Reallusion releases Character Creator 4.1
Reallusion has unveiled Character Creator 4.1, the latest version of its 3D character creation tool.
The release integrates an extended version of the technology behind AccuRig, Reallusion’s auto-rigging software, into Character Creator, and adds new options for subdividing characters and generating LODs.
New automatic character-rigging system based on AccuRig
The biggest change in Character Creator 4.1 is the integration of the underlying technology from AccuRig, Reallusion’s new free automatic character-rigging software.
Released earlier this year, the software generates full-body and finger rigs for biped characters, and exports them in FBX and USD format for use in DCC apps and game engines: you can find more details here.
The version integrated into Character Creator is described as Advanced AccuRig and includes the option to refine skin weights.
Users can choose to have accessories use the skin weighting, and follow the deformation of the character’s body like clothing; or to define them as a hard-surface objects attached to bones, like armour.
It is also possible to apply dynamics to loose clothing.
Other advanced features include the option to re-rig part or all of a character that has an existing rig, making it possible to generate a new body rig but retain the original facial rig, for example.
Users can also edit the bodily proportions of a character after it has been rigged, and save the proportions as a template that can be applied to other characters: for example, to create base male and female rigs.
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Decimate meshes to generate LODs, or subdivide them for facial close-ups
Other changes include three new presets for generating LOD (Level of Detail) assets, reducing the rig complexity, poly count and texture resolution of standard Character Creator CC3+ characters.
The presets – ActorBuild, LOD1 and LOD2 – are intended for characters due to be seen up close, in the mid-distance, and in the background of a scene, and represent geometry counts between 800 and 7,000 polys.
As well as reducing the complexity of a character before export, it is also now possible to do the reverse, with new options to subdivide characters to generate high-res versions suitable for use in offline animation, particularly for facial close-ups.
Subdivision preserves skin weights, and is supported for export in FBX, OBJ and USD formats.
Updates to the content manager and GoZ bridge to ZBrush
In addition, Character Creator’s content manager now supports searches based on animation tags, and the option to import and export tags, making it possible to rebuild a content library on a new machine.
Reallusion has also updated the GoZ bridge for exchanging assets between Character Creator and ZBrush, with the pose and body scale of a character now preserved on import.
You can find a list of smaller new features and bugfixes via the links below.
Pricing and availability
Character Creator 4.1 is available for Windows 7+. New licences have a MSRP of $299.
Read a full list of new features in Character Creator 4.1 in the online release notes