For those who don’t know the tool: Headshot is a plug-in inside Character Creator 5 for turning photos or head meshes into rigged CC characters that can move on to Autodesk Maya, Blender, Unreal Engine, and Unity.

Two ways in: photo or mesh

Headshot now sits at version 3 and requires Character Creator 5. The tool targets digital humans built from either a single portrait or an existing 3D head model, with both paths ending in a fully rigged CC character ready for animation work.

The image workflow starts from a facial photo and runs through automatic 3D head generation plus topology and shape refinement, camera lens correction, normal map creation, and texture reprojection. The mesh workflow targets static head models and runs automatic head wrapping, mesh refinement, and texture baking. The same product page frames the mesh workflow as optimized for photogrammetry, sculpted assets, and mobile scanned models.

Both workflows chase the same goal: convert reference into a character that stays on CC topology so facial animation and downstream retargeting behave predictably. That matters more than the marketing word salad, because your rig cares about edge flow, not adjectives.

Image workflow: faster first pass, more knobs after

The image workflow focuses on building a likeness from a single portrait. Headshot 3 adds AI Image Enhancement tools described as head leveling, expression neutralization, lighting correction, stray hair removal, and 4K upscaling, all applied to source photo material used for the head build.

Headshot 3 also adds AI Image Generation, (text to image generation) with portrait images up to 4K resolution and side or full body images up to 2K resolution. AI Image Generation is powered by Google Nano Banana and requires credits for each generation. The same ecosystem also promises you can swap or replace textures after mesh changes, with texture reprojection that updates after mesh modifications.

For anyone who has ever tried to fix a face by nudging ten sliders and then regretted it on frame 180, Headshot 3 adds preset driven morphing on top. The version has 58 facial presets intended to enhance depth and highlight unique features, with an adjustable slider for fine tuning per applied preset. This is the part to pressure test early. New tools and innovations should be tested before use in production, especially when your deliverable lives or dies on a tight closeup.

Mesh workflow: wrap, sculpt, and keep topology honest

The mesh workflow centers on converting a static head model into a fully rigged CC character using head wrapping, refinement, and baking. It is positioned for turning scans and sculpts into animation ready characters while keeping CC topology.

Headshot 3 adds a spline based reshaper that supports portrait and profile views for alignment of features such as double eyelids and nasolabial folds, described as enabling more accurate facial animation. As well as Bezier controls for refining front and side profiles, with granular adjustment aimed at eyelid structures, mouth curves, and the flow of laugh lines when used with CC5 characters.

Texture work also gets more explicit tooling. The forum post describes a De light function that removes shadows and highlights to produce a clean albedo texture and can generate roughness and normal maps automatically for a full PBR texture set. It also brings a 3D mask brush for removing unwanted blemishes and photo artifacts such as stray hair or eyelashes, with edits on selected texture channels or across all channels at once.

Body matching and the bigger character pipeline

Headshot 3 pushes beyond the head with body matching. The launch post describes using full body reference photos so the AI automatically generates a matching body shape to complement the face, producing a cohesive character build that is fully rigged and ready for animation within the Character Creator 5 ecosystem.

On the promo side, that means a single workflow aims to move from reference to a complete character rather than a floating head. On the pipeline side, it means you still need to verify your own handoff points like shading conventions, texture packing, and how far the exported result matches your studio standards for facial rigs and blendshape naming.

If you are tracking internal workflow topics, this release lands squarely in character animation and the places where facial rigs meet real production schedules. It also sits close to mocap cleanup, since a fast character build only helps if the face holds up once you start driving it.

Again, new tools and innovations should be tested before use in production. Do the boring tests now so you do not do the expensive ones later.

Pricing, promos, and what is actually specified

There is an Early Bird Offer running April 27 through May 31 and it includes Headshot Morphs 1400 plus valued at $99 and 100 AI Image Gen Credits valued at $30. It lists a starter package for Character Creator 5 at $329 from $498, Headshot 3 at $129 from $199 as a member special, and an upgrade price of $99 for Headshot 2 customers.All prices are for Windows perpetual licenses.

New users can purchase Headshot 2 for $129 as a special offer and get Headshot 3 free at launch, and that Headshot 1 and 2 owners can upgrade to Headshot 3 for $99 starting on launch day. The early bird offer runs until May 31st, 2026.

If you plan to lean on AI Image Generation, remember the product page also states it requires credits for each generation. Test the workflow, confirm what consumes credits in your actual use, and validate liekness under your lighting and animation range before you commit it to a client deliverable.

https://www.reallusion.com/character-creator/headshot/

https://discussions.reallusion.com/t/headshot-3-is-coming-pre-launch-offer-live-now/16736

The post Reallusion ships Headshot 3 for CC5 first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Reallusion has released Video Mocap, an online AI motion-capture service integrated into iClone. The feature was developed with AI mocap firm QuickMagic and arrives alongside iClone 8.63, a minor update focusing on plugin support and FBX export fixes. Video Mocap extracts actor movement from uploaded footage and generates editable animation directly inside iClone. Unlike standalone online services that export FBX data, the new plugin connects the AI pipeline to iClone’s animation system, allowing users to clean up artefacts such as foot slippage using iClone’s native tools.

Capture options and limitations

The service offers full-body or upper-body capture, including finger tracking. Facial motion capture is not supported and remains a separate paid add-on in the iClone ecosystem. Each motion-generation task processes up to 60 seconds of video for a single character and costs 250 DA Points, equivalent to $2.50. DA Points are Reallusion’s digital currency, sold with a minimum purchase of $10. Video processing takes place entirely online, and users can submit multiple clips in a batch. Up to ten motion files can be generated per batch if a video contains several performers.

Compatibility and pricing

The Video Mocap plugin is available as a free download for iClone 8.63 and Windows 10+. iClone itself remains a paid application with a $599 perpetual licence. Video Mocap operates on a pay-per-use model. Each clip must be trimmed to a maximum of 60 seconds, though source videos up to 15 minutes can be uploaded. Supported formats include .mp4, .mov, .avi, .mkv, and ten others. Reallusion recommends a minimum resolution of 720p, while 4K and 8K files may reduce performance.

Recording recommendations

Reallusion advises recording footage with a static, eye-level camera, ensuring the performer’s full body or upper body remains visible, depending on the capture type. AI tracking may fail if the subject leaves the frame, wears clothing similar to the background, or performs rapid or occluded motions such as flips or combat. The firm also recommends removing empty video sections before upload to improve motion-tracking accuracy. These and other technical notes are detailed in the iClone Video Mocap Online Manual.

Context: AI mocap enters production tools

Video Mocap joins a growing field of AI-based motion capture systems that interpret human movement from standard video footage. Reallusion’s implementation distinguishes itself by integrating this functionality directly into a production-ready 3D animation platform, avoiding intermediate export steps.

As with any AI-driven system, actual performance and accuracy will depend on recording conditions, motion complexity, and camera quality. Artists should test the service with their own material before integrating it into production pipelines.

The post Video Mocap: Reallusion’s AI Gets Moving first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Mercenaries Engineering has released Rumba 2.0, their latest update to the Maya-compatible character animation tool. This Parisian software house promises that Rumba 2.0 is “the most significant update yet,” but what exactly has changed—apart from the version number?

Real-Time, Really

Rumba 2.0 doubles down on real-time performance. Animators get immediate feedback and fast playback, even in heavily populated or complex scenes. This reduces the ritualistic waiting for previews and renders—no more staring at spinning wheels and wondering about your life choices.

Layers, Layers, Layers

The non-destructive animation layer workflow means users can revise and experiment with less anxiety. Teams can work on different animation layers at the same time, without stepping on each other’s toes or corrupting original data. For anyone who has lost hours untangling overwritten animation, this is less a feature than a minor miracle.

Direct Manipulation and Smarter Tools

Rumba 2.0 gives animators direct manipulation of geometry for posing, including pose mirroring and onion skinning. Onion skinning offers a visual ghost of previous and next frames, making timing and staging less of a guessing game. Other tweaks—like reversing keyframes or switching rotation order—are designed to make animation editing less tedious and more precise.

Sculpt Deformer and Dynamics

A standout: the sculpt deformer tool. This lets artists push geometry around directly in the viewport to fix deformations or tweak silhouettes, sidestepping the usual trip back to rigging or modeling. Animators also get dynamic controller behavior for FK chains—think tails, ropes, and secondary motion—allowing for physically plausible, overlapping motion without laborious manual keyframing.

New Scene Management: Sequencer and Outliner

The new Sequencer tool enables loading and editing of multiple documents at once, providing scene-wide management and a bird’s-eye view of continuity and pacing. The redesigned Outliner is promised to be more intuitive, making complex scene structures less opaque.

Pipeline: Plug and (Actually) Play

Pipeline compatibility is a major design focus. Rumba 2.0 supports USD, Alembic, and FBX. Users can import USD and Alembic assets with improved speed and support for animation and sculpt data. FBX camera animation is fully supported, including editable curves. Exporting animation in USD or Alembic is supported, and keyframed animation curves can make a round-trip back to Maya rigs—no loss of fidelity, no headaches.

There’s also improved support for Maya nodes via the mtorba plugin, and a more capable library that accepts ZIP-based asset bundles.

Two Hours to Learn, Days to Master

Mercenaries Engineering claims that a 2–3 hour training session is enough for animators to be productive with Rumba 2.0, aiming to keep onboarding costs (and staff grumbling) low.

In Production: WooD

For those who want proof, the short film “WooD” provides a recent production example. Rumba handled all animation, with Maya for rigging and Guerilla Render for final look development. A group of students from Creative Seeds handled rig conversion, with environment and compositing tasks also carried out in the academic setting—useful for benchmarking the tool in real-world, team-based scenarios.

Pricing and Availability

Rumba 2.0 is available now to registered users via Mercenaries Engineering’s download portal.

Test Before You Trust

As always, professionals are encouraged to test all new features in their actual production environment before updating mission-critical pipelines. Not every workflow fits every shop—and no feature is worth a missed deadline.

The post Rumba 2.0: No More Animators’ Elbow first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Animating secondary motion—tails, cloth, ponytails, antennae—has long been a tedium familiar to anyone wielding Maya’s animation toolkit. Enter PuppetSoul’s new, free add-on, PUPbuildDynamic, which automates these overlapping motions on joint chains with as much control as animators demand. Created by Cédric Nicolas and released by Soul of Puppet, PUPbuildDynamic is compatible with Maya 2023, 2024, and 2025, with special support for 2025 via a custom compiled node.

Two Flavors: All Maya, or With a Bit of Binary

PUPbuildDynamic comes in two configurations. The “Muppic” version relies solely on standard Maya nodes, making it cross-compatible and robust on any supported Maya version—ideal for users who prefer to avoid plugins.

For those seeking advanced dynamics, the compiled PUPdynaNode unlocks features like collision detection, wind, support for non-standard playback rates (such as 12fps, for all you stop-motion fans), and faster simulation. The node is available free and, according to the developer, works best on Maya 2025.

Animator Control Without FX Overhead

The plug-in’s controls are aimed squarely at animators, not FX artists. Users can adjust stiffness, damping, and mass per joint chain directly from the familiar Maya interface. Collisions, wind, and gravity are handled by the plugin if the compiled node is present, all without stepping outside the classic rig-animate workflow. There’s no need to bake, re-target, or invent workarounds: just assign, tweak, and preview in real-time.

Feature Film Pedigree, Without the Feature Film Price

This isn’t hobbyware. PuppetSoul’s dynamic system descends from tools already deployed on features like Richard the Stork 2. What’s new is its release as a standalone, cost-free download for anyone with a current Maya license. PuppetSoul’s full, commercial toolkit remains available on request for productions needing even deeper rigging integration, but the add-on gives the essentials away for nothing.

Easy Download, Easy Install

The plugin, documentation, and example rigs are provided via the official download page, with clear instructions for both “Muppic” (node-free) and “PUPdynaNode” (plugin) versions. No online registration or personal data harvesting is required; just click, install, and go. If you’re a stickler for stability, stick to the all-Maya node version; if you want physics and performance, try the compiled node.

License, Support, and the Usual Caveats

PUPbuildDynamic is free for use with no visible licensing traps or watermarking. Support, as is often the case with free tools, comes via the Tech-Artists.org thread and a contact link on the PuppetSoul site. The author encourages users to provide feedback and report bugs—this is a tool made by production artists, for production artists.

Closing Note

Automating secondary motion with real-time, tweakable parameters—without reaching for a full FX setup—should appeal to anyone tired of keyframe jiggling or endless corrective animation. As always, test in your own pipeline before greenlighting for hero shots.

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Link Citations

PuppetSoul official download page

The post Maya’s Jiggle Assistant: PUPbuildDynamic Does Your Secondary Motion first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

When Red One dropped last this year, audiences got get a holiday cocktail of Jumanji-style action (The director was the same – Jake Kasdan), Christmas mythology, and CG hellhounds. Behind the visual spectacle: RISE FX, tasked with bringing a gooey portal system, guard monsters, and an actual magic chicken to life. We caught up with VFX Supervisor Michael Wortmann at FMX2025, to talk creature design, feather grooming in Houdini, and what happens when Krampus goes full-screen. From Atlanta to EmberGen simulations—here’s how RISE tackled 280 shots for Amazon MGM’s festive actioner.

DP: What was RISE FX‘s scope on Red One, and when did you get involved in the project?

Michael Wortmann: RISE came aboard the production during the shoot in Atlanta, Georgia in March 2023. We were tasked with some sequences for the new, secret Amazon christmas movie alongside Sony Imageworks and Rodeo FX. We had already worked with VFX Producer Cari Thomas on Shazam but we never worked with Jerome Cheng, the overall VFX Supervisor of the show. We ended up delivering 280 vfx shots for Red One over the course of twelve months requiring a mix of CG creatures, digital set extensions and a lot of hardcore 2D augmentations.

DP: Red One walks a fine line between Christmas fairy tale and action film. How did that tone influence the visual style and your VFX approach?

Michael Wortmann: We knew that production vfx supervisor Jerome Cheng and director Jake Kasdan had already worked together on Jumanji: Welcome to the jungle so it was clear that they would expect topnotch photoreal vfx work and a colorful phantastical design at the same time. But overall this movie would be a comedy so everything needed to help that and action would not be considered the most important thing.

 
DP: So, how duo you get that “fairyle” style in a story like this? 

Michael Wortmann: For example: the Krampus castle was conceived as a matte painting for the shot when Cal and Jack enter the realm of Krampus. When the second wide shot was added later, we did another matte painting because we never built the whole asset. Iterating the matte painting was straightforward and didn’t require so many rounds, in contrast to the design of the portals. Portals are not a new idea, so we needed to come up with something that would be funny and cool looking at the same time. 

The key requirement was to create something that happens fast because if something is overly complex or too long-lasting it is a) NOT funny and b) hard to read and understand by the audience. We started with the membrane simulation and made it feel gooey, later we refined it by adding ice crystal structures and depth blur. The last step was to foreshadow a bit of what is behind the portal. Our compositor Cintia Coll went through all the steps and then distributed the setup to other artists.

DP: How do you plan and prepare when a sequence might end up being full-CG—even if that’s not the original plan?
Michael Wortmann: Creating a full set or shot in CG is very expensive and time-consuming. As soon as directors or producers know that something is fully digital, they suddenly feel different about it. So we always try to shoot anything and keep it in there, so we might just end up with a 99% digital shot – just out of pure psychology. 

The big difference is when something is planned as digital from scratch it’s a long but more controlled process because it will be designed and relevant data will be acquired. However, if a shot turns from footage to full digital, it’s more likely to not have all the reference we would need. If we are lucky, we can reference a lot from the shot that cannot be used but still might help us get it right. All this factors into the bidding, planning and execution of a given shot. However, I have to admit that this can happen, but it is very rare that a shot is going overboard, and we need to rescue it.

DP: What were the most iteration-heavy sequences in Red One, and how did you manage creative feedback?
Michael Wortmann: The most iterations on Red One happened in character animation, especially the hellhounds and the chicken were a big challenge. When you do character animation the pressure is up because the director will ask for a certain performance and that means your shot is suddenly focussed on in a very different way as if you are doing a wire removal. So both, internal and external review iterations are really high in comparison to other vfx shots because it really needs to be perfect because one shot of bad character animation and the illusion is ruined.

DP: Can you walk us through the guard monsters? What went into designing and animating them?
Michael Wortmann: We received a ZBrush sculpt from the production with a design that was relatively close to the final design. So the first thing was to retopologize the model to make it suitable for rigging. 

Our modeller Marius Pörsel took care of that and also refined muscles, facial details and the porcupine spikes that are growing from the neck like a lion’s mane. After that texture artist Timo Scheu started to build shaders and paint textures based on the hires displacement maps generated from the ZBrush model. 

The tricky bit was to combine subsurface shading for the skin with rhinoceros-like armoured skin parts. As we knew that the hellhounds would only be visible in night scenes we developed shaders for the eyes that would give us nice reflections and even catlike yellow reflections also called Tapetum Lucidum. 

Rigging was rather traditional, we tested Houdini’s skin simulation tools but eventually found that we would not see much at night and the camera distance to the hellhounds. So our rigger Thorsten Schulz took care of this and adjusted the rig based on feedback from our animation supervisor Thorsten Kesse.

DP: We’ve heard tales of “The Chicken”. You must explain.
Michael Wortmann: The chicken in Red One is one of the funniest characters. In the story, the chicken is a bewitched agent of the E.L.F. agency and can be turned from a rubber chicken key ring to an actual live chicken by Callum’s actualizer.

Because of the interaction with the CG hellhounds, it was clear we needed a digital chicken. The director Jake Kasdan even owns chickens himself and sent us video footage of his favourite chicken, which is called Ellen.

We used Ellen as reference but, as Ellen is of brown colour, we had to make her white eventually because the brown colour was cancelled out by the blue night colours. Our FX artist Luca Schippmann used Houdini’s new set of feather tools to groom Ellen. This required a lot of development time as the tools were new. Ultimately, we could simulate all feathers and render Ellen with feathers made from curves, which allowed for the closeup shots we needed.

DP: What was the most unexpected challenge during the show—something you couldn’t have planned for?
Michael Wortmann: I think the biggest challenge was Krampus. When we were confronted with the Krampus sequence and briefed on the work, everybody was a bit concerned if we could pull this off. The approach was to rotoscope the Krampus character including fur and hair from the plates, scale him up and digitally recreate the areas that were missing in the plates now. 

We decided that we could do this, and after we completed the first couple of shots we became more confident. The shots turned out beautiful because we had nearly no chroma keying going on and everything looked great from the beginning as in the provided plates. There were a lot of test screenings, but for the biggest part this didn’t affect our part of the work.

DP: What kind of tools or workflows did you use to prepare for test screenings?
Michael Wortmann: For the first test screening, we worked completely on Quicktime proxies. We made sure to set everything up in a way that we could refine match moves and roto we created for this. However, this doesn’t always work – so we had to redo some work later on the high-res plates.

DP: Any clever uses of real-time tools or GPU-based solutions—like EmberGen?
Michael Wortmann: We used GPUs for simulating the storm clouds in Embergen. It seemed like a good test case as we never used it before in production, and because our clouds needed a lot of detail but not a very complicated behaviour or interaction we gave it a shot.

When we had our voxel cache VDB files we found it was nearly impossible to render in Karma, our standard renderer in Houdini, so we tested rendering on GPUs as well using Karma GPU. This gave us the power we needed, but there were still some limitations at that time when it comes to AOVs, deep output and image resolution constraints of which I believe most are fixed by now.

DP: What’s your approach to making sure “annoying shots” don’t end up in the final cut?
Michael Wortmann: This is not really an option. If we face a shot or briefing that seems not doable, we start a discussion about it and offer options to satisfy our client’s needs. “No” is not really an option…

DP: How do you adapt when today’s final delivery deadline is also… for Netflix?
Michael Wortmann: This has hardly changed, we still deliver ACES Linear EXRs that contain enough range for HDR grades. It’s more likely to work in 4k now than some years ago, but this is not really a problem.

DP: What good resources or tools were essential in your workflow—and which would you recommend to others?
Michael Wortmann: We have a lot of custom tools for our pipeline which starts with our own database Risebase and continues through all departments with customizations for Nuke, Houdini and OpenRV. These help us get through these big shows and are tailored for our needs more than any software we could buy.

DP: Can you tell us what’s next for you or RISE FX—if it’s not under NDA?
Michael Wortmann: I recently wrapped work on Michael Ende’s Momo, a really cool project that I supervised completely including the shoot, coming to theatres later this year.

The post Rise FX saves christmas? first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.