A Have a look at the Headshot 2 Mesh Function

A few of you studying this already know in regards to the energy of Character Creator and the way it’s improved over time with extra options and instruments. There are lots of new customers becoming a member of our ranks that aren’t fairly positive simply what Character Creator is, so for them, I’ll begin with just a little overview then we’ll transfer onto the Headshot 2 Mesh characteristic that permits anybody to place a customized head on a functioning Character Creator physique.

Once I first obtained into creating 3D belongings, with Studio Max because it was identified then, I purposely averted creating a selected asset. A 3D mesh character. It wasn’t the making of the mesh that I didn’t like. Relatively it was the in depth skinning of the mesh to the bone construction that might eat a day or two very simply with most of that spent on the fingers and different smaller joints.

Anybody who has rigged (skinned) a 3D skeleton is aware of simply how time-consuming it may be and what a artistic buzz kill it’s. I may end up loads of props in the identical time it took to pores and skin a personality.   Even skinned props had been a lot simpler except they’d loads of small bones.

BACKGROUND: Character Creation

Again within the early days rigging was a time period used to arrange a personality with a management panel for animators. Every transferring half needed to be wired to a panel with controls created out of splines. That wasn’t a nasty job in comparison with skinning however that’s how sophisticated animation was. Now rigging has turn out to be synonymous with skinning so don’t be confused if you happen to see the phrases utilized in alternative ways at totally different instances. Management panels have fallen out of favor with fashionable instruments so rigging means skinning to loads of creators.

To provide you an thought of what it was wish to create a personality 10 to fifteen years in the past, at the very least in my pipeline, you need to think about an extended course of, days and at instances a few weeks simply to get a personality created, rigged, reviewed, and revised to satisfy the wants of the animators. First was the idea artwork drawn by a superb artist which was then changed into a T-Posed character mesh. This was despatched upline for approval and was revised by way of a course of that ultimately created a working character.

After this, at the very least in my case, the skinned mesh was despatched to a texture artist with UVs mapped out. Typically the artist would map their very own UVs, however it was one other layer of the method within the making of a personality and turned out some gorgeous work within the last product. Specialists dominated the day again then utterly totally different than right this moment’s Generalist method to work the place we do nearly every part as a substitute of a manufacturing pipeline of artists.

I’ve informed you all this simply to get thus far:

Character Creator 4 does all this be just right for you.

If you’re not new to Character Creator, you then already know the facility of the software however if you’re a brand new consumer simply getting a primary look there are some issues it is advisable know. You might be supplied with female and male base meshes skinned and able to go. These can be utilized as a base mannequin to export out in FBX or OBJ to the clothes maker of your alternative like Marvelous Designer. The garments you make are then imported into Character Creator and skinned with a number of clicks. It doesn’t need to be a head mesh. You possibly can extract or lower the top off an present mesh and use the method to switch it to a working CC character.

ZBrush GoZ can also be built-in into Character Creator permitting for a seamless switch of the bottom mesh to and from ZBrush. This permits us to harness the facility of one of the vital artistic instruments within the business to re-sculpt the bottom mesh to suit our wants. It’s also possible to create clothes and accessories in ZBrush in addition to paint the textures. All this with out exporting and importing and these are only a few of the nice instruments and options obtainable in Character Creator 4.

Making characters is now a pleasing expertise with Reallusion taking out the handbook skinning. You possibly can nonetheless tweak the automated rigging outcomes with one more skinning software that offers bone-by-bone entry.

We will all be character builders now. We will use our personal idea artwork, use third-party sources or no matter pops into our head to make distinctive characters to make use of in manufacturing or promote within the Reallusion Market. In right this moment’s world, with bills rising, you may leverage your character-creating expertise with an additional earnings stream from {the marketplace} and you may embrace props too. So Reallusion isn’t simply giving us a possibility to make our personal characters for storytelling however they’re offering a technique of future earnings for people who select to sell assets within the Market.

GETTING STARTED – The Cat Burglar

Headshot plug-in model 1 centered on image-to-head know-how. Model 2 provides a brand new mesh software to the combination that works like a head wrapper that transforms the bottom mesh form into the imported head mesh. Whereas the picture software in Headshot remains to be a go-to software, the brand new mesh characteristic takes the plug-in to a different stage. In our first instance, I downloaded a cat’s head mannequin from Sketchfab by nonlly. After dragging and dropping the top mesh into the Character Creator 4 workspace I centered it within the viewport and began the Headshot mesh plug-in course of by clicking the Mesh, Begin Head Era buttons. I had my head meshes already textured earlier than beginning this course of and bringing them into CC4 Headshot 2.

As soon as the mesh was loaded up, I manually positioned the markers, 32 of them, throughout the imported mesh whereas being cautious to outline the ears. This may occasionally sound like loads of markers however it’s actually not and doesn’t take lengthy when you’ve executed a number of of them. The face itself goes rapidly and this head mesh didn’t want additional markers to delineate a extra advanced mesh form. In some instances, I’ve discovered that additional markers are wanted when the again of the top is a extra radical form than the native mesh.

From right here I refined the mesh a bit however not extensively and unchecked the field to retain the unique neck form. I may have spent extra time right here, however I obtained nice outcomes the primary trip. A subsequent Doberman mannequin took just a little forwards and backwards to get the mesh form proper. For that mannequin I went forwards and backwards from Align Factors to Head Gen a number of instances to maneuver some markers. There was nothing to it.

Ultimately it turned out to be an incredible anthropomorphic Cat character that may put on Character Creator clothes and accessories.

So, this character turned, after all, a cat burglar and if you’ll have a cat burglar then we’d like a Police canine in order that was my subsequent goal as I discovered a pleasant full physique Doberman mesh by InaweofGod on Sketchfab which I took into 3DS Max and eliminated all however the head and neck of the canine.

CHARACTER 2 – Police Canine

From this level on I adopted the identical course of I used with the Cat head besides I had to make use of extra markers. I ended up utilizing 40 to get the outcomes I wished. This may range between customers and can turn out to be even easier because the neighborhood learns and shares extra ideas and tips.

Even with the forwards and backwards it solely took a matter of minutes to get the outcomes I wanted. This appears to be like like space for experimentation to see simply what could be executed with this new software. Since I’m a infamous iClone asset hoarder I dove right into a golden oldie, the Occupations Police Officer, to make use of the equipment and cap together with inventory pants and shirt texture black to match the hat. Earlier than lengthy, my anthropomorphic model of a Police Canine was born.

Beneath is one other instance of different characters I created throughout testing with the Headshot 2 plug-in.  They vary from ZBrush-created and kitbashed to Sketchfab meshes. All created functioning characters in lower than an hour apart from the primary few makes an attempt. As soon as I obtained a number of runs underneath my belt it turned a lot simpler and far faster to end up a personality with this technique.

SUMMARY

In future installments, we’ll be having a look into what’s being executed with Character Creator. We’ll additionally have a look at how customers take Headshot to new ranges of creativity producing among the most original characters within the Reallusion universe.  

With Character Creator 4 and Headshot 2 nearly anybody could make characters that aren’t solely useful however dynamic and cinematically thrilling including one other component to your manufacturing or serving to you create belongings for others to understand their manufacturing desires.