What is the Shape Editor?

The Popul8 Shape Editor empowers users to craft unique assets by deriving shapes from a Template Character. These creations can be seamlessly integrated as novel shapes, or exported for advanced manipulation in external software.

Users have the flexibility to utilize Popul8's default Deformation Rig and source assets for rapid Shape Editor creation, or to design bespoke rigs and settings for highly personalized outcomes.

Create a Basic Shape Editor

Popul8 makes it easy to set up a Shape Editor using the preconfigured Shape Editor Package, which contains all the necessary resources.

Download the Shape Editor Package

Right-click in the Project area.
Navigate to Package Manager Resources > Shape Editor Resources.
Click Download.

Once the process is complete, the Shape Editor Package will be automatically added under the Resources folder.

This package has the necessary information to quickly create a Shape Editor.

Add the Shape Editor Component

Select your Template, right-click, and choose Create > Shape Editor .This will automatically add the Shape Editor component under your Base Character.

All default settings will be preconfigured using the package resources.

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If your character topology matches the Didimo topology, you can enable the Didimo Topology option.
Otherwise, you will need to add your target manifold. See the Create Manifold page for details.

Once configured, click the Setup button at the bottom of the component.

All shapes defined in the Shape Transfer will be generated, along with the Retargeted Rig and Retargeted Settings. This process may take a while.

When the process is complete, click Launch to preview and generate your own character.

Create a Custom Shape Editor

You are not required to use the provided package, Popul8 allows you to fully customize your own Shape Editor.

You can define and adjust settings to better fit the needs of your specific project.

Below you will find a description of all available fields and their definitions.

1. General Settings

Use Default Settings - Activating 'Use Default Settings' enables Popul8 to seamlessly transfer its standard assets, including the Deformation Rig, Settings, Poses, and Constraints, to the new Template's Shape Editor.
Source Rig - Deformation Rig that drives the new Shape Editor scope.
Source Settings - Settings that define the interactions and behavior of the Shape Editor. This will be updated and retarget to suit the given rig and parameters.
Source Poses - JSON file that describes the categories, sliders and their respective Deformation Rig Key frames.
Bone Constraints - JSON file that describes the transformation constraints to correct positioning of the bones in the transferring of the Source Rig.
Source Manifold - Manifold wrapped around the source Template.
Didimo Topology - Activate if source and target Templates have the same topology on all affected meshes (Source and Target Manifold fields get disabled).Deactivate if source and target Templates have different topologies.
Target Manifold - Manifold wrapped around the target Template.

2. Rig Retargeting

Target All Meshes - Activate if all meshes on the Template are to be considered. Deactivate if only some meshes are to be considered.
Target Meshes - List of meshes to be considered.

3. Shape Transfer

Transfer Shapes - Activate enable this option to transfer predefined or selected shapes. Deactivate if no shapes should be transferred.
Shapes Preset - Predefined Preset. Male and Female available
Eye Meshes - List of the template’s eye meshes. Only eyeball meshes should be included. Exclude meshes such as eye films, tear ducts, and similar elements. This ensures that the shapes transferred to the template topology maintain the correct eye shape.
Body Meshes - A list of the template’s body meshes. Use this only if the template has separate head and body meshes, as head vertices should not be included in this section. This allows the creation of variations of the template’s head shape while preserving the body as is.
Shape Constraints:
- Display Name - Name shown in the Shape Editor.
- Head Only - Enable this option to consider only the head mesh during the shape transfer process. Disable it to consider the entire body.
- Stylization - Depending on your template’s topology, adjust the Stylization slider to improve the resemblance between the transferred shapes and your character.
- Shapes - The shapes to transfer to the template topology.

4. Texture Processing

Material - Material that will be customized.
Texture Type - Texture assigned to the material that will be customized. Only Albedo textures are supported.
Request Type - Type of operation that will be applied to the selected texture. There are two options:
- Tint - Applies tinting to a texture based on the Lut and Mask provided.
  - Lut - Texture with tones that can be selected to tint the albedo.
  - Mask - Binary texture where white pixels represent the regions of an image that will be affected by the tinting.
  - Custom Base Texture - Activate this option to add a custom base texture. Deactivate this option to use the default setting.
- GridSelection - Allows you to choose a specific albedo for the material from a set of predefined options.
  - Texture Grid - A list of available albedo texture options that can be assigned to the material.

5. Launch Parameters

Launch the selected Shape Editor using assigned Deformation Rig and Settings.

Retargeted Rig and Retargeted Settings will automatically be assigned after pressing the Setup button.

Deformation Rig

Composed of a Skinned Mesh with a skeleton, specially designed for deformation, and a timeline key framed with all the necessary deformation poses that define the min’s, max’s and defaults.

Shape Editor Settings

Settings that define the interactions and behavior of the Shape Editor. It contains the list of segments the list of transform constraints that manage each group of bones.

Bone Constraints

Bone constraints to be applied when transferring the rig from source to target, such as parent-child bone alignment, bone group colinearity and coplanarity, frozen bones.

Manifold

Meshes used when source and target Templates don't share topology.

Popul8 provides a Default Manifold that can be exported in order to be wrapped around the target template via a third party software like Wrap3D, thus creating a Target Manifold. (See Create a Manifold for your Template).