How to create a rigged humanoid character using Clayxels and Puppet3D.

readme.md

This is not a tutorial, just an overview of my process to create a character with Clayxels that can be used with character controllers like the one in Game Creator or Ootii's Motion Controller.

Quick overview:

• sculpt a character using Clayxels
• freeze to a mesh, save it in your Assets folder
• use that mesh to create a new GameObject
• attach AddUV script to the new GameObject and switch to play mode to generate a mesh with a UV map
• replace the mesh in this GameObject with the new mesh, remove AddUV script
• use Puppet3D's autorig
• export Skin and Bones
• Set exported asset as a Humanoid

Why?

This is an exploration of how you can go from an idea to a working character without leaving Unity. You can use Clayxels to sculpt, Puppet3D to rig, and Game Creator to add movements and controls to your character.

What's needed:

• Unity
• Clayxels
• Puppet3D
• Game Creator or any other character controller that supports Humanoid assets.

Details:

1. Clayxels

• Create a ClayxelsContainer and sculpt a humanoid character (something with a head, chest, two arms and two legs)
• add a name in the "save asset" field, and click on "Freeze to mesh". This saves the mesh in the Assets folder.
• Create a new material using the ClayxelBuiltInMeshShader shader (otherwise your new character won't keep the colors created on Clayxels)
• We no longer need the clayxels gameObject. Hide it.

2. Process Mesh

• create a new GameObject

• add a MeshFilter component

• add a MeshRenderer component

• assign the mesh created in the previous step to the MeshFilter component

• assign the material created in the previous step to the MeshRenderer component

• you should now have a gameObject that looks just like what you created on clayxels

• add the AddUV component to the gameObject (see source at the end of this gist)

• switch to play mode, and back to edit mode

• there should be a mesh called "character" in your assets folder

• remove the AddUV component

• replace the MeshFilter mesh with this new character mesh

3. Rig your character

• open Puppet3D autoRig panel
• Select your character gameObject, and click on "Make Guides" in Puppet3D
• adjust guides to match your character
• click on "AutoRig" on Puppet3D
• more info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUbirkhY7Vo

4. Export your character

• open Puppet3D's Skinning panel
• select your character gameObject
• make sure it now has a SkinnedMeshRenderer component instead of a MeshRenderer component (that means the autorig process worked)
• Click on "Export Skin & Bones" on Puppet3D
• see the message on Unity's console. It'll say where it saved the new asset
• Find the new asset in the Project panel. Select it. In the inspector panel, select the "Rig" tab. Change animation tab to "Humanoid" and click on "Apply"
• your asset is now ready to be used with a character controller.

Troubleshooting

Puppet3D doesn't export your mesh if the mesh doesn't have a uv map. That's the purpose of using the script. You can use a uv inspector to make sure your mesh has a uv map.

If the script doesn't work, you can export your mesh as an fbx with Unity's FBX exporter, import it in Blender, assign a UV map, export it from Blender and back into Unity.

Known issues:

• Puppet3D doesn't export the material correctly, so when you use your new humanoid character, you also need to reapply its material with the one that uses the ClayxelBuiltInMeshShader shader
• you are now using a normal mesh, so none of clayxel's features are available for this new character.

Tested with:

I tested this with Ootii's motion controller, Game Creator, and it can also be used with mixamo's animations (when you download a mixamo animation, you need to change it to a humanoid, the same way we did with the Puppet3D exported asset).

About the AddUV script

• The code that creates a uv map is a copy of the example code from Unity's Mesh.UV documentation.
• I just added 2 more lines: -- AssetDatabase.CreateAsset creates the new mesh -- AssetDatase.SaveAssets saves the new mesh to the assets folder

AddUV

using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEditor;
using UnityEngine;

public class AddUV : MonoBehaviour
{
    public Mesh mesh;
    
    void Awake()
    {
        mesh = GetComponent<MeshFilter>().mesh;


        Vector3[] vertices = mesh.vertices;
        Vector2[] uvs = new Vector2[vertices.Length];

        for (int i = 0; i < uvs.Length; i++)
        {
            uvs[i] = new Vector2(vertices[i].x, vertices[i].z);
        }

        mesh.uv = uvs;
        AssetDatabase.CreateAsset(mesh, "Assets/character.mesh");
        AssetDatabase.SaveAssets();
    }
}