What??? I've pay 170 REAIS last week and now is 70??? WHATTT?????? I DEMAND A FREE EXPANSION

This seems to be Fuse Basic... and the Maximo side of things is way too expensive. I wanted to buy an Action Animation Pack, and it was close to the price of purchasing the full royalty free versions of Daz3D (which has a $100 game character export plugin for sale).

I am a bit disappointed with this new business model... that charges you for software, and then essentially charges you to continue using it.

Extremely disappointed purchase. In fact you get the opportunity to create a very primitive model of several parts. The number of parts is very limited. You cann't be using some form of motion, or even be change the pose. Button animation actually does not allow to change the character posture, and sends you to a website where you can buy some animation.
For example walking,+ jumping,+ turning cost you 350 dollars. I'm not kidding, more than three hundred dollars for simple movements!
Many games such as MMOs, give you much more room for customization of a character at a much lower price.

UPDATE: The Fuse team are to be commended for listening to and addressing the criticism and issues which users have had with their product - the latest update addresses one of the biggest problems I've had with Fuse...

I can now alter the parameters of the base models to correct the proportions and distortions. This could be a game changer. It's still a shame that the base models aren't better but at least they are now usable thanks to being fully adjustable.

I'll spend the next couple of weeks testing fuse in my character creation workflow (swapping out DAZ3D). Then I'll decide if I can recommend this product to others.


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Original Review
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Fuse.

I could forgive the lack of features.
I would forgive the shortage of variation.
I should even forgive the way that the pointless TF2 content gets in the way of what little other content there is.

I won't, however, forgive the fact that the base models are not properly proportioned, or that it's not possible to scale them to the correct proportions (properly, in detail, not using centred scaling on the elbow).

I won't work with the torso of a human when it's only possible to attach the arms of a gibbon with the hands of Andre the Giant glued on the end of them. These base meshes are seriously poor quality and render the software practically useless far beyond its lack of features.

I thought Fuse could/should/would speed up my character creation workflow in conjunction with the fast Mixamo rigger and the excellent, fit for purpose, Manga Studio 5. It can't.

As for the exported texture quality... think about crayons and a low res scanner.

For me, at least, it was a tax deductible purchase and I didn't pay full price.

If this is a work in progress then it should be clearly marked as 'early access'. I won't be using Fuse again unless the default models are brought up to scratch.

First thing first: I have purchased this software on sale; but my review is based on the full price, to be honest and fair.

What this software does? It allow you to create from scratch, a character that can be either animated by you, by someone else, or from Mixamo itself. Their pipeline is well established, and they offer quite a good service, if you look at the point of view of the indie studio. Now indie doesn't mean "the lonely guy in the basement, with 100 bucks in his pocket"; Indie nowadays means a group of people with some cash to start with; that has a plan or a kickstarter, so the prices of course are adjusted for that audience (their cost per credit is quite high; animations cost between 10 and 50 dollars, and their all acess is a good deal if you have at least a thousands to invest).

But back to the product; I mentioned Mixamo services, since the software is very tied to their service, altho it is a standalone, you may want to consider the fact that they planned this software to be complemented by their service.

How does it work as stand alone character creation? Well, not so good.

The first limitation is due the nature of the application itself: if you offer cookie cut templates, there is only so much that you can achieve. The new version offer somehow a customization array of parameters, but mostly they don't really work as you would imagine. Take any character creation in your favorite MMORPG game, and try to see how many different characters you may get (including the random feature or just tweaking the parameters by hand), and forget about it in Fuse.

You can achieve few different characters (face wise), even modifying the ton of various blendshape added to the mesh; I am not sure how you can achieve characters like the ones that they show in their promo pictures, because most of the time, they all look the same (unless you go for deformed/stylized characters, where the shape of the head and face may be more important).

You have the capability to import your characters and clothes (which require to be fitiing specific requirements described on their site, to be fully compatible), but then you end up with a sort of lego where you mix your content, with alternate fortune.

But not all of it is bad; the software is solid in creating the generic guy/girl, and has a decent amount of variations for clothes and hair (hopefully there will be more soon). The substance implementation is quite the deal, to swap quickly clothes and give variety; altho this works if you need generic characters to populate a background. I believe that what Fuse does best is to be a crowd generator, more than a character generator (altho MakeHuman doesn't get any better, but at least is free).

The app is stable so far; had no crash or issues with exporting and importing, except few times where the textures were disabled, and I had to go back and forth between the various texture areas to get them working again. The output files are clean and import fine in Unity, with or without the auto rig offered by Mixamo.

Overall, I would recommend this software, but barely. If you find it on sale, get it, because is a good deal, but at full price, I would rather use MakeHuman. To me this is a 3 out of 5.

It is a really valid software, that cover one aspect of game character development, but it fall short to deliver the full experience, and it is sad, because it has a lot of potential and is really nicely done. I hope the future version will get closer to give the user a one stop solution to make either crowd characters or main characters.

If I need to make a cast of characters for a Final Fantasy game; I would like to say "let me grab Fuse, it does all that I need"; import my custom clothes, generate unique characters and export them.


Suggestions:

1) the random button should create characters variation, not just scramble the sliders with random values; I can put my 4 years old doing that; while would be more useful to actually have a function that create heuristically, characters that are usable (you can add flags to specify if the character has to be human, alien, cartoonish and so on, to make things easier on your side).

2) More variety with the morphs, instead of quantity; they often are exagerations of normal human features; while in a face, you can see that the differences are much subtle. On this, MakeHuman create more realistic characters, even without the plethora of textures that Fuse has.

3) Make possible to save as template, the characters that you make. For example; I may want to make a character and save just the head as template, and make different bodies, instead than start all over from the default and change all the values. You can also re-import the figure and filter just the head, but it is cumbersome and not really user friendly....the character is there, ready, why close and import it again, instead of just save it as template?

4) Clothes import: would be interesting to have something like DAZ does, with their conforming clothes that adapt to any figure; or like Poser Pro that is able to adapt a piece of clothes for any figure. A system like this would add a lot to Fuse; allowing users to import clothes geometry from anywhere, and just adapt it to the model, without having to modify them.

I am very disappointed. The game* offers limited selections in models (or pieces of them), and the texture system is basic without buying an addon. Then, when you want to animate your character, you get ported to the Mixamo website. They provide a free (Provided you only ever use it twice) autorigger, which assembles a skeleton for your model. However, the animations are separate entirely. You can pay big sums to get the full scope of the software.

The software is not worth what you pay, and it's incredibly limited. Sure, you get easy character modelling, but don't be a sucker. The software is just an expensive (at least for recreational users) extension of Mixamo's actual animation and rigging website, where you can pay over a thousand dollars for full access.

EDIT: I think the primary purpose of a review is to give my opinion of the product I purchased. My expectations may or may not match someone else's, and it's ultimately their decision whether or not they should buy this application (Thanks for calling me a smartass and inquiring as to whether or not I was autistic. I appreciate your mature conduct). In order to inform someone best of what is being sold, I'll give you the numbers.

Body Parts Total: 66
Torso Pieces: 15
Arm Pieces: 15
Leg pieces: 15
Head Pieces: 21

Total Clothing Parts: 86
Bottoms/Pants: 19
Hair: 10
Hats: 6
Shoes: 17
Tops/Shirts: 27
Eyewear: 7

(Minor edit: My numbers may not be completely accurate by the time you read this, and I counted by thumb)

The clothing is fairly average; You get basic button up shirts, a few different jeans, but nothing too exciting. The distinct lack of hats is something I'd note; You don't get anything like motorcycle helmets, beanies, or other restrictive headgear that might clip with the head model.

Also, the facial customization is fairly limited, especially when you consider how in depth facial adjustments get in almost every videogame that allows it (APB: Reloaded, Skyrim, Saints Row, all of which have different developers). You can change a character's beard, eye color and diameter, eyebrows, and eyelashes. Fuse does not include advanced adjustment of the mouth, ears, nose, or head definition.

Also, I'd appreciate it if the developer would stop asking me to change my review. It's immature- The fact of the matter is that a review exists to provide insight to someone considering purchasing this product. If your software was geared to a more recreational and cheaper market, then you shouldn't have an "All Access" function on your website which costs $1,499 per year- Which gets you access to "Premium Mixamo content" for Fuse. While smaller microtransactions are available for purchasing animations, auto-rigging uses, and alternate 3D characters, the average customer is still not entitled to Mixamo's best customer support. Their "All Access" function boasts unlimited access to different things, but also "Premium Support". I understand you place your customers who pay more higher on your list of priorities, but should any paying customer really only be allowed to use the forum? It's alienating your more casual users who have also paid for your product.

The good news is that everything is royalty free, even for commercial use. Hopefully as the free content base expands, the overall quality and variance between the characters you can create will expand too.
(Minor edit here too: As I've been told, the Team Fortress 2 components are not covered under the royalty-free guarantee. This is understandable, though)

In the end, this review is not senseless hate. It is my opinion, and the very fact that I must defend my stance against two different developers and a rather feisty supporter is a serious issue that Mixamo's team should address. Don't use my review for "Does this guy like it? No? I won't buy it!" but instead see it as "This guy doesn't like it? Why?" I think the architecture is there, but the current content is far too plain and lackluster. I'll update my review as new packs come available - The free ones, that is.

EDIT: I've reviewed the Fuse product page and appreciate the changes made since previous edits. They are now up front about the amount of components available and the presence of a paid service. I have not used the software recently, but please note the developer is still adding content.

EDIT: I should have waited to update my review. I guess my review is "belying" according a clearly biased article by CinemaBlend. I'm sort of angry they made a backhanded comment about my review, but I'll let it by. The article also says my review was written back in January, which is only partially true. I left my original opinion untouched and updated my review in the form of edits, even over the last few months.

EDIT: This will probably be one of my last. I've not checked any updates in awhile, and because of this my review may have fallen out of date. Please do not bash the developers - they are doing all they can to make sure they succeed. I don't think they've explicitly attacked my review, and although this review may be a thorn in their side, I did not write it to ruin them. I have no intention of making this software fail - it has potential. But I cannot deny the shifty behavior with PR, and it is something MIxamo should address.