MakeHuman is the 'free (GPL), innovative and professional software for the modelling of 3-Dimensional characters'. It exports in Collada and .obj files, so it plays nicely with Blender. After more than a year, the team has released a major update. Please keep in mind it's still a Release Candidate, so some features such as characters, poses and icons are still incomplete.
Here's an overview of the most important changes:
Tetra-parametric GUI ©
The tetrawidget allows quick and accurate modeling. After a long and careful ergonomic study, combined with analysis of anthropological characteristics, we have developed an interface with just 4 buttons with which 90% of the characteristics of the human body can be modeled. What's more the tetrawidget is "intelligent". If, for example, a female figure is being modeled, as defined by the first widget, then when the weight is increased with the second widget, the fat is accumulated in those areas typical of a woman. The same is also true in the case of weight decrease and ageing, as well as all the other physical characteristics that change differently for a man, woman or child.
Natural Pose System ©
A Pose system based on state-of-the-art technology for muscular movement simulation. Natural Pose system allows the accurate simulation of movements of the skin, muscles and tendons. We use database based algorithms, in order to improve results as stored information is accumulated. In any event already the current simulation allows the creation of very realistic poses.
Mesh
A light and professional mesh optimized for subdivision. The Mesh topology was accurately studied, taking into account the opinions of world experts (read more), so as to be light, with a low number of nodes and triangles, and with all the necessary edges to generate animation in the correct pose.
Rendering
Professional and photorealistic rendering on the basis of the Renderman standard. MH exports the scenes in rib format and uses some Renderman compatible shaders. For rendering, any engine can be used that supports the Renderman language. Aqsis is the MH official supported software, a good OSS tool, free download from www.aqsis.org. Installation of Aqsis is required to make images directly with MH.
Export
MH0.9.1 exports in collada or obj format. Export in collada format allows a skeleton structure perfectly adapted to character to be obtained automatically. At the moment the vertex linking must be done by users, but for the version 0.9.2 full support for all features will be provided.
Links
28 Comments
this is so cool - natural pose systems looks crazy
Crazy indeed.
Wow, the MakeHuman project has really made some progress! Looks great!
I thought hair system and clothes were to be implemented in this one. Great app nonetheless!
Great news ! This tool is really amazing.
And even better news...the WINE implementation of the new MakeHuman runs like a bunny!
I'm using Puppy Linux 3.01 with WINE 0.9.46, and the limitations are my hardware, not the software.
Just take a look to MH blog to see what Gianluca came up with, with this software:
http://www.dedalo-3d.com/public/blog/index.php
Isn't it truly amazing? Congratulations, MH Team!
Really easy!
I installed both wine packages from the standard ubuntu repository,
then configured Wine 0.9.46 for Win XP.
I then downloaded the latest Makehuman .exe RC1a and saved it in the fake drive c.
Finally I installed the makehuman .exe using the KDE Wine configurator.
Just as fast as native Windows on my P4 1.4 Ghz box.
Fantastic News!! I love MakeHuman.
Their new website looks nice too.
There's no need to run this under WINE. You can build from source with no problems in Linux.
Looks like the Makehuman website has been Blendernationed. Darn - shoulda downloaded the RC the other day when I had the chance...
I agree with these people. It looks easy and I imagine it is. I wanna create some great looking humans in here.
Wow, this project just keep getting better and better!!
Thank you for doing this so us mere mortals can create nice looking humans :)
Thank you...
The MHTeam is doing its best for giving a good program.
For any suggest or observation, please post on the forum.
Giovanni Lanza
now all we need is a low-poly makehuman (take your time :) ). i managed to get it to 5k (after removing the skeleton) but anything lower looks bad.
@tikki: Have you tried the Decimate modifier to see how badly it messes up the loops?
Here's the scoop on compiling for Debian Gutsy Gibbon:
You'll need to get all the standard and developmental libraries for FreeGLUT, GLUT, libxmu, and xorg-dev.
xorg-dev is necessary to get MakeHuman 9.1 RC1 compile on Kubuntu 7.10 (and more likely any Gutsy Gibbon release), but that's not all. It is a BROKEN INSTALL (caps are Kubuntu Adept's, not mine!), but it still works.
run 'ldconfig' and then reboot, to make sure all the libraries line up.
The full program runs after symbolic links to libmhgui.so.0.0 are created as @libmhgui.so.0 in /usr/lib ---not /usr/local/lib, where the binaries are stored--and the same for libanimorph.
I might have got that last point out-of-sync, so check yourself to be sure.
There should be no need to reboot after compiling Makehuman, unless it installs a new kernel. ldconfig alone ought to do it.
um, they kinda forgot about an important part of the male anatomy...
@Papasmurf "um, they kinda forgot about an important part of the male anatomy…"
Nothing a cylinder and two sphere meshes can't fix ;)
It's under 'Body details' ^_^
They should really just put linux packages up (.deb, .rpm), instead of forcing people to compile the sources.
I'm still very new to blender, (bout three months) i find it very interesting and still working on developing my skills, this is very cool i wonder when it will finish
Awesome work, guys! I was able to create a model, customize it, pose it, export it, and import it into blender without a hitch.
@JB Reefer: Putting up linux packages is the responsibility of the distro repositories, not the developers.
I wanted Poser, but it was too expensive. I thought I had found a good human disigner. I did except I thought hair and clothes were suppose to be included.