How to import an external model with blendshapes?

Avatar Studio Questions
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1

Hi,

I created a MetaHumanCharacter in Unreal and would like to export this model, either directly or through some steps in Blender into Unity and use the character with convai. It would contain all the blendshapes etc.

I found another thread that using a MetaHuman is not possible directly. Are there any workarounds? Or do I have to use Avatar Studio to create a character to be used with the SDK at all times?

Thank you.

2

Nvm, I found out about the Asset Uploader. Please confirm that it will work with MetaHumans directly.

3

Hello,

Welcome to the Convai Developer Forum!

Convai does not currently support importing MetaHuman characters into game engines through our own pipeline. You can still use a custom character you import yourself into Unity, but for LipSync to work properly the character must include one of the following blendshape sets:

  • OVR

  • ARKit

  • Reallusion Plus

4

Hi. Thank you for your answer.

I don’t understand, though. You are providing the Asset Uploader ( Convai Asset Uploader: Upload MetaHuman & Reallusion Avatars to AI Experiences (Unreal → Avatar Studio & Convai Sim) , published October 14th) and it says that by it you can upload a Metahuman into Avatar Studio. Then you use that imported character just as described in the Unity SDK video.

Could you please provide some sources or manuals how to make a character I import into Unity usable for convai as you now say? This would of course be the better option, but I couldn’t find the option and it only prompted me to write this question.

Thank you.

5

If you check the video description and version notes, you’ll see that the Character Import feature has been removed. Earlier versions allowed importing Ready Player Me characters, but RPM support is no longer available.

For now, importing Avatar Studio characters into Unity/Unreal is not supported. We plan to bring this feature in the future.

In the meantime, you can use any custom Unity character as long as it includes one of the supported blendshape sets (OVR, ARKit, or Reallusion Plus) for LipSync.

6

Thank you. I didn’t see the notes as I watched the video embedded in the blog article (Easily add AI Companions to Your Unity Projects with Convai SDK). Would be great to have this notice in the article, too.

So, to summarize:

  • Importing a character from Avatar Studio is not supported atm in the Unity SDK (due to licensing issues I take it). Which automatically means I cannot use the “Asset Uploader” to upload my MetaHuman into Avatar Studio in order to get it into Unity. (What’s the point of the Asset Uploader then?)
  • If I create a custom character following Importing Custom Characters | Convai Documentation and subsequent pages, I still have to link the created character with convai and a character ID from Avatar Studio. I assume that this will copy all information from that avatar in Avatar Studio except for the visuals. Please confirm. This part is a bit confusing.
  • I can then use the custom character with all convai features in the Unity setting and export for WebGL for example.
  • If I have a Metahuman and manage to import it into Unity via Blender for example, this would be a viable path I assume. Whatever I import has to have ARKit blendshapes integrated. Is that correct?

Thank you.