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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.

Reallusion has released iClone 8.6, a point update that focuses on deeper integration with Character Creator 5, introduces a new generation of shaders for digital human eyes, and delivers extended export options for Unreal Engine 5. The release also refines facial animation, improves rendering performance, and resolves a series of stability issues that had been slowing down production workflows.

CC5 Compatibility

The most noticeable addition in iClone 8.6 is its extended support for Character Creator 5. CC5 HD characters and facial profiles are now natively supported inside iClone, while MetaHuman facial animations can be imported directly if CC5 is installed. Compatibility has also been broadened to include CC3+ Extended-Plus corrective shapes, which means that facial rigs can now carry far more nuance into iClone without requiring additional workarounds. The result is a smoother connection between character creation and performance animation, making the two tools feel more like components of the same pipeline.

Eye Shaders

Reallusion has reworked one of the most critical details in digital humans: the eyes. iClone 8.6 introduces two new shader types designed to remove long-standing artifacts. The Digital Human_Occlusion shader closes the gap between eyeball and socket, preventing hard intersections that tended to break realism under close-up lighting. Alongside it, the Digital Human_Tearline shader brings a corrected UV layout and sharper specular highlights, which makes tear lines react more naturally to illumination. These changes elevate the look of close-up shots and address one of the more distracting weaknesses in earlier versions.

Export and Animation

Pipeline exports have been updated to match current production environments. New FBX presets are included for Marmoset Toolbag as well as multiple Unreal Engine 5 targets, with UE5 Skeletons, UE5 Mannequins, and UEFN all receiving their own dedicated profiles. The existing Unreal preset has been renamed to UE4 Skeleton to avoid confusion. This makes it easier to match exported assets to the correct rig on import, reducing the time artists spend reconfiguring skeletons or poses.

Animation work also benefits from fresh controls. A new Facial Parts Strength option in the timeline allows animators to amplify or reduce expression intensity on specific regions of the face, rather than adjusting entire performance tracks. Subdivision controls for CC5 characters have been introduced, offering finer mesh smoothing for close-up animation. Motion LIVE now supports non-linear curves in facial animation, giving higher fidelity to CC5 HD and CC3+ Extended-Plus characters when recording live input.

Rendering and Workflow

Rendering improvements in iClone 8.6 may not be headline-grabbing, but they address key pain points in everyday use. A dynamic mipmap option has been added to real-time rendering, reducing noise when working with detailed wrinkle maps. Project files are also lighter thanks to mesh and animation compression, though iProject containers themselves remain uncompressed. Together these changes improve responsiveness without altering the core look of the renders.

Fixes and Stability

The release also closes several long-standing bugs. FBX export from iClone now correctly aligns controllers for UE5.6 control rigs, while crashes linked to specific imports have been eliminated. Motion editing functions such as Edit Motion Layer and Motion Direction Control have been stabilized, and the issue of characters growing in size when flattening animation layers has been resolved. Rendering has also been corrected: AVI exports are once again properly compressed, and DLSS no longer introduces mosaic artifacts.

What’s Next

Reallusion has confirmed that a compatible AI Render plug-in for both iClone 8.6 and CC5 will be released on September 1, 2025.

The post iClone 8.6 Update Adds New Eye Shaders, and UE5 Export Presets 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.