We want to build a 3d character that's gonna be a social media influencer! Looking for an advice

#1

Hello everyone.

Basically we want to invest in creating a 3d character that’s planned to be a social media influencer. Initially posting pics, and later on videos (CGI suite)

Our aim is to make the modeling and setup so realistic, that the average viewer won’t know it’s CG. I have a couple of questions and I’m sure this is the best website to find the answers for:

  1. Is aiming for a realistic approach gonna lead us to complications when we want to animate it later with the CGI suite?

  2. What’s the best way to hire talent or a company for modeling, rigging, and rendering the character?

  3. What’s the average cost for building the character?

  4. We need to simulate the movement (CGI suite) in-house, so what’s is the best recommendation it term of tools needed?

  5. What’s the typical workflow from starting the project till posting regular videos of the character online?

Too many questions I know. Your advice will help us a lot.

Thanks in advance!

#2

Yes, it’s a very compex task. Because our eyes are very good at spotting something abnormal. We see humans every day for hours.
You probably need to hire a VFX shop, which specializes on making characters for movies. It will cost a fortune.
You can also look at Artstation, and see if you can find those characters, which look believable enough for you. But they may be retouched a lot.
Why not just shoot a real person (with camera, not a gun)?

#3

To get a sense of the scope of such an undertaking notice that no one else is really doing this yet. Samsung’s Neon project seems targeted at exactly this type of thing, but I don’t know when that’s going to actually become available for general use.


For traditional CG based characters, your best bet would be Reallusion’s Character Creator/Headshot, IMHO.

As good as those characters are, you aren’t going to convince anyone they are actually real people without investing a lot of time and money into motion and facial capture. And likely not even then.
You may want to consider an alternate approach, such as creating a virtual character in something like the aforementioned Character Creator and then “deepfaking” that character’s face onto a real performer(s). Many fan made deepfakes achieve a greater degree of realism than similar scenes produced for high-budget films using scanned CG models.

#4

That’s enlightening thanks a lot!

I liked the idea of creating a character then deepfaking it.

Can you please give me a hint on the average cost of modeling a hyper-realistic character?

And what does it require to deep fake it? and the average cost for that as well?

#5

Can you please give me an average cost of modeling and rigging a realistic character? and the average cost of doing a single shot for a certain pose of the character with rendering the image (without animations)

#6

I don’t know, it depends on particular requirements specification. But in any case thousands of dollars (and tens if you go big(. VFX houses have an established pipeline with proprietary software and tools individuals don’t, hence an individual artist won’t probably be able to complete such a task. Especially when it comes to facial rigging, which is a tedious task in most of software, and requires a lot of skill.
I would never undertake such a monstrous task myself.
If you want to save up, the Moogaloonie post is spot on.

#7

If you use something like character creator, the base characters are already modeled and rigged. You’d just need to find someone to adjust the parameters in order to create your desired character. And maybe you’d want someone else to design their appearance, someone who specializes in wardrobe and/or makeup. Then the person doing the character creation could clothe the character appropriately.
Again, what is going to make or break the realism is how natural the movement and emotions turn out, how well the character is integrated into its environment. Video game characters can be highly realistic, we tend to forgive the way they move and interact with their environments as it is almost necessary that they repeat specific actions consistently and for the same length of time or the player could not anticipate their response while being controlled. Cut scenes tend to contain more emotion and unique actions that are not found within game play. But even the most well done scenes are unlikely to be mistaken for reality.
I suppose the big question is why does the avatar need to be both virtual and believable, as opposed to an actor/actress or stylized character?

#8

3D Scan Store has faces for a few hundred dollars. https://www.3dscanstore.com/3d-head-models

That combined with a FACS system and something like Wrap3D ( https://www.russian3dscanner.com/ ) will get you pretty close to what you want.

Then you could always use UNREAL for a renderer.

The cost isnt in the assets - its in the expertise to put all this together. Honestly you’re probably looking at $100 000 worth of artists p/a, if you do it ‘on the cheap’.

#9

https://www.quantumcapture.com/ctrl-human#:~:text=CTRL%20Human%20is%20a%20set,compelling%2C%20interactive%20characters%20and%20experiences.

#10

Great Initiative! Really I am happy to know your interest in creating a 3d character that’s planned to be a social media influencer. I liked the idea. Recently I have prepared my academic essay on social issues with the help of this resource https://samplius.com/free-essay-examples/social-issues/ where I found a similar point. We know CGI is the best platform to become more accessible to people who want to try out 3D art, so you can feel free to share your particular requirements specification and budget for making this 3d character. I hope you will find someone who specializes in 3d character design.

#11