Character Creator 4 Tutorial-Batch Create Expressions & Visemes for Humanoid Character with FBX File

In this tutorial, you’ll learn about how you can use the FBX pipeline to export your character’s mesh to any 3D tool to create your own custom blend shape sliders which will be used in combination to generate your character’s facial expressions and lip sync. You’ll learn about how you can export FBX to Blender and sculpt custom blend shapes, then import them back into the CC4 Standard Expression template, which allows your character model to take full advantage of all of iClone’s motion tools, including motion capture!
00:00 Intro
00:40 Exporting FBX Characters to Blender
01:50 Editing Blend Shapes
03:38 Editing Facial Bones
05:57 Editing Viseme Shapes
07:00 Creating Custom Blend Shapes
07:53 Export & Animation in iClone
*Note: Assets shown in this tutorial serve only as reference material.
Auto Import Standard Character Rigs:
• Character Creator 4 Tu...
Characterizing Humanoid Characters:
• Character Creator 4 Tu...
Character Creator 4 (CC4) is a full character creation solution for designers to easily generate, import and customize stylized or realistic character assets for use with iClone, Maya, Blender, Unreal Engine, Unity, Daz3D, 3dsMax or any other 3D tools. CC4 connects industry leading pipelines with one system for 3D character generation, animation rig, asset management, look-dev rendering, and interactive design.
✦WATCH MORE
Learn about Character Creator: www.reallusion.com/character-...
Learn about iClone animations: www.reallusion.com/iclone/defa...
✦FOLLOW US!
Facebook: / reallusionsoftware
LinkedIn: / 94371
Twitter: / reallusion
Instagram: / reallusionofficial
Blog: blog.reallusion.com/
Forum: forum.reallusion.com/default.aspx
✦ONLINE HELP
TUTORIALS: courses.reallusion.com/home/c...
MANUAL: manual.reallusion.com/Charact...
#charactercreator #facialexpressions #lipsync

[@MikeDKelley]

Very nice one, Kai - I'm impressed you did one this advanced and in particular this is something a lot of users have requested, so good on you and RL .

[@reallusion]

Many thanks!

[@parsasepanlou1776]

Thank you so much for this tutorial. This is exactly what i wanted and i was struggling with!

[@reallusion]

Glad it helped!

[@mythmakertheanimator9912]

I've been following iClone around for years, today I learned Kai is an advanced Blender user 😃

[@TripleGlanceLA]

Awesome info...thanks

[@jumpingguyproductions]

Thank you so much for this. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m hoping to create some custom blend shapes for a custom non cc4 character. E.g., a custom chest breathing bkendhape and muscle flexing / deformations

[@mastjappa]

Awesome!

[@reallusion]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@georgiamcclymont3569]

Hi! Thanks for this tutorial! When I export the fbx to take back into iClone, the sliders are still not able to be edited? If you have any ideas on why, it'd be appreciated! Thanks again :)

[@johnbernard17]

So in order to import an avatar with all of it's morphs in Character Creator 4, you need to insert keyframes on every shape keys in blender? Right? 🤔

[@KindTom1]

How do you do this in brush? how would you export it and bring the expressions back?

[@rajasingh4584]

how to create viseame

[@faizaspices2354]

So wt about if i create,the character and facial rig on blender?? How i import the facial rig to cc4.

[@mr.mister7280]

Is there a way to customize individual mouth expressions? e.g. the “WOO” that only makes the lips press together when saying “Woo”?

[@daninnnnng]

How to copy the carved left eye to the right eye in Blender?

[@derf0007]

I made the face morphs in blender and saved as Fbx, but the audio to lip sync still doesn't work. It's weird because it does the expressions just fine. Just won't talk. (Yes is works for original CC4 characters) Am I missing something?

[@binyaminbass]

Try this. It might work in CC4. kzbin.info/www/bejne/a4mueZqHnZtom5Y

[@Atimo133]

Is there a way to rename Blend Shapes within the Software and export them that way?

[@AlexKongMX]

I'd love to see this same process but with Maya, I know reallusion loves using Blender for their tutorials since it's free, but there are a bunch of Maya users out there!

[@BlenderBob]

Even if I import my character as humanoid, it shows as creature and I can't find a way to change it

[@gerardpacword1550]

Please make tutorial for cinema 4d with facial shape keys

[@user-uh3md9ns5e]

Hi! Thanks ! When I export the fbx to take back into iClone, the sliders are still not able to be edited? whether you use c4d or blender, the returned results are the same. The slider is always gray and cannot be adjusted! Please answer it, thank you

[@georgiamcclymont3569]

Hi! Have you changed the names of the blendshapes at all? OR changed your model at all? This will make iclone now recognise your model and will not update the blendshapes that you've edited. You model needs to be exactly the same as it was when you imported it into CC4 in the first place. Hope that helps!

[@Shinjitsu_84]

Any chance of a maya version?

[@jumpingguyproductions]

Did you ever find a solution for Maya / test out this workflow in Maya?

[@user-li3bj1ze2e]

Can i do this with Cinema 4D?

[@bitmap_jack]

I’m guessing this workflow would also work with Zbrush?

[@deyontavishightower5944]

So in order for our custom characters to use the face key and face puppet features in Iclone, we must first fill in the 90 expressions our character has in Blender then make sure the sliders are working in CC4. Is that right?

[@aeddychau5690]

Yes, that's right.

[@binyaminbass]

@@aeddychau5690 Phew...just animate in blender for that price.

[@user-bn2qk6cl4k]

hi any one please tell me how to export only custom blend shapes

[@abdulkhalilsalik]

how to import custom character rigg into character there wasn't totu , i done easily in cc+3

[@reallusion]

Please check our Character Creator 4 Tutorial playlist kzbin.info/aero/PLNV5zSFadPdkRZZ7WIkctjGd3HD1q8wgE Or visit Reallusion Course for the latest tutorials. courses.reallusion.com/home/character-creator/characterize

[@RkRaoM]

Pls tell how to create all visme for lip sync set..... I created expression keys.... But couldn't lipsinc for audio... I asked at reallusion site with ticket but I couldn't understand the procedure by your reply.. I purchased software last year... Pls help...

[@RkRaoM]

I need this for the character created & imported from blender...

[@rudolfpap5646]

for some reason when I import back the fbx from blender it won't show the edit custom expression window and my custom morph won't appear. I tried it with the coyotte model too and the same happened. Any idea why? I followed everything step by step

[@aeddychau5690]

Make sure you've set the keyframe in the Timeline in Blender, cuz CC4 will detect the blendshapes with this data information.

[@derf0007]

@@aeddychau5690 hello. Can you help? I made the face morphs in blender and saved as Fbx, but the audio to lip sync still doesn't work. It's weird because it does the expressions just fine. Just won't talk. (Yes is works for original CC4 characters) Am I missing something?

[@aeddychau5690]

​@@derf0007 Maybe your viseme morphs has not been made or is not detected. If you have made them and they are not detected, you can check if the morphs is categorized in a custom category. kzbin.info/www/bejne/m5PKpHucjs92r7M

[@derf0007]

@@aeddychau5690 I took this tutorial already and made all the facial morphs like jaw, mouth, eyes, etc... then inserted it back into CC4. It recognized and has sliders that work for all. But when I click dialogue to test, his mouth doesn't move. It kind of looks like his jaw is closed and he is mumbling though.

[@aeddychau5690]

​@@derf0007 If you want to use lip sync, you have to check Viseme blendshapes (e.g. V_Open, V_Explosive, V_Dental_Lip, V_Tight ......) ; these blendshapes of jaw, mouth, and eyes are Expression blendshapes, which are two different types of morphs.

[@velRic]

create a webinar how you created this custom character from scartch. The puppet tools and the face expression not working in my case and i do not know why.

[@binyaminbass]

I humanized my character by following the previous tutorial and then I exported it to blender as in this tutorial. The character does not have any face bones. Was I supposed to create them when I was making the rig?

[@balac4552]

Did you find out the answer ? I’m too looking for that

[@binyaminbass]

@@balac4552 no, sorry. i find using my own characters with the reallusion ecosystem a real pain and nearly impossible. (for the face anyway).

[@cardermedia]

Such a shame you can't do this all in CC, and have to rely on Blender to make it work.

[@5641616341485]

anyone else unable to sculpt after making the first blink?

[@iliasiosifidis4532]

Tutorial request: how to import clothes from blender with physics and pin groups, thx

[@parsasepanlou1776]

You can just create weight map that needs to be black for 0 the parts that are pinned and white as 1 for parts you want to make the simulation.

[@iliasiosifidis4532]

@@parsasepanlou1776 thx but i don't really get this :D I ve tryed it, but failed so a tutorial could be usefull

[@SkyHandOneTen]

We need a 3DS Max Version of this. With no bones in the face.

[@ThunderMonique]

Instruction for Maya users who is dying to understand what is going on here and why the Reallusion online manual regarding subject doesn`t make any sense (sorry guys - you have the best product so far, but your manual sometimes super blurry). 1. Export FBX with mesh and sequence. 2. Open Maya. Go to Windows/Setting/Preferences/Preferences/Settings And chose up axis to Z. Othervise your Base Mesh will be rotated X -90 and BlendShapes will be horisontal, facing floor. 3. Import your FBX to Maya 4. Open BlendShape Editor (Window/Animation Editors/ Blend Shape editor 5. Click "select" in Blend Shape window and open Graph Editor 6. Select all Blend Shape keys and press F to see all of them in Graph Editor. 7.Increase timeline range to see all frames. 8.Ignore frame number in text file with Expressions - there won`t be exact frame on timeline - it depends on frame rate in Preferences. You need that just to see the order of them. Navigate timeline, looking at Blend Shape window and move to the frame where desired expression will be on 1 instead of zero-something. 9. Open Outliner, pick hidden mesh with the same name as in Blend Shape editor. Make it visible and apply material if it doesn`t have any just for convenience. 10. Modify that as you wish using key3 for smoothing mesh for your comfort, but DO NOT FORGET to press 1 again to all of your modified meshes prior to exporting! Othervise - after applying this FBX to Facial Profile Editor -sliders will squash your character to zero.

[@reallusion]

Thanks for the question. You can try using Z-up to export FBX files from Maya. It's recommended to submit your questions with clear screenshots / screen-recording to our Support Team. We'll try to solve your issues as soon as possible. www.reallusion.com/CustomerSupport/UserEx/QForm.htm

[@CleanDay420]

absolutely horrible software. trremendous waste of time energy and money. I pray your company withers away to automation and AI. thank you for spittingin the face of your customers