Reallusion reveals Character Creator 2020 product roadmap
Originally posted on 19 February 2020. Scroll down for news of the latest tech previews.
Reallusion has revealed its 2020 product roadmap for Character Creator, its software for generating rigged 3D characters for use in DCC applications and game engines.
Features scheduled for Character Creator 3.22, 3.3 and 3.4 include a new ‘Smart Gallery’ content management system, a full-body skin material generator, and a facial hair generator.
Character Creator 3.22: new Smart Gallery system
The first feature to be added is Reallusion’s Smart Gallery asset management system, due in Character Creator 3.22 later this month.
It is intended to install and help organise content from Reallusion’s online marketplace, with support for asset tagging and search; and for content developers, the option to package and upload content for sale.
The same functionality will also be added to Character Creator’s sister applications: to iClone in this month’s iClone 7.72 update, and to Cartoon Animator later in the year.
Updated 25 February 2020: Character Creator 3.22 and iClone 7.72 have now shipped. Smart Gallery is a separate plugin and can be downloaded here for free.
Character Creator 3.3: improved character mesh, UVs and skin shading
Character Creator 3.3, due in Q2 2020, is a more substantial update, improving the mesh topology and UVs for characters generated by the software.
The new CC3 Base+ mesh introduces separate meshes for the tear line of the eye and an occlusion mesh for the corneal surface, to improve the realism of a character’s eyes in renders.
The topology of the body has also been improved, as shown above, moving to more even quad-based geometry with better edge flow, intended to reduce unwanted deformations during animation.
Changes to UVs include support for the UDIM format, intended to make it easier to texture characters in Mari or the Substance tools; and higher texture resolutions for a character’s nose, lips and hands.
The skin-generation system added in Character Creator 3.2 will also be extended from a character’s face to the entire body, including the scalp, neck, hands and feet.
Updated 18 June 2020: Reallusion has released sneak peeks for several of the new features.
You can see a video showing the new eye meshes above. The topology and UV layout of the CC3 Base+ mesh are shown in images in this forum thread. You can read about the new SkinGen toolset here.
Character Creator 3.4: new facial hair system, support for dynamic wrinkles
Finally, Character Creator 3.4, due in the “second half of 2020” will introduce a similar system for generating realistic facial hair, including eyebrows, beards and stubble.
The release will also add an automated wrinkle-generation system, originally scheduled for Character Creator 3.3, but pushed back in order to combine it with an “enhanced lip sync mechanism”.
Pricing and system requirements
Character Creator 3.22 is available now. Character Creator 3.3 is due to ship in Q2 2020, and Character 3.4 in the second half of the year.
Character Creator is available for 64-bit Windows 7+. The base edition is free to registered users of iClone 7; the full Pipeline edition costs $199. You can see a feature comparision of the two editions here.
To export characters from the free edition of Character Creator in OBJ or FBX format, users need a separate add-on, 3DXChange. It costs $199 for the Pro edition and $499 for the Pipeline edition.
Read more about Reallusion’s 2020 product roadmap for Character Creator on its forum