TL;DR:

• Kabengo! Games, a four-person studio near Bordeaux, France, is developing Adur: Desagertzea, a Basque-voiced 2.5D cinematic platformer.
• The team chose Character Creator 5 (CC5) and ActorMixer PRO over photorealistic tools to achieve a distinct “puppet diorama” art direction with custom shaders and morphs.
• Using iClone LIVE LINK inside Unreal Engine 5, the team tests poses and real-time animation directly in lighting environments powered by Lumen, Nanite, and RTX raytracing.
• Learn how real-time 3D tools empower small indie teams to preserve full artistic direction while drastically cutting iteration times.

This Reallusion Pitch & Produce program showcase examines how French indie developer Kabengo! Games uses Reallusion Character Creator 5 and iClone 8 alongside Unreal Engine 5 to produce their upcoming title, Adur: Desagertzea.

By combining CC5’s morph layer system with iClone Unreal LIVE LINK, a four-person studio achieves near-final cinematic rendering and rapid animation iteration without relying on Generative AI automation.

“I turned to Character Creator as I had been using it for a couple of years, for other various projects… and knowing its powerful features for creative efficiency. Some features I was expecting to have my hands on really impressed me, particularly ActorMixer, that we used to achieve our specific body and face proportions.”

Paul Puaux – Creative / Artistic Director at Kabengo! Games

Featured Artist Spotlight: Kabengo! Games

For indie game developers, capturing a distinctive visual identity while maintaining production momentum is an ongoing balance. Kabengo! Games, a four-person indie studio based near Bordeaux in southwestern France, addresses this challenge directly in their debut title, Adur: Desagertzea (“Adur: The Disappearance”).

Founded by Creative and Artistic Director Paul Puaux, Narrative Lead Myriam Gallo, Composer Rémi Lonca, and a senior technical supervisor, Kabengo! Games sets out to craft atmospheric 2.5D adventure games that bridge regional heritage with modern real-time technology. Adur: Desagertzea is a cinematic platformer deeply rooted in Basque mythology, voiced in Euskera (the Basque language), and inspired by 1990s narrative classics like Another World, Flashback, and Heart of Darkness.

To achieve their specific visual goals—a balance halfway between realistic detail and a stylized “puppet diorama”—Paul turned to Character Creator 5 and iClone 8 connected via Unreal Auto Setup and LIVE LINK to Unreal Engine 5.

• Studio Name: Kabengo! Games
• Location: Southwestern France (near Bordeaux)
• Key Team Members: Paul Puaux (Creative & Artistic Director), Myriam Gallo (Narrative Lead), Rémi Lonca (Composer), Senior Technical Supervisor.
• Debut Project: Adur: Desagertzea (Cinematic 2.5D Platformer)
• Digital Footprint & Official Channels:
  • Website: www.kabengo.games
  • YouTube: Kabengo! Games on YouTube
  • Instagram: @kabengogames
  • Facebook: Kabengo! Games Facebook Page

Technical Pipeline Overview

Pitch & Produce Interview: Paul Puaux on Adur: Desagertzea

Q1: What inspired Adur: Desagertzea, and how does blending 2.5D exploration mechanics help you showcase Basque traditions and language?

Paul Puaux: The basic idea behind Adur: Desagertzea stems from a family anecdote in which my son nearly ran away from home one evening whilst my wife and I were gone on a night out. Gradually, the idea of turning this scenario into a game took shape.

Together with the team, we mixed and remixed the idea until it incorporated the story of our hero Adur and his grandfather Aitatxi into Basque history and mythology, set in the region where we grew up.

The team shares many common references from 1990s narrative platformers—Another World, Flashback, Heart of Darkness—and modern successors like Inside and Little Nightmares. 2D/2.5D allows us to weave narrative and gameplay together into a cinematic tapestry where the player is the hero. Basque mythology and language are cultural isolates. This oral tradition enables us to create a world blending the ancestral and the modern—from small fishing villages to ancient forges, mountains, and the ocean.

“2D/2.5D is an incredibly creative medium because it allows us both to speak directly and explicitly to the imaginations and fears of players of all ages, and to weave narrative and gameplay together into a cinematic tapestry.”

Paul Puaux – Creative / Artistic Director at Kabengo! Games

Q2: For Adur, you needed a specific “puppet diorama” aesthetic. Why did you choose Character Creator over photorealistic options like MetaHuman Creator?

Paul Puaux: We realized early on that the storyline would be hard to build without a strong connection to our characters. The emotion they convey is essential for gameplay and cinematics. It was a no-brainer that we needed a flexible pipeline to experiment with their physical presence.

I turned to Character Creator, having used it for years across various projects. Moving to CC5 brought features like ActorMixer, which we used to achieve our specific body and face proportions. Features like overdriven Subsurface Scattering (SSS), realistic wrinkles, pores, scars, and freckles mixed with clay shaders are now regular parts of our design process.

Through the remastered Reallusion Auto Setup plugin for Unreal Engine 5, porting custom shaders turns into an exploration experience. We combine Reallusion’s built-in shading engine with Unreal’s post-processing stencils to create the stop-motion animation look of our main characters and the etched, scribbled appearance of our villains, the Beldurrak.

In that way, it shortens the path from the intention to the final render. And as time always matters in long-term projects, opting for this pipeline is a choice that’s definitely worth it.

“We combine Reallusion’s built-in shading engine with Unreal’s post-processing stencils. In that way, it shortens the path from the intention to the final render. And as time always matters in long-term projects, opting for this pipeline is a choice that’s definitely worth it”

Paul Puaux – Creative / Artistic Director at Kabengo! Games

Q3: Can you break down your animation pipeline? How does iClone LIVE LINK inside Unreal Engine 5 help a small team achieve cinematic quality so quickly?

Paul Puaux: Working in small teams on characters, world, shading, and animation is known for being a one-man band’s job. Building character reactions—whether physical or emotional—is the final gap that creates the “suspension of disbelief”.

Working with a direct link between iClone and Unreal Engine makes a massive difference. In iClone, pose and motion libraries let us quickly explore parkour-inspired movement, Basque pelota games, or caricatural moves. Multiple motion layers in a dedicated timeline allow us to edit face muscles, expressions, switch IK/FK, or correct foot sliding.

Pushing everything to Unreal Engine via Live Link allows us to adjust framing inside the final lighting setup. From there, we bake animations for our Animation Blueprints (ABP) or use Take Recorder in Sequencer while leveraging Lumen, Nanite, and RTX/DLSS hardware. This “WYSIWYG” approach lets us try 10 or 20 takes fast, pulling out the absolute best from our source material.

“Working in a constant link between iClone and Unreal Engine really makes a difference when it comes to testing, staging, and direct cinematics and gameplay. In iClone, the pose and motion libraries help us quickly explore many possibilities, such as parkour-inspired motion, basque pelota games, or more cartoonish caricatural short moves.”

Paul Puaux – Creative / Artistic Director at Kabengo! Games

Pro Tip / Pipeline Hack: Using iClone LIVE LINK plugged directly into Unreal Engine 5 allows animators to test motion libraries, adjust facial expressions, and fix foot sliding in real time against final Lumen lighting and RTX shadows. This “WYSIWYG” (What You See Is What You Get) approach eliminates offline rendering delays, allowing a small studio to test 10 to 20 animation takes in the time it previously took to render one.

Q4: With your crowdfunding campaign launching soon, where can players follow your progress, and what pipeline advice do you have for other indie studios?

Paul Puaux: Our website www.kabengo.games is our central hub where the crowdfunding campaign will launch in the coming weeks. You can also follow us on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook under Kabengo! Games, where we regularly share workflows, production logs, and behind-the-scenes updates.

Hearing Aitatxi speak Euskara to his grandson and seeing Mari appear as the mountains describe her allows players to experience this world naturally. We’re not archiving a culture; we’re handing it a controller.

My advice to solo and indie newcomers: gathering tools that fit your project is the fueling engine that keeps your world faithful to your idea. The Reallusion pipeline has been a terrific playground for building the soul of Adur, Aitatxi, and Mari. Making things memorable comes down to the moment when your characters start talking back to you in their own language.

“My advice to solo and indie newcomers: gathering tools that fit your project is the fueling engine that keeps your world faithful to your idea. The Reallusion pipeline has been a terrific playground to work on the soul of Adur, Aitatxi, Mari and all the figures you’ll meet along the way.”

Paul Puaux – Creative / Artistic Director at Kabengo! Games

Conclusion: Real-Time Precision Meets Cultural Storytelling

By pairing Character Creator 5 with iClone 8 and Unreal Engine 5, Kabengo! Games demonstrates how small independent teams can deliver cinematic 3D experiences anchored in regional heritage. Rather than relying on generic photorealism or unmanageable manual rigging workflows, Reallusion tools offer indie creators the artistic control needed to bring stylized characters to life efficiently.

To support Kabengo! Games and follow the development of Adur: Desagertzea, visit www.kabengo.games.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Why use Character Creator instead of MetaHuman for stylized Unreal Engine 5 games?
A: MetaHuman Creator is designed primarily for photorealism, making stylized art direction difficult. Character Creator 5 provides full morphing control through tools like ActorMixer, allowing developers to customize body silhouettes, face proportions, shaders, and clay textures to achieve unique stylized aesthetics like “puppet diorama” looks.

Q: How does iClone Live Link work with Unreal Engine 5?
A: iClone Live Link creates a real-time connection between iClone 8 and Unreal Engine 5. Animators can edit facial expressions, pose libraries, and motion layers in iClone while instantly previewing the results in UE5 under final Lumen lighting, Nanite geometry, and RTX raytracing.

Q: Can a small indie studio produce cinematic 2.5D games without traditional render farms?
A: Yes. Real-time engines like Unreal Engine 5 combined with iClone Live Link eliminate offline rendering. Animators preview near-final cinematic quality directly in-engine, enabling small teams to iterate rapidly, record sequences, and bake animations without long rendering delays.

Q: What is Adur: Desagertzea?
A: Adur: Desagertzea is an upcoming 2.5D cinematic platformer developed by French indie studio Kabengo! Games. Voiced in Euskera (Basque) and French, the game combines exploration, combat, and puzzle mechanics while showcasing authentic Basque mythology, language, and cultural traditions.

Read More:

Pitch & Produce: AccuFace as the Solution for Rapid Film Production

Creating an Action Comedy Game with AccuRIG Realtime Tools

3D Virtual Fashion with Character Creator Digital Humans

Pitch & Produce | History YouTube Channel Selects iClone and Character Creator for Speedy Production

這篇文章 How Adur Game Uses Stylized 3D Character Creator for Unreal 最早出現於 Reallusion Magazine。

Written and produced by John C. Martin II, the AI sci-fi short RUS-T follows an abandoned Mars robot forced to choose between duty and survival. The film has become a breakout success story for Reallusion AI Studio, surpassing one million YouTube views, earning festival honors, and topping major AI film platforms. Ultimately, RUS-T proves that with the right hybrid tools, any independent creator can produce world-class, critically acclaimed cinema.

Hits 1 Million YouTube Views and Earns Global Festival Recognition

Since its release on August 31 2026, RUS-T has found a growing audience, achieving one million views on YouTube. The film has also expanded to Escape.ai, where RUS-T is featured as part of its curated collection of AI filmmaking and Martin has joined the platform as an official Escape.ai Creator

Check out John’s channel on Escape.ai: https://escape.ai/@johnmartin

RUS-T has also received festival recognition, being named a New York Short Animation Film Festival, AI Animation Finalist marking another milestone for the project as it reaches audiences beyond its original online release.

Furthermore, John Martin has been recognized at a TOP CREATOR at SHAIKE.AI, a platform for the world’s best AI filmmakers. RUS-T is featured among the industry’s elite films.

Check out John’s channel on SHAIKE: https://shaike.ai/shaiker/john-martin/ 

RUS-T Behind the Scenes | 3D to AI Production Workflow

Behind that response is an equally interesting production story. RUS-T began as a 3D character and an experiment with Reallusion’s 3D-to-AI workflow, eventually growing into a complete short film.

In RUS-T: Behind the Scenes, Martin breaks down that process and shows how Character Creator, iClone and Reallusion AI Studio became the foundation for bringing RUS-T from a 3D actor into a generative AI production.

Filmmaker John C Martin II, Vice President of Marketing at Reallusion and originator of Reallusion AI Studio, wanted to explore a fundamental question facing AI filmmakers: How do you gain more control over generative AI without giving up the speed and creative possibilities that make it so exciting? His answer was to start in 3D.

What began as a test using a Character Creator actor and an iClone scene eventually grew into RUS-T, a science-fiction short about a robot abandoned on Mars and forced to choose between the mission he was built to serve and his own survival. Behind the finished film is a production workflow that connects traditional 3D filmmaking with generative AI.

Rather than asking AI to invent every shot from scratch, Martin used Character Creator and iClone to establish the actor, performance, camera, composition and spatial relationships, then carried those decisions into Reallusion AI Studio and generative image with Nano Banana and video with Seedance 2.0.

The result is a workflow built around a simple idea: Use 3D for control. Use AI to take the shot further.

RUS-T Started as a 3D Character

Before RUS-T was an AI Actor, he was a 3D character. The character was developed with Reallusion Character Creator, giving Martin a persistent digital character that could be posed, animated and viewed from any angle. That became increasingly important as the project evolved.

RUS-T appears throughout the film in so many different circumstances and using a 3D character, Martin had already developed, helped with ideation and planning prior to heading from 3D to AI with the project. Character Creator provided that foundation.

In the BTS film, Martin returns repeatedly to the original 3D RUS-T, demonstrating how the character can be viewed and controlled independently of any generated image. Instead of AI being responsible for discovering who RUS-T was in every shot, the production already had an actor. That actor could then be taken into AI with identity and the ability to forego the costly trial and error of generating a character.

The Image That Started the Film

The original experiment brought RUS-T into iClone. Martin constructed a simple Martian scene containing the character, terrain and distant structures, then began exploring how an iClone composition could become the starting point for an AI-generated image. The purpose wasn’t to create a finished 3D render. It was to direct the image.

The character could be positioned precisely. A pose could be selected. The camera could be moved. The framing could be changed. Foreground and background relationships could be established before anything was generated.

One of those early experiments showed RUS-T alone on Mars with the outpost and rocket in the distance. It was supposed to be a workflow test. Instead, it inspired a story. Who was this robot? Why was he alone? What was his purpose on Mars? Those questions became the beginning of RUS-T.

The technology wasn’t simply used to execute a pre-existing screenplay. Experimenting with the workflow helped Martin discover the film itself.

Turning a Character Creator Model into an AI Actor

One of the most important demonstrations in the BTS is the transition from Character Creator 3D character to AI Actor in AI Studio. Martin takes the established RUS-T character and uses him to create an AI Actor. This creates a bridge between two very different production environments. On one side is a fully controllable 3D character. On the other is generative AI.

The AI Actor allows the character’s established identity to continue into that generative workflow. That was critical for RUS-T because the character appears across a wide range of situations and shot types. He kneels in the Martian soil, works with equipment, walks through Outpost Despero, reacts to the discovery that he has been abandoned, operates a hovercraft and races across Mars.

The film needed the freedom of generative AI without losing its central character along the way. Martin’s workflow starts by giving AI something concrete to work from. The character exists before the generation.

iClone Becomes a Stage for AI

The BTS makes an important point about the role of iClone in this process. It doesn’t have to produce the final image. Instead, it can function as a virtual stage for directing AI shots.

One demonstration begins with RUS-T kneeling beside an object on the Martian surface. Inside iClone, the character’s body position, pose, camera and relationship to the object are clearly defined. The 3D scene is relatively simple like previz. But that simplicity is useful.

The purpose of the scene is not to solve every visual detail. It is to tell the generative model what matters about the shot. RUS-T’s location and pose. The Outpost and rocket are in the distance. The camera is positioned and the shot is framed. This is the composition. AI can then reinterpret that controlled foundation as a more fully realized cinematic image.

The BTS moves between these stages: the iClone setup and its AI-generated counterpart make the value of the process easy to see. The finished image can change dramatically in visual richness without losing the fundamental filmmaking decisions established and directed in 3D.

Building RUS-T’s World

The same principle extends beyond the character. RUS-T needed a believable world around him: the Martian terrain, Outpost Despero, its interiors, the rocket, explosive devices, equipment and eventually the hovercraft that carries him across the planet.

Not everything needed to be traditionally modeled and rendered. Instead, AI could expand the world from established visual references. Generated imagery could be developed into new angles and variations while preserving the elements that mattered to continuity. RUS-T walks back to Outpost Despero. Creating the shots to traverse the terrain and ultimately arrive at the Outpost was part of the coverage that was necessary to develop with AI visuals. AI Studio and Nano Banana made the shot generation possible.

This was particularly important for Outpost Despero. The initial 3D prop was made with Meshy and imported into iClone for scene layout. The exteriors gave RUS-T his destination in the beginning of the film.

The film moves between exterior and interior locations, including areas where RUS-T discovers the truth about his mission. These environments have to feel like parts of the same outpost rather than unrelated AI images. Once a visual direction was established, it could become a reference for additional coverage. The environment itself effectively became another production asset.

Giving Props an Identity

The prop identity is as crucial to the planning and production process for RUS-T as the 3D character creation. A well planned asset development cycle will save loads of time when generation begins occurring. The props are identified by reference models and images to inform the shot make deliberate video generations without overspending budget.

One of the clearest examples in the BTS is the hovercraft. The vehicle plays an important role in the second half of RUS-T. It isn’t background decoration. RUS-T drives it across Mars, carries the explosive devices aboard it and ultimately sends it into the canyon. That means the audience sees the vehicle repeatedly.

Martin used a 3D asset as the basis for creating multiple visual views of the hovercraft. Those views could then be assembled into reference imagery that communicated the vehicle’s design from more than one angle. It is essentially the same philosophy used for RUS-T himself.

The actor has an identity.

The hovercraft has an identity. The hovercraft was generated in Meshy and then sent to iClone. RUS-T was added to the hovercraft and shots were generated to created the start frames for video gen.

Outpost Despero has an identity. The scenes of the interior were generated using AI Studio and Nano Banana. Coverage was created using Image Edit in AI Studio to get all camera angles for the scenes.

The chess board makes a brief, but poignant appearance in the film. To get the chess board and pieces, Meshy was used to generate the chess model and AI Studio Image Edit with Nano Banana was used to create a camera angle of the floor from Outpost Despero coverage references. The Image Edit Combine enabled the compositing of the chess board and the room together with lighting matched from the Outpost interior to the incorporated chess board into the scene. This workflow of Image Gen and Edit with other visual references was a common practice to get greater continuity. The final shot was generated with the image references with Seedance 2.0.

Recurring objects and environments become recognizable assets that the production can reference rather than continuously reinvent. For AI filmmaking, this is an important extension of the traditional idea of continuity.

From Controlled Frame to Cinematic Image

The RUS-T BTS repeatedly shows the progression from relatively straightforward 3D setups into much richer generated images. This is where the strengths of the hybrid workflow become visible. The iClone image does not need to contain every grain of Martian sand or every atmospheric detail that will appear in the finished frame.

Those aren’t necessarily the things Martin needs iClone to control. What matters is that the filmmaking information survives the transition. RUS-T remains the actor. His action remains readable. The composition remains intentional. The environment maintains the required relationship to the character.

The AI is then free to add the visual complexity that would otherwise require significantly more traditional production work. This is not simply using AI to make a 3D render prettier. It is dividing the shot between two technologies according to what each does best. 3D handles precision. AI handles interpretation.

From 3D to Images to Video

First the the visual foundation of a shot was established with the 3D to AI process. The iClone scene is sent to AI Studio using the 3D Guided Gen feature and the shot image generated with Nano Banana. Once the image of the first shot is approved the production could move seamlessly from AI image generation into AI video.

AI Studio’s Seedance 2.0 was used to turn prepared images into moving shots. By this stage, much of the visual problem had already been solved. The character was established. The shot had a composition. The environment had a look. Important objects had references. That meant video generation could begin with a much clearer visual target. This preparation was not only achieving the shot with accuracy, the 3D to AI workflow from Reallusion tools enabled cost savings on generation.

This became especially valuable as RUS-T expanded from quieter character moments into action: crossing the Martian terrain, driving the hovercraft, approaching the canyon and surviving the explosive climax of the film.

Continuity Is More Than Keeping a Character’s Face

The BTS also reveals something important about what continuity actually means for AI filmmakers. Character consistency is only the beginning. A film also needs shot continuity, environmental continuity, prop continuity and geographic continuity.

If RUS-T picks up a device, that device needs to remain recognizable.

If he leaves Outpost Despero, the audience needs to understand where he is leaving from. If he boards the hovercraft, the vehicle needs to remain the same hovercraft when the angle changes.

If the story takes him across Mars toward a canyon, those shots need to feel like a journey through one world.

These aren’t purely technical problems. They are storytelling problems. The audience needs continuity because continuity allows them to stop thinking about how an image was generated and start paying attention to what is happening to the character.

AI Studio at the Center of a Hybrid Workflow

What RUS-T ultimately demonstrates is not a replacement for 3D production. It demonstrates a new use for it. Character Creator and iClone provide a controllable foundation. Reallusion AI Studio connects that foundation to generative production. Image generation expands the visual world. AI video creates motion. Adobe Premiere Pro brings those pieces together into the finished film.

But the real value is not the order of the applications. It is the way creative decisions survive between them. A character designed in 3D becomes an AI Actor. A pose created in iClone becomes a generated performance. The technologies change throughout the pipeline. The director’s intent does not.

The RUS-T workflow :

• Character Creator
  Creation of the original RUS-T 3D actor and persistent character design.
• iClone
  Character posing, animation, scene layout, spatial relationships, cameras and shot composition.
• Reallusion AI Studio
  The bridge from 3D into generative production, including transforming RUS-T into a reusable AI Actor.
• AI Image Generation
  Developing the cinematic appearance of characters, environments, props and final shot imagery, including Nano Banana in the RUS-T production.
• Seedance 2.0
  Transforming prepared images into AI video sequences.
• Adobe Premiere Pro
  Editing, pacing, sound and final post-production.

RUS-T Creator & AI Studio Inventor

RUS-T was written and produced by John C Martin II.

John Martin is a filmmaker, producer, and digital storyteller exploring the intersection of cinematic storytelling, 3D production, performance capture, and generative AI. With more than two decades of experience in filmmaking and digital production, he has focused on using emerging technologies to create characters, performances, and worlds that serve the story.

John is Vice President of Marketing at Reallusion, where he has spent more than two decades working with real time animation, digital humans, motion capture, and strategically developing products and go-to-market strategy for Character Creator, iClone, and AI Studio.

Collaborations include projects with ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Disney, Warner Bros., Netflix, Industrial Light & Magic, Digital Domain, Sony Pictures, Meta, and Fremantle.

Related Posts

• AI Studio Storytellers: Directing AI Films with Diverse 3D Assets
• AI Studio Storytellers: Space Rocks – Sci-Fi Filmmaking with Consistent AI Actors
• AI Studio Storytellers: HEIST – Previz to Production: The 3D-to-AI Workflow

這篇文章 AI Studio Storytellers: RUS-T – Millions of Views, Award-Winning AI Film Workflow Unveiled 最早出現於 Reallusion Magazine。

Reallusion’s 2026 3D Character Contest was held from June 1st to October 1st, 2026. Within 3 months, 200 submissions were submitted from 49 countries. The contest showcases the best 3D character design and animation created using Reallusion’s powerful character production ecosystems: Character Creator for 3D character creation, iClone for facial and body animation, and AccuRIG for rigging.

“We at Reallusion are thrilled to watch so many world-class character artists integrate Character Creator and iClone into their professional workflows. This contest clearly demonstrated that Character Creator gives artists complete creative freedom to build original 3D characters in any style or genre. Huge congratulations to every participants. We are excited to keep pushing the boundaries of 3D innovation for the community!”

– Enoc Burgos, Reallusion Director of Partnership Marketing

Prize Sponsored by Renowned Industry Leaders

The Contest was hosted by Reallusion and sponsored by industry leaders such as NVIDIA, Maxon, Epic Games, Unity, SideFX, Marvelous Designer, MSI, WD, and CenterGrid. Through this contest, Character Creator’s extensive pipeline lets artists seamlessly integrate a new workflow for rapid creativity with zero sacrifice in character quality.

Meet our winners

REALISTIC CHARACTER DESIGN

Under this category, entrants create a realistic human character in Character Creator by combining the character base with tools like ZBrush, Substance Painter, Marvelous Designer, Blender, Wrap, Texturing.xyz, and Maya.

1st Place: Jax: Soul of the Street – by Jimmy Watelle, Manager | Costa Rica

“Character Creator and the Blender Data Link helped me a lot in building the base of the Jax character, but I also faced numerous challenges related to my skill level and navigating between software, sometimes losing data or synchronization along the way. This project brought me as much enjoyment, and it helped me grow tremendously.” – Jimmy Watelle

View Jimmy’s entry and WIP

2nd Place: The Last Entry – by Leudemar “Leo” Lima, Concept Artist | Brazil

“Character Creator helped me bring my design to 3d with a lot of fidelity and realism; easy to use and intuitive, CC5 is a really powerful tool for concept artists.” – Leudemar “Leo” Lima

View Leo’s entry and WIP

3rd Place: An Unearthly Find – by Jeet Shah, Technical Artist | India

“The speed of CC5 in making changes to primary forms for any character is impeccable and probably the best among any 3D softwares I’ve ever used. Need a skinny short girl- tweak a few sliders you get a skinny short girl. Need a fat stubby creature- tweak some more sliders and take it to ZBrush and you have a humanoid creature in under an hour all the while maintaining the subdivided geometry details in CC5 thanks to GoZ plus. And all of them with a full-body skeleton that’s ready to add some controls for posing. The new HD morphs in CC5 are certainly an upgrade to the previous version, where the lack of base mesh resolution made the morphs a bit less detailed; the new ones still come out quite detailed. One other feature I’ve heavily used is the new addition to Auto Setup for Maya. That allowed for a seamless experience in making the facial expressions on the characters directly in Maya where I rendered them.” – Jeet Shah

View Jeet’s entry and WIP

STYLIZED CHARACTER DESIGN

Under this category, entrants create a stylized character in Character Creator by combining the character base with tools like ZBrush, Substance Painter, Marvelous Designer, Blender, Wrap, Texturing.xyz, and Maya. Watch their winning entry and testimonials below.

1st Place: Kohaku – Warden of Memories – by Oscar Fernandez Gonzalez, 3D Character Artist | Spain

“As a sculptor, Character Creator lets me start from a clean, optimized base mesh that I can freely customize in ZBrush. Moving back and forth between ZBrush and CC5 allows me to use each application for what it does best, making the entire workflow faster and more efficient. My favorite feature is being able to test poses on the character with incredible precision. It’s fast, intuitive, and a genuinely enjoyable part of the creative process.” – Oscar Fernandez Gonzalez

View Oscar’s entry and WIP

2nd Place: Erlen From Lemuria’s Savage Lands – by Felix Enrique Yaguare Lopez, Student and Freelancer | Venezuela

“Character Creator allowed me to bring my character to life effortlessly. Being able to quickly test and iterate different poses gave me the freedom to explore Erlen in multiple situations, something that would have been impossible in my timeframe, as I joined the contest a month and a half late while finishing my class projects for Libel Academy.” – Felix Enrique Yaguare Lopez

View Felix’s entry and WIP

3rd Place: Alyssa – by Thivolan Moodley, 3D Sculptor & Freelancer | South Africa

“I was able to use the base mesh to really push the design from start to finish without needing to retopo or change much else! This helped me focus on the sculpting and likeness more!” – Thivolan Moodley

View Thivolan’s entry and WIP

BEST REALISTIC ANIMATION

Use iClone to create a realistic animation for a character made with the CC3+ Base. The character model can be customized with Reallusion tools and content or third-party software like ZBrush, Blender, Unreal Engine. Watch their winning entry and testimonials below.

1st Place: Franco Colapino – by Off World, CGI Freelancer | Argentina

“Without Reallusion’s tools, achieving this level of quality and ease of iteration in pursuing our goal would not have been possible; the power and creative freedom it provides are immense.” – Off World

View Off World’s entry and WIP

2nd Place: The Hunt – by Joseph Hoback, 3D Animator | United States

“There’s no way I could have gotten as far as I did without the use of iClone. The mocap informed not only the timing and energy but also the character as a whole.” – Joseph Hoback

View Joseph’s entry and WIP

3rd Place: Special ops: Lioness – by Hector Mercado, CGI Artist & Filmmaker | Dominican Republic

“The new Headshot 3 features together with the AI assisted reference image generation and cleanup, really help in getting the character likeness when trying to create a digital double!” – Hector Mercado

View Hector’s entry and WIP

BEST STYLIZED ANIMATION

Under this category, contestants use iClone to create a stylized animation for a character made with the CC3+ Base. The character model can be customized with Reallusion tools and content or third-party software like ZBrush, Blender, Unreal Engine. Watch their winning entry and testimonials below.

1st Place: STONE GODZ – by Dazhi Benjamin Sokomba, Animator | Nigeria

“I used iClone for final real-time render, Character Creator 5 for main character and AccuRIG for stone characters.” – Dazhi Benjamin Sokomba

View Benjamin’s entry and WIP

2nd Place: Moss Fairy – by Affan Shiekh, CGI artist | Pakistan

“Character Creator 5 is amazing. It gets better every year, and I would like more implementation for Blender addon!” – Affan Shiekh

View Affan’s entry and WIP

3rd Place: Hard Battle – by Soorena Sardarzadeh, 3D Character Artist | Poland

“With iClone, making animation isn’t harder than it needs to be.” – Soorena Sardarzadeh

View Soorena’s entry and WIP

BEST ACCURIG CHARACTERS

Powered by AccuRIG, artists can transform static models into fully animatable characters, regardless of topology. The winning characters showcase high sculpting details with attractive poses and professional renders. Reallusion selected four winners from this category, and here are the winners, entries, and respective WIPs.

SPECIAL AWARDS

Special Awards recognize outstanding achievement across specific technical and artistic categories. Beyond their distinctive visual aesthetics, these winning entries demonstrate a deep mastery of 3D pipelines and creative problem-solving techniques. Their entries present compelling character designs, solid anatomy, and exceptional composition.

Best Render

View all winning entries and WIPs.

Best Pipeline Use

View all winning entries and WIPs.

Best Mocap Use

Sangkoo Lee | Republic of Korea

Best Digital Double

View all winning entries and WIPs.

Best Student Artwork

Harlos Humberto Rivas Garcia | Venezuela

Best Costume

View all winning entries and WIPs.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Honorable Mentions celebrate standout entries that captivated the judging panel through exceptional dedication, skill, and creative vision. While not taking home a top placement, these artists delivered remarkable craft and passion throughout the competition. View all Honorable Mention entries and WIPs.

The judging process for the “2026 Reallusion 3D Character Contest” proved to be quite difficult and took many hours of deliberation. In addition to the top 3 placements in Best Character Animation & Best Character Design, Reallusion also selected 28 winners for AccuRIG characters, Special Awards, and Honorable Mentions. See the Winner Page for winner details and showcases, and we look forward to your entry submission next year!

Read Next:

Click here to learn more about the winners’ portfolios and judge comments.

• Mastering Stylized Characters with Character Creator 5 & Headshot 3
• Headshot 3 Stylized Image to 3D: Building a Bodybuilder Caricature in CC5 and Blender
• Master the Character Creator to ZBrush Pipeline: The Making of Veyra

這篇文章 Reallusion’s 2026 3D Character Contest – Meet the Winners! 最早出現於 Reallusion Magazine。

Strategic alliance connects Reallusion’s 3D ecosystem with John Gaeta’s Neo Cinema platform, bringing consistent AI filmmaking to 400 million Connected TVs.

SAN JOSE, CA and LOS ANGELES, CA – October 8, 2026 — Reallusion Inc., the leader in 3D character generation and real-time animation software, and Escape.AI Media Inc., the premier “Neo Cinema” content platform and creator marketplace, today announced a strategic partnership. The multi-year alliance addresses critical generative AI video challenges, including visual inconsistencies, high token costs, and ambiguous IP ownership. Together, the companies establish a robust 3D-to-AI pipeline for professional AI storytellers.

Creators using generative AI video frequently encounter shifting character designs and high render costs, while text-generated content faces legal scrutiny regarding copyright eligibility. Reallusion and Escape.AI solve these challenges by using 3D spatial data as a precise control layer. Grounding generative models in human-authored assets ensures frame-to-frame continuity and undeniable proof of original authorship.

Reallusion’s Full-Circle 3D Ecosystem: The Structural Engine for AI

Under the agreement, Reallusion integrates its full-circle 3D software and asset infrastructure with a 3D-to-AI Video Workflow into the Escape.AI creator ecosystem:   

• Character Creator 5 (CC5): Enables creators to design custom, fully rigged 3D characters with precise facial blendshapes and high-resolution textures. These base 3D files serve as the original IP foundation that can be trained into custom AI models with absolute visual continuity.
• ActorCore Motion Library: Provides thousands of professionally captured, high-quality 3D motion animations, rigged characters, props, and facial expressions optimized for film, gaming, and simulation workflows.
• iClone 8 Real-Time Animation Software: Offers real-time scene setup, motion clip editing, motion blending, camera path control, and lighting direction. This 3D environment acts as an exact physical blueprint to guide generative video models, drastically reducing AI hallucinations.
• Reallusion AI Studio: A standalone creation app that ingests 3D scene data from iClone and CC5 as a precision control layer. By integrating leading generative AI models with highly optimized backend prompts, AI Studio ensures frame-by-frame temporal consistency while dramatically cutting cloud rendering token costs.

“Pure text-to-video generation has hit a hard ceiling when it comes to long-form narrative storytelling,” said Enoc Burgos, Director of Reallusion Inc. “Filmmakers cannot build persistent franchises when characters and animations morph from shot to shot. By pairing Reallusion’s 3D control layer with AI Studio, we give directors total camera,  spatial, lighting, and motion command over their scenes. More importantly, our alliance with Escape empowers creators by placing powerful 3D tools directly alongside a premier path to global distribution and monetization, ensuring artists retain verifiable IP ownership over their original characters and worlds.”

Escape.AI: Global CTV Distribution and Monetization 

Complementing Reallusion’s creation engine, Escape.AI provides a curated, prestige distribution layer for independent AI filmmakers. Founded by Academy Award-winning visual effects pioneer John Gaeta (The Matrix), Escape.AI operates a “Neo Cinema” streaming ecosystem designed to bypass algorithm-driven social feeds in favor of gallery-quality presentation.

Key benefits of the Escape.AI platform include:

• Global Connected TV (CTV) Footprint: Through core distribution partnerships with networks like Play.Works, Escape.AI broadcasts curated short-form films, episodic series, and visual music directly to living rooms on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, LG Smart TVs, and Samsung Smart TVs, accessing an addressable market exceeding 400 million active CTV devices.
• Prestige Curation: Modeled after flagship visual anthologies such as Love, Death & Robots, Escape.AI elevates high-craft AI cinema across specialized genres including Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror, and Anime.
• Transparent Creator Monetization: Creators distributing on Escape.AI participate in a 50% net revenue split for syndicated Connected TV content, direct audience patronage and tipping, custom channel subscriptions, and digital collectibles—all while retaining 100% ownership of their underlying intellectual property.

“Neo Cinema is about blending human imagination, game engine control, and generative AI into a unified narrative force,” said John Gaeta, Founder of Escape.AI Media Inc. “Reallusion provides the precise 3D skeleton and camera guidance that generative models desperately need to achieve cinematic discipline. By combining Reallusion’s powerful toolset with Escape’s distribution network, this partnership empowers and expands a growing community of talented filmmakers, giving them the control to craft world-class, consistent stories and the global showcase to broadcast them to hundreds of millions of screens worldwide.”

Joint Initiatives & Community Access: Escape Labs

To empower the next generation of AI filmmakers, Reallusion and Escape.AI are launching:

1. Escape Labs Portal: Features workflow guides, asset packs, and reference blueprints showcasing CC5, iClone, and AI Studio at escape.ai/labs/tools.
2. Community Access: Offers free access to iClone PERSONAL for the Escape.AI creator community to build 3D control layers.
3. Masterclasses & Demos: Co-hosted workshops and a flagship joint Live Demo event on October 23, 2026, demonstrating real-time 3D-to-AI workflows.
4. Creator Grants: Direct 3D and AI technical support, along with AI point sponsorships, for select directors participating in an elite program of creators.

About Reallusion Inc.

Reallusion Inc. (reallusion.com) is a leader in 3D character animation and software development that specializes in 3D character generation and real-time animation software. Its flagship tools including Character Creator, iClone, ActorCore, and AI Studio—empower filmmakers, game studios, and VFX artists worldwide to accelerate production and bridge 3D graphics with generative AI Creation workflows.

Website: https://www.reallusion.com

AI Studio: https://ai.reallusion.com/ai-studio/

About Escape.AI Media Inc.

Founded by Academy Award-winner John Gaeta (The Matrix), Escape.AI (escape.ai) is a next-generation “Neo Cinema” distribution platform and creator marketplace for AI-driven short films, experimental storytelling, and visual arts. Backed by an advisory board of veterans from Pixar, Lucasfilm, Epic Games, Disney, and Google, Escape.AI brings curated, high-craft AI cinema out of crowded social feeds and into living rooms worldwide via native Connected TV (CTV) applications reaching over 400 million active devices.

Website: https://escape.ai

Media Contacts

Reallusion Inc. PR Team

Email: marketing@reallusion.com

Press Kit: reallusion.com/press

Escape.AI Media Inc. PR Team

Email: contact@escape.ai

Press Kit: escape.ai/press

###

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the partnership between Reallusion and Escape.AI?
A: Reallusion and Escape.AI have formed a strategic alliance to create a complete 3D-to-AI video pipeline. Reallusion provides the 3D software for precise scene control, while Escape.AI provides a global Connected TV (CTV) streaming platform to distribute and monetize the resulting AI films.

Q: How does Reallusion fix AI video inconsistencies?
A: Reallusion uses 3D spatial data from software like iClone and Character Creator 5 as a control layer. By giving generative AI an exact physical blueprint of the characters, lighting, and camera paths, it stops the AI from hallucinating or “morphing” from frame to frame.

Q: What is Reallusion AI Studio?
A: Reallusion AI Studio is a standalone application that ingests 3D scene data as a precision control layer. It pairs leading generative AI models with highly optimized backend prompts to ensure temporal consistency and significantly reduce cloud rendering token costs.

Q: How do creators monetize on Escape.AI?
A: Creators retain 100% ownership of their IP and receive a 50% net revenue split for syndicated CTV content. They can also earn money through direct audience tipping, custom channel subscriptions, and digital collectibles.

Read More:

AI Studio 1.1 Major Update: Standalone Application, Seedance 2.5, and Upgraded AI Actor Creator

AI Studio Storytellers: Directing AI Films with Diverse 3D Assets

AI Studio Storytellers: Building a Connected World with Consistent AI Characters

AI Studio Storytellers: Building a Brand Marketing Campaign

這篇文章 Reallusion and Escape.AI Partner to Solve AI Video Bottlenecks and Expand Distribution 最早出現於 Reallusion Magazine。

TL;DR:

3D artist Jon Blalock demonstrates how to match 2D portraits to 3D meshes using Character Creator 5 with Headshot 3. The workflow, combined with built-in texture modification tools, ActorMIXER morphing, and automatic facial rigging, lets you rapidly build animation-ready realistic heads or caricatures from scratch.

Headshot 3 Plugin Overview

The Headshot 3 Plugin brings game-changing upgrades and powerful new features to Character Creator 5, building on the solid foundation of Headshot 2. Whether you are generating 3D heads from scratch or refining intricate facial details, Headshot 3 streamlines the AI-to-3D pipeline with unprecedented precision and flexibility.

Getting Started with the Headshot 3 Plugin

To kick off your character creation workflow, launch the plugin via Plugins > Headshot 3 > Headshot 3 Plugin. The intuitive interface immediately prompts you to load a front-facing image. You can craft custom source photos directly within Character Creator 5 using the integrated AI image generator. Simply enter a descriptive text prompt detailing the character face you envision (for example, a stylized medieval villager with exaggerated features).

Image generation costs vary by resolution (15 credits for 2K, 30 credits for 4K). Powered by Reallusion’s cloud servers, the generator yields flat-lit source photos. This flat lighting is essential because minimal baked-in shadows ensure dynamic in-engine lighting reacts realistically across your final 3D character mesh.

Using External Images & Image Preparation

You are not limited to generating photos within the Headshot 3 Plugin. The images created using external AI tools like Gemini Pro or ChatGPT work seamlessly as well. If an external photo contains heavy shadows, stray hair, or facial hair, you can easily clean and prepare it using Headshot 3’s built-in modify tab.

Simply drag your front-view image into the Modify panel and apply automated cleanup parameters to eliminate hair, beards, mustaches, or eyelashes. Generating a clean 4K base texture delivers a smooth surface foundation, giving you complete freedom to add modular mesh hair and 3D facial hair elements back onto your character later.

Initial Mesh Generation & Feature Matching

Once your front and profile (side) images are loaded into Headshot 3, guide the mesh generator by specifying key facial attributes.

• Face Shape: Oval, strong jawline, defined nose line, sharp or rounded chin.
• Facial Features: Eye bags, bulbous nose, defined front nose.
• Body Type: Male/Female, Adult, Normal physique.

After clicking the generate button, leverage the Image Matching tools to overlay and compare the generated 3D mesh against your reference photo using the opacity slider. For characters with distinct ocular proportions, adjust the Iris UV Radius slider to perfectly match the 3D iris scale to the photo.

Refining the Front Face Mesh

Click the refine face button to enter the fine-tuning workspace. This tool provides interactive landmark guides and Bézier control points to align geometric contours precisely with facial feature boundaries:

• Position main landmark points around the ear, jaw, skull base, nose, mouth, and eyes.
• Adjust the Bezier curves to match the facial curvature. Unlink curve handles if you need individual tangent control.
• Click Preview Current Parts to review the geometric overlay. Once satisfied, click Apply Current Parts.

Refining the Profile View & Best Practices

When setting up profile reference images, always use a true 100% profile image where the opposite eye is completely hidden. If your side photo shows even a hint of the far eye, re-generate a precise profile image using the AI generator rather than fitting against an angled photo.

According to Reallusion best practices and my own testing, placing landmark points at exact anatomical positions takes priority over adjusting Bézier curves. Consult the online Headshot 3 manual for precise point definitions (such as aligning the “median of the skull back” point horizontally with the eyebrows). Once completing the pointing for the eye corners, mouth corners, ear boundaries, and jawline, adjust position and scale. Then, use the preview to see the mesh, and click Apply All. This will ensure the best result for getting the head shape correct.

Stylizing Characters with ActorMIXER

To turn a realistic mesh into a stylized caricature, open the ActorMIXER plugin and load in the HD Caricature Mixer Pack. For my stylized 3D character, I found it quite helpful to use the existing content pack!

• Blend build proportions across head, eye, nose, and jaw sections to add caricature elements without over-distorting the head.
• Adjust body proportions to match the stylized head.
• If mixing causes a distorted neck, select the actor morphs and adjust the Neck Length slider.

“HD Caricature Mixer is a pack that I like a lot, because it almost applies to any stylized characters. It is really flexible, and gives you the proportions of all kinds of different body build.”

Jon Blalock — Digital Artist & Educator

Adding Facial Details, Eye Corrections & Expressions

For facial hair, I use the Beard & Brows Builder pack to apply modular sideburns, mustache, and sparse beard layers.

• Eyeball Alignment: Adjust Eyeball Depth, Eyeball Width, and Eyeball Height morph sliders so the eyes look directly forward without clipping through the eyelids.
• Eye Blink Correction: Test eye closure using the blink tool. If the eyelids do not meet completely, go to Character > Correct Eye Blink.
• Lighting: Apply cinematic lighting presets (Content > Item > Light > Cinematic Light) to evaluate dynamic shadows and material highlights on your finished character.

As for the facial animation & teeth depth, I tested the performance by using Motion > Facial Rig > Dramatic Male. If upper or lower teeth poke through the lips during facial expressions, adjust the Teeth Upper Depth morph to pull them back.

Conclusion

The Headshot 3 Plugin equips digital artists with an unrivaled toolkit for turning 2D portraits into fully animation-ready 3D avatars. By combining AI image generation, robust mesh-fitting controls, and seamless integration with ActorMIXER and Character Creator 5, you can dramatically accelerate your character production pipeline while maintaining full artistic control.

John Blalock

John’s background and education are in the traditional visual effects pipeline, mainly as a Compositor. Over the years, he has worked at visual effects studios such as Rhythm & Hues, and game company Sony PlayStation.

While he enjoyed those studio experiences, he found a greater love in passing along what he had learned. He has taught in the college education sector in Southern California for over 12 years, including the Academy of Art University.”

He has been entranced by their possibilities and integration with other tools, such as iClone and Character Creator, ever since. John is also co-founder of the YouTube channel AsArt and also runs a tutorial-based channel, JohnnyHowTo. He would love for you to stop by and join him on his adventures!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q: Can I use photos created with third-party AI generators like Midjourney, ChatGPT, or Gemini?

A: Yes! Headshot 3 accepts external images. If your source image contains baked-in shadows or unwanted hair, try to regenerate it with an AI prompt, and always mention that the character’s face should be fully lit for best results. This will give you a good start in achieving a reliable image for the later AI 3D head.

Q: Why is flat-lit lighting so important for source photos?

A: Flat lighting eliminates directional shadows on the base diffuse texture, allowing Character Creator‘s dynamic lights and shaders to render realistic highlights and shadows in real-time without visual artifacts.

Q: How do I fix teeth or eye clipping during facial animation testing?

A: You can adjust the eyeball depth, width, and height morph sliders to ensure proper eyelid contact. For teeth clipping, use the “Teeth Upper/Lower Depth morphs”, or run the correct eye blink tool under the Character menu.

Read Next:

• Mastering Stylized Characters with Character Creator 5 & Headshot 3
• Headshot 3 Stylized Image to 3D: Building a Bodybuilder Caricature in CC5 and Blender
• Master the Character Creator to ZBrush Pipeline: The Making of Veyra

這篇文章 Headshot 3 Plugin Guide: AI 3D Head Generation in Character Creator 最早出現於 Reallusion Magazine。

Reallusion has officially launched RTX Render Open Beta 3 for iClone 8 and Character Creator 5. Building on earlier path-tracing releases, Open Beta 3 delivers key production upgrades to help creators produce film-grade visuals through advanced camera controls, expanded color management, dedicated post-processing channels, and live procedural material workflows.

• New Users: Visit the [Reallusion Forum] for the complete Installation Guide and setup instructions.

• Full Feature Details: Check out the Slides to view the comprehensive feature guide and visual demonstrations!

Native Volumetric Lighting

Open Beta 3 natively integrates real-time ray-traced volume scattering for physical Spot Lights and Point Lights, enabling atmospheric light shafts, sunbeams, and spotlight cones directly inside the viewport.

See more visual demos

Refined Lens Flare Controls

Lens Flare effects receive major visual enhancements in Open Beta 3. Artists can now take advantage of refined flare controls and directional settings, offering greater precision and improved optical quality when tuning lens artifacts in the scene.

See more visual demos

Industry-Standard Lens Presets & Sensor Shift

See more visual demos

Physical Optics, Bokeh, and Smart Focus Tracking

See more visual demos

Multi-Scatter Bloom & Custom Glare Kernels

See more visual demos

Decoupled World Lighting & World Background

See more visual demos

AgX Color Management

AgX Color Management replaces standard sRGB tone mapping with the AgX View Transform and specialized Look presets (AgX-Punchy, AgX-High Contrast) to eliminate highlight clipping and smooth out HDR roll-offs.

See more visual demos

Advanced Denoising Mechanics & Diagnostics

Rendering controls now offer independent sampling profiles for viewport previewing versus final renders. Viewport denoising can be set to engage only after reaching a specified sample threshold to maintain interactivity, while final renders leverage auxiliary Albedo and Normal passes for cleaner noise reduction in dark environments.

See more visual demos

Material Render Pass Isolation

For precise compositing and surface material debugging, Open Beta 3 introduces dedicated render passes. Artists can directly isolate and inspect individual lighting components, including Transmission, Clearcoat, Sheen, Emissive, Specular, and Subsurface Scattering (SSS).

See more visual demos

Live Dynamic Substance Parameters & Timeline Keyframing

Substance materials now stay completely live within the RTX path-tracing engine without baking down into static textures. Procedural material attributes—such as pattern variations, roughness offsets, and color channels—can be tweaked in real-time. Artists can also keyframe Substance parameters directly along the Timeline to create dynamic, time-based material transformations during RTX playback.

See more visual demos

Availability

RTX Render Open Beta 3 is available now for registered users of Character Creator 5 and iClone 8. Download the update today and share your renders and feedback on the official Reallusion Forum.

Related Posts

• RTX Render Open Beta Begins: Path-Traced Quality Inside Character Creator 5 and iClone 8
• Reallusion Unlocks Limitless Creation: iClone Personal Debuts Alongside AI Studio Official Launch
• Ultra-Realistic Realtime RTX Path Trace Render in iClone

這篇文章 What’s New in RTX Render Open Beta 3: Craft Film-Grade Shots & Animate Materials 最早出現於 Reallusion Magazine。

TL;DR:

• The RTX Render plugin for iClone 8 and Character Creator 5 brings physically accurate path-traced rendering directly into your real-time workflow.
• Artists can achieve near offline rendering quality with features like subsurface skin scattering, multi-layer RTX materials, and f-stop camera depth of field.
• Award-winning animator Benjamin Sokomba Dazhi (Benny Dee) leverages RTX Render to create highly realistic scenes, optimizing lighting and mirror reflections in real time.
• The plugin offers free access during its open beta, enabling users to re-render old projects with stunning new visual fidelity.

The new RTX Render plugin for iClone 8, Reallusion’s flagship real-time animation suite, transforms digital human creation and virtual production by integrating physically accurate path-traced rendering. This article details an advanced workflow, demonstrating how artists can achieve near offline rendering quality directly within the software, solving the challenge of bridging real-time production with cinematic visual fidelity. The process leverages NVIDIA RTX Path Tracing technology for stunning realism without external exports.

“Reallusion’s iClone RTX Render delivers real-time, realistic results, while AccuFACE 2 makes it easy to drive facial animation using a webcam or prerecorded video.”

BENJAMIN SOKOMBA DAZHI — Renowned 3D Animator, Director, Musician, Cinematographer

How to Achieve Near Offline Render Quality with RTX Render in iClone 8?

The RTX Render plugin fundamentally changes how artists approach rendering in iClone 8 by bringing advanced path tracing capabilities directly into the viewport. This integration means features like physically accurate light bounces, subsurface skin scattering, multi-layer RTX materials (Transmission, Coat, Sheen), and real f-stop camera depth of field are no longer exclusive to traditional offline renderers. Users can now visualize complex lighting interactions and material properties in real time, significantly streamlining the creative process. This on-the-fly feedback loop enables rapid iteration and precise artistic control, especially crucial for detailed 3D character creation and cinematic real-time animation pipelines.

The journey to high-quality renders begins with meticulous scene and character preparation. For 3D character artists and digital human creators, this means starting with a high-fidelity base. According to Benny Dee, preparing characters in Character Creator 5 is a critical first step due to its robust tools for generating HD quality characters with realistic skin textures. He emphasizes that the characters are already “very realistic enough” even before applying RTX, thanks to the HD skin options available in Character Creator 5. Props and environments must also match this level of detail to fully leverage RTX Render’s capabilities, with “ultra realistic props” enhancing the final output.

Optimizing Scene Setup for Path-Traced Environments

Effective lighting and material setup are paramount when utilizing a path-traced renderer like RTX Render. After assembling high-quality props and characters, the next step involves converting the scene to the RTX rendering mode. This instantly transforms the lighting and material behavior, requiring a fresh approach to illumination.

Crafting Realistic Lighting with RTX Render

In RTX Render, lighting shifts from approximation to physical accuracy. Users position spotlights and point lights strategically at every light source within the scene to simulate realistic light emission and shadow casting. The real-time preview in RTX Render immediately showcases amazing shadows that are “very soft and realistic,” as highlighted by Benny Dee.

This immediate feedback is invaluable for virtual production professionals and cinematic visual storytellers, allowing them to precisely sculpt light and shadow. Adjusting light color, intensity, and even the light shape (e.g., from Sphere to Rectangle for softer, more evenly spread illumination) allows for highly nuanced moods and atmospheric effects.

Q: How do I set up a spotlight in iClone 8 for RTX Render?

A: To set up a spotlight, navigate to the top menu, select CREATE > LIGHT > SPOT LIGHT. Once placed, the light will appear in the Scene Manager. You can then align it to the scene center using the ALIGN function for easy positioning. Adjust its properties in the Modify panel, including color and intensity, to achieve your desired illumination. The real-time RTX preview immediately reflects these changes, allowing for precise control over the scene’s mood and shadows.

Enhancing Realism with Emissive Materials and Reflections

Beyond direct light sources, incorporating emissive materials significantly boosts scene realism. For instance, Benny Dee describes setting up lamps with emissive material by increasing their GLOW channel strength. This not only makes the light fixtures appear to be actually emitting light but also contributes to the scene’s ambient illumination and global illumination. A clever detail, like intentionally making one incandescent tube lamp appear “old and burnt out” by disabling its glow, adds authenticity.

Another powerful feature is the creation of highly reflective surfaces. By simply adjusting the ROUGHNESS material channel of a plane prop to a value near zero in the Modify panel, it transforms into a highly reflective mirror. This capability showcases RTX Render’s capacity for accurately reflecting the environment and lights in real time, providing immediate visual confirmation for portrait and lighting artists seeking perfect reflections. The system can even account for complex phenomena like subsurface scattering, providing depth and realism to materials like skin.

Without having to manually customize the Material Channel settings of each props, users can also take full advantage of the RTX Render BETA, by accesing the specialized material pack located within the MEDIA folder under Reallusion’s custom directory. Navigating into the RTX BETA materials folder reveals dedicated subfolders for reflective surface, transmissive, subsurface scattering, and fabric presets.

These materials are engineered for effortless workflow integration, allowing artists to simply drag and drop any material directly onto an object surface in the scene. This instantly converts prop textures into optimized RTX-ready surfaces—such as rapidly transforming a flat plane into a realistic, highly reflective mirror—enabling quick visual experimentation without tedious manual map setup.

Volumetric Lighting in iClone

In an iClone scene, volumetric lighting can be added to existing light sources to make light shafts visible and enhance the overall environmental atmosphere. Users can enable this feature by selecting the volumetric light settings and fine-tuning parameters such as the medium density multiplier to control the exact intensity and spread of the effect.

Playing with these settings allows creators to tailor the visual impact to their specific needs, giving the scene added depth and a cinematic quality based on how the light interacts with the surrounding space.

Featured Artist Spotlight:
Benjamin Sokomba Dazhi (Benny Dee)

Benjamin Sokomba Dazhi, globally recognized as Benny Dee, is an award-winning Nigerian animator, film producer, and creative storyteller. Hailing from Niger State, Benny Dee has carved a niche as one of Africa’s leading digital artists, skillfully blending animation, filmmaking, music, and cutting-edge technologies. His acclaimed work includes a collaboration with Cartoon Network for the CN Dance Challenge, demonstrating his unique ability to infuse vibrant African culture into dynamic animation for international audiences.

Benny Dee is a respected authority in the Reallusion ecosystem, particularly lauded for his expertise in real-time lighting, cinematic rendering, and virtual production with iClone 8 and Character Creator. He also integrates NVIDIA Omniverse into his workflows for advanced rendering and collaborative pipelines, consistently pushing the boundaries of digital filmmaking. His innovative approach extends to guiding AI Studio with iClone’s precise 3D guidance, ensuring consistent, high-quality results across diverse AI render styles.

• iClone Courses: https://courses.reallusion.com/master-class/instructors/3d/benny-dee
• YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@justartanimationstudios810
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealbennydee

“I was honestly impressed by the visual quality and the speed of the RTX Render inside iClone 8.”

BENJAMIN SOKOMBA DAZHI — Renowned 3D Animator, Director, Musician, Cinematographer

Benny Dee’s RTX Render Workflow Highlights:

• Character Preparation: Starts with Character Creator 5 to generate HD quality characters with realistic skin, providing a strong foundation for RTX Render.
• Prop & Environment Detailing: Ensures all scene props are “ultra realistic” and meticulously arranged, often using reference pictures for guidance.
• Real-time Lighting: Utilizes RTX Render’s real-time capabilities to position spotlights and point lights accurately, leveraging physical light bounces and soft shadows.
• Material Enhancement: Increases emissive material strength for light-emitting props and adjusts ROUGHNESS material channel to create highly reflective surfaces like mirrors.
• Camera & Animation Blocking: Prioritizes camera setup and animation blocking, often setting the camera first to frame the scene or using AccuFACE 2 plugin for facial performance capture.
• Rendering Optimization: Adjusts RTX Render quality options like samples and bounce counts for efficient final renders based on GPU capacity.

Incorporating Animation and Camera Work for Cinematic Shots

Once the scene is meticulously lit and materials are set, integrating character animation and dynamic camera work completes the cinematic vision. Users can drag and drop pre-existing animation clips from the Content Library onto their characters. Benny Dee often prioritizes camera setup before animation, establishing desired angles and framing. This workflow is crucial for concept artists and game developers aiming for specific in-game cutscenes or marketing visuals.

During the lighting setup, a point light can be added to a far backroom to emit a warm orange color that acts as a rim light. This warm hue provides depth and contrast to the scene. Once the scene is meticulously lit and materials are set, integrating character animation and dynamic camera work completes the cinematic vision.

A key element for cinematic results is the proper use of depth of field. In iClone 8, users can easily add depth of field to their cameras, allowing them to blur backgrounds and foregrounds, thereby directing the viewer’s focus to the primary subject. By using the PICK target function, artists can precisely select the character, ensuring it remains sharp while the surroundings gently fall out of focus. This real f-stop camera depth of field is rendered accurately by RTX Render, contributing significantly to the photorealistic aesthetic.

Advanced Facial Animation with AccuFACE 2

To truly bring characters to life, high-fidelity facial animation is essential. The AccuFACE 2 plugin for iClone 8 offers a powerful solution for facial motion capture, allowing artists to drive character expressions using either a live webcam or a prerecorded video file. This tool is invaluable for 3D animators seeking nuanced and expressive performances.

After launching the Motion Live panel, users connect AccuFACE 2, disable head movement if only facial expressions are desired, and adjust global strength and denoise functions to refine the capture. This seamless motion capture pipeline integrates directly into iClone, recording performances into motion clips on the timeline.

“For facial motion capture in iClone, you can easily download and integrate Reallusion’s new AccuFACE 2 plugin into your workflow.”

BENJAMIN SOKOMBA DAZHI — Renowned 3D Animator, Director, Musician, Cinematographer

Technical Workflow for RTX Render Settings

Finalizing a render involves fine-tuning the RTX Render quality options. These parameters, found under the RENDER toolbar, include samples for bounce counts and bright pixel noise threshold. Reallusion provides extensive documentation to understand how these settings affect the final image, impacting both quality and render time. For efficient rendering, Benny Dee suggests adjusting the samples value; while the default is 1000, he often reduces it to 64 samples to optimize rendering speed based on his graphic card’s capacity, ensuring a decent quality within a reasonable timeframe.

Pro Tip: To significantly reduce final render times without drastically compromising quality, adjust the RTX Render’s samples parameter from the default 1000 to 64. This method saves roughly 50-70% of render time for typical animation sequences, making it ideal for rapid prototyping or studios with tight deadlines.

The RTX Render plugin for iClone 8 and Character Creator brings a new level of visual fidelity and speed to character animation and virtual production. Its ability to perform path-traced rendering directly within software, without requiring external exports, accelerates workflows for everyone from indie developers to AAA studios. The current open beta status and free access mean there’s no better time to experiment with its capabilities.

RTX Render Key Features

Conclusion

The RTX Render plugin fundamentally reshapes the real-time animation and 3D character creation landscape by merging the speed of iClone with the visual fidelity of path tracing. By integrating directly into existing workflows and leveraging NVIDIA RTX technology, it empowers artists to produce cinematic-quality renders with unprecedented efficiency. Its features, combined with the detailed setup and optimization techniques demonstrated by experts like Benny Dee, make it an indispensable tool for achieving stunning, realistic visuals.

Best of all, this free plugin expands iClone’s capabilities, providing users with three distinct rendering options: the classic DX11 render, AI render with AI Studio, and the new RTX Render. This open beta offers an unparalleled opportunity to experience these capabilities firsthand.

Claim your RTX Render Open Beta access here

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do I export a rigged character from Character Creator 5 to iClone 8 for RTX Render?

A: Characters created in Character Creator 5 can be directly sent to iClone 8 using the Send to iClone function within Character Creator 5. This maintains the rigging, materials, and any applied animations, ensuring a seamless transfer. Once in iClone 8, you can then activate the RTX Render plugin to immediately view your character within a path-traced environment and begin fine-tuning materials and lighting for your final cinematic render.

Q: What is the difference between DX11 render and RTX Render in iClone 8?

A: DX11 render uses traditional rasterization for real-time display, providing fast performance suitable for general scene setup and animation previews, though with less physical accuracy in lighting. RTX Render, conversely, employs path tracing, which simulates light behavior physically, resulting in highly realistic shadows, reflections, and global illumination. While more computationally intensive, RTX Render delivers near offline quality directly in iClone 8, ideal for final cinematic output.

Q: Can I use RTX Render to improve the quality of my older iClone projects?

A: Yes, one of the significant benefits of the new RTX Render plugin is its ability to re-render old iClone projects with dramatically enhanced visual quality. By simply opening an existing project in iClone 8 and activating RTX Render, all lighting, materials, and reflections will be recalculated using path tracing. This allows you to bring new life and cinematic realism to your legacy animations and scenes without extensive re-work.

Q: Why does my real-time RTX Render preview run slowly, and how can I optimize it?

A: Real-time RTX Render performance depends heavily on your GPU’s power and VRAM. To optimize, ensure your NVIDIA graphics drivers are updated. You can also temporarily switch back to DX11 mode while arranging props and blocking animations, then reactivate RTX Render for final lighting and material adjustments. Additionally, reducing the number of complex light sources, disabling subsurface scattering on less critical elements, and lowering samples in the preview settings can improve responsiveness.

Read Next:

• Learn more about Character Creator 5 pipeline integrations
• Explore advanced real-time animation techniques in iClone 8

這篇文章 Ultra-Realistic Realtime RTX Path Trace Render in iClone 最早出現於 Reallusion Magazine。

The Headshot 3 plugin was another evolutionary leap in character creation with the addition of improved Image facial mapping capabilities. For those of you that haven’t had the pleasure of using Headshot 3 yet the mapping is not complex at all so don’t let the terminology scare you off.

We will cover in this article how to use the control points and the curve handles that come with those points to shape the head mesh to fine tune the image to mesh process. We can use up three images: Front Face, Side Face and Body including custom body images or the standard male and female bodies we use on a regular basis. The AI image generator in the plugin is ready to create just such images based on your prompt at the press of a button for unique characters.

Two is Better Than One

When it comes to the image to face feature the front and side image is the preferred method instead of just a front image.  Keep in mind that the FRONT IMAGE controls items like head height while the side image controls head depth or more precisely the item you are working with like the eyes, nose, head outline and so on.

The side refinement tool has more control by giving us control points to place in strategic areas like Character Creator has used in the past and curve handles on those points to control the surface curve between the control points.

NOTE: Reallusion points out that the control points are more important and should receive more attention than the curves as the control points form the mesh while the green curves form the surface between the control points.

To be honest I was focusing more on the curves and not paying enough attention to the proper placement of the points. They don’t have to be perfect, but they do need to be as close as you can get them to the head shape. Some quick experimentation will show you what works best.

Front View Only

Using just a front view will work just fine, but if you want more control use the Front and Side view with separate images for both as this will activate the side view control points for proper placement. If you are creating background or crowd characters, then this is not that important but if you are trying to recreate a concept or historical character this will give you more control points to shape the characters’ head.

Front and Side View

This is the preferred method if you have a side view available. It needs to be 90-degree side view or as close as possible otherwise we have to make up for it by moving the controls relative to the mesh outline on front and back as discussed later in this article. This is also demonstrated in the recent Reallusion tutorial embedded in this article.

Again, the new AI image generation feature can generate images for us, and we can regenerate if needed or adapt the control points. This added bonus allows us to stay within the application instead of going to an outside generation service for headshots. As with most Character Creator tools, this simplifies the process and keeps us in app negating the necessity of running multiple apps.

The Side View

Now we have control over the sides of the head, it provides us with more flexibility in matching the character.

While using the Side image gives us more control points it can collapse the forehead if used improperly as the side view sets the forehead (and head) depth in general. If you place one particular control point too high on the head the forehead depth or volume will collapse and curve awkwardly inward, then back out.

To avoid this the top front control point needs to be placed at the hairline or where the hairline should be. This will ensure enough volume to keep the forehead from distorting when shaped from the side. After this we can then fine tune the forehead volume if needed.

The video below demonstrates this and how to correct it and the Reallusion Tutorial further down in this article goes into more detail.

The Profile Depth Slider

To get a character all we need at minimum is a forward headshot. This sets the face features and other landmarks. Due to it being a forward view the face can be a bit flatter than normal so we can use the Profile Depth slider to project face outward more or draw it inward. If the nose seems a bit flat, then the slider will extend the nose along with all the other facial features adding more depth.

The same thing can happen with using both front and side as the front image still determines the height just like using a single front image with no side image.  

Control Point Placement

This bears going over again as the control points are the most important part of the refinement process. The control points set the boundaries of the mesh while the curves fill in the mesh between boundaries so to make substantial changes you must move the control points not the curve control handle.

It might also be necessary to move the points outside of the current mesh boundary to get a finer adjustment. This is why the preview option is so important before committing to the process. What you see on the preview is the actual outcome regardless of what the spline curves show on the adjustment panel. All of this is covered in the tutorial below from Reallusion, my tutorial earlier, as well as in the manual sections for Control Point Placement Guide – Front Face and Side Face.

A Less-Than-Optimal Side View

If you are using a side view that is not exactly 90 degrees, then it can lead to distortion of the head mesh. The Reallusion tutorial below addresses this issue at the 4:50 mark.  This explains how to use the refinement tool to solve this problem by forcing a better alignment with the placement of the control points.

If we try to use a less than 90-degree side view the depth of the head will appear narrower and if we do not adjust for it as shown in the video, then skull compression can happen reducing the distance between the front and back of the head creating a less than desirable skull shape.

The video tutorial below from Reallusion explains all of this and demonstrates how to compensate for a less-than-optimal side view image ensuring your characters look like YOUR characters not just a close semblance of them.

Aligning the Ears and Setting Eye Depth

We are not confined to using the refinement tools as we can also use the morph sliders to deal with issues like aligning the ears and eye depth. AI can have difficulty in determining the eye depth from a frontal image, so slider adjustment is necessary. Same with lining up the ears from front to back of the head as this can be done with a slider also.

Don’t Forget the Sculpting Tools Too!

Not only does Headshot 3 retain the original sculpting tools if needed there are also additional improvements to the visual sculpting areas for more fine control. In Headshot 3 I suspect the sculpting tools will be used less and less as Character Creator is taking on more of the load with the AI Image to Head tool than ever before. Learn more from the tutorial below, as well as the manual sections for Sculpt Morph Design – Front and Side.

Summary

The main thing to remember if you get a distorted forehead mesh is to go back and place the affected control point closer to the proper position like the area of the hairline in this example. Since the side view only works with depth and not height you must use the front view refinement window to change things like the top of the head height demonstrated in this article and tutorials.

Once again Reallusion provides a tool that can be as simple or as complex as you need it to be. Generate or load a front headshot and you can get a good character but if you use front and side images you will have a lot more controls points to work with and achieve a much more desirable character that can withstand the scrutiny of closes-ups and near camera work.

• Learning resources for Headshot: Manual  |  Tutorials
• Explore 1400+ Head Morph Sliders free for Headshot 3 Users
• Also check the tutorial – Stencil Paint and Clone Brush for 4K Skin Detailing

MD McCallum – WarLord

Digital Artist MD “Mike” McCallum, aka WarLord, is a longtime iClone user. Having authored free tutorials for iClone in its early years and selected to write the iClone Beginners Guide from Packt Publishing in 2011, he was fortunate enough to meet and exchange tricks and tips with users from all over the world and loves to share this information with other users. He has authored hundreds of articles on iClone and digital art in general while reviewing some of the most popular software and hardware in the world. He has been published in many of the leading 3D online and print magazines while staying true to his biggest passion, 3D animation. For more information click here.

WarLord’s Workshop

這篇文章 Headshot 3 – A Beginners Look at the Refine Face Tool 最早出現於 Reallusion Magazine。