MakeHuman 1.1 ships
The team behind MakeHuman has officially released version 1.1.0 of the open-source character-generation tool: its first major update since the milestone stable 1.0.0 release two years ago.
It’s a big update, too, adding a completely new skeleton and posing system with support for auto-rigging, a new facial expression system, a new library of skin textures, and binary FBX export.
Build custom characters for use in commercial projects
MakeHuman lets users generate characters of custom age, build, gender and ethnicity, complete with clothing, and export them to Blender, or in standard 3D file formats like OBJ and Collada.
(To that, the latest update adds support for binary FBX export, which should work for “most third-part applications” that support FBX.)
The resulting meshes are optimised for subdivision, and the content is licensed under a CC0 licence, meaning that it can be used commercially, including in closed-source games.
New full-body posing and facial expression systems, new skin texture library
New features in MakeHuman 1.1.0 include a new character skeleton and a new posing system with auto-rigging, adding support for custom weights for proxies, and for modelling while the mesh is posed.
When the character is exported, the pose selected in MakeHuman is used as the rest pose, including the option to export in the T-pose, with “initial” support for special poses like high-heeled shoes.
Poses can also be loaded from motion-capture data files imported in BVH format.
In addition, there is a new facial expression system, based around a bone-based facial rig, including a library with facial expressions; and a new library of skin textures including age variations.
There are also a few other improvements and UI changes which you can see in the rather nice infographic accompanying the release.
Download it now
MakeHuman 1.1.0 is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. The Blender tools are a separate download.
Read a full list of new features in MakeHuman 1.1.0 on the software’s wiki