There are many tools for designing our virtual persona. This takes a look at several tools for creating avatars that bridge worlds to maintain a consistent identity between worlds.

1. BRIDGING WORLDS
AVATAR IDENTITY
BY DAVID FLIESEN
(SUN TZU)

2. AVATAR IDENTITY: BRIDGING WORLDS
People often like to take their virtual persona
between different virtual worlds to look and
move in the same ways. Here are some
software solutions to create your virtual you:
• Adobe Fuse + Adobe Mixamo • Autodesk Character Generator
• MakeHuman • 3D Humanoids by Manuel Bastioni
• Morph Character System (MCS) • Morph Studio (coming soon)
• ReadyRoom • iClone
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3. AVATAR IDENTITY: ADOBE FUSE
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• PROs (good points): free beta, versatile editor, 2 versions (Adobe + Steam),
wide character selection, clothing options, facial rigging, auto randomizing.
• CONs (bad points): use at own risk, not currently supported by Adobe,
textures often break, program locks up, not easy to import your own
content, limited terms of use (closed vs. open world environments).
Web: http://www.adobe.com/products/fuse.htm
Web: http://store.steampowered.com/search/?term=Fuse

4. AVATAR IDENTITY: ADOBE MIXAMO
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• PROs (good points): free beta, web-based, human/SCIFI/fantasy characters,
MOCAP (Motion Capture) animations with limited modifiers, auto rigger.
• CONs (bad points): no facial rigging for stock Mixamo characters, small
collection of characters, not currently supported by Adobe, limited terms of
use (closed vs. open world environments).
Web: http://www.mixamo.com

5. AVATAR IDENTITY: AUTODESK CHARACTER GENERATOR
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Web: https://charactergenerator.autodesk.com
• PROs (good points): former Evolver company had Unity experience,
morph between 2 selected characters, variety of characters/clothing.
• CONs (bad points): mostly SCIFI, medical and military, men have “man
boobs” detracting from appearance, limited terms of use stipulations,
may not be actively under development by AutoDesk.

6. AVATAR IDENTITY: MAKE HUMAN
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Web: http://www.makehuman.org
• PROs (good points): open source, gender/age/nationality
settings, varied avatar topologies, options for different
bone rigs to use in various environments, baby avatars.
• CONs (bad points): limited clothing options, development
community not very active.

7. AVATAR IDENTITY: 3D HUMANOIDS BY MANUEL BASTIONI
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Web: http://www.manuelbastioni.com
• PROs (good points): open source free tool, integrated into Blender,
provides powerful tools with wide range of character creation options.
• CONs (bad points): interface not as simplistic as other avatar creation
tools, requires a good baseline knowledge of Blender to use.

8. AVATAR IDENTITY: MORPH CHARACTER SYSTEM (MCS)
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Web: https://www.morph3d.com/morph-character-system
• PROs (good points): Free and paid options, wide range of character packs
for adult/child/zombie/alien avatars, multiple LOD levels, fantasy clothing.
• CONs (bad points): for use in Unity only, sometimes will break and have
clothing items disappear or have LOD issues, mouth sometimes get stuck
opened, more suited for some uses than others.

9. AVATAR IDENTITY: MORPH STUDIO (COMING SOON)
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Web: https://www.morph3d.com/morph-studio
• PROs (good points): simplistic creation tools, designed for use with
various game engines like Unity and Unreal.
• CONs (bad points): not available yet -- so hard to tell how well this will
work, seems like mostly SCIFI characters and their looks may not appeal
to all audiences.

10. AVATAR IDENTITY: READYROOM
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Web: https://www.morph3d.com/morph-ready-room
• PROs (good points): simplistic interface for quickly creating stylized or
human avatars for use in VR platforms like VRChat and High Fidelity.
• CONs (bad points): setup just for VR platforms, no option to download an
avatar for other uses, while it says it should work for desktop HiFi, it does
not provide options to use in the desktop version.

11. AVATAR IDENTITY: ICLONE
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Web: https://www.reallusion.com/iclone
• PROs (good points): extremely high end character creation tools with
wide range of character types and clothing, streamlined tools.
• CONs (bad points): very expensive as this is used for a wide range of
professional uses with games, VR, previsualization, and film production,
and higher end characters generally mean higher poly counts.

12. AVATAR IDENTITY: CONTACT INFORMATION
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David Fliesen
Sun Tzu on Open Simulator
Sun Tzu on sinespace
Joey Aboma in Second Life
Email: dfliesen@mac.com
Portfolio: http://character-animator.weebly.com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/fliesen
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joey.aboma
Google+: http://plus.ly/joeyaboma
Twitter: https://twitter.com/dfliesen
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/joeyaboma
Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/JoeyAboma