CC3 to Blender and back. Round trip editing.

CC/iC Blender Pipeline Plugin 2.0.5

CC4 Plugin:

Github: Github Project - Releases

Blender Add-on:

Github: Github Project Page - Releases
Online Documentation: Documentation

CC3 Plugin: Github Project - Releases

Changelog:

2.0.5

Receiving pose or animation sequence from Blender resets character transform.
Better data transfer rate synchronization. iClone/Blender will drop view port updates to maintain transfer speed.

2.0.4

Prop posing disabled for now until a solution can be found to match or remove the pivot bones.
Go-B launch fix when link not listening or connected.
Version sync with Blender Add-on.

2.0.3

Context enable/disable buttons

2.0.2

iClone export settings.
Character generation correction on export of ActorBuild or ActorScan (were exporting as AccuRig).
Non-standard characters always export from CC4 with HIK and facial profile.

2.0.1

GoB toolbar added.

Go-B, Go-B morph, Export, Import, Datalink, Settings.
Plugin settings for Blender Path, Datalink working directory, Morph slider default path.
Go-B automatically launches blender and imports selected characters/props into Blender, matches lighting and camera.
In Blender single button click to send back character or character morph (if morph editing with Go-B Morph).

Datalink:

Prop import/export. Currently props aren't cooperating when posing.
Lighting and Camera Sync added
Receive Character import direct from Blender.
Receive Morph import direct from Blender with automatic slider creation.
Send facial expressions and visemes with character pose and animation sequences.

Currently not receiving these back into CC4. Didn't get around to it this time.

Fixes Accessory name duplication by CC4 causing material detection to fail. (White material fix)

2.0.0

Code refactored
WIP Data Link added

Original Post

I think I have hung on to this for long enough. There's only so much I can test myself, so here goes.

Something I have wanted to try and achieve since the very first auto-setup, was to get the character back into CC3 from Blender with all of it's textures intact, and without having to put it all together by hand. And, for the most part, I think it's almost there:

Version 1.3.8 of the Blender auto-setup: https://github.com/soupday/cc3_blender_tools
Version 1.0.5 of the Python Plugin for CC3: https://github.com/soupday/CC3-Blender-Tools-Plugin
Version 1.0.10 of the Python Plugin for CC4: https://github.com/soupday/CC4-Blender-Tools-Plugin

1st Demo Video:
(Mesh editing and material parameters)

2nd Demo Video: (Using material nodes to modify textures during export)

CC4 Pipeline Test:

Installation

Clone or download the CC3 Blender Tools Plugin GitHub.
Create the folder OpenPlugin in the Character Creator 3 install directory \Bin64\OpenPlugin

e.g: C:\Program Files\Reallusion\Character Creator 3\Bin64\OpenPlugin

Load the script into the project from the Plugins > Blender Auto-setup > Import From Blender menu.

Alternatively the main.py script can run as a standalone script from the Script > Load Python menu.

Known Issues

By default the FBX export settings have embed textures switched on, but this makes the export incompatible with re-importing the character back into CC3 as the textures are hidden in the original fbx and are not accessible to the file system.

*Always turn off embed textures*

Information lost on re-importing

Hidden faces information for clothing and accessories is lost upon re-importing into CC3.
Currently Subsurface scattering settings (Falloff color and Scattering Radius) for skin, eyes teeth and tongue cannot be re-applied as there is no Python interface to do so, so these settings will be reset to their defaults.
Likewise Displacement map tessellation settings also cannot be re-applied and are reset to defaults.
The PhysX weight map texture and physics settings information is also lost on re-import. The weightmap textures are in the texture files exported from CC3 so they can be restored by hand in PhysX material settings.

Possible Issues

Some older characters import with the upper and lower teeth at odd angles. Replacing the teeth in CC3 will fix the issue. Alternatively there is an export option to reset the bone roll to zero on the upper and lower teeth bones. This appears to fix the problem but it is unknown if these changes to the teeth bones will cause further problems later.
There is a very strange problem where if the object has a very small number of vertices and faces (< 100) then the import into CC3 becomes very unstable and can cause a crash to desktop, even if that object was originally exported with the character from CC3.

This represents a whole lot of time and effort. Not just by me, but all the people at Reallusion, who have put in a huge effort to bring forward code and features and investigating ways to improve the process, so that I could make this work in CC3. They deserve much of the credit.

This is very much in it's early stages and there is still a lot of work to do. It is my hope that eventually we will be able to edit and reconstruct the character fully, in a round trip or as many round trips as it takes, with no missing data. I don't know if we'll get everything working for CC3, it may take until CC4, but I think it's more than possible to get there.

Edited
Last Month by Victor.Soupday

Author	Message
Victor.Soupday	Victor.Soupday Posted 3 Years Ago
Distinguished Member Group: Forum Members Last Active: Yesterday Posts: 519, Visits: 7.2K	CC/iC Blender Pipeline Plugin 2.0.5 CC4 Plugin: Github: Github Project - Releases Blender Add-on: Github: Github Project Page - Releases Online Documentation: Documentation CC3 Plugin: Github Project - Releases Changelog: 2.0.5 Receiving pose or animation sequence from Blender resets character transform. Better data transfer rate synchronization. iClone/Blender will drop view port updates to maintain transfer speed. 2.0.4 Prop posing disabled for now until a solution can be found to match or remove the pivot bones. Go-B launch fix when link not listening or connected. Version sync with Blender Add-on. 2.0.3 Context enable/disable buttons 2.0.2 iClone export settings. Character generation correction on export of ActorBuild or ActorScan (were exporting as AccuRig). Non-standard characters always export from CC4 with HIK and facial profile. 2.0.1 GoB toolbar added. Go-B, Go-B morph, Export, Import, Datalink, Settings. Plugin settings for Blender Path, Datalink working directory, Morph slider default path. Go-B automatically launches blender and imports selected characters/props into Blender, matches lighting and camera. In Blender single button click to send back character or character morph (if morph editing with Go-B Morph). Datalink: Prop import/export. Currently props aren't cooperating when posing. Lighting and Camera Sync added Receive Character import direct from Blender. Receive Morph import direct from Blender with automatic slider creation. Send facial expressions and visemes with character pose and animation sequences. Currently not receiving these back into CC4. Didn't get around to it this time. Fixes Accessory name duplication by CC4 causing material detection to fail. (White material fix) 2.0.0 Code refactored WIP Data Link added Original Post I think I have hung on to this for long enough. There's only so much I can test myself, so here goes. Something I have wanted to try and achieve since the very first auto-setup, was to get the character back into CC3 from Blender with all of it's textures intact, and without having to put it all together by hand. And, for the most part, I think it's almost there: Version 1.3.8 of the Blender auto-setup: https://github.com/soupday/cc3_blender_tools Version 1.0.5 of the Python Plugin for CC3: https://github.com/soupday/CC3-Blender-Tools-Plugin Version 1.0.10 of the Python Plugin for CC4: https://github.com/soupday/CC4-Blender-Tools-Plugin 1st Demo Video: (Mesh editing and material parameters) 2nd Demo Video: (Using material nodes to modify textures during export) CC4 Pipeline Test: Installation Clone or download the CC3 Blender Tools Plugin GitHub. Create the folder OpenPlugin in the Character Creator 3 install directory \Bin64\OpenPlugin e.g: C:\Program Files\Reallusion\Character Creator 3\Bin64\OpenPlugin Load the script into the project from the Plugins > Blender Auto-setup > Import From Blender menu. Alternatively the main.py script can run as a standalone script from the Script > Load Python menu. Known Issues By default the FBX export settings have embed textures switched on, but this makes the export incompatible with re-importing the character back into CC3 as the textures are hidden in the original fbx and are not accessible to the file system. *Always turn off embed textures* Information lost on re-importing Hidden faces information for clothing and accessories is lost upon re-importing into CC3. Currently Subsurface scattering settings (Falloff color and Scattering Radius) for skin, eyes teeth and tongue cannot be re-applied as there is no Python interface to do so, so these settings will be reset to their defaults. Likewise Displacement map tessellation settings also cannot be re-applied and are reset to defaults. The PhysX weight map texture and physics settings information is also lost on re-import. The weightmap textures are in the texture files exported from CC3 so they can be restored by hand in PhysX material settings. Possible Issues Some older characters import with the upper and lower teeth at odd angles. Replacing the teeth in CC3 will fix the issue. Alternatively there is an export option to reset the bone roll to zero on the upper and lower teeth bones. This appears to fix the problem but it is unknown if these changes to the teeth bones will cause further problems later. There is a very strange problem where if the object has a very small number of vertices and faces (< 100) then the import into CC3 becomes very unstable and can cause a crash to desktop, even if that object was originally exported with the character from CC3. This represents a whole lot of time and effort. Not just by me, but all the people at Reallusion, who have put in a huge effort to bring forward code and features and investigating ways to improve the process, so that I could make this work in CC3. They deserve much of the credit. This is very much in it's early stages and there is still a lot of work to do. It is my hope that eventually we will be able to edit and reconstruct the character fully, in a round trip or as many round trips as it takes, with no missing data. I don't know if we'll get everything working for CC3, it may take until CC4, but I think it's more than possible to get there. Auto-setup Blender Character Creator Round Trip Edited Last Month by Victor.Soupday
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rosuckmedia	rosuckmedia Posted 3 Years Ago
Distinguished Member Group: Forum Members Last Active: 2 days ago Posts: 3.1K, Visits: 4.7K	Great thanks Victor and RL team.👍 Unfortunately I can't get it into the main menu. I did it via Script- Load Python and it has worked quite well. Greetings rosuckmedia
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Victor.Soupday	Victor.Soupday Posted 3 Years Ago
Distinguished Member Group: Forum Members Last Active: Yesterday Posts: 519, Visits: 7.2K	There should be no space in the folder name: OpenPlugin
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rosuckmedia	rosuckmedia Posted 3 Years Ago
Distinguished Member Group: Forum Members Last Active: 2 days ago Posts: 3.1K, Visits: 4.7K	Okay thanks it worked👍 Greetings rosuckmedia
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rosuckmedia	rosuckmedia Posted 3 Years Ago
Distinguished Member Group: Forum Members Last Active: 2 days ago Posts: 3.1K, Visits: 4.7K	When I export the character from Blender back to the Character Creator 3 (works very well) If I want to send the character to Iclone then I have big problems. see gif Greetings rosuckmedia
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Victor.Soupday	Victor.Soupday Posted 3 Years Ago
Distinguished Member Group: Forum Members Last Active: Yesterday Posts: 519, Visits: 7.2K	This may be a strange one, can you try deleting the eyebrows object and see if it then exports to iClone? The test characters I've been using didn't have Eyebrow objects (Just textured), I did some tests, and found some characters that crashed iClone, it was the eyebrows every time. They all load fine into Character Creator, but iClone really doesn't like them. Even saving the character as iAvatar and loading it into iClone causes the same crash. Edited 3 Years Ago by Victor.Soupday
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Victor.Soupday	Victor.Soupday Posted 3 Years Ago
Distinguished Member Group: Forum Members Last Active: Yesterday Posts: 519, Visits: 7.2K	If deleting the eye brows works, Try re-assigning them as eyebrows: After doing this, iClone stopped crashing for this character.
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rosuckmedia	rosuckmedia Posted 3 Years Ago
Distinguished Member Group: Forum Members Last Active: 2 days ago Posts: 3.1K, Visits: 4.7K	Okay, that worked out very well. Now I can send to Iclone without any problems.😊 Greetings rosuckmedia PS: Another thing I noticed is that the weight map(Hair) is lost when I export the character from Blender back to Character Creator 3. Edited 3 Years Ago by rosuckmedia
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vadim+2	vadim+2 Posted 3 Years Ago
Veteran Member Group: Forum Members Last Active: Last Year Posts: 60, Visits: 1.5K	Victor.Soupday do you think it is possible to export a subdivided model out of the CC3 using Python? I think this feature will be quite popular ______________________________________________________________ Vadim Karpenko, Unreal Engine 4 developer.
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4u2ges	4u2ges Posted 3 Years Ago
Distinguished Member Group: Forum Members Last Active: 2 days ago Posts: 5.0K, Visits: 15.9K	Big thank you to Victor and RL team for pulling this through! I started testing it this morning. Unfortunately I could not get to the CC3 import part. I got stuck with exporting it out of Blender. She imports normally. But when exporting, I got an error and this plane is created on the ground randomly from some asset material (hair, panties...etc) On the shader section for plane some nods are all the way at the bottom which are hard to reach. And also a texture image dumped into the main folder. This might give you some clue of what is happening: (If you need, I can send her to you for error tracing).
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CC3 to Blender and back. Round trip editing.

CC3 to Blender and back. Round trip editing.

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