Monday, March 24th, 2025Posted by Jim ThackerCheck out new open-source 3D character generator CharMorphhtml PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"The title character from Blender open movie Sintel reworked using open-source 3D character generator CharMorph by artist Sean Buckley.The Blender Character Project has released CharMorph 0.4, the first major release of its open-source 3D character creation system for Blender.Described as a spiritual successor to MB-Lab, it generates custom rigged 3D characters, complete with hair and clothing, for use in animations, motion graphics, VFX or games.The developers say that their aim is to provide high-quality, parameterized character models that not only rival closed-source solutions but exceed them in quality.A spiritual successor to earlier open-source 3D character creatorsCharMorph is a successor to previous open-source Blender character generator MB-Lab itself a community fork of the popular Manuel Bastioni Lab. Both have now been discontinued: Manuel Bastioni Lab in 2018, and MB-Lab last year, with development work moving on to CharMorph following the release of MB-Lab 1.8.1.According to the development team, CharMorph reimplements most of MB-Labs features, and uses the same base meshes and character morphs, but does not contain any of MB-Labs code.Generates custom rigged 3D characters for use in animation, VFX or games projectsCharMorph makes it possible to create custom 3D characters by starting with one of the base 3D characters included with the software and applying morphs to modify it.The morphs have to be baked destructively before the character is rigged, although it is possible to export them in advance, making it possible to keep iterating on a character design.It is also possible to use CharMorph to modify an existing imported 3D character, including those with different topology.Exported characters can be rendered with Eevee, Blenders real-time renderer, or Cycles, its main production renderer: you can find more details in the online documentation.Although CharMorph is inspired by earlier Blender character creator MB-Lab, it has a number of new features, including the option to set the color of a characters eyes or skin directly.Comes with readymade base characters that can be used in commercial projectsAlthough it lacks some of the features from MB-Lab, such as auto-modeling, CharMorph has a number of advantages over its predecessor, listed on the projects GitHub page.Key benefits include support for Rigify, Blenders modular character rig creation system, including for facial rigs, and real-time fitting of clothing.It is also possible to set skin and eye color directly, and displacement is done at material level rather than using the Displace modifier, making it possible to preview the effect in Eevee.But perhaps most significantly, it is possible to use characters generated with CharMorph in any kind of commercial work, including closed-source games.Whereas the base character from MB-Lab is licensed under an AGPL license, CharMorph has three alternative base characters with Creative Commons licenses: either CC-BY attribution licenses, or in the case of the Vitruvian character added in the latest update, a full CC0 license.In a story on BlenderNation, the developers comment that they aim to provide character models that can compete with those from closed-source solutions like Character Creator or Daz Studio, achieving the level of quality seen in blockbuster movies and next-gen video games.Plans to support non-humanoid characters in future releasesAs well as the Vitruvian character, CharMorph 0.4 features a number of other improvements, including the option to download characters or update the add-on directly within Blender.The development team says that it now plans to extend the software beyond humanoid characters, making it possible to create animals and other creatures.License and system requirementsCharMorph is compatible with Blender 4.4. Its a free download.The software is open-source: the source code is available under a GPLv3 license. The individual base characters are available under a range of licenses: the new Vitruvian character is CC0.Visit the CharMorph websiteRead the online documentation for CharMorphDownload CharMorph from GitHubHave your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). 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