups from the following tutorial.

Social interactions are another very important but difficult group of motions to keyframe and are more suited to motion capture for a lot of animators. These seemingly uninteresting, common, everyday motions make up the fabric of life around us. Without them, we would be robots, waiting to move only when needed but thankfully, humans aren’t that way. We are fluid, always in motion, and Actor Groups add this type of visual fabric with drag-and-drop ease and simplicity.

A quick breakdown of the pack shows it contains: 90 Motion Plus groups, 8 Preset groups, 3 Random groups plus 8 Bonus props and accessories. This is a large pack with a lot of assets to help you create a diverse crowd.

Walking crowds are great but many crowds consist of smaller stationary groups often made of random groupings of people participating in conversations, interacting with their phones, or just relaxing. While you can easily create crowd clusters, those types of crowds are not as common as you might think and are not part of the mix for a street or similar crowd unless it is a live event or something similar.

Below you see a brief description and images in each section that demonstrate some of the versatile spawning techniques along with the menu that pops up when you load Actor Groups into the workspace. This is shown in more detail on the Social Actions Content Store page.

RANDOMIZE ACTORS

Actor Group strengths really shine here. With drag and drop ease you can load in a bench with actors in conversation already seated. It can also randomize Actor Groups with different actors and materials.

RANDOMIZE MATERIALS

It’s not just actors that are randomized. You can select from Materials Only to get different clothing colors, or you can randomize the actors and the materials for even more options.

PROPS & ACCESSORIES

Props and accessories are needed for some motions like sitting or interacting with a device and Actor Groups help with providing those items when needed to complete an Actors Group.

ORIENTATION

Orientation provides a change in position for each Actor Group, so they are not identical and not look like clones of each other. This allows for the general orientation of each group to differ and to be controlled by the user.

MOTION OFFSET

This option gives us a different starting frame for each group so they will not be doing the same motion at the same time. While these Actor Groups would not normally be this close to each other it does provide some additional protection against having the same motions running at the same time if this does occur.

Below is an image from the product webpage demonstrating the different types of standing, sitting, and mixed Actor Groups that can be dragged and dropped into the workspace. Load a five-actor standing preset along with a few two and three-actor mixed sitting and standing groups and you have a quick start on a crowd that will fill just about any medium to close camera shot.

Add more Actor Groups using the popup menu to randomize each group and you can build a larger and larger crowd before you even think about implementing NavMesh or Volume crowds.

ROSTER EXPANSION & CUSTOMIZATION

USER-DEFINED ACTORS

Tailoring actors within Actor Groups is a breeze. By accessing the Actor Group settings, you can find a preset, swap out the actor pool with your customized lineup, and ensure compatibility with corresponding gender and age tags. Once a new iActor Group is made, all subsequent spawns will feature distinct appearances.

ActorCore BRIDGE

At the heart of Actor Group lies the ability to randomly spawn actors featuring customized animations. Beyond your personally curated actor list, source from all available ActorCore characters to pair matching animations for males, females, children, and elderly. Expanding your ActorCore collection will also broaden the diversity within your cast of characters.

CUSTOMIZATION

Once satisfied with the spawned formation and the actors’ behaviors, you can effortlessly drag and replace any actor or adjust their material colors according to your preferences.

Add standing stationary crowds with Actor Groups from the Social Group Bundle.

SUMMARY

In my opinion, the product demonstrates how much planning and effort have been put into these characters and motions and how important tools like Actor Groups are to creating a crowd in as little time as possible. This combo pack provides high-quality characters and studio-quality motions to create a crowd effortlessly and quickly.

Now let’s look at what we all want to know… does it really work this easy? Yes. It is that easy. Add in some path-driven walkway crowds and you have a complex and compelling crowd with a few clicks of your mouse.

Over the years I’ve dealt with a lot of crowd simulators/generators including manual crowd creation and I found the Actor Groups to dramatically decrease the time it takes to populate a scene with more than just a randomly generated NavMesh or Volume crowd. While those can be great crowds on their own, the Actor Groups add a specific flavor or type of crowd that can blend in or stand out… like a street utility crew hard at work or a gun crew manning a weapon. Improve your scenes without adding a lot to your already busy workday with the Social Group Bundle from Reallusion.

A crowd (except walking characters) created with characters and motions from the Social Group Bundle.

REALLUSION COURSES

GETTING STARTED: CROWD SIM

CROWD SIM: ACTOR GROUPS

CROWD SIM: CUSTOMIZING ACTOR GROUPS

CROWD SIM: CUSTOMIZE & EXPAND

CROWD SIM: NAVIGATION MESH

CROWD SIM: WALKWAY

CROWD SIM: CROWD GENERATION

CROWD SIM: AVOIDANCE

REALLUSION MANUAL

NAVMESH

WALKWAY

LAUNCHING CROWD GENERATOR

MOTION DIRECTOR & CROWD ANIMATION

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

Featured Story

Award-winning Director uses Reallusion, Blender, and Razer

January 31, 2024January 31, 2024 enocburgosLeave a comment

ONUR ERDURAK, a Turkish director, writer, and 3D artist, is passionate about storytelling. He debuted with “STRANDED,” showcased at Cannes, and now pursues an MFA at Loyola Marymount University as a Fulbright grantee. He shares his creations through “Blendreams,” where he has amassed over 100,000 followers on Instagram.

In this video Onur shares how he utilizes Razer Blade laptops, equipped with @NVIDIA-Studio GeForce RTX 4080 graphics, for seamless integration with Character Creator (CC), iClone, and Blender, crafting immersive worlds and characters.

“Character Creator (CC) is my go-to software for creating the actors of my 3D worlds. iClone, Character Creator, and Blender all work great with my Razer Blade Studio laptop with Nvidia Studio drivers, allowing me to seamlessly generate production-quality renders with hardware accelerated motion blur and optix denoising, while being fully portable for any stage or scenario.”
Onur Erdurak – Director / Write / 3D Generalist

Creating 3D game characters with Character Creator on Razer Blade Studio laptops

Onur first ventured into testing Character Creator 4 (CC4) for his short animation project, “The Apple Thief.” The remarkable outcome of his work caught the attention of Reallusion, leading to explore the potential of further using Character Creator with iClone 3D character animations.

Leveraging these innovative tools, Onur later combined Character Creator with a scan of his own head, seamlessly integrating it into the digital realm as a medieval warrior within Blender. The results were nothing short of astonishing, fulfilling a childhood dream of starring in his very own action movie.

See how Onur created a Digital Double with Character Creator Headshot 2.0 for his Blender fantasy film – The GateKeeper.

Onur used a 3D scan of his own head to create a digital double of himself with Character Creator

Share what you’ve made with Razer

Character Creator, iClone, Blender, Kitbash3D, Rokoko, Razer

Follow Onur Erdurak:

Website:
http://blendreams.com/

YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@onurerdurak

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/blendreams/

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/blendreams

TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@blendreams

Learning

The Expert Guide to Stylized ZBrush Expressions for Salvador Dali

January 26, 2024April 19, 2024 enocburgos1 Comment

*Using Character Creator ZBrush Face Tools for Fully Expressive 3D Facial Animation*

Using Character Creator ZBrush Face Tools for Stylized ZBrush Expressions

Embark on a sculpting journey with Óscar Fernández, a digital sculptor specializing in 3D printing and collectibles. Join him as he unveils a groundbreaking workflow for effortlessly crafting expressive facial expressions for his Salvador Dalí with ZBrush with Character Creator.

Discover professional results without the complexity of traditional approaches, thanks to the revolutionary Character Creator ZBrush Face Tools. Elevate your artistic process and unleash your creativity with Óscar’s innovative techniques to dive into the world of digital sculpting like never before!

DIGITAL 3D SCULPTOR ÓSCAR FERNÁNDEZ

Hi artists! My name is Óscar Fernández, I am a digital sculptor. My work usually centers on figures for 3D printing or collectibles. I’d like to demonstrate a workflow for creating Stylized ZBrush Expressions, achieving professional results without complex technical processes. This method avoids starting from scratch or using traditional approaches.

For ZBrush enthusiasts like us, the system presented below is revolutionary. We only need to focus on the artistic process because the Character Creator ZBrush Face Tools handle everything else seamlessly.

INITIAL IDEA / REFERENCES / SKETCHES

This time, we are going to take an icon of universal art: Salvador Dalí.

To try to push the capabilities of Face Tools to the limit. I will make a caricature of the character, so the first thing is to start with a graphic documentation. I will start by doing a search for real Dalí photos. Since I am not a very good draftsman, I have also looked for references to some caricatures to analyze. I’m looking for the most representative face deformations and thus make my own version.

To try to push the capabilities of Face Tools to the limit. To create a caricature of the character, I begin with graphic documentation, searching for real Dalí photos. As I’m not a proficient draftsman, I also seek references from caricatures. Analyzing representative face deformations guides me in crafting my unique version.

Searching for real Salvador Dalí photos to analyze representative face deformations for crafting my unique stylized version.

I know, I know… it’s not wonderful, but at least I now have a direction to start working on my model.

Round eyes with small pupils to emphasize the painter’s eccentric point. I think about well-defined lips and his characteristic mustache be to make the character perfectly recognizable and also likeable.

If all goes well, the 3D version will improve throughout the process.

DESIGNING THE BASE FROM CHARACTER CREATOR

Our project will start by using a base model of Character Creator (CC4). The mesh of this model provides us with a universal topology, perfect for animation and of course for sculpture.

Once the model is loaded, we can go to the Materials tab. There we will lower the intensity of the textures to zero and focus only on the volumes.

Loading Character Creator model to and lowering texture intensity

I am going to continue creating the base of our character from the “morphs” tab. We will use the combination of two CC4 characters to give a cartoon appearance to the body of our model. I will also load some eyes and teeth in accordance with the style. Lastly, I will load the neutral wrinkle set. Everything ready, we’re going to ZBrush!!

Using Character Creator morphs to quickly reach cartoonish appearance

TRANSFER THE MODEL TO ZBRUSH

Once the base of our model is configured in Character Creator (CC), we will use the ZBrush Face Tools button. This is to transfer the character to ZBrush. We will open the first window of the tool and we begin the configuration:

Using the ZBrush Face Tools inside Character Creator

This is the first time we send the character to ZBrush, we will select “Create New” in the Action field.

The next field corresponds to the number of subdivision levels in ZBrush. When the Normal, Diffuse and Cavity maps are subsequently created. The level 6 will correspond to a 2K resolution and level 7 to a 4K resolution. In my case, 6 levels will be enough… We check the “Normal Details” box and finally “GoZ” to send the character to ZBrush.

Once the model has been loaded we will only see the head. Since this tool is focused on the character’s face work. We go to Zplugin and open ZBrush Face Tools.

Before starting to work I am going to configure my project: the background color, the canvas size, some rendering parameters. I will save my file as a project in both ZBrush and Character Creator.

HEAD MODELING IN ZBRUSH

In the plug-in panel we can activate the “Range” option to load a texture. This will enable us to see both the topology of the mesh and the regions that will be affected by the different expressions.

Using CC to observe the mesh topology regions that will be affected by different expressions

Mesh topology regions that will be affected by facial expressions

If you are a “traditional” digital sculptor you must keep in mind that we are already starting from a perfect topology. So it is very important to try to respect directions of the loops to obtain optimal results. We are going to avoid using brushes that “add material”. Brushes like all the Clay variants or those that deform the topology too much like Pinch, Snake Hook, etc…

The idea is to work at subdivision level 1 to achieve the basic shape. And work with brushes like Move or DamStandard. These are to deform the mesh little by little. While always looking for smooth lines in those loops that we mentioned.

If the low poly mesh works, then the high poly will generate very smooth and continuous lines that will work perfectly when deformed in the expressions.

FINISHING THE FACE: HAIR / EYEBROWS / MUSTACHE

For the hair and eyebrows, I simply made a mask in the corresponding area, I used Extract to generate the mesh and, after making the basic shape, I used ZRemesher to have a neat mesh in which I can subdivide a couple of times and add some detail with the “Slash 2” brush.

Once this is done, I only have to adjust the position of the teeth and tongue and I have everything ready to send the character back to CC4 and check how it behaves. To carry out this process, just click on “Update to Character Creator”

BACK TO CHARACTER CREATOR

Selecting CC3+ Base model

** Before updating your ZBrush model back to CC, make sure the CC3+ model is selected in CC. Selecting any other mesh or props will trigger a pop-up in CC and cancel the update process.

Updating from ZBrush to Character Creator

When you press the “Update to Character Creator” button, a window will open that may be a little scary at first, but now we will see that it is incredibly easy to understand.

So far we have only worked on the base of our character, so we are going to deactivate the entire section corresponding to expressions… well, this is much simpler!

For now, we have only worked on the base, so it is the only button that we are going to keep active and within the base we have modified the head, tongue, teeth and eyes, so we activate them as well.

GENERATE NORMAL MAP

With this configuration, what we are going to send to Character Creator is the information corresponding to subdivision level 1, but as we have sculpted using higher levels to achieve the final result, we are also going to activate “Details>Normal”: this will generate the normal Map we mentioned before, this way we will have all the details in our model and we can also adjust its intensity in Character Creator. We will not activate “Cavity>Blend” since it would generate a cavity map that is not necessary in our case but works great for realistic models.

Comparing base character to stylized one

ZBrush begins to send all the information to Character Creator and when finished we can return to CC, where, once again, we do not have to worry about anything; We press “Update” and the automatic process continues.

Here we can see the original base mesh and the modified model in ZBrush.

SEND HAIR, EYEBROWS, MUSTACHE

Now we are also going to send the hair, eyebrows and mustache. To do this we just have to hide all the subtools by clicking on the little eye icon and press “Visible” to send them to Character Creator.

In Character Creator, we configure these parts as Accessories and click Update. Maybe we need to make some adjustments to the position.

Attribute panel to click Hair, Eyebrows, Beard

In order for each of these accessories to become a real part of our character’s face, we just have to go to the attributes panel, click Create Hair, Eyebrows, Beard and select the type of behavior for each of them.

Verify that each facial feature behaves as expected

Once configured, in the facial editor, we can verify that each of them already behaves as we would expect.

If we want to modify this behavior we can go to “Assign Conformable Regions” in the case of hair or “Facial Hair Vertex Assignment” in the case of mustache and define the vertices that will influence each of these elements and thus have absolute control of the deformation of both when modifying the expressions.

Testing the facial expressions with Character Creator Edit Facial Panel

TEXTURING SKIN WITH POLYPAINT

We continue with the customization of our character, in this case we are going to texture the skin using Polypaint. We are simply going to apply the colors on the SkinShade material progressively until we get the appearance we want and finally we send it back to Character Creator using “Update to Character Creator”

Select “Polypaint>Diffuse” in the Base Texture options — Select **“Polypaint>Diffuse”** in the Base Texture options

Once again, logic will guide our decisions, so if we have only changed the Polypaint.

We will only select “Polypaint>Diffuse” in the Base Texture options and since we have only changed the Polypaint of the head, we will only select “head” in the Base Texture options to send to Character Creator.

By sending the color information to Character Creator, it gives us the option of also applying those values to the body so, despite having painted only the face, the coherence between one and the other is perfect. After adjusting the scene’s lighting parameters a bit, everything now looks perfect so it’s time to go back to ZBrush and start the really important part of this workflow.

ADJUSTING EXPRESSIONS IN CHARACTER CREATOR

Actually, what FACE TOOLS does automatically is create a series of layers that will produce different deformations in the mesh to generate the expressions. The goal is that we can create personalized wrinkles for each of our characters in an individual and creative way and thus provide them with a unique personality.

In the expressions section of the plugin we see that we have 13 base expressions that we can work on. Subsequently, these expressions will be combined in Character Creator and gradually merged creating infinite results as we will see later.

At the beginning, we have loaded the “Neutral Wrinkles” pack in our model, so when you press each of the buttons, in addition to the deformation of the mesh corresponding to each expression, certain wrinkles also appear that already add personality to our model. We can use these wrinkles as a guide or smooth the mesh at each of the subdivision levels so that they disappear completely and do our work from scratch. To have a reference of how the eyebrows are going to behave, I am going to paint them directly on the skin.

I’ll start with the “Eyebrow Raise” expression. As we already saw when creating the base of our character, it is best to work on the lowest subdivision level while looking for the shapes and increasing to define details, although always trying to follow the direction of the topology when generating the wrinkles.

UPDATE TO CHARACTER CREATOR

In the “Update to Character Creator” window we will only mark the update of the expressions/wrinkles, and activate the buttons to generate the corresponding morph and the normal map for the wrinkles.

Since we are going to generate our own custom wrinkles by Sculpting in ZBrush, we will deactivate the “Normal” box since this option is focused on controlling the generic wrinkle packs.

We could make all the wrinkles and finally export again to Character Creator but in my case I am going to do it one by one and we will see the difference. Every time I update, I will select the corresponding wrinkle.

13 BASE EXPRESSIONS

Here we can see the ZBrush expressions version after having modeled the wrinkles. In addition to sculpting the expressions, we can also apply a different Polypaint to each of them to highlight areas or apply some type of color variation.

Those 13 expressions that we modeled in ZBrush correspond to the 13 regions of influence that we see in the CC Wrinkles Panel, so now we are going to see the difference between the generic version and the customized version based precisely on those 13 regions.

Brow Raise Expression with Character Creator

Brow Drop Expression with Character Creator — Brow Raise Expression with Character Creator

COMPLETING CHARACTER AND CLOTHING

I couldn’t resist doing the full character, since if we combine facial expressions with body language, we will gain a lot of expressiveness.

I created the garments in ZBrush quickly, creating the UV’s and painting or texturing directly in this software.

Completing Salvador Dalí Character and Clothing

By having the UV’s we only have to generate normal and diffuse maps so that it is applied directly in CC and we see it textured.

By pressing “Visible” button we will send it to Character Creator.

Once in CC, only select the garment, press the transfer weights button, choose the corresponding template and make any subsequent adjustments to the weights if necessary. Our Character is now complete!!

CREATING OUR CUSTOM EXPRESSIONS

As you have seen, everything we have done so far has been artistic processes since the entire technical part is completely automated by the tool… we have left behind all the repetitive, boring actions that are far from the creative process.

The next thing will be even more fun, we are going to create unique expressions for our character.

We go to “Edit Facial” within the “Motion Pose” panel and we can start defining our expressions.

When creating expressions we have 3 options:

The first option is “Muscles”, a super intuitive editor in which we will select a region and just move the mouse in the desired direction for it to deform. In this editor, in addition to modifying the regions of the face, we can be even more precise by accessing the eyes, mouth or tongue panel.

Adjusting Facial Profile

CHOOSING PREDEFINED EXPRESSIONS

The second method would consist of choosing one of the predefined expressions from the “Expressions” option. The list is huge and we would have our expression in just one click.

Testing Facial Profile

Adjusting Facial Profile

The expressions are divided into 6 categories and some extra that Character Creator provides us:

Happiness
Sadness
Anger
Disgust
Fear
Surprise

Finally, we will have the option to modify each region using sliders with total precision.

The best of all is we can combine these 3 systems to create our expression.

For example, we can start with a predefined expression. Then select and modify the position of a muscle group and finally make some fine adjustments using the sliders.

Below, I show you the expressions I created along with the body pose.

Generic vs. Custom Expression 1 — Generic vs. Custom Expression

Generic vs. Custom Expression 2 — Generic vs. Custom Expression

MY CONCLUSIONS

I think that throughout this year Reallusion has clearly been on the side of the artists. They are giving us tools so that creative people can invest their time in. Allowing us to create and not waste effort in technical, boring and repetitive processes.

When it comes to posing characters, the introduction of the Character Creator Pose Tools seems like a real revolution. As we can create them completely from scratch and take them to Character Creator. To make dynamic poses in a super natural, intuitive and even fun way.

Now, with the introduction of CC Face Tools, it is true that we depend on a base mesh. But they have a perfect topology, and we can push it to the limit and it still performs great.

We can give each of our characters a unique personality through the 13 customizable expressions in ZBrush. And then take advantage of the power of CC’s expression tools to have absolute precision in facial gestures.

In addition to increasing productivity. I think I could summarize the use of these tools as something that we were all looking forward to!

WE’RE GOING TO ENJOY!

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Follow Óscar Fernández:

ArtStation:
https://www.artstation.com/oscargrafias

YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@Oscargrafias/videos

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/oscarfernandez_3dart/

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/oscargrafias/

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This article is also featured on CG Ghannel.

Learning

Creating Simple Audiences with Crowd Sim

January 24, 2024January 24, 2024 WarLordLeave a comment

The new crowd simulator in iClone is one of the most exciting additions to an application that is already packed with exciting tools and features. Open the tool, drag-and-drop some necessary assets from the Content Manager or an Explore window, generate one-click placement over and over until you like what you see then Deploy Actors and you have a crowd.

As a freelancer, I have worked with several crowd generators and while most of them did a decent job, all of them fell short in one way or another. One was too restrictive in features. Another was like a cyber wrestling match trying to get custom assets imported. You never knew who was going to win that match either.

Other simulators were very complicated and time-consuming or involved prohibitive pricing models affordable only in some cases to high revenue-earning animators. Small shops, a lot of freelancers, and hobbyists were on the outside looking in, wishing they could get their hands on such tools when Reallusion introduced their 8.4 upgrade to iClone with the Crowd Sim tool in the free update.

The Crowd Sim is, like most iClone tools, easy to use with a small learning curve. No nodes, just assets, computer-aided placement, and orientation of those assets with paths, terrains, props, or volumes.

A clear view of the Boxing Match crowd used in the main article graphic. 3D characters upfront with 3D stadium seating and 2D photographic crowd.

Generating multiple, animation-driven characters is a snap with this tool. CC4 can optimize and decimate characters down to as little as 800K for use in the distant background while optimizing mid-range characters at around 7000K.

And yes, you can easily use your custom content. If the content was created outside of the iClone/CC4 environment you can use the auto-rigging features of CC4 to make it compatible with iClone motions and editing.

SEATED AUDIENCE CROWD

For a lot of events like sports, theatre, or movie screenings the audience would be primarily a sitting crowd. Creating a sitting audience is simple but requires a little tweaking depending on the dimensions of the bleachers or seats in use. If, like the one in my example below are not tall enough you can still tweak the position, camera angle or scale of the bleachers if necessary. Not all props like this are created to character scale so you adapt as best you can by tweaking the positioning of the actors after placement or using camera angle to conceal any problems.

STANDING AUDIENCE CROWDS

Standing crowds, particularly at sporting events or concerts can be rowdy crowds at times so I used motions from the Emotes Pack along with characters from the Casual section of the Modern People Sampler in generating the standing crowd. This pack also has multiple material options for more character variations. This produced a lively crowd very quickly. I have found these two packs to be very useful for generating realistic crowds.

You can use custom assets to make a crowd that fits your needs like a futuristic cyberpunk crowd or a period of time like the Victorian age.

SITTING AND STANDING CROWDS

Mixed audiences, standing, and seating, is another crowd type that may require a little tweaking to get the results you want. I started with the sitting crowd made earlier and replaced the sitting motions with standing motions in the popup dialog while using the spacing slider to position the added characters. This can take a little patience until you get something usable and then you can tweak it after the fact if needed.

I tried a NavMesh, but it couldn’t produce one that was usable on that type of bleacher mesh. The NavMesh seems more suited towards solid props without the pipe framing as it could only pick up bits and pieces of the seating surfaces. A solid mesh, blocky bleacher works better. Rescaled stairs can work in a pinch.

ACTOR GROUPS FOR AUDIENCES

Actor Groups are more powerful than you may think. They are a fantastic addition in that you can create your own groups as a Base group and use that base group in creating a Preset with a large actor pool that you can fill with other actors for more variations when you drag in the custom group.

CUSTOM BASE ACTOR GROUP

A custom base group will contain the same character makeup each time we load it which is why it is a base. It can be used in creating a preset that randomizes the group of actors each time it is loaded. Below is loading a simple base group I created for a test.

CUSTOM PRESET ACTOR GROUP

Dragging in or loading a custom Preset Actor Group will trigger a popup menu that allows for control over the randomization of the group actors. As shown in the video below you have the option of using the preset as it is when you drag it in or randomizing the actors even though they will be random each time they are loaded.

LOADING A BASE ACTOR GROUP FOR EDITING

An Actor Group is a project file, and you can build the group over time while saving it to test, use, or come back to later just like a project file. In my test, I created a bleacher-based crowd of random sitting characters. Then I saved the custom Actor Group as described in Kai’s video later down in this article. This is simply pressing the save button in the Actor Group Settings popup used when creating the group.

Loading an Actor Group for editing is different. You do not drag and drop the original Preset group into the workspace. Instead, you load the Actor Group via the Actor Group Setting dialog. This will repopulate the scene with actors and props. Don’t be confused, this is the same file that you can drag and drop but you need to load it with the Actor Group Settings popup for editing.

TIP: For Editing purposes load the file you saved using the Actor Group Setting popup menu. Loading the original present Actor Group into the workspace will only load the saved group with no popup window or editing. This is demonstrated in the video below.

Kai has a great tutorial on creating the different custom Actor Groups. This covers how to create a base group and presets and random Actor Groups.

With Actor Groups I can fill a scene quickly. Especially the immediate area in front of the camera. Depending on the type of group the characters will be different each time I load or drag and drop the custom Actor Group into the scene. Being able to add props like benches and accessories like phones or purses makes for fast deployments of multiple Actor Groups that can breathe life into an otherwise empty scene.

Actor Groups are a powerful addition to iClone that can be as simple as drag and drop or when tweaked they can include custom characters and motions. We can even use Motion Director motions when the need arises.

SUMMARY

Audience-type crowds, sitting, standing, or mixed are simple examples of how to get started with the Crowd Sim tool. They also represent just a small selection of the types of crowds we can now create with this new tool. An audience is as varied as any crowd and the more variation we can throw in the better the crowd will look but, unless it’s Lord of the Rings, it’s not all about how many characters we can stuff into a scene.

It’s really about the proper use of characters in a given area, within the view of the camera. Sell the immediate area to the viewer and the midrange to background elements will fall into place as the viewer’s mind will fill in a lot of information, more implied than seen if properly done.

Animation doesn’t need to mimic real life, but it does need filler. Empty scenes have long been a problem in animation from the early days of cell-animated cartoons to current 3D projects. With iClone’s Crowd Sim tool, those empty scenes can be a thing of the past.

REALLUSION MANUAL

Accessing Crowd Generator
Crowd Generator UI
Deploying Actors
Applying Motions to Actors
Applying iMD to Actors
What are the Types of Actor Groups

REALLUSION COURSES

Keyword Search “Crowd Sim”

HIGHLIGHTED TUTORIALS
Crowd Sim: Crowd Generation
Crowd Sim: Customize & Expand

MD McCallum – WarLord

WARLORD’s WORKSHOP

Learning

Cloning myself with a 3D head generator: Headshot 2 plugin walkthrough

January 19, 2024April 23, 2024 ericchangreallusionLeave a comment

Erik Larson (Libertas)

Born in Chicago, Libertas started out with a passion for filmmaking at an early age. Ever since he fell in love with the AAA game Assassin’s Creed, he started making videos about it. You can find more of those videos on his channel Libertas Video. He also creates a series of Assassin’s Creed-inspired micro-short films, like “Modern Assasin Training Session.”

Libertas admits to always dreaming bigger than his shoestring budget could afford. Even still, he loves creating characters and their costumes to see them come alive, especially in his YouTube short films. Outside of his day job as the Director 3D of a creative company. And his is also a sole 3D generalist at his company, Libertas Video. He spends his free time dreaming crafting new characters, costumes, and props for his digital actors.

Challenges I Had To Face Prior to Headshot 2

I am no stranger to creating short films. Whether that involves writing scripts, developing costumes, stepping into characters, or bringing it all together. However, many of my productions were always limited — whether it was the number of people I had access to or the locations where I could shoot. It was disappointing to have an idea of what I wanted to create but be limited by what was available. Now that I have modernized my arsenal of tools, these challenges have become a relic of the past.

My 3D workflow using Headshot 2

3D scanning my own head

The first thing I did was scan my face using the Kiri Engine. I took about 30 photos of myself. They were uploaded and stitched together to create a highly detailed representation of my face. After downloading the high-resolution file created from the scans, I imported it into Blender.

Refining the sculpt in Blender

I had to do some cleanup on this file, so I merged the overlapping vertices and entered “Sculpt Mode”. I primarily used the “Smooth Brush” to remove any odd jagged edges, many of which were caused by the stubbles of my unshaven face. The cleaner we can make this model at this stage, the easier it will be for us later on. After cleaning up the head model, I scaled it down to life-size and exported it as an FBX file.

Importing FBX into Character Creator

I imported the FBX head into Character Creator (CC), ensuring that everything was properly oriented, and linked the diffuse map to the model. Then, I began using Headshot 2. The plugin includes a mesh functionality that requires you to match up predefined points in sequential order on your model, as seen on the Character Creator forehead. You can also add additional points to achieve even more accuracy — to the hairline, for instance. Once this process is complete, I can generate the head and start refining the mesh.

I usually find that the base is good, but when using the “Sculpt” brush, I often need to project or smooth the mesh a little more to increase its accuracy. I also had to work more cautiously on my head sculpt due to some additional challenges stemming from my own face. In particular, the facial hair doesn’t convert well, so I had to use the “Clone” brush to essentially recreate the mouth and the chin. This process took some finesse, but eventually, I achieved something workable. Besides that, the refining phase can take as long or as little time as you want; it all depends on how accurate you want the final result to be. In just a few short minutes, we have a head that is strikingly similar to what was scanned.

Using Headshot 2 and aligning the head morphs

From there, I have a lot of creative control over the face. I like to make a few further refinements using the thousand-plus morphs included with the plugin. Things like fixing my lips and my chin may seem minor, but when it comes to faces, sometimes the smallest details are the most important aspects in achieving a realistic likeness. I then take it a step further by adding hair from the “Hair Builder” content pack, enabling the inclusion of facial hair. Additionally, I enhance the normal maps with the SkinGen Premium plugin for more intricate details. Realistic wrinkle maps from the Dynamic Wrinkles and Wrinkle Essentials extension packs further contribute to lifelike features.

“If you find yourself on the fence as to whether or not you want to buy this plugin I would say go for it — especially if you’re going to be able to utilize that mesh functionality.”
Erik Larson, CEO of Libertas Video

While these are all additional plugins, I find that they significantly enhance your character, taking it to the next level. Personally, I create my own hair in Blender and design the bandana in Marvelous Designer, importing them back into Character Creator 4. The end results are uncanny: It’s enjoyable to witness my family and friends react to the resemblance, which, I believe, opens up numerous opportunities for individuals in the gaming or film industry.

You can add yourself, your spouse, or your friends into a world that you’ve created. For those working on fan projects, odds are there are sculpts of your favorite characters available for import and utilization in Character Creator and iClone. For films, a digital double can perform incredible stunts, and with Headshot, it can all be achieved rapidly.

Fixing the head mesh

After several head scans and testing out this plug-in, you can then attach it to one of the standard Character Creator 4 bodies, or a body already present in your scene. I highly recommend unticking the checkbox for keeping the neck shape, unless you’re working on a more stylized character where the neck’s appearance is crucial. I’ve found that transferring the neck shape can lead to unintended consequences, and it’s relatively easy to reconfigure using morph sliders. Once you’ve selected the body you want, after a short while, you’ll have a complete character. During the process, Character Creator 4 bakes the diffuse map and normal map for use with your character, attempting to match the skin tones as best as it can.

However, based on my experience with the plugin, I discovered that additional refinements are necessary with morph sliders after the creation process. The sculpt on my head created a few issues I’ll delve into shortly. Typically, I’ve noticed that the eyes tend to start a bit small and occasionally at odd angles. It’s also crucial to pay particular attention to how the neck translates. While it may appear fine by itself, in my initial models, I noticed that the neck geometry affected the clothing on the character. For instance, scanned hoodies seemed distorted, giving the impression of a shrunken neck, even if it appeared fine in the viewport.

After I stopped using the option to maintain the neck shape, I haven’t experienced any of these issues. Other than that, the way my face was scanned caused a few problems for this stage of the process. I didn’t scan my face in optimal lighting. All was done in my kitchen at night, resulting in harsh lighting that affected my diffuse map. Additionally, the scan didn’t accurately capture my facial hair, impacting how the normal map was baked. Consequently, I had to rectify these textures in Photoshop by reducing highlights and shadows for a smoother, more even appearance. I also had to smooth out the normal map to diminish the bumpiness on my chin.

Conclusion: My Experience with Headshot 2

After turning myself into a digital avatar, I can fight a ninja. I can be the captain of a pirate ship, or parkour over the rooftops of a medieval city. And all that can be possible with the use of Headshot 2 in Character Creator.

I absolutely recommend this plugin. The original headshot was already a staple asset, but using Headshot 2 takes it to the next level. What would have taken me hours before now only takes minutes. It’s incredible to see those basic models come together so quickly, allowing for a smoother transition to the next step and enabling me to be more creative.

The real treat is taking the models and harnessing all the power that Character Creator 4 offers, from extended facial profiles to dynamic wrinkles. Utilizing SkinGen to add even more details like tattoos or scars gives you an incredible amount of control at your fingertips. So, if you find yourself on the fence as to whether or not you want to buy this plugin I would say go for it — especially if you’re going to be able to utilize that mesh functionality. It will save you a significant amount of time and effort, ultimately leading to better results overall in 3D scanning my head.

Learning

12 Reasons why Character Creator is the Best 3D Character Maker

January 18, 2024January 18, 2024 WarLordLeave a comment

Creating a 3D character used to be and still can be a tedious, difficult, time-consuming effort. Particularly when you must create everything from clothing to accessories, texturing, UV mapping and then there are the bones.

From big bones to little finger and toe digits, they all must be rigged to near perfection to avoid distortion in the character or its movements.

I have always held good character modelers in high esteem as their creations are the most likely to be front and center of any animation or game. It takes skill, boatloads of it, and experience, something we don’t all have the luxury of possessing. By the time we get good enough at all the skills needed… that creative spark might have long died.

If all you want to do is tell a story, then a unique 3D character that will not appear in other people’s productions can be a problem. The good thing is it’s a problem that Character Creator 4 (CC4) can solve. It has the base meshes and performs skinning, as well as other aspects of 3D character creation for use in animation and still image rendering.

Let’s explore the reasons why Character Creator 4 allows you to spend more time to being creative while eliminating the frustration of being hung up in the technical aspects and problems of creating unique 3D characters.

Ease of use
Quad topology optimized for morph and animation
Auto-rigging for any humanoid models
Create animated characters from facial photos and 3D models
One mesh transform to all possible character shapes
Ultra-realistic human skin synthesis
Custom expression morphs with ease
Ultra-realistic real-time human rendering
Robust ZBrush integration (GoZ, Face Tools, Pose Tools)
Modular asset system & smart gallery
Professional production pipeline
Real-time feedback

EASE OF USE

CC4, like its cousin iClone, is a drag-and-drop interface with multiple ways of bringing in 3D assets such as your own character meshes, custom clothing, and accessories including hair and beards. Everything about Character Creator 4, like iClone, revolves around the concept of visual and practical simplicity. You can drag and drop from an Explorer window or from the Content Manager. You can also double-click items in the Content Manager to load them into the workspace. We are given the choice for more flexibility.

Drag & drop contents easily in Character Creator 4

While mesh editing is available it is not necessary as CC4 has multitudes of sliders to control the look and form of different body parts. There are sliders for the Body, Head, Actor Parts, and CC Teeth. Each of these sections has subsections of sliders available. One great feature of these sliders is that they are not locked at zero or 100 percent. You can input numbers directly into the input box if you wish to exceed those amounts. Mesh distortion will occur if you push it too far but at least Reallusion gives us the choice to override the slider stops.

You can see in the above image that I have overridden the Head Scale Slider by manually inputting the number into the box.

With the sliders, you can add body mass like muscle or make the body thinner, arms longer, legs shorter as well as scale. And keep in mind that you can blend all of these sliders, including Male and Female on the same character for further modification. Even the CC Teeth have a lot of morph sliders including even more if you have the Headshot plugin. You can also make your own custom sliders for more flexibility.

In my experience, the Character Creator 4 sliders are much more complex and functional than any of the other sliders I have used in other applications. For my use, there is no match for the sheer amount of sliders and control that CC4 gives us.

QUAD TOPOLOGY OPTIMIZED FOR MORPH AND ANIMATION

Good, clean topology is a must for any 3D character to perform without vertex or rigging distortions. In the early days triangles (tris) were the only game in town but now the industry practices have changed to a smoother, more quad-based topology. Triangles are still necessary in certain parts of the mesh but the spacing of quads makes for a more workable mesh as the reduced number of triangles leaves fewer edges to collide or collapse on each other during a movement.

Retopology itself became a skill, almost an art form, to smooth base meshes and clean up any unsightly mishmash of vertices. It eventually became a part of most pipelines with allotted time and budgets that could make expenses rise.

CC4 has taken care of that by providing a smooth, quad-based mesh that can retain flexibility at lower poly counts. Below is an image of the base mesh 35K down to a highly decimated and optimized mesh of 800 tris. You must have good topology in the original mesh for good optimization in decimated meshes.

Learn more: CC3+ Base Model

From Left: Original Male Base CC4 Mesh 35K, ActorCore 17K, LOD1 7K, LOD2 800 Tris

AUTO-RIGGING FOR ANY HUMANOID 3D MODELS

When importing a custom mesh that is already skinned, CC4 gives us the option to use AccuRIG for a new skeleton or to match bones in a characterization process until enough bones become available to create a functional 3D character. If we import a mesh only then AccuRIG will put the bones in based on the initial location of markers placed early in the process.

AccuRIG has a short learning curve. It provides symmetrical placement of markers and bone hierarchy selection to move items like markers one time for each side (arms, legs, hands) or entire rows of fingers (knuckle markers).

It’s a great tool for creating crowd-simulation characters too. Combined with the Optimize and Decimate tool you can create very low poly crowd characters for use as filler or background characters. It can create characters from 17K ActorCore specs to midrange characters around 7K (LOD 1) and distant characters at 800 tris (LOD2) as mentioned earlier. Plus, you have a custom option to create your own optimization settings.

AccuRIG by itself is a major tool that saves time, frustration, and headaches allowing you to concentrate on being creative instead of technical.

Learn more: AccuRIG Advanced

Non-CC4 Character Rigged with AccuRIG to accept iClone Motions

CREATE ANIMATED 3D CHARACTERS FROM FACIAL PHOTOS AND 3D MODELS

Headshot was an extremely powerful image-to-face tool in its debut with features that allowed us to not only use images but also have sculpting tools for fine-tuning if needed. It even provided a hair mesh in the auto version or more direct control in the Pro version depending on which button you pushed as you entered the plug-in. In a world of AI image generators, this plug-in is a great addition to the toolbox.

Headshot 2 has now arrived and allows us to import a head mesh to a fully rigged CC4 body. This includes openings for the eyes, nose, and mouth. It’s a very easy way to anthropomorphize animals to a bipedal character with access to iClone motions, poses, and facial features. It’s also an easy way to create stylized 3D characters.

Learn more: Headshot

ONE MESH TRANSFORM TO ALL POSSIBLE 3D CHARACTER SHAPES

Ah morphs… the thing that evens the playing field for all of us mere mortals against those super talented character artists. With the mere movement of a slider, we can alter the details of a 3D character. Use enough sliders and you have created a character unique from the base mesh. Add in your own custom morphs for even more unique 3D characters and create your own custom morph sliders.

Learn more: Morph for Modeling

ULTRA-REALISTIC HUMAN SKIN SYNTHESIS

These two features have brought the level of realism to new heights. Using mapping like normal and height, Skin Gen adds a lot of detail from big scars to small skin details without hogging resources or slowing down your device. Unlike mesh-level detail which requires a lot of computing resources, Skin Gen relies on the mapping channels to add a high level of detail that makes your CC4-created characters more lifelike but nimble.

The most recent feature, Dynamic Wrinkles allows your character’s face to use wrinkles in the proper areas with user control for how much or how little. Need a furrowed brow or an intense frown? You’ll get that along with wrinkles that appear and move with the skin in a natural manner. While we have long had the ability to add intense expressions, they did not involve wrinkles that move dynamically with the face until now.

At its basic level, you do not have to do much except enable the wrinkles for the character. While you can do much more including custom wrinkle maps you can still do quite a lot with just basic features.

Learn more: Dynamic Wrinkle System

CUSTOM EXPRESSION MORPHS WITH EASE

Located within the Facial Profile Editor is the Edit Expressions button which activates the panel of morph sliders to enhance a character’s expression. CC4 provides standard and extended facial profiles. The Edit Expressions editor allows the use of individual morph sliders to increase or decrease the amount of expression like lift in the eyebrows.

Outside of the morph sliders, there are several expression tools available including Edit Mesh, Open Modify Morph, GoZ (expressions), and the Proportion editor.

Learn more: Facial Expression Morph

ULTRA-REALISTIC REAL-TIME HUMAN RENDERING

With CC4 you have a choice of Physical Based Rendering (PBR) or Digital Human Shader that can improve the realism of your characters. You can even mix shaders within a character such as the skin being Digital Human Shader while the clothing can be PBR or Traditional shaders or any combination as CC4 gives you versatility.

Learn more: Digital Human Shader

ROBUST ZBRUSH INTEGRATION (GoZ, Face Tools, and Pose Tools)

ZBrush is one of the most innovative and powerful mesh creation tools on the planet. For pure creative purposes, this high-powered digital sculpting software ranks at the top and is a must-have tool for many 3D digital artists. ZBrush has industry-leading tools that allow for the creation of complex meshes and the optimization of those meshes to make them practical in a 3D environment.

CC4 has been a part of GoZ integration for some time now and it has an even more robust GoZ function for its new Face Tools plug-in. It is very easy to move back and forth between a CC4 character and ZBrush with a lot of included preset morphs to alter the look of your 3D character.

There is also the free ZBrush Pose tools to use CC4 to effortlessly pose your ZBrush character creations.

Learn more: ZBrush Pipeline

MODULAR ASSET SYSTEM & SMART GALLERY

CC4 takes advantage of the same modular asset system in iClone such as hair, clothing, and accessories for your 3D character. These items are interchangeable within the iClone/CC4 pipeline and are available to other CC4 characters.

The Smart Gallery helps you to keep up with all your new characters and stock or purchased assets by providing a visual, searchable database of your 3D assets that work with CC4 or iClone. You can add custom locations for 3D assets stored outside of your CC4 installation too. Of course, you can also just drag and drop any CC4 assets directly into the workspace from an explorer window.

Learn more: Smart Content Management

PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTION PIPELINE

Don’t let the subtitle scare you. While it can turn out professional-level work, you don’t have to be a professional to use it. Nor do you have to be a pro to benefit from its powerful tools and pipeline-friendly direct and indirect export features.

As mentioned earlier CC4 is already tied into the ZBrush pipeline. Its industry-standard FBX, USD, and OBJ exporting allow for easy interaction with other 3D software.

OBJ for modern and legacy applications. USD for hassle-free import into the Nvidia Omniverse pipeline including their machinima tool for high-level rendering. BVH for motion files and the industry-standard FBX for import into just about any 3D application. You can even upload your creations to Sketchfab with little effort.

Learn more: Pipeline

REALTIME FEEDBACK

Being a close cousin of iClone, CC4 provides realtime visuals as you work. You don’t have to stop and render out a still image or part of a video to see what you are working on. While other applications can provide some level of realtime visualization they are generally in a more muted, simplified manner without revealing the true look of your work. The final render then fills in the blanks but with CC4, like iClone, you get instant visual feedback to guide you through the creation process.

Also, like iClone, with CC4, what you see is what you get. You will see what you are working on as it happens.

SUMMATION

When it comes down to the bottom line, Character Creator 4 offers a wide array of powerful tools to morph, shape, and blend a character that can fit your needs as an animator whether you are a beginner or a pro.

REALLUSION RESOURCES

AccuRIG
Morphs
Wrinkle System
Expression Editor
Digital Human Shader
Smart Gallery
GoZ – ZBrush

CHARACTER CREATOR MANUAL

AccuRIG
Morphs
Wrinkle System
Expression Editor
Digital Human Shader
Smart Gallery Plug-in
GoZ (ZBrush)

MD McCallum – WarLord

WarLord’s Workshop

Featured Story

The Preferred 2D Animation Software for Solo Animators

January 16, 2024March 29, 2024 enocburgos2 Comments

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Using Cartoon Animator 2D Animation for Music Videos, Live Streaming, and More

“The fact that Cartoon Animator integrates smoothly with Clip Studio Paint, my drawing software of choice, really allows me to have great looking artwork for my animations, and the motions really saves me a lot of time. I use the walking motions all the time! Why spend hours to make your character walk if you can simply drag and drop premade motions and make your character walk within seconds.”
Eon de Bruin – 2D Animator and Developer

2D Animator Eon de Bruin

Eon de Bruin is an animator and developer, who has been working for a number of years with Cartoon Animator (CTA). Consequently, Eon chose CTA as his preferred 2D animation software because it streamlines his work process as a solo animator, and it also speeds up his production time without reducing the quality of his output. In his recent interview with Reallusion, Eon talks about his passion for his work and what he loves most about Cartoon Animator as it can be used by just about anyone.

Tell us about your work with Cartoon Animator 2D Software

I have my own streaming platform called Tween Xstream, and I use Cartoon Animator for all my 2D animation work. So far I have numerous animated TV shows that I have created, as well as one music video.

Why choose Cartoon Animator as platform to create your 2D content?

Since I have a streaming platform, I need to release new videos regularly. That means that I need software that is easy to use, and has the ability to create animations fast without compromising on quality. The fact that Cartoon Animator integrates smoothly with Clip Studio Paint, my drawing software of choice, really allows me to have great looking artwork for my animations, and the motions really saves me a lot of time. I use the walking motions all the time! Why spend hours to make your character walk if you can simply drag and drop premade motions and make your character walk within seconds.

Favorite Genre or Theme to work with 2D Animation

I am old school, so artwork that I love is your classic Disney look, but genres I enjoy is cartoon I grew up with like Looney Tunes, Animaniacs, etc. I love the humour of these shows. For my streaming platform, I try to bring in these styles and humour. My show “The Greatest Story” was inspired by the Disney look, and my show “Don’t be A Fool” was inspired by Looney Tunes humour.

Cartoon Animator software is easy and enjoyable

I find Cartoon Animator very easy and enjoyable! The fact that I can open up Cartoon Animator with a press of a button and create, or adjust characters again is such a time saver and very convenient.

Favorite Cartoon Animator Tools and Features

There are many features, but for me to create animations fast for my streaming platform, I need a few things from an animation software. It should have a very neat user interface that is easy to understand, and easy to find functions when you need them. A well organised interface plays a big part in working fast. You don’t want the interface be a stumbling block when your creative juices flow. You just want to work. Other tools that I love about Cartoon Animator is the motions. And if I need something, I can easily go to the Reallusion Marketplace. To animate water ripple effects for me will take hours or days. But a quick purchase and dropping it in my projects again saves me so much time.

Advice for Aspiring developers considering to sell their art in the 2D Marketplace

It is important to know that there are three types of animators:

The first animator is the one that creates everything themselves. From characters, scenes, props and FX.
The second animator is the one that loves telling stories through animations, but can’t draw.
The third animator is someone who can draw, but doesn’t have the time to sit down and create characters, backdrops

If you can create content for the marketplace, then you are of GREAT help for those animators who can’t draw, or don’t have the time to create their own characters or scenes.

What drew your attention to Cartoon Animator?

I found that Cartoon Animator was easy to use and it saves so much time without compromising on production quality.

Future plans with Cartoon Animator and Current Projects

So far I have created TV shows and music videos with Cartoon Animator and will continue to do so, but I also have a shortfilm in the pipeline.

My recent show was “Godly Princess” where I actually combined live actors inside a cartoon world. This was really challenging but also great fun. It again shows what you can do with cartoon Animator.

Follow Eon de Bruin:

Website:
https://www,startanimating.com/

YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/@startanimating695

Tween XStream Streaming platform
https://www.za.tweenxstream.com/

Learning

iClone Physics for Beginners

January 11, 2024January 10, 2024 WarLordLeave a comment

Physics. A bland subject for a lot of us mere mortals but an exciting addition to 3D animation. If you watch just about any action movie then you’ve seen 3D-based physics at work. Physics provides a simulation of what could happen from toppling skyscrapers in a metro area to huge rockslides and any kind of destruction that would be dangerous or impossible to recreate in live action. Another giveaway is the associated tons of debris that fly everywhere causing even more destruction and debris.

Back in the old days, they used to blow things up when needed and still do in many instances. However, if, like a lot of indie productions there is a tight budget then physics can add that extra punch that is impossible to keyframe on a major scale like a disaster. The first time I saw physics I didn’t realize that was what I was seeing. I was blown away by the incredible animation, the sheer number of moving parts, and how could it have been keyframed manually.

Note that only some of the center fractured pieces have been selected for the simulation. You can select any or all pieces of a fractured prop.

It didn’t take long to discover it was physics. It was new and the first time I saw a sphere bounce like a ball on the floor and do so naturally with no manual keyframing, I was hooked. I’m not saying physics produces a perfect simulation every time. In fact, you may be doing yourself a dis-service if you don’t run several simulations, keeping the versions you liked. Running a simulation is easy, the trick is in setting it up. Getting it to mimic real-life events as closely as possible is the key.

The thing about physics is you don’t have to be an Einstein to use it. You don’t have to know how it works any more than you do your air conditioning or appliances. You can just use it once you understand a few concepts and terms.

In this instance, a dummy prop (ball) was used to trigger the bridge collapse as the timing was off using the character as the trigger.

3D iClone Physics Basics

Dynamic: Always active. Will drop, roll, bounce, and collide with other physics objects. If you burst through a wall, then the object going through the wall will be dynamic (unless it has transform animation) with Bounding meshes to detect collisions with other physics-enabled objects. These bounding meshes can be simple primitives or complex self-meshes depending on the selection.

Frozen: Objects will remain in place until impacted by a dynamic object.

Kinematic: Animated objects will retain their transform animations during the simulation to allow for things like animating a rock through a window.

Static: Objects will remain in place but will be part of the simulation so that pieces won’t penetrate them during the simulation.

PHYSICS PROPERTIES OF OBJECTS

Mass: The “weight” given to an object to differentiate between an object made of glass versus one made of concrete. While these terms are not used in iClone there is a slider to give or take weight from this attribute.

Friction: Not what you experience with your mother-in-law. That’s tension… which is more associated with a good story instead of physics. Friction in this case is another way of keeping things under control so objects don’t slide around like they are on ice or greased surface. According to the manual, it is “the resistance forces of a surface. An object with higher friction can move slower or a ball can start rolling”.

Damping: Just what it says. It dampens or slows down the simulation to keep things from running away or the simulation being too unrealistic. A little bit of slider goes a long way here.

Elasticity: The bouncing force of an object.

BOUNDING MESHES

Without bounding meshes collision wouldn’t be possible. In early physics, we used simple dummies like a rectangular block attached to a vehicle but invisible to the render. As physics matured, we can now select the object itself as the bounding mesh with a Self-Mesh attribute that mimics the object’s shape. If you experience computational power problems, you can choose a simple bounding mesh like a block from a menu choice or you can always use the old-fashioned dummies which may provide better visual queues in some instances.

Bounding types available are Box, Sphere, Capsule, Convex or Self meshes. Convex is similar to a self-mesh that saves on computational overhead.

CONSTRAINTS

Another must-have tool for certain simulations. They do just as they describe, they constrain or tie two physics-enabled objects together.

All the above are part of Rigid Body simulations versus Softcloth simulations like clothing which we’ll not get into here as that would take an entire article by itself.

BOUNCING BALL

This is sort of the “hello world” equivalent of programming or scripting. It is a simple simulation of bouncing a physics-enabled spherical object on a physics-enabled plane (floor). It’s an effective demonstration of what can be done versus trying to keyframe the same motion. It’s not even a contest at this point. Keyframing is not feasible in this situation or cost-effective versus physics.

FALLING CANS

In this example the can props are set to Frozen along with the base prop the cans are sitting on. This will force the items to interact with the physics dummy that will collide with the base triggering the explosion of cans. We can use dampening and differing mass settings to control how the simulation reacts from the explosion of cans to falling in a more controlled manner. The ball dummy had a transform animation that would make it collide with the base the cans sit on. I set this dummy to Kinematic to retain the transform animation while providing physics interaction as a rigid body.

TRUCK CRASHING THROUGH WALL

In this demonstration, you can see how the entire wall has been cell fractured but I have only selected some of the pieces in the middle to apply physics too. This is a simple method of controlling the area of interaction without using the static setting on the remaining pieces. This does run the risk of physics-enabled pieces penetrating non-physics pieces.

COLLAPSING ROCK BRIDGE

Below only the rock bridge itself is physics-enabled. The rock bridge is also a separate prop from the rest of the cave. I did run into one problem in that as soon as the Character touched the first part of the bridge it all started to collapse and the character was running on air midway across the bridge. To solve this problem I added a physics-enabled ball prop and animated it to move across the bridge and trigger the collapse after the character was partway across the bridge. A little timing work and it looks like the bridge was collapsing from under him.

Below is a look at the physics dummy that triggered the bridge collapse for better timing.

TIP: Be sure to TEXTURE your props BEFORE you fracture them while the prop is in one piece.

BLENDER CELL FRACTURE

This will show you how to fracture if you have never done it before but keep in mind that I am not a Blender expert and I highly recommend this older but to-the-point fracture tutorial from Mr. Cheebs. In my demo above I used subdivision but Mr. Cheebs shows you how to really do some fracturing with all the available techniques including the Annotation Pencil that allows us to draw where we want things to shatter.

A BIT OF DESTRUCTIBLE PROPS HISTORY

Around 14 years ago I introduced destructible props to iClone. At the time I was working with my long-time 3D tool, 3DS Max, in fracturing objects and using the Havoc physics engine to simulate the destruction and dispersal of debris. It became somewhat of an obsession, and I became proficient at 3D physics-based destruction.

iClone didn’t have physics at the time so I never gave much thought to bringing my other 3D work to iClone. After all, it was a 32-bit, low-poly application back then. While working with the Rayfire plugin I noticed something that had escaped me in earlier work and that was when I finished the simulation 3DS Max had created keyframes in the timeline.

If anything generated keyframes there was a chance of getting it into iClone and working with the baked-in physics which did work as expected but it also crashed iClone often. Reallusion saw the demo and reached out to me for a project file. Soon after an update made destructible props run smoother without crashing. That taught me how much Reallusion pays attention to what other users are doing with their software.

CLOSING

For some users Rigid Body physics is not as sexy as Soft Body physics like clothing or hair. It is, however, a powerful animation tool that opens the door to a world of new opportunities to better showcase your work. Rigid body physics is overlooked in iClone as an easy tool to add a touch of eye candy to an animated scene. In the future, there will be more articles and tutorials on using physics in iClone.

REALLUSION COURSES

Rigid Body

Rampa Tinling

Making a Chain with iClone Physics

MANUAL

Properties of a Rigid Body

The Basic Workflow of Using Constraints

Physics Concepts

Physics Settings for Characters

The Rigid Body Simulation

MD McCallum – WarLord

WarLord’s Workshop

Introduction- How ZBrush Artists Benefit from Character Creator

Part 1- Start with CC Base Model Before ZBrush Sculpting

Neutral Base

Morphs

Relaxed A-Pose

Part 2 -Character Creator to ZBrush and Back Again

GoZ from Character Creator to ZBrush

Refining your Characters Shapes in ZBrush

Testing Animations and Utilizing Morphs

Proportional Changes (Joint Positioning)

Part 3 – Character Detailing and File Saving in ZBrush

Detailed Body Sculpt in ZBrush

Saving Files

Part 4 – Texturing with ZBrush & Substance Painter Bridge

Texture Baking and Substance 3D Painter Workflow

Opening the Mouth for Baking

Exporting the Low- and High-Res Meshes

Substance 3D Painter Baking

Texturing

Exporting Textures

Importing Textures

Expression Wrinkles

About The Author

Read More

MD McCallum – WarLord

Using Character Creator ZBrush Face Tools for Stylized ZBrush Expressions

INITIAL IDEA / REFERENCES / SKETCHES

DESIGNING THE BASE FROM CHARACTER CREATOR

TRANSFER THE MODEL TO ZBRUSH

HEAD MODELING IN ZBRUSH

FINISHING THE FACE: HAIR / EYEBROWS / MUSTACHE

BACK TO CHARACTER CREATOR

GENERATE NORMAL MAP

SEND HAIR, EYEBROWS, MUSTACHE

TEXTURING SKIN WITH POLYPAINT

ADJUSTING EXPRESSIONS IN CHARACTER CREATOR

UPDATE TO CHARACTER CREATOR

13 BASE EXPRESSIONS

COMPLETING CHARACTER AND CLOTHING

CREATING OUR CUSTOM EXPRESSIONS

CHOOSING PREDEFINED EXPRESSIONS

MY CONCLUSIONS

Follow Óscar Fernández:

MD McCallum – WarLord

Erik Larson (Libertas)

Challenges I Had To Face Prior to Headshot 2

My 3D workflow using Headshot 2

3D scanning my own head

Refining the sculpt in Blender

Importing FBX into Character Creator

Using Headshot 2 and aligning the head morphs

Fixing the head mesh

Conclusion: My Experience with Headshot 2

EASE OF USE

QUAD TOPOLOGY OPTIMIZED FOR MORPH AND ANIMATION

AUTO-RIGGING FOR ANY HUMANOID 3D MODELS

CREATE ANIMATED 3D CHARACTERS FROM FACIAL PHOTOS AND 3D MODELS

ONE MESH TRANSFORM TO ALL POSSIBLE 3D CHARACTER SHAPES

ULTRA-REALISTIC HUMAN SKIN SYNTHESIS

CUSTOM EXPRESSION MORPHS WITH EASE

ULTRA-REALISTIC REAL-TIME HUMAN RENDERING

ROBUST ZBRUSH INTEGRATION (GoZ, Face Tools, and Pose Tools)

MODULAR ASSET SYSTEM & SMART GALLERY

PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTION PIPELINE

REALTIME FEEDBACK

SUMMATION

MD McCallum – WarLord

Using Cartoon Animator 2D Animation for Music Videos, Live Streaming, and More

2D Animator Eon de Bruin

Tell us about your work with Cartoon Animator 2D Software

Why choose Cartoon Animator as platform to create your 2D content?

Favorite Genre or Theme to work with 2D Animation

Cartoon Animator software is easy and enjoyable

Favorite Cartoon Animator Tools and Features

Advice for Aspiring developers considering to sell their art in the 2D Marketplace

What drew your attention to Cartoon Animator?

Future plans with Cartoon Animator and Current Projects

MD McCallum – WarLord