Hi Creators,
We know building avatars from scratch can be time-consuming. After modeling your avatar, setting it up in Studio can take days of tedious work. While avatars are a key part of self-expression on Roblox, creating them is a difficult process.
That’s why we’re launching the alpha for Avatar Auto Setup, a game-changer for avatar creation. Starting today, you can automatically rig, cage, segment, and skin your 3D models with the click of a button, and it happens in just a few minutes, eliminating hours of manual work!
Avatar Auto Setup is powered by AI, and our model uses a Roblox-created dataset consisting of hundreds of different body shapes and styles.
Get Started
First, create your avatar as a single mesh body model in a DCC (digital content creation) tool like Blender or Maya.
Then upload your mesh to Roblox Studio and run Avatar Auto Setup. Avatar Auto Setup will automatically rig, cage, segment, and skin the avatar in minutes, making it ready to preview and eventually publish. You can spend less time on technical platform requirements and more time creating avatars. Avatar Auto Setup will do the following:
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Rigging - Adds an R15 rig to your model to enable movement and animation.
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Skinning - Adds weights to various surfaces of your mesh for natural movement.
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Facial animation - Generates the FACS (Facial Action Coding System) poses, facial rigging, skinning, and animation data required for facial animation and avatar chat.
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Caging - Adds the outer cage mesh to your avatar, enabling it to wear layered accessories.
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Partitioning - Separates the single body mesh into the appropriate R15 parts.
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Creating attachments - Adds the appropriate attachment points enabling the character to wear rigid accessories.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to importing and running Auto Setup:
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Use the 3D Importer under the Avatar tab to import .gltf, .fbx, or .obj models if you are exporting your model from a third-party tool. See 3D Importer for additional information.
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Select Import to add the Model instance into your workspace.
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With the Model selected, navigate to the Avatar tab and select Avatar Setup.
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In the Avatar Setup panel, click the blue Setup Up Avatar button.
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Once complete, a Model of your avatar populates in your workspace.
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Review any warnings or errors if you intend to upload to Marketplace (this is not required for in-experience avatars). You may need to readjust your mesh in third-party modeling software, import the model and run auto setup again to resolve some issues.
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Common fixes you may need to make with external software include:
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Increasing/decreasing the size of the avatar mesh.
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Reducing the poly count if you’re exceeding the maximum.
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Use the various auto setup tools to verify the components of your avatar before saving the Model to your Toolbox.
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Please note: To prevent uploading an incomplete asset to the Roblox servers, disable the Upload to Roblox option in the 3D Importer to only add the character mesh locally before using Avatar Auto Setup. To save time in the future, you can save this import profile using the … dropdown in the top right of the 3D importer window.
Running Avatar Auto Setup
How can I get access to the alpha?
You can access the alpha by signing up here. You MUST use an alternate account when signing up, as this account will be tied to a non-production build of Studio and out of sync with any recent bug fixes and feature releases. This Studio build will disable publishing, as this ability will not be included in the alpha. We will be accepting new users on a rolling basis.
There will be an opportunity to provide feedback within the alpha via the pictured form, so please share your experience with us; it helps us improve the tool quicker!
Which avatars work best with Avatar Auto Setup?
Right now, Avatar Auto Setup works best on humanoid shapes (two arms, two legs, a torso, and a head) without accessories built into the model. As the tool progresses and the technology improves, it will work on more avatars and avatar items. Learn more about our additional requirements here.
How is Roblox training the AI model for Avatar Auto Setup?
Our auto setup model is currently trained on Roblox-created avatars – not community data. In the future, creators will be able to include their creations in our training datasets to help us improve our auto setup AI models, but not at this time.
FAQ / Known Issues
Why is my imported mesh rejected?
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Your avatar may be rejected for several reasons. First, make sure your avatar has modesty layers and follows our policies.
If you wish to submit an appeal, please do so here. We will work to resolve your issue as quickly as possible.
Why doesn’t my avatar look the way I wanted it to?
- Sometimes, Avatar Auto Setup produces artifacts in the geometry of the avatar that are not intended. This is an alpha release, so the tool is still improving. Please report this in our alpha feedback form so we can address any issues you experience.
Will participating in the alpha impact my existing creations on Studio?
- Not if you use an alternate account to sign up for the alpha. Creators just need to logout of their primary account and into their alternate to access this alpha testing.
Can I toggle off parts of Auto Setup (i.e. turn off rigging so I can do it manually instead)?
- For the alpha, Avatar Auto Setup won’t have an option to toggle off parts of the tools. For full launch, we will explore having this option. Please provide your input via the feedback form if you have feature suggestions like this.
Next Steps
We’re constantly working to improve this tool— please provide your thoughts through our feedback form so we can improve Avatar Auto Setup and add any additional tooling needed.
Happy creating!
