For those who don’t know the tool: Reallusion’s iClone and Character Creator sit at the intersection of real-time animation and 3D character production, integrating with pipelines in Maya, Blender, Unreal, Unity, and others via standard formats and plugins.

Reallusion adds subscription licences alongside perpetual ownership

Starting in early January 2026, Reallusion introduced new subscription licensing options for several of its flagship tools, including iClone, Character Creator, and Cartoon Animator. These subscriptions are offered alongside the existing perpetual licences, giving creators more choice in how they pay for production software.

Official documentation confirms that subscriptions provide the same rights and privileges as perpetual licences under the Reallusion EULA. Subscription plans are available with monthly or annual billing, allowing short-term access for smaller projects or budget-conscious creators, while perpetual licences remain an option for long-term production stability and a solid place in a studio toolbox.

Annual subscription pricing examples published by Reallusion include low entry tiers, such as Character Creator at around $8.30 per month and iClone at around $16.90 per month on the entry plans, with higher tiers rolling up into more complete bundles. Reallusion emphasises its continued support for perpetual licences for studios and teams that require fixed version control and long-term licence stability.

AccuPOSE INFINITY repositions as one time purchase

Alongside the broader licensing shift, AccuPOSE INFINITY, a pose library and motion editing add-on closely tied to iClone workflows, has moved from a subscription model to a permanent purchase.

The official community announcement states that more than 1,400 AI-trained poses are now available under a one-time licensing fee of 149 USD, effective on and after 6 January 2026. All previous subscribers, active or expired, receive the full perpetual licence automatically.

The AccuPOSE update also includes a new Cartoon category targeting expressive and stylised animation, alongside other pose themes such as Free Fight and Aerial Fighter. Updates beyond the current library will continue, but they will not follow a fixed schedule, according to Reallusion.

What this means for production pipelines

This licensing expansion signals a more flexible budgetary model for Reallusion tools within production pipelines. Subscription licences reduce upfront cost barriers and may suit short-term or freelance work, while perpetual licences still serve studios with long-term version-control needs. Shifting AccuPOSE INFINITY to a one-time purchase eliminates recurring costs for pose libraries, simplifying integration into stable character animation workflows.

As always, new licensing models and pricing should be evaluated against your project schedules, team size and version control requirements before committing to any purchase.

The post Reallusion expands licences for iClone and Character Creator first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

When a group of architectural illustrators set out to test Chaos Vantage, they planned a few small real-time experiments. Instead, they built Unbox, a fully animated short film where an architectural cube folds open like a mechanical puzzle. From “a few little minis,” it grew bigger – there are worse outcomes for a stress test.

DP: What was the initial spark for testing Chaos Vantage and why risk it on a narrative short instead of a comfy archviz sizzle?

Peter Stulz: Honestly, at first we intended to do a few little minis in Vantage… and then the second test spinned out of control and grew bigger each day. But no regrets, we embraced the prospect to develop a narrative architectural piece ourselves.

You see, we are architects and not an animation studio. So this was a massive learning journey for us: sequencing shots in an attractive manner, telling a story, how to reveal information and how to retain it… Vantage was fantastic, because it allowed us to be quite experimental here, make mistakes and learn while working on it.

DP: Give us the pipeline in one breath: DCC(s), renderers, interchange (Alembic/FBX/USD), and the editorial path from storyboard/animatic to picture lock.

Peter Stulz: Natively we use 3ds Max in our studio, still the main tool for architecture. Our studio mostly renders in Corona Render, but I feel very home in Vray. For asset creation I use Blender which then sent to Max via FBX. The animation was rendered in Vray CPU – 5 months was tight enough and I know Vray as an engine that delivers without funky surprises.

For the creative part, I drew initial sketches and the storyboard in Procreate. We were lucky to have my friend and cinematographer Olaf Aue (LinkedIn) on board, who was kind enough to share some of his Know-How. The storyboard was straight away sequenced in Resolve with some stand-in SFX and music, just to get a feeling for timing. The stills were then replaced with Vantage Previz shots; the iteration frequency could be kept fastpaced due to Vantage, that was a tremendous relief. Finally for that project we also familiarized ourselves just enough with character creator and Iclone to pull off a somewhat decent protagonist – which then is mostly kept out of focus anyhow :).

Depth of field and lighting are crucial in linear storytelling formats. Vantage allows for having these available during the early layout phase, enabling us to evaluate the flow and precise timing of edits early on, resulting in fewer iterations and more streamlined communication, features that Olaf, as a cinematographer, found lacking in the animation feature films he previously worked on.

DP: Hardware reality check: what exactly were the two workstations (CPU/GPU/VRAM/RAM/storage), and how did that cap scene size, proxies, and iteration speed?

Peter Stulz: There are two parts to this, the GPU and CPU specs: For working with Vantage, I had a 4060TI with 16GB. It was mainly the ground displacement in Vantage that was the key factor for VRAM necessity. Otherwise Vantage is smart when scaling to smaller GPUs. You don’t need massive GPUs to get started with Vantage.

For the final CPU rendering – we have several AMD 9950x in our studio with 64GB Ram, totally unspectacular workstations. In fact rendering moved between machines, whatever was available, the bottleneck was that we had just two render licenses available. Another thing, that I really appreciate about Vray CPU – it stays pretty consistent even if you throw in an older architecture.

DP: How did you keep the master scene nimble?

Peter Stulz: 3ds Max can become a real chore, when scenes get too heavy. I wholeheartedly hate unresponsive scenes – anything that breaks the creative flow has to be solved. Technically, there are several approaches: obviously using Proxies for heavy assets is a must; staying parametric if possible also keeps my scenes small; my modifier stacks can get quite impressive and I avoid baking them.

I xref wherever it makes sense, especially if parts of your scene are used in different settings. If I find the time, I localise heavy textures and reduce them – tedious but worth the effort later. Ideally the Master Scene only contains the camera, the lights and a few key assets. All the heavy load is loaded from external files. These scenes mostly are only a few MB in itself – helping with autobackups.

DP: Camera language before pixels: how did boards/animatic evolve once you could “walk the set” in Vantage?

Peter Stulz: It was important to develop a storyboard outside of 3D first to avoid thinking as a 3d designer. The environment was conceived like a sandbox, so we could freely explore the set with different lenses and angles. The superfast iterations we could do with Vantage really helped to test alternatives. That felt very powerful. Obviously some storyboard shots were then adapted or omitted. Vantage was great to secure we are on the right path.

DP: Lighting in Vantage: What translated 1:1 to finals, and where did parity crack?

Peter Stulz: At first it is scarily impressive how close Vantage can feel to the final look. We did a few final shots directly in Vantage and realised afterwards we could have done more in Vantage to prove the point. The extra turntable animation is done 100% in Vantage, but we really had to go deep in the settings to get rid of some flickering.

You have to understand, Vantage works like this: It downscales automatically to achieve close-to realtime speed and then gradually refines the look. But that logic causes limitations: For example GI depth in tricky setups might cause visible flickering. If you want to get rid of unwanted artefacts like these, you have to go deeper into the settings; and then you get these Vray 2010 vibes again :). Apart from that the denoiser might create some artefacts, textures are getting blurry, VDBs were not possible etc.

DP: Materials & lookdev: which shader features were non-negotiable, and what did you simplify for real-time parity?

Peter Stulz: Since we decided to use Vray CPU for finals, we just accepted that some stuff for Previz looked different – we knew it would be ok in the finals. But to answer the question we used Vantage for a another client project and it became clear again: If you want to produce in Vantage you can not set stuff up in Vray and hope for the best. In that case we had a semitranslucent ocean setting and that looked quite diffferent in Vantage and had to be especially adapted.

DP: The moving house: How was it rigged , and what broke first under real-time playback?

Peter Stulz: The architectural cube is in fact one scene with 2000 frames of animation. No cheap tricks – nothing appears magically out of thin air – it’s all in there. Only the initial cube with the rough surface is a different prop because it had a tricky blending shader which was animated ( animating materials in 3ds Max is a disaster …).

The rig for the unfolding was very basic and was built out of a lot of nested helpers. That was the most simple way to avoid the “locked axis” problem. What is this? Well, rigging a rubics cube is in fact not so straightforward as it seems: after a few twists the individual parts start to move quite unexpectedly – try it yourself, it’s actually pretty hard. The nested helpers solved this, now it was a matter of adjusting the right timing; how fast is the right speed for a massive 12m cube? You want to correspond a certain weight without boring the viewer. At the end we sprinkled some subtle secondary movements on top.

DP: Performance metrics: What were typical FPS for look-dev in Vantage and per-shot render times? Both for Vantage previews and V-Ray finals?

Peter Stulz: We could render out playblasts in Vantage (+/- 200 frames) over a toilet break in 1.5k resolution at 1:2.39. For finals in Vray I attempt to stay around 10 minutes / frame. If you want to use Vantage for final quality in FullHD, you crank up the settings to 1 minute / frame. If there was any noise left, the Resolve temporal denoiser is the last polish.

DP: The famous 95%: where did Vantage land “close enough” to V-Ray and what are the missing 5%?

Peter Stulz: Every “resolution” in Vantage is more coarse. I am not only talking textures, but sampling, atmospherics, global illumination. Obviously the denoiser also tends to smear everything. Everything is just lower definition than in Vray / Corona. That’s why oldschool rendering is still very valid to achieve that crispy level of detail.

DP: Editorial rhythm: how often did you re-cut while “shooting in engine,” and what told you a shot was edit-locked before triggering finals?

Peter Stulz: In our case that answer is quite simple: the presentation date was coming up, so we had a very strict timeframe when shots had to be done. Only thing we updated in the last days, we extended a few shots by 30 frames, because they felt rushed in the beta cut. That little change improved the rythm quite substantially.

DP: Pitfalls & fixes: three things that wasted time before you found the trick and what was the trick?

Peter Stulz: Vantage is built in a way that it actually could be used as a standalone loading in VrayScenes. Since I had my friend Olaf Aue as a cinematographer on board we tried to use it in that way. Theoretically that works, but with a lot of drawbacks and very limited editing and getting the changes from Vantage back into 3dsMax is hard.

We omitted that concept and resorted to live link only with 3ds Max. But actually that standalone option is not so bad – Chaos could really focus there more.

DP: If you rebuilt “Unboxed” today at 100% Vantage, what would the delivery plan look like? QC, shot classes that stay real-time, and the shortlist that still goes offline?

Peter Stulz: I know, that there are more shots that could be realised in Vantage directly. But if you plan this, it is smart to set up the whole project more focused on Vantage directly. Switching to Vray, if needed, is easy, the other way can be frustrating.

DP: What did “Unboxed” change in how you scope, price, and pitch real-time narrative work to clients?

Peter Stulz: We can offer fast animation works more easily which don’t need very high quality or are visually suitable for Vantage (clay shots).

DP: Wishlist to Chaos: What are the top parity/features that would let you ship more shots straight out of Vantage next time?

Peter Stulz: I would like easier quality settings if you intend to use Vantage as final renderer. We had to do a lot of tweaking for specific scenes or even change the 3d scene to avoid artefacts. Additionally Vantage ships with specific assets like a water surface or animated plants. These are great, but in LiveLink they are hard to be used, because there is not way to insert them in your Root Scene.

DP: For Vantage newcomers: What is your “first-day” checklist?

Peter Stulz: Familiarize yourself with the basic UI and do some stress tests to find the limits. Additionally I would look for a study project that comes close to a client environment. There is no point in having all the bells and whistles, if in a real production case you are missing the crucial components.

DP: One more hypothetic: with one extra week or one extra GPU, which single area would you invest in—and why?

Peter Stulz: Funny alternatives. As described above a half-decent GPU is good for previz which was the main usage in “Unbox”. Having a week extra is always great – so I would opt for that!

DP: Where exactly did you keep the “cube layer” for the whole piece: did we start life on the Blender Default Cube, and how much of that origin survived?

Peter Stulz: It sure was great that we could hire the mighty default cube as a support role. It didn’t even mind too much to be shipped into another 3d-suite – what a humble character and it really outshined itself in our short. 3d-artists should show more appreciation to have it per default all free!

DP: The cube’s side text: What does it say, and why?

Peter Stulz: The cube text gives instructions how to mix the perfect Daiquiri as it is served on Kepler 5 but it is quite explicit so I can’t go into depths here. But if you look for easter eggs, we have hidden various personal items in the architecture. Talking about audio my friend Olaf had a lot of fun browsing through his SFX library and pull out quite unusual sounds for the cubes inner mechanics.

The post The Cube Moved: Go for the Chaos (Ad) Vantage 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.

Character Creator 5 (CC5) officially arrived on 27 August 2025, and this time Reallusion is putting the HD badge front and centre. Gone are the days when your assets lived somewhere between “game-ready” and “film-aspiring.” With a new HD Character Base (official page), CC5 can now scale from lightweight assets to subdivision-heavy models that survive close-up shots.

Subdivision is not just a toggle here: CC5 pushes mesh detail up to 16× denser than CC4, supporting 4K and 8K skin textures, displacement mapping, and an upgraded shader pipeline. You can freely switch between a game-ready mesh and a film-quality mesh without losing rigging, morphs, or animation compatibility.

“HD character bases bridge the gap between cinematic quality and real-time performance,” says Reallusion’s launch note. Translation: you don’t have to keep two separate character libraries anymore.

Facial Animation Gets a Brain Transplant

With CC5, facial animation is no longer an afterthought. The new HD Animation system (official page) introduces micro-expressions, corrective morphs, and constraint-based deformations, which together prevent the dreaded “clay-face” look.

Each facial expression now drives a deeper set of blendshapes, which can layer details like cheek tension, eyelid flutter, or asymmetric lip pulls. Corrective systems kick in automatically when you start stacking expressions. The result: characters can now smile without breaking their jawline.

To fully unlock this, iClone users need the latest Motion LIVE for iPhone and AccuFACE updates. Together, they stream high-fidelity facial mocap directly into CC5 rigs.

Beyond mocap, the HD Expression Profile adds a redesigned library of emotion presets, built to scale from subtle social cues to dramatic theatrical expressions. Artists can blend or customise them at sub-expression levels—controlling everything from nostril flares to jaw clench intensity. Importantly, these are layered on top of anatomical corrections, so stacking them will not collapse the mesh into noise.

CC5 also includes a new Sticky Lips System and Eyelid Constraint Engine, making phoneme-driven speech far more realistic. Lip movements now feature adhesion during closed-mouth consonants, while the eyelid system calculates squints and blinks based on eyeball rotation rather than simple linear morphs. Together with wrinkle-based displacement maps, these additions finally bring facial realism in line with the upgraded HD base mesh.

MetaHuman Compatibility: CC5 Learns the Language

One of the bigger headline changes: CC5 characters now share the same facial control structure and skeleton as MetaHuman. This means mocap data, animations, and expressions can be exchanged between MetaHumans and CC5 assets without retargeting hacks.

If your pipeline involves Unreal’s MetaHumans, you can now drop a CC5 character in, hand them the same mocap or audio-to-face data, and expect them to move in sync. CC5 even includes an HD Face Board, which mirrors MetaHuman’s control system, for one-to-one editing.

Meet ActorMIXER: DNA Splicing for CG-Characters

Reallusion calls it “next-gen character generation.” The rest of us can call it what it is: Frankenstein’s lab, but with sliders. ActorMIXER (official page) lets you non-destructively mix entire bodies, heads, or individual features from multiple characters.

Drag two characters into ActorMIXER, spin the Mixer Wheel, and you can blend their DNA into something new. ActorMIXER Pro unlocks even more: it can convert any character into a mixable source, generate randomised characters at scale, and export custom mixer assets for collaboration or reuse.

The Deluxe Bundle: Everything and the Kitchen Sink

CC5 is available standalone, but Reallusion also rolled out the CC5 Deluxe Bundle (official page), priced at $499. The bundle includes:

• Character Creator 5
• ActorMIXER Pro with Core Library (44 HD scanned heads across four ethnicities)
• HD Ultimate Morphs pack (fine-tuned morph sliders for body and face)
• HD Human Anatomy Set (12 full avatars with anatomical diversity, ready for ActorMIXER)

The key value here is the Core Library: scanning 44 heads independently would cost thousands. Bundled, they become mixable DNA inside ActorMIXER. The HD Ultimate Morphs add sub-surface detail like crow’s feet, lip asymmetry, and muscular tension—all slider-driven, and bakeable into normal maps for low-poly assets.

Pipeline Expansions: Maya, Marmoset, ZBrush, Blender, Unreal

No release is complete without pipeline updates. CC5 expands Auto Setup to cover Maya, Arnold and Marmoset Toolbag, joining the existing Blender, Unreal, and Unity bridges. That means shaders and rigs arrive pre-configured, saving the joyless task of re-wiring materials.

The Maya bridge in particular is a major milestone. Characters exported from CC5 arrive in Maya with Arnold-ready materials, subdivision levels intact, and displacement maps already hooked into the shader graph. For artists who prefer Arnold for cinematic rendering, this eliminates hours of manual material rebuilding. Reallusion states that skin shading, subsurface scattering, and even tearline and eye reflections are mapped correctly on export. For production pipelines already invested in Arnold, this makes CC5 a far more attractive option for film and episodic work.

What’s notable is that CC5 also passes on animation rigs without requiring conversion, meaning facial animation data and ActorMIXER variants can move directly into Maya. This is a shift from previous CC workflows, where much of the rigging had to be revalidated or rebuilt for Maya compatibility. Now, the bridge promises near one-to-one parity with what you see in CC5, making it viable as a character front-end for high-end rendering pipelines.

ZBrush support via GoZ continues, now with higher subdivision detail and wrinkle-to-displacement baking. Blender Auto Setup was updated to handle HD meshes in both Eevee and Cycles, complete with displacement and facial animation support. For Unreal, CC5 characters can now export with UE skeletons aligned to MetaHumans, making them immediately usable in UEFN projects. Live Link for iClone has been updated for UE 5.5/5.6, and includes a free HD Face Control panel for direct editing in-engine.

CC4 vs CC5: What Actually Changed?

Mesh & Detail

• CC4: Mid-poly base mesh, normal-map driven detail.
• CC5: HD base mesh, subdividable up to 16×, displacement and microdetail supported.

Facial Animation

• CC4: Basic blendshapes with limited corrective morphs.
• CC5: HD Expression Profile, Sticky Lips, Eyelid Constraints, displacement-based wrinkles.

Pipeline to Maya

• CC4: Manual material rebuilds in Maya, no Arnold-ready shaders.
• CC5: Arnold-ready shader graphs, displacement mapped, subsurface scattering intact.

MetaHuman Sync

• CC4: Retargeting required for animations.
• CC5: Skeleton and controls identical to MetaHuman, direct animation sharing.

Content Expansion

• CC4: Marketplace content, Ultimate Morphs pack.
• CC5: ActorMIXER + Core Library, HD Ultimate Morphs, HD Anatomy Set.

Final Verdict

Character Creator has always been a flexible mid-tier character tool. With CC5, it now has the foundations to sit comfortably alongside MetaHuman while still being production-friendly. ActorMIXER adds a dash of creative chaos, the Deluxe bundle fills the content pipeline, and the Auto Setup bridges remove friction. As always: test new workflows in production before committing.

And, while you are thinking about that: Here is a Playlist with tutorials to all the new features: Character Creator 5 Tutorials, so you have something to watch tonight. Enjoy!

The post Here’s Character Creator 5 — Now in Hero-Quality, MAya-Friendly, MetaHuman-Friendly, and Armed with ActorMIXER first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Seamless 3D & AI Integration

The foundation of AI Render is built on Reallusion’s custom node for ComfyUI, enabling a seamless two-way connection between your AI workflow and Reallusion’s 3D tools. It transfers full 3D scene data—character poses, lighting, camera angles—from iClone and Character Creator, with no technical setup. Fully embedded in iClone and CC’s intuitive UI, it allows visual, interactive work while generating AI content with precision and control.

22 Built-In Style Presets

AI Render includes 22 professionally tuned presets across three categories: Realistic, 3D stylized, and 2D illustration. Each preset comes with optimized ControlNet settings, prompt templates, and rendering configurations for fast, consistent results.

Prompt + Reference-Based Customization

Users can guide AI results using traditional text prompts or reference images. The plugin supports IP Adapter, which allows AI to match the style and tone of any uploaded image without the need for complex prompt engineering.

Precise 3D ControlNet Guidance

Unlike AI tools that rely on 2D estimations, AI Render uses 3D-driven ControlNet inputs for stable, accurate generation across frames:

• Depth: Spatial layering and facial accuracy
• Pose: Reliable skeletal tracking, even with occlusion
• Normal: Surface lighting and shading
• Edge (Canny): Clean outlines for stylized renders

All inputs are generated directly from real-time 3D environments built in iClone and Character Creator, using Reallusion’s library of over 13,000 easily searchable, drag-and-drop assets, including characters, motions, lighting, and cameras. This makes it fast and intuitive to build structured scenes that provide AI with the consistent, frame-by-frame guidance it needs.

LoRA Dataset Creation for Character Consistency

To maintain consistent character appearances across AI videos, LoRA (Low-Rank Adaptation) training is supported. AI Render does not perform training directly but enables rapid dataset creation in iClone using batch rendering, pose libraries, and automated camera paths. Reallusion will provide project templates to assist in generating LoRA training sets for unique characters.

AI-Powered Storytelling for Character IP

AI Render is ideal for creators developing original IP characters. With Character Creator and iClone, users can design fully rigged, production-ready characters. It enables AI-generated movies, commercials, and storytelling, maintaining consistency in look and style. This isn’t just visuals; characters can now appear in AI content with real actor-like continuity and expressiveness.

Community Challenge: Win Character Creator 5

To celebrate the launch, Reallusion is hosting a public AI Makeover Challenge from July 28 to August 29, 2025. Participants can transform their Character Creator 4 (CC4) characters using AI Render and submit images or videos for a chance to win a free copy of Character Creator 5 (CC5). Check out the official discussion thread for more details.

Visit the Reallusion Official Forum now to download AI Render, follow setup guides, and connect with the community.

Reallusion Inc. provides innovative 3D character creation and animation platforms for entertainment, Metaverse, digital twinning, and AI simulation. Their flagship products—iClone, Character Creator, and Cartoon Animator—enable scalable digital human development across creative and industrial projects.

The post AI Render for iClone & CC with ComfyUI Integration, Available in Open Beta first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.