Custom Character Designer (Male) Support and Answers

Distribution UE Marketplace
1

Hello all,

In response to your questions, here is some more information regarding the Custom Character Designer. Feel free to post more questions as well as suggestions on how to improve the quality of the pack!

FAQ
Q- Is this all done in Blueprint or C++?
A- All of the functionality is handled in Blueprint.

Q- Will there be updates?
A- Yes, I plan to have frequent updates that will improve the quality of the pack. I take your feedback into consideration as I create updates, so let me know what you like about the pack and what you would like to see!

Q- Is the price going to increase over time as you update?
A- Initially, no. I already have plans to add several updates without increasing the price. Later down the road this may change, depending on what gets added.

Q- Why can we only save once?
A- [EDIT] As of Update 1 you can save three times and load the save data. If you need to save more it should be pretty easy to add save slots.

Q- Are you going to add a demo so we can try out the pack before we buy it?
A- Yes, I have plans to include a downloadable packaged version of the project.

Q- Will you include source files (FBX or Max) with the project?
A- Yes, those will be included as of the third update and will be added to as the project grows.

Q- Can we add extra options by extending the blueprints?
A- That depends. You can add extra options for some modifications with blueprints alone. However, making additional morph targets will need work with the source files.

Q- Will there be a female version and when will it be out?
A- [EDIT]Due to user feed back I have decided to add the female to this pack. The release date is still to be determined; I’m focusing on working out the kinks with this pack first.

Q- Can we use a different skeletal mesh as a base template?
A- You can, but you will need to make your own morph targets. Also, be sure to use the same naming convention as my morph targets or the blueprint will not be able to read it.

Q- Is it possible to save our edited character out as an FBX in a T or A pose?
A- Not at the moment. I can, however, add a T/A pose animation to the project that you can export out from. As of this moment I’m unsure if it’s possible to maintain the morph targets outside of Unreal.

Q- Will there be height controls?
A- Yes! This is actually one of the first things you will see in the coming updates.

Update Notes:

Update 1 Released!

  • Save Slots added you can now save three different characters
  • Saves persist after you close the project
  • New Scale and height controls added you can now change the size of the character and the length of various limbs
  • Fixed some minor bugs with the eye brows clipping

Update 2 Coming Soon!

  • Added LOD1 For character that greatly reduced poly count.

Follow me on Twitter for the latest updates @Incognito_UE4

2

This looks awesome, but the tricky thing will be how you deal with clothings. Are there any plans to extent or offer clothing packs in the near future? Additional if there are clothes the system should be designed to support the solution of one of the most successful UE marketplace packs (RPG Kit Action RPG Inventory System - Marketplace - Unreal Engine Forums ), which comes with equippable gear. The topic also contains a tutorial video for setting up gear.

Then there would be the need for a tutorial video on how to add morph targets to existing gear, preferably in Blender. The above kit works well with mixamo standard characters. Maybe there could be a solution without the need for gear morph targets, when you scale gear appropriately, depending on your character creation.

Since i work on a Gamespark (Real-Time Services - GameSparks Learn) driven multiplayer solution, i would require to save the character data on the GS server, hence it is preferable if the character data is just a string.

3

+1 Namely for the RPG Kit and character data as a string

I would be looking to buy within the next three months so will be interesting to see what happens

4

Hi Guys,

If you need to save character data for lots of players in your game, GameSparks would be the perfect solution. You can read our getting started guide here, you can find the SDK on the marketplace here. Our support team is always on hand to helpt, the support home page is located here.

Thanks,

5

I can most certainly look into my packs compatibility with the the packs you listed. That will likely be addressed in Update 3 or 4.

I also updated the OP with additional info.

6

Is it possible can i create Fuse characters with the same skin sets in Fuse Character Creator, one thin, one medium, one fat, and replace the actors which come in this pack? I would really like to add a character creator but i need the following

The custom character data as string output, so i can store it and load.
The option to add my own player Fuse models.

Thanks :slight_smile:

7

Hi will there be a female body included in a future update?

8

Cant remember if these forums are EU or US date format but its been a while for me anyway, so just wondered if there any news on scaling gear appropriately, depending on your character size in relation to clothing packs or preferably with integrating the equipable gear from the rpg inventory kit

9

@Winterstone Yes, I’m currently working on adding a female. At the moment I am prioritizing tutorials and information regarding this packs compatibility with other marketplace content. I’m actually going to upload a tutorial very soon on how to use a fuse character with my pack.
@Smartay I was investigating FUSE first and will probably link the tutorial here once uploaded. The next target was going to be the rpg pack since that seems to be quite popular.

EDIT: Here is a link to the tutorial regarding getting a FUSE character to work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNif-UAwjN4&feature=youtu.be

10

Thank you for your reply, I was hoping for a better deal in the Cyber Monday in order to warrant getting it early but if that’s the case and with the current price I will wait till the new year before purchasing and see where your at with it then.

11

You should include a maya source file (with morph targets) so we can weight clothes. Just a thought. It would also be cool to show the created character moving around in the world after you bake. Like add a Play button that spawns the character in using the default third person template.

Quick question, if the character is saved locally how do you share that in a multiplayer setting?

12

There are .fbx source files included because there are many different 3d applications to account for. In those files all the morph models are preserved so you can use them for modeling. The data that is saved is essentially scalar values pertaining to the morph values on the static mesh. Or an index value for what hair mesh to select in the hair mesh array. I haven’t set up the pack for multiplayer use but I imagine that it should be possible. That may be something that I can look into in the future but I have my hands quite full as it is at the moment!

13

Personally not an artist so I am scared off buying this with no clothing assets.
Think some example clothes would be nice especially if you integrated the clothes slots into your asset.
Torso, Legs, Shoes, Gloves, Hats, and Masks.
also hair (Hair and facial hair).
1 of each would be sufficient.
But MOST important would be a tutorial showing how to get these clothing/hair assets to work with your morphs.
As then we could make more clothing/hair and add to it ourselves.

If you do this not only will I buy your pack but I’ll replicate it for you as well :slight_smile: or at least do a tutorial showing community how to do so.

edit: the example clothes don’t have to be nothing special, basic t-shirt ect.

14

Getting clothes to work with morphs would require working in maya, or 3dmax, and involves lots and lots of skinning (aka weight painting). The actual workflow is identical to skinning the base character. If you know how to skin a character clothes are a tedious breeze. I agree that he should have a few examples, though that wont magically make the process easier.

15

Didn’t say it would make the process easier, however knowing how to do it vs not knowing how makes a very big difference.

16

@Necro_ABK Thank you for the feedback! I have quite a bit on my plate at the moment but I will see if I can address all of these requests! I work alone so making a tutorial on how to integrate custom clothes may take some time.

17

@Incognito_UE4 appreciate the consideration :wink: I work solo aswell, so I understand things take time. Sometimes you work for hours and feel like you got very little done, others for just abit and looks like you did alot.(mindless grunt work vs base structure). I’m in no rush my current project uses static characters. But who doesn’t want a customizable character :stuck_out_tongue:

18

How is the work coming I havnt seen a twitter update or a forum post in about a week so thought id check in

19

I just bought it, it looks like a easier version of iClone :slight_smile: What is the status of the developement? When the female gets added, will I need to buy it as a seperate content or will it be a free update?

20

Ok, I just bought this and cant figure out how to use the character once we have saved it. where is the tutorial on how to use the saves in the games we are making?