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MB-Lab: the free and open source character editor for Blender

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MB-Lab is an advanced addon that turns Blender in a powerful laboratory for humanoid characters creation. 100% Open Source and Free.

BLENDER 4.0

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MB-Lab is based off the now discontinued ManuelBastioniLAB. It has been developed by a community of programmers and artists to be used in the next generation of Blender.

MB-Lab 1.8.0 IS RELEASED

The lab is based on the 18 years experience gained during the realization of various 3d graphics projects and collects algorithms, prototypes and python scripts developed by Manuel Bastioni and donated to the world under Open Source license.

Usability

With few clicks in Blender now you can

  • create human characters.
  • set the phenotypes.
  • modify physical parameters.
  • assign expression.
  • choose the pose.

100% parametric

  • Hundreds of moprhing parameters.
  • Skin editor that automatically creates the displacement maps according to the character meta parameters (muscle, tone and age values).
  • Fuzzy logic algorithm for interpolation permits to mix the parameters in real-time.
  • Automatic generation of random characters:with special constrains, to allow the possibility to keep constant the characters heritage.
  • Algorithm to modify and finish the morphing in order to fit the expressions to the face shape.

Not only humans!

  • The lab is not only a tool to create photo-realistic characters. It can also generate a variety of special characters, like anime, elves and more.

Ready for animation

  • Standard skeleton and a well tested rigging, developed in order to match most of external applications and motion capture files.
  • Auto fitting of skeleton.
  • Basic muscle system designed with the standard Blender bending bones, so that finalized characters can work even without the lab.
  • Inverse kinematic

Professional topology

  • Complete mesh with teeth, tongue, eyelashes, gum, and eyes as part of main mesh in order to morph them and easily export them in external software, without dealing with fitting/compatibility issues.
  • Optimized topology for subdivision surface and sculpting.

Anthropological phenotypes library

The lab provides a library of preset that covers the most common human phenotypes.

  • Caucasian: Central European, Afrocaucasian, East European, North European, Euromediterranean, Euroartic, North West European, West Asian.

  • Asian: Central Asian, North Asian, East Asian, South Asian, Central American, North American.

  • Afro: Afromediterranean, Afroasian, Aboriginal, African.

Advanced shaders

  • Supports Cycles and EEVEE
  • Procedural Eyeball shaders for Realistic Models (NEW)
  • Shaders for skin, teeth and tongue (New)
  • Texture maps for SSS, Roughness, Specular, Bump and Displacement
  • Cell shader for Anime models
  • Basic hair for human and anime, with advanced parametric shader.

Assets

  • Load new clothing and polygon hair onto MB-Lab characters
  • Proxy fitting to automatically fit with one-click clothes to the characters and their poses, without needing of vertgroups, weights or skeleton.

Experimental features

  • Automodelling system to create characters starting from a 3d draft. The user just provides a very rough model of what he has in mind, and the system automatically turns it in a realistic and coherent character.
  • Measure system to create a character just giving the body measures. Currently it supports 33 "classic" dimensions, as used in the most of anthropometric studies and researches.

Utilities and animation tools

  • Retarget system to load and automatically retarget most common bvh files.
  • Expression mixer to mix and animate face expressions.