Creating human characters, especially convincing ones, is one of the hardest tasks in 3D art (opens in new tab), so it's always good to learn of new tools that can help make the process easier.
Introducing the new Character Creator (CC) 2.0 (opens in new tab) from Reallusion, featuring enhanced visual quality for 3D characters, with industry standard physically based rendering (PBR) shaders, image-based lighting options, and a new Substance Material Generator to enable you to dynamically design high-quality 3D characters and appearances.
This update allows users to import PBR textures made with 3D paint tools, such as Substance Painter, 3D Coat or Quixel, and export export their Character Creator assets to iClone 7, Unreal, Unity, or Sketchfab with the same PBR visual quality.
Here we take a closer look at some of the updated features:
Physically based rendering shaders
The new Character Creator PBR shading system renders realistic metallic and rough effects that match the visuals in mainstream material applications like Allegorithmic's Substance Painter. A variety of material channels that work in sync with image-based lighting options result in a more accurate interaction between light and surfaces.
Convert non-PBR content
Users can convert their existing library of non-PBR content, utilising traditional shaders, to the new PBR shaders easily. Alternatively, they can manually work with selected objects and materials for single conversions, bringing new life to iClone's legacy content, which can all be repurposed and updated using the multiple material channels in Character Creator.
Image-based lighting
The previous version of Character Creator offered a single light source, and the new 2.0 update now allows users to customise their image-based lighting (IBL) environment in Character Creator, while syncing the sky map to their IBL light with natural DOF effects and colour tone. This way, users can achieve a more accurate preview of what their characters will look like inside a 3D tool or game engine environment.
Appearance Editor and Material Generator
The latest update includes an advanced Substance (Appearance Editor) and Material Generator to create unlimited looks for clothing and objects with multi-layered materials like leather, wood, metals, stone and fabrics. Users can incorporate embedded texture libraries to achieve a new level of realism that takes advantage of the new PBR system while procedurally generating custom variables for edge wear, gashes, paint peel, wrinkles, folds, scratches, grit, rot, rust, abrasions, decals and patterns.
PBR Playsets
Accompanying the new CC 2.0 update are two new Character Creator Content Packs – Assassins Fantasy Playset (opens in new tab) and Anime Character (opens in new tab) – complete with character morphs, clothing, accessories and updated PBR visuals. These new content playsets offer users the option of designing more than one look with the original assets, thanks to multiple preset options and customisation. Now game designers, and 3D animation teams can use these embedded bases to create thousands of accessories and clothes, while using dynamic texture editing to give new looks to all kinds of equipment.
For further information, visit Character Creator website.
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