Reallusion releases Character Creator 5
Reallusion has released Character Creator 5, the new version of the 3D character creation tool.
The release introduces new HD bases for Character Creator characters with “up to 16x” more mesh detail, revamped eye structures and skin textures, and new facial animation profiles.
Other key features include ActorMixer, a new system for generating new 3D characters by blending non-destructively between up to six existing characters.
There are also updates to Character Creator’s integration plugins for Blender, ZBrush and Unreal Engine – the latter improving workflow with MetaHuman characters – plus new plugins for Maya and Marmoset Toolbag.
A powerful, intuitive commercial 3D character creator for games, animation and VFX
Originally released in 2015, Character Creator is a 3D character creation tool for game development, animation, motion graphics, previs, VFX and visualization work.
Users can quickly create characters – primarily humanoids – by customizing a readymade base mesh with intuitive slider controls, or by importing and converting an existing model.
The software includes a detail human skin shader, and toolsets for creating hair and clothing, augmented by paid asset packs from Reallusion’s online content store.
Characters have a full-body skeletal rig and blendshape-based facial rig, and can be exported in FBX or OBJ format, or transferred directly to iClone, Reallusion’s animation software.
There are also an increasing number of official plugins to streamline export to other DCC applications and game engines, including 3ds Max, Blender, Unity, Unreal Engine and ZBrush.
Character Creator 5: new HD character bases
The biggest update to the software since Character Creator 4 in 2022, Character Creator 5 increases the level of detail of the base characters, both in terms of geometry and materials.
Its new HD character bases support two levels of subdivision, and “offer up to 16 times more mesh detail” for close-up renders or 3D printing.
The software’s morph system – for adjusting a character’s overall proportions and the shape of individual body parts – has also been updated to support the new character bases.
However, you don’t seem to get any new morph shapes unless you buy the HD Ultimate Morphs pack, a separate $149 add-on with 20 HD head morphs and 152 HD body morphs.
More detailed eyes and skin textures
The characters’ eye structure has been reworked, with a more realistic pupil depth, tearline and eye ducts, and more detailed iris textures.
Eyelashes can now be applied in multiple layers, and support the same Smart Hair Shader that Character Creator uses for characters’ hair.
Character Creator also now supports textures up to 8K resolution, making it possible to display finer details in a character’s skin.
It is also now possible to represent skin surface details like pores and wrinkles as displacement maps as well as normal maps.
Displacement maps actually modify the character’s skin surface in 3D rather than faking the fine surface geometry as a render-time effect, increasing the realism of close-up renders.
Two new facial animation profiles improve performance with facial mocap data
For facial animation, Character Creator 5 characters support two new facial profiles, Extended Plus and HD, in addition to the existing CC4 Standard and Extended profiles.
Both provide extra control corrective sliders for fixing artifacts in facial expressions, and non-linear sliders, for enhancing expressions.
In Extended Plus, the extra corrective sliders are primarily for mouth shapes; while the HD profile also provides corrective sliders for eyes.
Both are intended to improve performance with facial mocap data, while the HD profile is also fully compatible with the facial expression system for Unreal Engine MetaHuman characters.
New ActorMixer system creates new 3D characters by blending existing ones
Another major new feature in Character Creator 5 is ActorMixer, a new system for blending non-destructively between up to six existing 3D characters to create new looks.
It works with entire bodies, entire heads, or individual facial features.
Although the base functionality is part of Character Creator 5 itself, the advanced features are only available via a $199 add-on, ActorMixer Pro.
Pro features include one-click randomization, the option to “make any character mix-ready”, and the option to package custom characters for sale as mixer-ready assets.
Pro users also get access to the ActorMixer Core library of over 40 readymade 3D scanned heads to use as sources for character mixing.
Updated Unreal Engine integration plugins streamline workflow with MetaHumans
Outside the core application, Reallusion has also updated the plugins integrating Character Creator with other CG software.
The biggest changes are to integration with Unreal Engine, for which Reallusion provides two free plugins: Auto Setup for Unreal Engine and Character Creator UE Control Rig.
Key changes include the option to export Character Creator characters with skeletons optimized for Unreal Engine 4 and 5, with bind poses optimized for MetaHuman characters.
Since CC5 characters now share the same skeletal structure and facial controls as MetaHumans, it is also possible to swap between the two in Unreal Engine’s Sequencer Editor without having to retarget animation, as shown in the video above.
In addition, facial animation data from MetaHuman Animator (MHA) – which transfers the facial performance of an actor from video captured on a smartphone or head-mounted camera to a MetaHuman character – can now be exported back to Character Creator 5 in CSV format.
The results can be refined with a new free HD facial control plugin available in Reallusion Hub.
Updates to the existing Blender and ZBrush integrations
The Blender and ZBrush integrations have also been updated to support Character Creator 5.
The free Auto Setup for Blender plugin now supports the MetaHuman-compatible facial expression rig from the HD profile, and the displacement maps it uses for facial wrinkles.
The plugin now supports both Cycles and Eevee, Blender’s two main render engines, making it possible to adjust the intensity of the displacement when using either renderer.
For ZBrush users, the paid Face Tools plugin now supports wrinkle-to-displacement workflows, and can now bake normal and displacement maps at up to 8K resolution when exporting new detail sculpted in ZBrush back to Character Creator.
New free, Windows-only integration plugins for Maya and Marmoset Toolbag
In addition, Character Creator now has two completely new integrations, for Maya and Marmoset Toolbag.
CC Auto Setup for Maya is a free download, and is compatible with Maya 2024 and 2025, although not currently Maya 2026, and with version 5.4.3+ of the Arnold renderer.
CC Auto Setup for Marmoset Toolbag is also free, and is compatible with Toolbag 5.0+.
Both new plugins are available for Windows only.
Compatible with Character Creator 4 and iClone
According to the online FAQs that Reallusion posted when it previewed Character Creator 5 earlier this year, content and plugins for Character Creator 4 are compatible with CC5.
iClone has also been updated to support the new features in Character Creator 5. You can find more details of iClone 8.6 in this story.
Price and system requirements
Character Creator 5.0 is compatible with Windows 10+. A new perpetual license costs $299.
The ActorMixer Pro plugin and HD Ultimate Morphs collection are compatible with Character Creator 5.0. ActorMixer Pro has a MSRP of $199; HD Ultimate Morphs has a MSRP of $149.
All three tools are also available via a new $499 product bundle, CC5 Deluxe.
Read an overview of the new features in Character Creator 5 on Reallusion’s blog
Read a full list of new features in Character Creator 5 in the online release notes
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