Character Creation

This book contains articles about various character creation tools and processes.

Rigging a Fuse Character

Once you have created a Fuse character, you will need to upload it to Mixamo.com in order to rig it for use in Unity, Unreal, etc.

1) In Fuse, got to File > Export > Export as .obj

2) Leave the checkbox settings as they are, and click "OK"

3) Choose a location to save the character to. The character will be saved in its own folder in this location. The character folder will contain the .obj file plus textures, normal maps, etc.

4) In Windows Explorer, zip the character folder to a .zip format. You can use the built in Windows zip tool (Right click on the folder > Send to > Compressed (zipped) folder) or you can use 7-Zip or similar.

5) Open a web browser and go to www.mixamo.com.

6) Use Google and your SU credentials to log in to Mixamo.

7) On the Mixamo website, navigate to the "Characters" tab. 

8) ON the right side of the page, click the "Upload Character" button.

9) Drag and drop the zipped character folder onto the landing box. Read and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the upload process.

10) You will eventually reach a dialogue screen where you will be asked to "auto-rig" your character. Drag the various markers to the correct positions on your character, carefully following the on-screen instructions. For the Skeleton LOD drop-down, make sure "Standard Skeleton (65)" is selected.

11) Click "Next." The auto-rigger algorithm will prepare your character. This may take a few minutes.

12) When the auto-rigger is finished and you are satisfied with the result, click "Next" until the dialogue window closes.

13) To download the rigged character back to your workstation, click the "Download" button on the right side of the web interface.

14) In the dialogue window that opens, choose:

15) Click "Download. The character will be downloaded to your usual downloads folder as a .fbx file. You will then be able to use this file in Unity or Unreal. 

Poly Modelling a Character

Getting Started

Creating characters from scratch is often the most advanced process for 3D modelling. For characters used in game engines, we focus on not using sculpting tools (like clay) and rely on reference images and applying faces to good topology. A constant consideration is taken when modelling as characters will be outfitted with an animation rig later, as well as morphs or blend-shapes for facial expression.

This is a YouTube playlist

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLL3OEv6vd5VBr3b5ZAFZcBlUKW50WNXee

What is covered

Where to go from here?

Research standard character rigging in blender and confirm that animations look well from premade animations from either Mixamo or our Motion Capture Lab.

Research morphs or blend-shapes in Blender so that facial animations can be applied to your character(s).