Office avatars
Lead: Toolbar B is built and waiting for your merge go-ahead. The faces and hair need a new character base, not more patches. Pick a direction and I will build one test character in it, inside the real facility.
What is wrong now
The cause is the base itself. MakeHuman gives stiff faces and flat skin. Its locs are flat textured strips, so they read as a dark block. Small fixes would leave both problems in place.
Three directions
| Direction | Look | Locs | Size per person | Cost and ownership |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 House toon (recommended) | Stylized, matches Gizzi and the comic sheets | Modeled rope geometry with a twist, swings when walking | about 1–2 MB | Artist time only. We own all of it |
| 2 Stylized-real | Our current controls, with a new sculpted head and softer skin | Same modeled rope locs | about 3 MB | Artist time only. We own all of it |
| 3 Photoreal (Character Creator 5) | Closest to a real person | Card hair. Good locs packs not confirmed | about 5–15 MB | About $329 to $479. Web use license not confirmed |
Why direction 1
Toon avoids the uncanny face
A stylized face is not judged against real skin, so it does not look off. It also matches Gizzi and the bots already in the facility.
- Locs
- each loc is its own rope, so no transparency glitches. Light enough for iPhone
- Clips
- our current walk, run and idle animations keep working
- Creator
- body, face and hair choices stay, with a cleaner picker without pill rows
- Ruled out
- MetaHuman (built for Unreal, too heavy for the web) and Ready Player Me (shut down in 2026)