SAN JOSE, CA — Reallusion has launched the iClone Game Character Design Platform, a lip-sync ready 3D character solution. The platform takes the 3D character creation process into another generation where the long and arduous 3D character design is no longer necessary.
Designing a high-quality, playable character is a long and difficult process which can involve a massive amount of efforts from multiple professional talents working in 3DS Max or Maya. Furthermore, with the market trending towards a more intricate story-driven game design, developers are investing a greater amount of time on optimizing details that deepen immersions such as facial expressions, audio lip-syncing for cut-scenes, NPC interactions and other game-design logic.
This is where iClone Character Creator Platform comes in. The latest Reallusion offering provides developers with access to 3D characters with highly-morphable topology, clothing dress-up system that conforms to all body shapes, and facial and body rig that are ready for animation. Developers no longer need to design 3D characters from scratch and worry about any technical details. Instead, they can concentrate on refining the character's contour and clothing to generate truly unique characters with shared facial control and motions.
“This is a game changer for developers everywhere using Unity3D, Unreal Engine and Stingray for their game design,” says John Martin, VP product, Reallusion. “We have worked closely with the game community to create this product platform. Our goal throughout has been to empower developers with a powerful quick-start solution. We understand that with aggressive deadlines to meet, speed and customizability are crucial. That is why all characters created from this platform are pre-rigged and comes with hundreds of motions ready for use. Best of all, these characters are capable of vivid facial expressions and can perform natural lip-sync automatically without painstakingly keying each frame. There is no other solution in the market that can do this.”
The complete 3D character creation workflow begins with a user designing a character using a range of 3D morphs, texture designs, and clothing options. The character can be animated in realtime using Kinect for Xbox One. iClone with HumanIK can be used to refine motion, add lip-sync and facial animation. The character can then be exported to a game engine using 3DXchange.
Pros can get a look at iClone Character Creator via free 3D character downloads for Unity 3D platform. Three fully rigged, lip-sync ready characters in various styles are available and showcase a wide array of character designs (www.reallusion.com/iclone/game).