Character Creator 5 Release Rescheduled to August 27

Character Creator Official
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Making Way for a More Powerful and Polished Edition

To ensure the highest level of quality and performance, Reallusion has decided to move the official launch of Character Creator 5 to August 27, 2025. This buffer time will allow us to deliver a more refined user experience, introduce even more powerful features, and update key plugins to enhance third-party integration and workflow compatibility.

Exciting new additions include the all-new ActorMIXER system, which enables both custom and random character generation directly within the application. CC5 will also offer seamless MetaHuman compatibility, unlocking a unified workflow for Unreal Engine developers and artists.

To reward your extended patience, all CC5 Prelaunch Deal qualifiers will now receive the ActorMIXER PRO plugin (a $199 value) completely free—on top of the previously promised complementary Character Creator 5 license ($299 value). This deal upgrade is our way of saying thank you for sticking with us through thick and thin. > Check Reallusion software store

A free powerful new plugin and an enhanced CC5—now that’s real value for your patience!

Introducing ActorMIXER, the Future of Character Generation

The brand-new ActorMIXER will bring major innovation to CC5, dramatically expanding the creative possibilities of character design with greater ease and flexibility.

  • Non-Destruction mixing between characters to generate entirely new looks

  • Mix by full heads, individual facial parts, or full bodies

  • Seamlessly blend between stylized or realistic characters

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Unlock Advanced Capabilities with ActorMIXER PRO

Upgrade to ActorMIXER PRO to access powerful features and the complete ActorMIXER CORE Library, designed for serious creators who want full control and flexibility in character creation.

ActorMIXER PRO Plugin

  • Make Any Character Mixable: Make any character mix-ready by converting it into mixer sliders and mixer skins.

  • One-Click Randomization: Instantly generate unique and diverse characters with a single click.

  • ActorMIXER Packages: Use the ActorMIXER Packager to create and package your own mixer-ready assets for sharing or for profit.

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ActorMIXER CORE Library

  • 40+ Hyper-Realistic Scanned Heads: Ready-made for full head or facial-feature mixing.

  • Diverse Ethnic and Facial Variants: A wide range of facial structures, and ethnicities for endless combinations.

  • Optimized Texture Workflow: Includes both low-resolution textures for fast previewing and high-resolution assets for final rendering and HD export.

ActorMIXER-Core_01
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Secure FREE CC5 & ActorMIXER PRO by August 27!

All CC5 Prelaunch Deal qualifiers will receive a FREE copy of Character Creator 5 (a $299 value) and ActorMIXER PRO (a $199 value)!

This exclusive plugin giveaway is available only until August 27, 2025, so don’t miss your chance to claim it. It’s the ultimate reminder that we’re excited to have you with us as we unlock the full potential of Character Creator 5 together!

Additional Enhancements in CC5 and iClone 8

Beyond the introduction of ActorMIXER, Character Creator 5 and iClone 8 bring a host of powerful new upgrades designed to elevate animation quality, improve Unreal Engine integration, and streamline character workflows.

Enhanced iPhone and AccuFACE Support

  • Improve non-linear facial performance, add precision to lip movements for natural speech animation
  • Add corrective morphs to existing CC characters for enhanced mocap quality, especially for intense emotional expressions.

Extended Eyelash & HD Eye System

  • Upgraded 3D eyelashes feature adjustable lash density, refined mesh structures, and greater shaping possibilities.
  • Smart hair-compatible color controls enable natural lash color transitions from root to tip, with realistic reflectivity adjustment.
  • Automatically repositions eyelashes after intense eye shape editing.
  • Enhanced HD Eye library delivers outstanding detail in the pupil, blood vessels, moisture, and realistic concave rendering when viewed from the side

Easy Motion Retargeting for UE5

  • Now supports skeleton export geared for UE4 and UE5, with bind pose presets optimized for MetaHuman and UEFN.

  • Enables accurate motion retargeting and real-time game control.

  • Character and animation can be exported together, significantly simplifying the Unreal Engine pipeline.

Expanded MetaHuman Compatibility

  • The upgraded CC/IC AutoSetup ensures full compatibility between CC5 characters and MetaHumans in Unreal Engine, providing identical facial controls and skeleton structures.

  • MetaHumans can be easily swapped with CC5 characters in Unreal Sequencer while preserving all facial and body animation data.

  • LiveLink integration supports real-time streaming of motion capture to CC5 characters, including MHA facial mocap, Audio-to-Face syncing, and full-body tracking.

  • The MetaHuman-compatible CC Control Rig plugin enables 1:1 animation matching and layered animation refinement inside Unreal workflows.

MHA Animation Import & HD Face Board Editing

  • CC5 and iClone 8 now support MHA animation imports from Unreal, bringing high-quality facial capture into the ecosystem.

  • Existing CC3+ characters can be upgraded with the CC5 HD facial profile for full compatibility with MHA animation data.

  • A new MetaHuman-style face control panel in iClone enables fine-tuned editing of HD facial expressions for CC5 characters.

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I do NOT see any “upgrade” deals for the vast majority of readers here. Those you said “sticking with you through thick and thin” for years. Those who already have CC4 HS2… etc…
So what is the deal for us?

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It’s odd that buying CC4 HS2 again will be cheaper than upgrading after the release date.

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I mentioned this sore point in a reply to Peter Well its July any CC5 updates? - #32 by wires

I’m not holding my breath waiting for a reply.

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It seems they are trying to find the right balance of attracting new buyers into the ecosystem while keeping the existing users.

frankly it is alot easier to keep the existing users as they have too much invested in the ecosystem to completely leave and will ultimately upgrade out of FOMO.

The reality is that existing users ,buying ,upgrades, are not actually growing the user base/market share only new users can do that

What I personally find puzzling about the CC5 marketing is the emphasis on being able to do facial animation in UE5 with the Metahumans and bring that into Iclone.

I get that it is a free alternative to buying accuface but I do wonder how many existing Iclone users will learn install & unreal engine just use the metahumans as an external facial animation tool for iclone.

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I’ve just purchased Icone 8 & CC4 earlier in the year. Will I get an upgrade to CC5 when this comes out ?

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Hi…

For all CC4 owners who just want to upgrade to CC5 when it releases, there will be discounted pricing to upgrade to CC5 and ActorMixer Pro. You won’t have to pay the full price. The current upgrade prices are shown below.

Screenshot 2025-07-21 141823
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Please Note: Bundle deals (CC5+ActorMixer Pro) and other special offers will be announced at the time of release.

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OK Peter, I hope we will get even better deal at the release time :slight_smile:

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Exactly! Currently $378 vs $299 . Not sure if that can be purchased again though (as a second seat/license) and if that purchase would be counted toward free CC5+Actormixer… Very confusing.

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Yes I agree… moreover this sentence is really tendentious :

I guess this means that all of UDK’s motion capture features can be done with CC5 characters…IN UDK.
However, I dream of being able to do facial mocap “INSIDE ICLONE” with the Live Link Face with the MetaHuman Facial profile.
Otherwise I really don’t see the point of doing facial mocap in UDK, exporting then importing into Iclone, making the corrections, exporting to UDK… nonsense.
We’ll see when it comes out, anyway I’ll buy CC5 because I’m too invested in the Iclone universe to abandon it. :wink:

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Otherwise I really don’t see the point of doing facial mocap in UDK, exporting then importing into Iclone, making the corrections, exporting to UDK… nonsense.

It seems to me that anyone who takes the time to learn UE5 well enough to sort out all of the motion capture processes is probably going to render the animation in Unreal (with a MH or imported CC5 character)

However, I dream of being able to do facial mocap “INSIDE ICLONE”

But you can already if you buy Accuface yes?.. and the new CC5 characters have a better facial profile than CC4 so why do you need the MH facial profile “INSIDE ICLONE” so badly?

I’ll buy CC5 because I’m too invested in the Iclone universe to abandon it

Of course and Reallusion is counting on that “sunk cost” mentality to keep the existing users in the ecosystem
much like Daz does with Genesis. :innocent:

I learned how to model my own clothing and
props years ago.
when I learned to rig my own Characters
(Body and facial) in Blender, I was liberated from being dependent on any one content ecosystem.

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Iclone use the ArtKit profil wich use less than 60 facial blendshapes. MetaHuman profil is developped with over 400 facial blendshapes wich is waaaay more accurate.It is obvious with the French language.

In this exemple Metahuman even detected the specific shape of the lips of the actor on the right of his mouth.

By the way , I bought Faceware , use Accuface , use LiveFace and nothing good as MetaHuman profil.

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Is there Audio to facial animation in Metahuman to use their 400 blend shapes ?

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Yes. There are tons of examples on YouTube :wink:

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Iclone use the ArtKit profil wich use less than 60 facial blendshapes. MetaHuman profil is developped with over 400 facial blendshapes wich is waaaay more accurate.It is obvious with the French language.

In this exemple Metahuman even detected the specific shape of the lips of the actor on the right of his mouth.

Actually the Metahumans have over 600 blend shapes mostly driven by bones.
But even the new CC5 avatars will only have a little over 60 Blend shapes so the Live Link MH animator facial profile will not add hundreds of new blend shapes to a CC5 avatars face rig in Iclone.

That guy in the video is getting better results because of the higher number of Blend shapes in the MH being used by the MH animator.

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Where did you see that?

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I can’t remember where I saw it but where does Reallusion say that CC5 characters will have over 500 new Blendshapes

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I never claimed that, hence my question on this thread…

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That makes a good meme:

Einstein
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Well they are heavily advertising the new HD details of the CC5 avatars.
so if they have added several hundred new Blend shapes to the faces to match the MH,
they probably would have advertised it by now.