Creating YOUR Custom FaceRig Avatar and importer notes

[Adina_Animaze]

Awesome folks,

To create your own FaceRig 3D avatar you need to respect the requirements from our documentation.

You can find all the necessary documentation using this direct link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9A2HzJCWwFWYnN6SFRPbW1mRWM/view?usp=sharing

We've also made a Step-by-step Tutorial showcasing our process and highlighting the importer specific parts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVlQvYdedc0


NOTE: This video is a GUIDE that walks you through the steps of creating and importing a custom model into FaceRig. This is not a 3D art tutorial per se. You can find loads of tutorials online for every single 3D art step shown here. During the course of the guide we will point out certain FaceRig specific settings that must not be omitted .


We’ve added Chibi Theo in FaceRig Classic. And created a skin for him so you guys can test it through the importer (:

You can find the files for Chibiborg here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9A2HzJCWwFWaEhHVGg0VUlmeFU/view?usp=sharing

Another example can be found here:
https://drive.google.com/a/holotech.eu/file/d/0B8KlsC2kpc7nTW5YNzFWNDBqb0k/view?usp=sharing

We've added a New Custom Model Import Wizard ( tool for modders) :D

This should help content creators as it provides a lot more transparency, control and feedback for the entire custom model import process. You can find this tool in :

[Steam library folder ] FaceRig\Bin\Tools\ImportWizardNew"
[Steam library folder ] FaceRig\Bin\Tools\ImportWizardNew\HowToUseImportWizard.pdf"

Note that the old one is still available. Both importers will run in parallel.
However the old importer tool isn't supported anymore and the documentation for the old importer isn't available anymore.

The main difference between the new and old importer is the way it handles animations.
The old version relies on certain bone names and specific animation relations that could not be updated with ease. The new importer tool requires animations as FaceRig needs them but it gives the liberty to choose the bone hierarchy. It also enables us to keep up to date the features exposed to the community artists.

The data will mainly require collada and targa files. The big difference with this new version is that it is organized differently.

How to use the importer wizard:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B9A2HzJCWwFWbTgxS3NLeTZMVFk?usp=sharing

If you have any questions, you can contact us at artsupport[at]holotech[dot]eu

[xdshot]

Face flexes (vertex animation) still not supported? That's only thing that keeps me for now.

[Adina_Animaze]

Originally posted by xDShot™:

Face flexes (vertex animation) still not supported? That's only thing that keeps me for now.

We can't support blend-shapes with the current engine. We do however, plan on adding them in the future (:

[xdshot]

Gonna wait for it. Thanks for answering :)

[KLARI]

five months later, how's this particular feature coming along?

[david_animaze]

Originally posted by K L Λ Г I:

five months later, how's this particular feature coming along?

Hello, we're working on it and it will be integrated in our new SDK that will be released sometimes this year.

[Jackalope_908]

It would be awesome if there were base generic heads/bodies that could have customizable features, not unlike the Muppets' "Whatnot"[muppet.wikia.com] puppets.

Ideally something that comes already bones and rigged, can be altered to suit the tastes and needs of the user (and used as an example for more advanced users), and easily imported, alterations and all, into FaceRig with minimal headaches. I've got no illusions that this would be easy or cheap, of course, just putting the idea out there.

[Adina_Animaze]

Originally posted by Jackalope_908:

It would be awesome if there were base generic heads/bodies that could have customizable features, not unlike the Muppets' "Whatnot"[muppet.wikia.com] puppets.

Ideally something that comes already bones and rigged, can be altered to suit the tastes and needs of the user (and used as an example for more advanced users), and easily imported, alterations and all, into FaceRig with minimal headaches. I've got no illusions that this would be easy or cheap, of course, just putting the idea out there.

A digital character creator is not as easy to develop as the Muppet Whatnot, but yeah, we have been taking this into consideration for a while now.It just takes longer since it requires a lot of resources.

[Jackalope_908]

Originally posted by Aty:

Originally posted by Jackalope_908:

It would be awesome if there were base generic heads/bodies that could have customizable features, not unlike the Muppets' "Whatnot"[muppet.wikia.com] puppets.

Ideally something that comes already bones and rigged, can be altered to suit the tastes and needs of the user (and used as an example for more advanced users), and easily imported, alterations and all, into FaceRig with minimal headaches. I've got no illusions that this would be easy or cheap, of course, just putting the idea out there.

A digital character creator is not as easy to develop as the Muppet Whatnot, but yeah, we have been taking this into consideration for a while now.It just takes longer since it requires a lot of resources.

Of course, that's why I stuck that "no illusions" bit at the end. This whole system is frightfully complicated and the work you've already done is not to be dismissed lightly.

[strwbrryJen]

I have been trying to import a custom Avatar model into face rig for a while now and I keep hitting roadblocks with the importer (I am a trained CG artist, and have even been trying to reverse engineer the chibiborg model) so I am wondering I there is an official place to get support for it, and yes I have looked at the official forums and read through the documentation.

I am constantly getting two warnings with the importer and Im not sure whats causing it. one is that there is no Camera Node, despite importing the chibiborg model with no changes and the second is about duplicate hierarchies and name Duplicates.

I am hoping to successfully get a custom model into the face rig software.

I do also have a criticism of the step by step tutorial video which I think needs to be mentioned. while it shows every part of the process , there is no explanation of why your doing what your doing in the video. This really only becomes an issue when you actually import the model since most of the people watching are probably already 3d artists but like I said at the beginning at the beginning i am a cg artist and I'm still and ground zero when it comes to importing 3d Avatar Models.

all the best and despite the custom import stuff i've been having a lot of fun with face rig overall keep up the good work. And if can figure out how to get a custom avatar into face rig i'll make tutorials showing people how to do the same

[Adina_Animaze]

Hi, you can contact us at artsupport[at]holotech[dot]eu and send us the model. Our team will check it and tell you what to fix in order to make it work (:

Regarding the video, we didn't feel it was necessary to explain more since everything is mentioned in the documentation. Most of our requirements are related to the engine we use, that is why skipping a step is a bad idea.

[LitlToast]

Can you import blender models to Facerig?

[david_animaze]

Originally posted by CyborgGamer21:

Can you import blender models to Facerig?

Provided you follow our documentation on creating a 3D avatar and the tutorial regarding the importing flow (found in the original post), you should have no problem in importing Blender models to FaceRig.

[DebiTheFox MODELING 3D]

Originally posted by CyborgGamer21:

Can you import blender models to Facerig?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELjEpEXgqVg&t=935s

[Keywee]

Originally posted by Aty:

Originally posted by xDShot™:

Face flexes (vertex animation) still not supported? That's only thing that keeps me for now.

We can't support blend-shapes with the current engine. We do however, plan on adding them in the future (:

Just wondering what the status is on this one?

Also, do you guys ever intend on making a clean simple video explaining how to port a 3D model into facerig? I’ve been able to port models in many other softwares but as someone who does not do well with reading guides I’ve only struggled with facerig.

[david_animaze]

Originally posted by Keywee:

Originally posted by Aty:

We can't support blend-shapes with the current engine. We do however, plan on adding them in the future (:

Just wondering what the status is on this one?

Also, do you guys ever intend on making a clean simple video explaining how to port a 3D model into facerig? I’ve been able to port models in many other softwares but as someone who does not do well with reading guides I’ve only struggled with facerig.

There's this tutorial on how to create an avatar that also has a portion in which the avatar is then imported, showing the process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVlQvYdedc0

Regarding the status on blend-shapes, the SDK is still under development, so we can't give any updates on that.