Reallusion releases Character Creator 2.0
Originally posted on 24 March 2017. Scroll down for updates.
Reallusion has released Character Creator 2.0, the latest version of its free tool for creating rigged human characters for use with its own iClone software or other DCC applications, adding support for PBR shading.
Create animation-ready 3D human characters for iClone or other DCC tools
First released in 2015, Character Creator is intended to generate animation-ready 3D human characters.
The software provides an alterative to commercial services like Autodesk’s Character Generator or Adobe’s Fuse CC, or free tools like MakeHuman and Manuel Bastioni Lab.
Although designed for use with Reallusion’s own iClone character animation software – for which it is free to registered users – it can export OBJ or FBX files for use with other DCC applications.
New in Character Creator 2.0: PBR shading
The main change in Character Creator 2.0 is support for physically based shading.
The software comes with a new PBR-based dynamic texture generator, shown in use in the video above to generate quite a good-looking range of leather, wood, fabric and metal textures.
It can also now import PBR textures created in third-party tools – version 2.0 supports Allegorithmic’s Substance .sbsar format – and export PBR content to compatible game engines like Unity and Unreal Engine.
The software can convert assets with textures authored using a traditional specular workflow to the metallic-roughness workflow used in UE4, and enabled by default in tools like Substance Painter.
Support for image-based lighting
In addition, Character Creator 2.0 now supports image-based lighting, with users able to assign a range of readymade lighting schemes, or import custom HDRIs in EXR or HDR formats.
The software includes controls for the blurring the background image against which a character is displayed; and for synching the IBL to the sky sphere or changing the IBL viewing angle.
Export to game engines, other new features
Updated 20 April 2017: Other new features include the option to export animated characters directly to Sketchfab, or in FBX format with rig structures compatible with Unreal Engine 4 or Unity.
The UI of the Appearance Editor has also been updated, with content now organised in a hierarchical list.
There are also a number of smaller changes, including the option to toggle the Conform Clothing option individually for hair and pieces of clothing, which you can find listed in the online changelog.
Pricing and availability
Character Creator 2.0 is available for Windows 7 and above. The full version of the software is free to anyone with a licence of iClone 6 Pro or the upcoming iClone 7, which currently cost $199.
There is also a free Lite edition of Character Creator, which includes all of the features of the commercial version, but limits users to five exports and a maximum of 30 seconds of animation in FBX files.
You can find a feature-comparison table of the different editions here. At time of posting, the Lite edition hadn’t been updated from Character Creator 1.5.
Read an overview of the new features in Character Creator 2.0 on the product website
Read a full list of new features in Character Creator 2.0 in the online changelog