On May 26, 2023 (local time), Reallusion announced the release of Character Creator Pose Tools, a collaboration tool between Character Creator and ZBrush.
Character Creator Pose Tools
Reallusion has partnered with Maxon to introduce a new approach to character posing, the Character Creator (CC) and ZBrush posing pipeline, and released the Character Creator Pose Tools ZBrush plug-in for character artists. .
This ZBrush posing pipeline can greatly streamline your character posing workflow.
Thanks to an auto-rigging tool (CC AccuRIG) that works with ZBrush sub-tools that include both soft and hard surfaces, custom pose editing with HumanIK and hand gesture control can be done in minutes. Every detail sculpted in ZBrush is preserved by an intuitive GoZ and subdivision workflow, while Reallusion’s ecosystem of motion and mocaps offers endless posing possibilities.
Feature highlights
ZBrush Pose Tools allow designers to easily manage multiple poses of the same character and refine them at will. It has the following functions, such as being able to switch between poses with a single click.
Free posing workflow
Character Creator (CC) Pose Tools for ZBrush seamlessly integrates with ZBrush layers to facilitate CC auto-rigging, posing and real-time updates on all sub-tools. In addition to pose management, it is also possible to draw detailed character designs in high resolution, allowing you to precisely correct poses.
Auto-rigging ZBrush characters
■Rigging Multimesh Models: Analysis of Hard and Soft Surfaces
Rigging a ZBrush character with multiple sub-tools can be done with AccuRIG with precise joint placement and natural skin weighting on soft surfaces. Hard surfaces are automatically connected to the closest bone to ensure robust integrity. You can also connect bones, such as manually fine-tuning bone placement and adjusting skin weights.
■Automating skin weights and bone placement
The animation quality of a rigged character is highly dependent on proper skin weight assignments relative to its controlling bones. AccuRIG mimics the weight-painting patterns of professional riggers for natural movement of body joints.
Character design using GoZ
■repetitive design
GoZ Round Trip Design allows artists to easily refine the character’s body shape while maintaining mesh flow and vertex count consistency. GoZ allows for seamless reapplication of poses, eliminating the need to recreate character rigs.
■Add accessories
By adding or exchanging accessories, you can create unique figures from one model. Accessories can be quickly attached to any part of the body and synced with compatible accessories using GoZ. Character Creator’s gallery serves as a centralized hub for managing various accessories for each character, allowing you to attach weapons to your hands and strategically place armor parts.
■Accurate physics simulation
Physics simulation is essential to enhance cinematic presence, such as superheroes in flowing capes and dancers spinning ribbons gracefully. Physics simulation allows you to create natural cloth shapes without the need to sculpt wrinkles and creases in the cloth.
posing
■Create themed poses from motion library
Create a variety of poses with themed motion libraries, where each frame of animation is a potential source of unique poses.
Character Creator has a wealth of animations and poses to inspire your creative ideas. ActorCore also provides access to thousands of premium mocap animations and stylish hand-keyed motions, all organized by category.
■Human IK and Gesture Control
HumanIK editors like Maya and MotionBuilder can be used to easily create natural poses. Maintain perfect character balance while adjusting root movements, or lean your body as you drag your limbs. A comprehensive collection of gesture control gizmos and a gesture library are also provided, saving you a lot of time making manual adjustments.
■detail refinement
In addition to adjusting the silhouette, you can also pay attention to the details of the pose, such as muscles and wrinkles. These changes are recorded only for the current pose without affecting other poses.
Pose management
■growing library
In ZBrush, updating sub-tools when adding or switching layers can be a daunting task, but the pose tool receives poses directly from the character creator, efficiently manages the pose library, and automatically updates all sub-tools when transitioning between poses. Tools can be updated automatically.
■scale fitting
ZBrush models can be resized to match Character Creator’s scaling rules. This is an important first step in achieving accurate autorigging and posing compatibility between the two programs.
■subdivision
You can move freely between subdivision levels of all subtools. You can increase or decrease subdivision levels, or apply the highest or lowest subdivision level at once.
■ Detail up
Detail layers can be used to add accents to character designs. Since it can be applied to all poses managed by the pose tool, versatile and efficient character creation is possible.
tutorial
The official tutorial video has been released.
install
The following videos demonstrate how to install the Pose Tools plugin for ZBrush and the Pose Link plugin for Character Creator.
basic operation
In this introductory tutorial, you’ll learn the basics of working with the ZBrush plugin and how it can save you time when creating and editing poses.
Rigging
In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to use the ZRemesher plugin to reduce the polygon count of your character and rig it quickly and easily with AccuRig to make it compatible with our motion library and animation tools.
Add accessories
In this tutorial, you can learn how to add accessories to your character and set everything up in CC, using different poses and presets to show your desired pose and accessory combination.
posing
In this tutorial, you’ll learn about this workflow and how to customize character poses in Zbrush using the vast motion library and motion tools.
For more information,Character Creator Pose Tools website,or Go to the Character Creator Pose Tools manual page
Pricing and Downloads
This Pose Tools plugin is free and allows you to build and manage your personal library, refine individual poses, and switch between poses with a single click.
The plugin is compatible with Pixologic ZBrush 2021, Maxon ZBrush 2023.x_Betax, Maxon ZBrush 2022 and newer.
Character Creator Pose Tools free downloadFrom here
CC-to-ZBrush Posing Pipeline, Available Now!
