Crowds in Blender are EASY with Procedural Crowds!

In this video, we check out Procedural Crowds - a new Blender Add-On specifically designed to help you quickly add groups of people to your models!
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - Introduction
0:15 - Where to find Procedural Crowds
1:59 - How to install Procedural Crowds
2:40 - Adding an audience
4:42 - Adding a circular group
5:18 - Animating crowds along a path
6:11 - Using march for more path animation control
6:50 - Using random walk to simulate walking crowds and collisions
7:59 - Creating Stadium Crowds
8:55 - Adding individual characters and animating them

[@TheCGEssentials]

Hi everyone! Let me know what you think about Procedural Crowds in the comments below! :)

[@disguisedkratos4723]

I love how you introduce yourself, Theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee CG Essentials

[@ECHSBACHS]

Can You export them / Animated into Unreal 5.1 ?

[@rodcav3]

Really cool add-on everything works as illustrated except the Stadium Crowds...see Stadium issue I'm have here kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z6bchqBmbZWMjNk....Please help..what am I doing wrong????

[@TheCGEssentials]

@@rodcav3 Not 100% sure, but I'd try a couple things. First, for that mesh, make sure to apply your rotation and scale after you resize it. Also, make sure it's large enough for the objects to actually be placed on it. They're real world size, so if your mesh is really small, it's going to mess up the object placement. The other thing you could try is subdividing that mesh to add some additional mesh information for the objects to be placed. Just tab into edit mode, select all, right click, and subdivide.

[@rodcav3]

@@TheCGEssentials Thanks Justin for your prompt reply...I reached out to the add-on developers..and they gave me the solution There reply to my inquiry: (Hey! Looks like you just need to apply the object scale (Ctrl+A > Apply > Scale) Best regards!..But thanks again you always take the time to help..You da man 🙂👍

[@PrinceWesterburg]

I saw a demo of SoftImage XSI and Massive doing this 20 years ago but that was thousands of pounds. It was more advanced but for $18 this is insane!!!

[@InitialStates]

On that note, I made a living doing high end crowds for film for more than a decade. Got me an Oscar and an Emmy for my work, no joke ! I can see how everything is evolving and I'm glad I evolved too, to embrace Blender and Ai ahead of the changing waves. Thank you for this @TheCGEssentials ! Purchased !

[@snakemasterthorno]

I have seen a lot of payed add-ons over time but this is the first one i actual want to spend my money on. This really saves a lot of time for me. And these characters don't look bad at all. Thanks Justin.

[@TheCGEssentials]

That's why I like to talk about them - lots of cool stuff out there that I think people should know about.

[@DarrahValentine]

This was really great very informative

[@macnavi]

This is a fantastic add-on. Well done to the makers!

[@TheCGEssentials]

:)

[@brewzonekeeone5724]

This is pretty interesting add on! I'm working on a small project and was going to forego having a stadium crowd, but that feature is exactly what I need.

[@TheCGEssentials]

The stadium feature is pretty awesome :)

[@kieronestrada6402]

Just saw this the other day, looks great...thanks for review!!!!

[@TheCGEssentials]

:)

[@arteinterativa]

outstanding content!

[@sanpanf5305]

holy shit this is exactly what I was looking for

[@Patxi__]

Looks cool. Only for the 20 photoscanned models is so worthit.

[@matiasbenavidesdigitalvisu9511]

this is the affordable version of AXYS Anima, love it, I really consider it due to high prices of subscriptions.

[@rai22188]

Hi @TheCGEssentials! I need some crowd in my Unreal 5.2 Project. Have few questions on this: 1 - Once I finalise the parameters in Blender, how can it be exported to Unreal? Just as a Single actor? 2 - Can the parameters still be modified once inside Unreal? Please let me know so that I can be sure before purchasing. Any help will be a big help.

[@tellerhokaga5475]

wowowowo just what I needed worth it

[@TheCGEssentials]

It's a good one :)

[@MVWDave]

Hey Justin. Another great tutorial. I have this addon, and for the most part it's been very useful. I'm having one issue, though. When I add an individual and assign an animation to it (this issue only seems to happen with the sitting animation), I'll move that character to where I need it in my scene. As soon as I play the animation, the character goes right back to the spot it was added into the project. I've tried putting the cursor on the spot I need it, but it always appears in the same location (under my scene, for some reason), and always goes back there when the animation is played. Anybody have any idea why this happens? Does the keyframing get locked to that location? There doesn't seem to be a way to assign it to a spot, like in the crowds, where you can assign a floor, avoidance objects, and a point of interest. Thanks for any help you can give.

[@catbriss8314]

excellent 😊👌

[@tvmasterc]

Just bought it!

[@TheCGEssentials]

Hope you enjoy it!

[@faddlewaddle2615]

My God! That's awesome. Here I am having fallen in and out of like with Unreal trying to get things like this done. Still a semi noob here but the hell I've had to deal with using UE is mind boggling. Then addons like this and others come along and make not want to bother with UE ever again.

[@TheCGEssentials]

UE is super powerful, but definitely a lot more complicated. It's hard to find answers to your questions as well, at least in my experience

[@Puckerization]

I struggle with trying to adopt UE. I have an uber PC rig and find UE is still a bit heavy on my system. Blender is easier and faster to control the viewport rendering and RAM usage. I seem to have acquired a perpetual license for Twinmotion (I signed up for testing it when it first came out) and find it easier to use. It's Unreal for Dummies!

[@zofo264]

Now, this is a cool plugin ;)

[@TheCGEssentials]

Yeah I'm liking this one - super fast, super easy

[@timboslice5351]

Hey! Thank you for the video : ) Is it possible to export the crowd and use it in the Unreal Engine?

[@AliTKhan]

I already had that HORDE addon but the creators weren't replying to my questions nor any updates which was a disappointed, so i ditched it, recently purchased this addon and next day creators showed us how to use our own characters! BINGO!!!

[@TheCGEssentials]

Perfect - glad it's giving you what you need! :)

[@robertYoutub]

We live in a time of asset inflation.. fantastic stuff, must have. Hope they add more characters or own.

[@MadStyle1911]

You can add your own models, the dev posted a video on how to do that.

[@Puckerization]

I bought this right after it was announced and find it incredible value for money. I received an e-mail from the devs today saying the option to add your own models is coming soon along with other character packs. I'm not sure if we're going to have to pay for the other character packs, if so, they are going to be reasonably priced considering the price of the current addon.

[@TheCGEssentials]

I saw that email - gonna look into that custom models option probably in a week or two, but it looks like a pretty simple system

[@propjam2]

Can you change the textures on the models provided?

[@savagesauron4147]

How would you say this compares to Crowd Fashionista or Horde: Crowd System Tools?

[@SkieR3D]

Everything cool! Only one thing, cant found how to merge animation. Crowd just disappearin at the ond of curve. It's ok if you cover it by objects, but when you need running people to some position and stand there? Kind regards!

[@nickfai9301]

Hi, is it possible to use two curves for this addon? Let say a group of people move to the left and the other people move to the right

[@arjenhd]

Thanks for the review, great help and to the point as always, I will buy this add-on today. There is a tutorial on KZbin on how to add your own characters, Procedural Crowds Tutorial - How to add Custom Models.

[@TheCGEssentials]

I saw that they just added that

[@DesignDude952]

How's the render times using this asset? Is it heavy to render?

[@toresubas7778]

thank you

[@TheCGEssentials]

Thanks for watching!

[@RomboutVersluijs]

Did you actually made a follow up video about custom models. I know they have added it, but can't seem to find it on your channel

[@saeedcg]

ian hubert made the same thing in a very easy way using custom models on his patreon more than 2 years ago, but i would like to see how this addon is gonna be in the future, because its really important to use models to fill a scene

[@TheCGEssentials]

Interesting - I'm not on his Patreon so I didn't see that, but I know he described some similar stuff in his lazy tutorials videos :)

[@saeedcg]

@@TheCGEssentials yes exactly, but there is a full tutorial on how to create the models are simple photos and animate them and make a large crowed from them, its ana amazing tutorial, as well as your tutorials too i have been learning so much from you as well so thank you so much for your efforts 🙏🏻

[@b-bug923]

Hello! Is there any recommended way to get these into unreal engine? I need a stadion crowd for my current project and I was wondering if this is an option.

[@nome.archvis]

Is it possible to bake those with animation and import it into unreal ?

[@gregwissmueller9035]

I'm using Blender 3.4 and am not getting an eye dropper icon on the FLOOR and POINT of INTEREST fields. Any Ideas? Thanks

[@shekiba.646]

cool. I know crowd people but how about dogs, cat, alien etc can crowd ?

[@RoadwayVR]

The pedestrian models have Alpha texture, Unity/unreal do not support Alpha texture. Is there any solution?

[@sammedia3d]

I really think about to buy it but i would like to know how to add other characters, ie with other clothing. How should those characters be setup to be able to add to it?

[@TheCGEssentials]

Here you go - they just posted this yesterday - kzbin.info/www/bejne/mGK3nX-QlMibh7M

[@sammedia3d]

@@TheCGEssentials oh shoot i did not see it! thanks a lot!

[@staticdrama]

Hope will add a custom models! so doope!

[@staticdrama]

whait he did it!! kzbin.info/www/bejne/mGK3nX-QlMibh7M

[@KhalaiMakhlooq_99]

Thanks for your Guide but what if i need that crowd on maya so how can i export from blender into maya?

[@TheCGEssentials]

No idea - I've never actually used Maya

[@ExacoMvm]

It's pretty cool for something like standing crowds, but this addon is at best in Pre-Alpha stage right now, not really suited for production e.g. you can't even control the speed of walking/running you also can't keyframe amount or width of the path, if you try to do that the ppl will just despawn/spawn instead of more or less of them appearing at the end and start of path. We need something like "Golaem", this Blender addon is like a toy for toddlers. But it's still pretty cool concept and shows what you can do with geo nodes.

[@TheCGEssentials]

You can totally control the walking/running speed and you can keyframe the width of the path. Keyframing the amount of people does appear to cause them to despawn, but, so I suppose that's a limitation, but you're correct - an $18 Blender Add-On does not in fact have the same number of features as an $850/month full featured dedicated crowd simulation software...

[@erickdaulet]

Hey friend! One question, can the animation with its texture be exported in fbx to another program? I've been trying for a while and I can't do it.

[@cammiewolf]

Hi there, yes it can. You have to do two exports. One Alembic export which deals with the mesh and animations only and an FBX export with the same selection to get the textures. When you import geometry cache to for example UE, you have to make sure to uncheck flatten to get the individual materials. It's a bit tedious but it works.

[@erickdaulet]

Thanks I'll try it@@cammiewolf

[@cammiewolf]

@@erickdaulet no worries. Let me know if you run into any issues. :)

[@MDAnas-iv6cs]

Which software

[@tanguymdn5796]

I can't find how to chose the frame rate. My crowd animation is way faster that the rest of my scene. Does someone has the solution ?

[@RaydonConcepts]

I wonder if they will still animate in D5 once imported into there. Maybe Export as .abc instead of .drs? Either way, this looks really promising.

[@TheCGEssentials]

I've not tried this so I don't know for sure. I assume if you could get them exported to a .abc file with the animations intact, they would work, but I'm not sure.

[@RaydonConcepts]

@@TheCGEssentials I’m going to experiment with it and report back. Thanks for all you do Justin!!

[@naytbreeze]

Any tips on how to spawn crowds like this in unreal engine 5.2?

[@TheCGEssentials]

No idea - unfortunately I haven't had time to learn a lot of UE yet

[@lucia1060]

Models are too fast, even if I adjust speed in the panel. Models are too high and seem fly. If I use single human for walk, the model walk in the same spot and can't go ahead. I can fix all this?

[@neil1375]

How does this addon compare to Crowd Fashionista in Blender?

[@TheCGEssentials]

Don't know - I've not used that one

[@neil1375]

@@TheCGEssentials maybe it's worth you reviewing it? There's a significant price difference but on the face if it, it may be a more developed tool that may or may not be worth the extra cost, which is still very affordable ($39)?

[@AutodidactAnimotions]

On sale for $13.50 until Feb 25

[@TheCGEssentials]

yep!

[@siddharthpal541]

cant i add my own model and animation?

[@TheCGEssentials]

Theoretically yes - they have a video on their channel showing you how to do it

[@ririputrariadi9670]

Can i replace these object with my own object?

[@TheCGEssentials]

Yes - I think they just created a tutorial on this on their channel

[@EdVizenor]

Can I hire you for some CROWD work? I have several short parts of a short film I need crowds for.

[@TheCGEssentials]

I'm probably not your guy - I'm sure there's someone on the Blender Artists forum that could help you though

[@EdVizenor]

@The CG Essentials no worries. Thank you.

[@bigt.y3085]

its dope, but the characters are uploading as blank with no texture

[@unabhangigenachrichtensh7296]

Roblox Studio is better

[@TheCGEssentials]

That seems like comparing apples and hammers...

[@unabhangigenachrichtensh7296]

@@TheCGEssentials Even with an Apple I can get the nail into the wall. Try it. Its easy