Tools to watch in Fall 2024: Reblium Studio
CG Channel is on holiday this week. While we’re away, check out five tools that caught our eye this year, but that somehow, we never managed to do a story on. Today: a promising new standalone application for creating ultra-detailed 3D characters for games and animation.
Digital human specialist Reblika creates 3D characters for games, commercials and AI chatbots, for clients including Marvel, Disney, Guerilla Games and Method Studios.
Its new character creation software, Reblium Studio, is based on that in-house toolset, making it possible to create detailed 3D characters for use in games, animations and visualizations.
It runs locally on the user’s workstation, and is available via an all-in-one perpetual license.
What is it?
An offline tool for creating photorealistic human and human-like fantasy 3D characters.
It can generate a character automatically from a text description, but we imagine that most artists will create characters manually, customizing age, sex, ethnicity and body shape via a simple slider-based workflow, and assigning readymade hairstyles, clothing and accessories.
It’s also possible to use Reblium Studio to texture and generate hair grooms for custom 3D characters, if they have the correct topology.
What kind of artists is it aimed at?
As well as artists simply aiming to create characters for personal projects, Reblika describes Reblium as a solution for game development, advertising, architectural rendering, and AR/VR.
Why is it notable?
As a promising alternative to Epic Games’ MetaHuman Creator that runs entirely locally, rather than processing being done in the cloud.
What are its selling points?
Visual quality and ease of use: the software is intended to make it possible to create ultra-realistic 3D characters without the need for a lot of technical work.
What are its key technical features?
Reblium Studio can import assets in FBX format, and export characters in FBX format for the base mesh, with hair grooms in Alembic (ABC) format.
It should be compatible with DCC apps that import FBX files – the documentation namechecks 3ds Max and Maya – but Blender users need an additional script for import to work properly.
Unreal Engine users get a dedicated plugin making it possible to load characters in Reblium’s DHS format into UE5.
What new features are planned?
The online documentation includes an Upcoming section, but at the time of writing, it isn’t live.
You can see the features added since launch in the online changelog: the most recent update, Reblium Studio 1.02, adds support for real-time facial tracking via free iOS app Live Link Face.
What are its system requirements?
Reblium Studio is compatible with Windows 10+. Reblika recommends a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 GPU or better.
The Blender script supports Blender 3.6+. The Unreal Engine plugin supports Unreal Engine 5.1+.
How much does it cost?
Reblium Studio 1.02 has a MSRP of €99.99 (around $110). It’s a perpetual license.
Where can I find more information?
You can find basic information in the online documentation, and a few video tutorials on the Reblium YouTube channel.
Read more about Reblium Studio on the product website
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