The way to Customise Eyes and Enamel in Character Creator for One Piece Nami

A Dev Information to Creating Reusable Asset Library for the Reallusion Market

Introduction
Greetings, I’m Peter Alex and on this article I’ll exhibit some superior tips in creating anime-style toons in Character Creator 4 (CC4). The issue I used to be dealing with is that CC’s design is concentrated round life like characters; But, I used to be aiming for the imaginative fashion of One Piece. The areas I’ll be specializing in are the enamel, eyes, eyelashes, and pores and skin. I’ll even be adjusting the facial profile, making a Head Preset, and making use of parts of the newly created elements to a different stylized character. So I encourage you to learn on to equip among the core ideas that may be expanded upon in your personal initiatives.


To start out off this tutorial, you’ll have to obtain and set up the “CC4 Blender Pipeline Device Plugin” for CC4. >> Download here.
Then you definately’ll have to obtain and set up the “CC/iC Blender Instruments” plugin for Blender. >> Download here.
Creating New Enamel

Whereas some cartoon kinds do comprise life like enamel, I’m particularly going for a really simplified, anime fashion.
1. I’ll begin by exporting the character utilizing the Blender Pipeline Add-on in Character Creator.

2. Then, I’ll import the FBX file utilizing the CC/iC Add-on in Blender.

3. With the avatar imported, I’m going to make use of the geometry of the unique enamel to construct the anime enamel. I’ll seize an edge loop from the highest of the gums and extrude a easy form for the highest enamel. Then I’ll extrude and add some depth. I’ll then delete the highest row of polygons, which can enable for straightforward UV unwrapping.


4. I’ll repeat this for the underside enamel, then mix the enamel into one object.

Be aware:
For the reason that geometry has been extruded from the unique enamel, I don’t want so as to add vertex teams or weight maps. These enamel are additionally sure to the armature by default, utilizing this methodology. In the event you create extra complicated enamel utilizing one other methodology, you have to to assign the suitable teams and weight maps and bind it to the armature.
- For the High Enamel, the vertex group have to be “CC_Base_Teeth01”.
- For the Backside Enamel, the vertex group have to be “CC_Base_Teeth02”.
5. With the enamel created, export the character utilizing the CC/iC add-on and import the FBX utilizing the Blender Pipeline Plugin in Character Creator.

Be aware:
Chances are you’ll expertise a warning through the import course of, however the import ought to in any other case achieve success.

Adjusting the Eyes
With the enamel created, I’ll work on the eyes. This can be a less complicated course of than the enamel, as I’ll principally be altering the textures. You’ll need a picture editor for this course of; In the event you don’t have Photoshop, you need to use another reminiscent of Krita.

Clicking on the fabric channel and initiating the feel launcher will ship the feel to your picture editor. I shall be modifying the diffuse texture.

In Krita, I shall be making a quite simple texture to exchange the life like model. Only a white to pink radial gradient for the sclera and a black circle for the pupil and iris. I’ll save the feel, which is linked to a brief file. Except the hyperlink is damaged, saving the file in Krita will replace the feel in Character Creator.

I’ll then manually copy this eye texture over to the opposite supplies for the attention, as they don’t seem to be linked to the saved file.

I see that that is nonetheless inadequate, because of the properties of this materials, so I’ll alter the Sclera brightness.

I’ll use this identical course of to create stylized eye lashes. On this case I’ll edit the opacity map, and use it as a reference when making the changes. Opacity operates on a black to white spectrum. Black is invisible, white is seen.

Creating New Pores and skin
Subsequent, I’ll simplify the pores and skin texture. There are a number of methods to do that — I’ll use the best methodology. Choose the diffuse texture slot for the top. Within the Regulate Colour dialog, dial the Distinction to -100.

Copy the feel then reserve it in the identical slot. This would be the identical as importing a grey texture. Regulate the Saturation, Hue and Brightness till you obtain the specified pores and skin tone.

Copy this texture and place it within the slots for the Physique, Arms, and Legs. This can create a easy basis in your skin. If the traditional maps are offering an excessive amount of element, dial down the traditional depth.
You can also make additional changes to the pores and skin by activating the Pores and skin Colour choices. I wished to subtract some element, so I didn’t use it initially.

I’ll make a number of different changes earlier than I begin altering her facial profile. I’ll improve the dimensions of her Pupil and Iris. This may be accomplished by the Morph Editor if in case you have the Headshot plugin, and might be accomplished to a restricted diploma by manipulating the supplies for the Cornea.

Adjusting Stylized Enamel
Subsequent I’ll alter the location of her enamel. Though first I discover that the stylized enamel have odd regular results. You possibly can repair this by choosing the enamel and smoothing the normals within the Edit Normals choices.

Now I’ll alter the enamel by referencing the thumbnails of every major expression.

I’ll make further corrections reminiscent of the location of the eyelashes and eyeballs. Make these changes previous to utilizing the facial profile editor so that you don’t should redo them.

Utilizing the Facial Profile Editor
The following step is to switch the facial profile. However first, I’ll alter the attention parts by choosing Appropriate Eyeblink within the Character menu. Typically the eyelash will must be manually corrected, particularly for stylized characters. As well as, eyes this massive current an issue since they bulge past the elasticity of the eyelids, inflicting them to clip by the geometry when the character blinks.
There are two methods to right this drawback: deform the eyeballs for the blinks or alter their positions. For this character, I selected the latter methodology as a result of the attention positions might be mirrored versus deformations.

To reposition the eyes, I used the Proportion Editor and switched to Face and made positive that symmetry was disabled. When wanted, I checked Present Expression to reference the present expression.

I then chosen the attention bones and translated them barely backwards and baked the expression. The eyeballs will now retreat to mitigate the clipping through the blinks. In all however excessive instances, this could resolve the problem.

Accommodating Customized Expressions
I beforehand created custom expressions for this character, however the enamel weren’t suitable with the unique information. To repair this, I’ll dial within the expression and alter the enamel to suit, then rebake it in order that the brand new enamel will purchase the brand new information. Adjusting the enamel is surprisingly straightforward with the rework instruments whereas within the Edit Mesh window.


Saving the Edits to the Eyes and Enamel
Saving an asset typically requires two steps. Choose the asset you need to save and go to the designated class within the Content material window and click on Save. A thumbnail shall be mechanically generated for you based mostly on the present digicam. You possibly can exchange it with one other picture at any time.


Making a Head Preset
The top consists of a number of elements: The morph, facial profile, eyes, enamel, eyelashes, pores and skin and materials settings — and now the wrinkle settings with the newest replace (I’m positive sooner or later it would comprise much more elements). Every of those elements might be saved as a preset, and the Head preset unifies them.

Making a Head preset is comparatively straightforward. First, you will need to separate the physique and head utilizing the Create > Head & Physique Morph Sliders command. Subsequent, go to the content material window, choose your character, and click on save whereas within the Head Morph & Pores and skin class.

A physique preset can likewise be saved, though it comprises much less elements.
I’ll exhibit the presets I’ve created on a brand new character. I’m going to load a demo character and use it as a base to use the presets I simply created. I’ve cleared the prevailing morphs, leaving the character in its default impartial state.

Any preset or accent might be utilized by double clicking or dragging the merchandise onto the character from the Content window. The preset masses high-quality, though there may be an apparent conflict between realism and cartoon kinds. Loading the physique preset and stylized hair minimizes this.

All of her presets at the moment are loaded to this demo avatar, together with the facial profile, which is a part of the top preset. The power to load a complete head setup helps with mixing character designs.

Lastly, I’ll apply the enamel and eyes to a different stylized character, so I can clarify the problems you might have to unravel together with your venture. First, notice that your character should have the identical tier of facial profile for the customized enamel or eyes to load. For instance, these enamel had been created with the Extended Facial profile, so the character should have an Prolonged Facial profile utilized for the enamel to load.

You possibly can see that the preliminary alignment with this character is off, however it may be simply corrected utilizing the rework instruments in Edit Mesh. After which you’ll align the enamel higher by evaluating the place with the icons within the Facial Editor.

Utilizing the Facial Editor to look at expressions is a vital a part of adjusting the facial profile. This menu permits you to undergo widespread expression combinations and see if there are any points, reminiscent of geometry clipping or misalignment with different property, such because the enamel or tongue. Ideally you need the expression to match the thumbnail, and adjusting the enamel to match key expressions is a vital step.

I’ve scaled down the iris measurement a bit, as I discover them to be too dilated. Beforehand I had used each the sclera UV radius and the morphing choices to realize a big iris, however I can use simply the Sclera UV choice to lower the Iris scale. The distinction is that adjusting the UV radius impacts the feel, whereas the morphing choices impression the geometry.

These enamel had been aligned with the earlier stylized character, so the offset was based mostly on her enamel’s preliminary place. For one of the best outcomes, design your enamel across the avatar’s impartial form.
The largest points are with the custom expressions for this character. The remainder of the expressions work nicely.


You possibly can see the side-by-side comparisons right here. As I discussed, it’s possible you’ll not want toon property to convey a cartoon fashion, though I feel for the anime character it might be troublesome to do with out.


Conclusion
The presets in Character Creator are extraordinarily highly effective and might be leveraged for a lot of completely different kinds, together with cartoons. Whereas the base avatar is designed with realism in thoughts, the power to save lots of facial profiles and import custom anatomy can push the software program into different classes. Character Creator turns into highly effective with each replace, and I encourage content material creators and artists so as to add this superb software program to their pipeline.

Free Obtain :
• CC/iC Blender Tools (addon put in in Blender)
• CC4 Blender Pipeline Tool Plugin (addon put in in Character Creator 4)
Study extra :
• Peter Alexander (Mythcons): ArtStation. Facebook