Virtual Human Project (VHP) - Version 0.2.1 (Beta)

05/10/2025
Contact: Geoffrey Gorisse, PhD, geoffrey.gorisse@gmail.com

The Virtual Human Project (VHP) offers developers an optimized, scalable, and easy-to-integrate package to procedurally animate realistic virtual humans in Unity.

Toolkit Features Overview

Blend Shapes Preset Editor: Universal Unity editor extension for multi-mesh blend shapes.
Blend Shapes Mapper: Scriptable object to save blend shapes presets.
Procedural Emotions: Controls for emotions such as anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise.
Gaze Modes: Offers multiple gaze behaviors, including static, random, scripted and probabilistic.
Eye Micro-saccades & Blinking: Realistic eye movements and blinking features.
Lip Synchronization: Supports real-time lip-sync based on microphone input, as well as pre-recorded audio tracks.
Dynamic Blend Shape Transition: Smooth transitions using event-based system for optimized performance.
Demo Scene: High-quality characters and HD rendering presets for showcasing features.

Watch the videos:
Virtual Human Project | Procedural Emotions, Gaze and Lip Sync
Virtual Human Project | Lip Sync Update

Blend Shapes Preset Editor

Unity Editor Extension: Tool for managing and editing blend shapes presets in the Unity Editor.
Automatic Retrieval of Multi-Mesh Blend Shapes: Detects skinned mesh renderers with blend shapes.
Facial Expression Editing: Select and modify various facial expressions.
Preset Saving: Store blend shape values in scriptable objects with overwrite protection.
Preset Loading: Load and edit previously saved presets.
Reset Function: Reinitialize characters' blend shapes to their default state.

Manager Features

Blend Shapes Preset Management: Easily manage and apply blend shape presets for characters.
Custom GUI Editor: Add and configure procedural controllers (emotions, gaze and lip sync).
Prioritization & Filtering: Manage overlapping blend shape modifications with priority handling for emotions, gaze, and lip synchronization.
Smooth Transitions: Event-based system for smooth, optimized blend shape transitions.

Emotions Features

Dynamic Emotion Loading: Load and manage blend shapes for various emotions.
Procedural Emotion Control: Manage emotions such as anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise.
Mutually Exclusive Modifications: Emotion-based blend shape changes that don’t conflict with each other.

Gaze Features

Dynamic Gaze Blend Shapes: Load and adjust blend shapes based on gaze direction.
Configurable Eye Settings: Adjust eye behaviors to fit different character templates.
Gaze Orientation Strategies: Different models to control gaze behavior.
- Static: Fixed gaze direction based on character's forward axis.
- Random: Randomized gaze orientation with variable frequency.
- Scripted: Gaze focused on a predefined target position.
- Probabilistic: Gaze statistical ponderation based on distance, sound proximity and volume, and movement velocity.
Inverse Kinematics (IK): Agent mode to control upper body movements with IK and non linear smooth transitions.
Micro-saccades: Add subtle, realistic eye movements.
Blinking: Adjustable blinking frequency, blending with other blend shapes.

Probabilistic Gaze Configurator Features

Editor Tool: Unity editor extension for probabilistic gaze behavior.
Target Selection Tool: Quickly select potential gaze targets within the scene.
Instantiating Multiple Targets: Instantiate multiple targets, avoiding duplication, and automatically scale them in the scene.
Target Removal: Safely remove existing target prefabs from the scene.

Lip Synchronization Features

Oculus Audio SDK Integration: Real-time lip sync based on microphone input and pre-recorded audio tracks.
Viseme Intensity Processing: Maps viseme intensities to corresponding blend shapes.
Real-Time Lip Sync: Synch lip movements in real time with microphone input.
Pre-recorded Lip Sync: Sync lip movements with pre-recorded audio clips.

Demo Scene Content

High-Quality Male & Female Characters: Fully rigged characters from Character Creator with high-quality textures including detail map and subsurface scattering.
Demo Manager: A demo manager script to test and visualize the toolkit’s features in the provided scene.
3D Gaze Targets: Includes static, dynamic, and sound-based targets for testing gaze behaviors.
HDRP Presets: Sky, fog, and post-processing volume presets optimized for high-quality rendering.
Lighting: 3-point lighting configuration for the demo scene.

Installation & Setup

Clone the repository or download the latest release from GitHub.
Open the project in Unity (recommended Unity version: 2020.3 or higher).
Follow the setup guide in the documentation to get started with the demo scene and begin using the VHP features.

License

This project is licensed under the GNU GPLv3. For commercial projects requiring a proprietary license or specific usage conditions, dual licensing is available.
For inquiries regarding a commercial license, please contact Geoffrey Gorisse, PhD at geoffrey.gorisse@gmail.com.

VHProject

Install / Use

README