Character Requirements

Estimated reading: 3 minutes

Rules that must be met to validate the character successfully on the Autodesk Flow Studio (formerly Wonder Studio) platform.

General

Supported Software Versions

Blender 3.6.2.

Maya 2022 - 2024.
Arnold MtoA 3.0 - MtoA 5.3.

Validation Add-ons

Using the add-ons is necessary in order to locally validate the character.

After a successful local validation metadata.json file will be generated at the same location as the character file.

You will need to provide the generated metadata.json file, along with your character files, when uploading your characters to Autodesk Flow Studio.

Visit the Downloads page to get the add-on and installation instructions.

Requirements

Heads up! The following may be highlighted during the validation process.

Not following the requirements will result in a failed upload.

They are meant to guide character development and preparation so as to make the character compatible with the Autodesk Flow Studio platform.

Upload Requirements
To upload a character you will need the following files:

Character Files:
Maximum file size: 500MB
Supported file formats:
- .blend Required number of files: 1
- .fbx +.abc (optional) Required number of files: 1-2

Image Texture Files:
Combined texture files size: 2GB
Required number of files: : 0 - 200
Supported file formats: .png, .jpg, .jpeg, .tiff, .tif, .exr

Metadata File:
Must be generated by the validation add-on.
Required number of files: 1
Required file format: .json

Object Requirements

Maximum number of polygons: 1,500,000
Maximum number of hair strands: 100,000

Markerless Motion Capture

The name of the rig that will drive the pose must end with the tag “BODY”. (e.g. myCharacterSkeleton_BODY)
There can be only 1 (one) rig whose name ends with the “BODY” tag.
The rig needs to have at least one bone that represents the Hips (pelvis) bone.

Character TPose

Characters need to be T-Posed prior to uploading them to the platform. Please note that the quality of the T-Pose can directly influence the quality of the animation.

For best animation results please use the Example Character provided in the Downloads section and visit the Bone Mapping, Distribution, and TPose for reference on how to T-Pose your character.

Markerless Face Capture
Characters don't need to be compatible with Markerless Face Capture in order to be validated. Face capture is optional.
If you assign the face mesh in the add-on, the following requirements will apply:

The name of the mesh that contains the facial blendshapes must end with the tag “FACE” (e.g. myCharacterFaceMesh_FACE).
There can be only 1 (one) mesh whose name ends with the “FACE” tag.
There needs to be at least one supported blendshape. Please visit the Blendshapes page for the list of supported blendshapes.