Blender is a fabulous tool for creating 3D worlds. What's missing, however, are realistic human characters to populate these worlds. Of course, you can always create animated 3D characters in Blender when you need to. However, the effort can cost you your sanity, and the process is needlessly complex for many applications. Often, all you need is one or two human figures to liven up a scene, not even necessarily animated, but just standing there.

With Windows and OS X, many artists turn to Poser to create a human figure out of a standard character to fit the scene: They set the skin, hair, and clothes, make the model strike a specific pose (which gives the software its name), and they're done. Now, you can do the same with the open source software MakeHuman [1], which can be used not only with Linux but also on Windows and Apple computers. The Python-based software can be adapted to virtually any system, however, creating poses or movement does require interaction with the likewise free and open source Blender.

In Ubuntu, you can already find MakeHuman in the repositories – albeit a slightly outdated version. Therefore, you should visit the project website and download the current version, which is in .deb format and can be installed via the Software Center (Figure 1). The actual installation can take a while and requires some patience in that no progress status is provided.

Figure 1: Ubuntu's Software Center includes a version of MakeHuman. However, the package on the project homepage is more up to date.

Breaking New Ground

When you start MakeHuman, the program displays a rather generic-looking character that forms the basis for your customization (Figure 2). You automatically land in the Modelling menu, where you can start morphing the character.

Figure 2: After startup, MakeHuman first shows a rather generic-looking human figure without any distinctions.

In the Main pane, you enter some general parameters, including gender, which you can vary from 100 percent female to 100 percent male (which shapes the body proportions). You then set the age, weight, and height. By sliding the Muscles and Proportions controls, you can change a couch potato into an athlete, and the African , Asian , and Caucasian sliders determine the skin color, shape of the head, and placement of the eyes (Figure 3).

Figure 3: With just a few sliders, you can start making the figure a bit more human. Gender, proportions, and ethnicity can make the model more real.

Body Forming

Once you determine the general form of the figure, you can start adding details. Whereas the main settings determine the gender, the Gender menu sets the specifics – for example, breast sizes for women or genitalia for men. MakeHuman also provides settings for Face , Torso , and Arms and Legs . The face has some extra naturalistic settings. Because a person's face is rarely totally symmetrical, you can set left and right eye and ear dimensions separately (Figure 4). If the image becomes too overloaded in detail, you can always revert to the symmetry function.

Figure 4: You can make the figure more individualized with hair, eye, and other facial feature adjustments.

Details

You can add more details to your figure with the Geometries menu. You'll find options for eyes, hair, teeth, eyebrows, lashes, and tongue. Not all changes show up immediately, because in the case of teeth and tongue, it depends whether the mouth is open or not. Geometries also includes a few clothing choices in the Clothing category. The selection is not overly large, but the clothing covers a large part of the body, so you don't have to worry about what the character is wearing when integrated elsewhere (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Clothing makes the man, and MakeHuman has a small selection. The "Hide faces under clothes" option, for example, ensures that knees don't peek out from the jeans.

Materials

You can add some variety to the clothing with the Materials menu. Once you have chosen the garment for your model, the item of clothing appears in the left panel under Clothing , and you can modify it in the right panel by changing its color and texture.

In the left panel is another item called Human for making detailed parameter changes. Whereas parameter changes for teeth and hair, for example, are limited in this area, the Skin/Material option can give the figure a distinctive look. The three African, Asian, and Caucasian types include a large selection of skin colors for female and male figures that can render the character more realistic than with the generic texture.

Preparing and Rendering Animations

MakeHuman doesn't have its own animation function; however, because of its excellent integration with the Blender 3D software, this is handled in MakeHuman through a special tool called MakeWalk . In the Pose/Animate menu, you'll find a single function to prepare your figure for export to Blender. You thereby supply the figure with certain motor skills that become the attachment points in the animation program used or for a particular presentation in the 3D program.

The Rendering menu provides a preview of the model so far. It gives you an impression of what you might still need to fix on the figure in MakeHuman, but it's not at all comparable to a full rendering.

Settings and Utilities

In the settings, you can set localization, but you have to restart the system after making changes so that the menus and comments stay in the localized language. You can make other MakeHuman interface appearance changes. By default, MakeHuman uses the dark (gray) interface common in the media. If desired, you can change this setting in the operating system to a lighter presentation that is closer to a desktop environment. Other settings control the look of sliders and other interface elements.

The Utilities can also be described as logging and debugging tools. There, you'll find information on loading plugins, notifications, errors, and warning messages.

Blender on the Outside

MakeHuman is closely integrated with Blender. Blender is used to extend MakeHuman functionality and for animating the figure (Figure 6). These extensions can be downloaded from the MakeHuman webpage. Move the unzipped files into the proper directory in the Blender installation:

/home/$user/.blender/$version/scripts/addons

The extensions are then integrated in the corresponding Blender menus.

Figure 6: Integrating with Blender provides comprehensive design enhancements and sophisticated animation options.

Apart from the MakeWalk plugin for animating the MakeHuman figure, there's also MakeClothes for further clothing design. Generally, this process works without the plugin, but MakeClothes helps make better clothing fittings and provides basic form functions necessary for the clothes to look aesthetically pleasing and to move well with the animated figure.

Another tool is MakeTarget, which lets you apply polygonal meshes in Blender for morphing detail-based forms, such as noses and ears, in addition to the ones made in MakeHuman.

With the MHX Importer, you prepare the MakeHuman files for export to Blender. Because of their common Python base, the exchange between MakeHuman and Blender is more comprehensive than between standard transfer formats. The integration provides more possibilities and makes things easier for users.

Models for Everyone

With MakeHuman even beginners can quickly create human-like models for further processing in 3D or 2D programs. Only a few settings are needed to determine basic human features. Sliders are designed not to exceed realistic values; you won't be able to create Hulk-like figures or faces with noses like that of Pinocchio, for example. MakeHuman's strengths complement those of Blender, which works in both directions.

In MakeHuman, you can create basic structures and clothing, and the models are exported to Blender to bring them to life. Unfortunately, the project download pages don't provide enough options – only a few clothing possibilities and one figure model – which is unusual for an open source project. Apparently MakeHuman needs to make more of a name for itself, so more people collaborate in making more options. We are happy to help.