SAN JOSE, Calif., Aug. 28, 2025 -- Reallusion officially releases Character Creator 5 (CC5), a major upgrade that brings the character creation ecosystem into the HD era. Its powerful subdivision workflow bridges game-ready 3D characters with film-quality rendering. This release includes all-new HD Morphs, anatomically accurate human bases, the next-gen ActorMIXER PRO plugin, and an advanced HD facial animation system. Step into the future of expressive, lifelike, production-ready digital humans.

With CC5, existing users can upgrade their legacy characters to HD quality, unlock Extended+ or HD facial profiles, and immediately benefit from enhanced facial animation capabilities. All previously purchased CC plugins and iClone software will also receive free upgrades to ensure full compatibility with CC5.

Raising the Bar for Real-Time HD Character Creation

Since its 2015 debut, Character Creator has become a leading solution for professional 3D character development. With the release of the next-generation CC5, Reallusion raises the bar once again by introducing a powerful new HD character base that supports up to 16 times more mesh detail with one-click subdivisioning.

Paired with enhanced shaders, high-resolution eyes, whole new eyelash system, and full displacement map support, CC5 delivers cinema-quality visuals with real geometric depth (even for real-time editing). Whether for film-quality close-ups or performance-optimized game development, CC5 offers the fidelity and flexibility needed to meet the demands of any creative pipeline.

The system also includes HD morphs that add layers of anatomical detail without altering the character's bone structure or main proportions. It's a revamp that allows the same base mesh to become slimmer or fuller, define feminine curves or muscular forms, or even portray graceful aging.

With these advancements, CC5 redefines what's possible for instantaneous character design, making it the ideal creative hub for Blender, Maya, and other major solutions.

Next-Gen Facial Animation for True-to-Life Expressions

Facial expressions are key to believable character performance, and CC5 takes them further with a completely overhauled HD Expression Profile. Each expression now drives an expanded set of blendshapes, enabling precise micro-expressions that capture subtle emotional shifts. From a smirk to a furrowed brow or the twitch of an eyelid, every nuance can be rendered for greater impact. In total, artists gain finer control over emotional detail, helping to enhance storytelling across games, film, and other forms of media.

A newly introduced Corrective Expression System ensures that all blended expressions remain within anatomically accurate ranges, preventing visual distortion while maintaining facial structure. While non-linear animation curves and mesh elasticity empower realistic motion details such as sticky lips, squints, and tension in the brows. The entire system will be fully supported in iClone, with updates to facial mocap tools for iPhone, AccuFACE.

ActorMIXER, the Smarter Character Generator

Introduced with Character Creator 5, ActorMIXER is a revolutionary character blender that enables non-destructive mixing and matching of entire characters, facial features, and head shapes to create unique appearances. Whether combining stylized elements with realistic traits or recombining parts from different characters, it preserves full rigging and animation compatibility. ActorMIXER empowers rapid prototyping and creative exploration without compromising control or quality.

For professional artists, the ActorMIXER PRO plugin unlocks advanced features and the full ActorMIXER CORE Library, providing deeper customization and expanded asset access. Any character can be made "mixable" by converting it into Mixer sliders and skins. With one-click randomization, diverse characters can be generated; or use the ActorMIXER Packager to create and share custom Mixer assets that are built for collaboration and commercialization.

Seamless Integration with Major Industry Pipelines

Maya & Marmoset Toolbag

CC5 expands its Auto Setup ecosystem to include Maya Arnold and Marmoset Toolbag, offering automatic shader assignments and facial rig compatibility for streamlined character transfer, animation editing, and final rendering.

Professionals can now combine cinematic-level character creation in CC5, intuitive face and body animation editing in iClone 8, and ready-to-use motions and assets from Reallusion to accelerate animation and lookdev productions.

ZBrush Subdivision Workflow

CC5 integrates seamlessly with ZBrush via GoZ, enabling high-resolution sculpt data to be baked directly onto subdivided characters. Artists can convert sculpted detail into normal and displacement maps, maintaining fidelity throughout the sculpt-to-animation process.

The upgraded Face Tools now support wrinkle-to-displacement baking and 8K textures, giving ZBrush users powerful tools to enhance expression realism and fine-tune facial surface detail with precision.

Blender Support

The latest upgrade to Blender Auto Setup adds support for both Eevee and Cycles render engines, along with adjustable material-based displacement maps, allowing you to fine-tune displacement strength directly in Blender.

CC5 characters can be exported with HD facial animations and wrinkle displacements, including controls for wrinkle intensity and playback speed. HD iClone animations can also be imported into Blender, fully compatible with the HD Face Board that utilizes MetaHuman-style facial controls. These features work seamlessly with both standard and extended facial profiles.

Unreal Engine and MetaHuman Interoperability

For Unreal developers, CC5 introduces a suite of enhancements to streamline animation and character deployment. CC characters can now be exported with skeletons optimized for Unreal Engine 4 and 5, including bind poses tailored for MetaHuman and UEFN formats, ensuring precise motion retargeting and real-time gameplay control.

CC5 HD characters and MetaHumans now share the same skeleton structures and facial control standards compatible with the AutoSetup plugin. Characters can swap directly with MetaHuman counterparts in Unreal Sequencer, allowing the direct application of MetaHuman animations without tedious motion retargeting. This update makes CC characters fully compatible with Unreal's MHA facial capture, body mocap, and audio-to-face syncing, delivering a unified animation workflow inside Unreal Engine.

For iClone developers, the new Unreal Live Link update adds UE5 skeleton, enabling one-click character and motion transfer to UE5.5/UE5.6. MetaHuman facial animations can also be imported for realistic talking performances, with matching HD Face controls available as a free download for high-definition facial refinement and seamless MetaHuman data compatibility.

CC5 Deluxe – UNLEASH THE FULL POTENTIAL OF Character Creator 5

Harness the full power of Character Creator 5, the centerpiece of next-level character creation. CC5 Deluxe enhances your workflow with ActorMIXER PRO, the full ActorMIXER Core Library, and a collection of HD skins. Refine every detail with the HD Ultimate Morphs Pack, and receive the HD Human Anatomy Set (valued at $990) as an exclusive bonus. Whether you're a seasoned artist or just getting started, CC5 Deluxe is the best starter kit to instantly elevate your creativity to a pro level.

HD Ultimate Morphs Pack

Step into a new era of realism with the HD Ultimate Morphs Pack. Featuring 152 meticulously organized body morphs and 20 head types across 12 core body styles, each slider allows for precise refinement—from facial micro-details to full-body adjustments—all without altering base proportions. Powered by the Subdivision workflow, this system offers sculpting freedom like never before. For optimized performance, HD morphs can also be baked into normal maps at lower subdivision levels without compromising visual quality.

HD Human Anatomy Set

The HD Human Anatomy Set includes 12 fully rigged, animation-ready characters built from high-resolution 3D scan data, with both 2K and 4K texture options for real-time and cinematic use. Every character is ActorMIXER-ready and fully modular—allowing users to mix and match faces and bodies by simply dragging elements into the Mixer Wheel and previewing results instantly. This set maximizes the power of ActorMIXER and is exclusive to CC5 Deluxe buyers.

Join the "#MyFirstCC5" Event for Prizes

To celebrate the launch of Character Creator 5, Reallusion invites creators worldwide to join the My CC5 Foray event. This month-long celebration lets creators share their first CC5 character on the Reallusion Forum and Instagram using the hashtag #MyFirstCC5. From September 1 to 27, 2025, weekly winners will be selected on both platforms to receive exclusive HD Morph content, and forum participants will also earn a limited-edition badge.

Ready to showcase your first CC5 creations and win prizes? Join the discussion on the Reallusion Forum, start your 30-day free trial of Character Creator 5 and ActorMIXER PRO today and experience the full creative power of real-time HD character design.