[RELEASED] Avatar Maker - 3D avatar from a single selfie

Hello! itSeez3D team is glad to share with you a series of Avatar Maker plugins.

Avatar Maker Free - 3D avatar from a single selfie
Avatar Maker Pro - 3D avatar from a single selfie
Avatar Maker UMA - integration with UMA plugin
UMA Avatar Maker Male Characters Pack - set of male characters for UMA plugin

Avatar Maker
Avatar Maker it is an Editor extension plugin that generates a 3D avatar from just one selfie photo. You can use an existing photo or make a new one with a web-camera right from the Unity Editor, and Avatar Maker will instantly turn it into a recognizable 3D avatar. The plugin works only in the Unity Edit mode and cannot be used in Play mode or standalone applications.

Key features of the Avatar Maker Free:

• Automatic generation of a color 3D face model from a single portrait photo.
• 45 predefined hairstyles.
• 62 blendshapes support a wide range of facial expressions.
• Pro-version of the plugin allows creating a prefab from a customized avatar to use it in other Unity scenes and export it into FBX or OBJ file formats.

To get started with the plugin please follow these steps:

• Import the plugin into an existing Unity project.
• Open Window -> Avatar Maker.
• In the opened window press “Select photo” to generate an avatar from an existing selfie or press “Web Camera” to take a new photo.
• Once the plugin loads a photo, wait about 5-10 seconds while the avatar is being calculated.
• The generated avatar with a randomly chosen hairstyle will be placed into the opened scene.
• You can select this avatar in the “Hierarchy” panel to change the hairstyle or customize the blendshapes.

System requirements:
- The plugin works on Windows 7, 8 or 10 64-bit.
- Intel or AMD processor with AVX instruction set support. Intel Core i5, i7 or Xeon CPUs newer than 2012 are strongly suggested.
- 2Gb of RAM available.

Avatar Maker UMA
Avatar Maker UMA allows generating 3D avatars from one selfie photo and attaching them to the character body from the UMA 2 plugin.

THE CURRENT VERSION WORKS ONLY WITH THE MALE CHARACTER.
Avatar Maker UMA has its own race based on the HumanMaleHighPoly race. The difference is in the starting pose, the ears position is slightly changed. Avatar computation pipeline is the following: the new head mesh is formed by modifying vertices positions of the template head without changing bones in the skeleton, create meshes for eyes and mouth, generate head texture and body texture with the skin color closest to the skin on the photo.

The complete list of assets for each avatar is:
- Avatar Race
- Avatar Recipe
- Wardrobe Recipe
- Slots for Face, Eyes, Mouth
- Overlays for Head and Body

The plugin is an Editor extension and can’t be used in the standalone application.

Avatar Maker UMA requires UMA 2 plugin.

 

Nice!!! Any advice about the source image? Will multiple source photos generate better result?

 

Our recommendations about the input images:

• The photo should contain only one recognizable face. The photo is not blurry.
• Try to remove hair from the forehead and from the sides of the face, otherwise hair may appear on the face texture.
• Uniform good lighting on the photo, without dark shadows or too bright glare
• A person should keep a neutral facial expression or slightly smile but without opening their mouth. If teeth are visible on the input photo the lip texture might be incorrect.
• It's best to look straight into the camera without turning your neck or eyes.
• We advise to remove the glasses, because they're reconstructed only in the texture, not 3D mesh. But this is not completely necessary.

 

Can it use script to generate and export to fbx on runtime? e.g. My app will allow user to upload a photo and then generate the model. Once the user click ok, my app will export the fbx and save it to an online storage. All users can then retrieve the first user's model from the online storage. Is it feasible?

 

No, the Avatar Maker plugin isn't intended to generate avatars at runtime. It just allows to create the avatars inside the Unity Editor and exports them into FBX and OBJ formats.
For your needs we have another product (Avatar SDK Cloud API). By using it you can generate the avatar on the cloud, download it and use inside your application. You can find more information on out web page: https://avatarsdk.com/

 

Thanks. But I would rather save the model in my own storage. I would rather not to hassle with the privacy regulations to save user faces/pictures on external parties. Is that possible?

 

Yes, along with the Cloud SDK we provide some solutions for offline (locally on device) avatars generation. It is the native iOS/Android Offline Avatar SDK and Offline Unity package. If you are interested in these products, please write to support@avatarsdk.com!

 

how can I help you port this to linux? I do not use windows...fyi it will work on mac if it does on linux...

 

great work...suggestion detect when someone is showing teeth...

 

We are going to make a version of this plugin for MAC.

 

Hi, I just downloaded and tried the free version. Does the pro version allow you to adjust the sliders of the blendshapes in real time, to make facial expressions inside a game for instance?

 

Hello, the Pro version of the plugin doesn't have such option right now. But we are working on the solution that will allow to capture video from the web camera and generate an animation with the facial expression based on it.
It should be available soon. Please keep in touch.

 

Hello, we have released update of the plugin that allows to animate the avatar by tracking head movements and facial expressions in a video from your web camera:

 

Hi!

Can you use the avatar SDK locally on an iOS Unity app? How do you connect it to the Cloud SDK?
Thanks

 

Can you also generate body's

 

Hello! Avatar Maker is focused on creating 3D models during design time on Windows. If you are interested in generating models during runtime on iOS or other platforms, please check https://avatarsdk.com.

 

No, we don't generate a body, just the head. But we are going to integrate with the UMA plugin. That will allow attaching our avatar head to the UMA body.
Keep in touch with us.

 

Hi! Great with the UMA integration. Is there a branch to test? Thanks!

 

Not yet. We will let you know as soon as it will be available.

 

Thanks, I have emailed your support email for further questions.

 

Do you have Unity LWRP version of the software planned / test branch ready? Thanks

 

We have not such version yet.

 

Hello, any idea when the UMA version will be available (a week, a month, 2 months)? I been using UMA for years and was wanting this feature for a long time. Can I help you test it?

 

Hello, we are planning to release UMA integration within two months. Approximately in April.

 

Hello, do you need any help with it, im available to help (for free).

 

Hi, I've just purchased the Pro version, but have a console error when I run it. Using Unity 2017.4.17. Error is

avatarProvider null
UnityEngine.Debug:LogError(Object)
ItSeez3D.AvatarMaker.Editor.<GenerateAndDisplayHeadRoutine>c__Iterator2:MoveNext() (at Assets/itseez3d/avatar_maker/scripts/editor/AvatarMakerWindow.cs:708)
Coroutines.CoroutineRunner:ReadFilter(IEnumerator, Int32)
Coroutines.CoroutineRunner:Update(Single)
Coroutines.EditorRunner:InitFilter()
UnityEditor.EditorApplication:Internal_CallUpdateFunctions()

 

Sorry about the issue. This error occurs when you close the "Avatar Maker" and open again.
We are about to release an update of the plugin that will include the fix for this issue. As a workaround I suggest don't close the "Avatar Maker" window until the release will be available.

 

Hi,
When do you plan to offer a MAC Version? Looks very interesting!

 

Is almost April now!!! I hope its ready!!!! I want to use it REALLY BAD!!

 

We don't plan to release the version for MAC yet.

 

Yes, is already April. But we are still working hard on the UMA support. Thanks for patience.

 

Yes, we also have great interest in the UMA integration. Please also give us a hint of when the Avatar SDK UMA Local / Cloud mobile intergration plan is going to happen. Thanks

 

tick tock tick tock.....

 

Hi! What's the latest on UMA? Thanks

 

Hello! We apologize because there is some delay in the release with UMA integration. The recognizability of the UMA avatars is not as good as of the current avatars. We are working on its improvement.

 

is it done yet is it done yet is it done yet!!!!?

 

Hello,
I was using Avatar Maker Free and i find it awesome then i upgrade to Avatar Maker Pro to have the option to create prefab. But unity keep telling me that i have the free version. I try to create from a complete new project and import the asset but nothing changed.
I'm a bit new to unity so maybe i'm doing something wrong.

 

Hello,

Did you create the new project with the same name as the previous one?
If so, you need to remove the content of this folder: c:\Users\[user_name]\AppData\LocalLow\DefaultCompany\[project_name].
If it doesn't help, please contact us by email (support@avatarsdk.com). We will solve your problem shortly.

 

Hi! What's the status of UMA integration? Thanks!

 

X2

 

@ledentsov

 

Hay wants going on? we are waiting over here!!!! wheres the beef!!!

 

Hello!!!! anybody here with an update??? we growing old waiting.....

 

Hello. Sorry for not responding. We are still working on it. Unfortunately, I can't give you any timeline about it now.

 

Can you put out what you have as maybe V0.5 then keep working on it in the main time?

 

@ledentsov While we wait for the UMA support , What is another option if any for applying the head to a body ? Do you recommend using another avatar system as an alternative ?

 

We can't put out the current version right now. Most likely we will arrange some beta test before the public release.

 

We know that most of the customers require full body support. We are looking for ways of integration with some systems that provide full body characters. But there is no working solution yet.

 

We tried getting Avatar SDK to work with UMA a little over a year ago. We were able to generate an avatar head and place it on an UMA body while also color matching the body to the face. The model didn't look too bad although you do end up with a neckline. We applied a shader to blend the body and head at the neck which improved the look of the connection but still wasn't solid. You put a shirt on the character and your good though. After a couple of months of development, we realized integration with UMA was very appealing due to its system, one texture combiner, and already taken care of blend shapes, but the effort to build on it looked more time consuming than building our own system specifically around the Avatar SDK. At this point, we let off the gas a bit as it was rumored or stated that Avatar SDK was now looking to generate a body for the heads. As you may guess this thread was found as we try to pick up where we left off a year ago. Seems like many people have been at work or are also trying to find a solution to the avatar body.

 

i dont need the whole body of the avatar to look like the real person, only the face. So can you release the face part then?