The company's goal is to pioneer the next wave of character innovation.
Reallusion software simplifies character creation and animation. Some major products made by the company include Character Creator (CC), iClone (iC) for facial and body animation, and ActorCore – an asset store dedicated to scan-quality characters and AAA mocap animations.
The Blender Development Fund's goal is to enable the Blender project to grow. By joining the Development Fund, every member of the community can ensure the future of Blender, and get:
- Powerful software with new, groundbreaking features
- Stable software, with good development support and quick bug fixes
- Visibility and recognition online, via community badges
Reallusion has supported Blender before, for example, in early 2021, Reallusion introduced the Blender Character Pipeline, a streamlined workflow between iClone, Character Creator and Blender. They also already took several steps to integrate Reallusion’s software with the Blender platform:
- The Blender CC3Tools is an open source plugin that imports CC characters into Blender, auto sets digital human shaders for Eevee render, and transfers CC cloth physics for simulation. This tool can also send Blender creations back to CC, providing custom blendshapes, materials, and mesh assets.
- The Hair Tool is an Blender addon that helps users easily generate hair-cards based on 3D curves in a non-destructive way, with all the features needed for unique Smart Hair designs.
- With Auto-Rig Pro, users can send characters from Reallusion to Blender, with all their clothing and accessories, in just one click. This plugin enables instant rendering of ActorCore animations in Blender or the addition of new motions in Blender AutoRig Pro.
- RigiMap, an unique plugin that brings iClone and ActorCore motion data to Meta-rigged (Rigify) characters. Not only does this ease the animation editing process, but it also provides a gesture library, while being able to bake IK/FK.
- At the same time, Reallusions’ iClone 7 (IC7) Omniverse Connector also enables collaborative short film projects with Blender, with USD sync through Nvidia’s real-time photorealistic simulation platform.
Reallusion has committed to the Blender Development Fund and has become a Corporate Silver partner planning new features that will harness the best of both programs to unlock new synergies.
In 2022, Reallusion plans to create new features that further accelerate the Reallusion-Blender pipeline:
- Round-trip Character Design Pipeline
- Directly update selected items instead of sending the entire character back-and-forth. This will speed up the iterative process on mesh editing, blendshape design, and texture creation.
- Preserve all material data, physics attributes, and other data settings with an in-and-out process.
- iClone Blender Data Link
- Enables simultaneous animation sync from iClone to Blender, where users will be able to see immediate updates in Blender while making animation changes in iClone.
- Character with Blender Meta-rig
- Automatically assign the Rigify meta-rig once importing iClone or CC Characters into Blender, while supporting native Blender motion editing and animation back into iClone.
In addition to supporting Blender, Reallusion encourages independent developers to join them "in building a better Blender pipeline, so that creators everywhere can crossover and realize their true creative potential."
What do you think about such an alliance? Check out Reallusion's magazine, the Blender Development Fund, and join our new Reddit page, our new Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we are sharing breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.