KeenTools writes:
KeenTools released a major 2.1.0 update to their plugins. FaceBuilder got an automatic camera set up in Blender and multiple camera support in Nuke. The texture extraction was significantly improved. Nuke 12.2 is now supported.
FaceBuilder is an add-on for 3D head model creation that made noise in the Blender community earlier this year. Until recently, you needed photos shot with a single camera and same settings which you later had to set up in FaceBuilder manually.
Happily that's not the case anymore: all you need now is to load your photos and start modelling! FaceBuilder will set up the focal length and the sensor size for each photo. If there’s EXIF data, it will be used and you’ll get very precise results. If there’s no EXIF data, the estimation will be used in a smart way taking into account the dimensions of every photo. Still, if you need to set up everything manually, developers keep the manual control option.
This all will work with non-neutral facial expressions which were added in the previous release. Meaning you can create your model using any photos you’re able to find!
The preciseness of the model is supplemented with improved texture extraction algorithms. So it all gives an even better start point for a likeness-sculpting or any other kind of project reducing the amount of manual work.
All that is packed with the user-friendly interface rebuilt almost from scratch based on the invaluable feedback of the Blender community!
Nuke users will find most of these improvements in Nuke as well. Precisely, they get varying focal length estimation in FaceBuilder meaning they can use photos from different sources to create the model. The non-neutral facial expressions will help when you don’t have good or any photos at all — just use the footage and then export a FaceTracker node and start tracking right away! TextureBuilder node performance and quality are also improved in many ways. And this all is available for Nuke 12.2 now.
Starting from version 2.1.0, the KeenTools team will release only maintenance updates for users of Nuke 8, 9 and 10. Meaning critical bugs will be fixed, but new features will appear only in our plugins for newer Nuke versions. The reason behind this is that they want to bring better experience and performance to the tools using new technologies available in Nuke 11+.
— The full list of updates for Nuke plugins:
— Support for multiple different cameras in FaceBuilder
— General quality improvements in TextureBuilder
— Better equalisation in TextureBuilder
— Fixed pin disappearance after using 3D-brush in FaceTracker and GeoTracker
— Fixes for rigged geometry
— Nuke 12.2 support
— Many minor fixes and improvementsYou can download the new plugins from the KeenTools site. Don’t forget they offer 15 days of fully functional trial for all plugins, and should you purchase a license for FaceBuilder — it’ll work in both Nuke and Blender!
2 Comments
whenever I think about using this product it reminds me why I switched to blender. I am tired of renting software and not owning it after I buy it. I feel like this software is really targeted to a smaller group of people that use blender and who are willing to spend 300$ a year for commercial node locked addon or 150$ for personal edition. this feels more like something that belongs in a auto desk software structure . I would think about using it if there was such a cost to just rent it, I would have to sell enough models I would make to recover the cost of buying it. I am done with renting software let alone renting a plugin.
I used the 30 day free trial and I must say this add-on is impressive. With only a few hours of work and little to no skill in sculpting, topology or texturing I was able to create an incredibly accurate model of my face in Blender thanks to this add-on.
Howewer, the 3 digit price tag made me ask myself the following question: do I really need my face and maybe my friends faces as 3d models in Blender? Turns out I don't.