# VraserX v3 character upgrade

This is a locally authored 3D reinterpretation of the user-supplied portrait, built on the existing VraserX skinned anatomical character. A single portrait cannot establish exact hidden facial/head geometry; this is a visual likeness approximation, not a scan or exact reconstruction.

No paid services, new external downloads, remote reconstruction providers, or new generated photographic textures were used. The prior source model's packed skin and floral textures are retained. The attached portrait was used as the visual reference for the new silhouette, materials, and sculpt.

## New authored work

- A physically modeled asymmetric ringlet groom replacing the former sparse outer curls. Individual curled clumps are followed by narrower companion strands and small tapered flyaways. Longer tresses fall below the shoulder on the reference's fuller side. The exposed legacy hair cards are removed; an anatomical close-fitting dark scalp sits beneath the new groom.
- Higher surface density with local lip, cheek, nose and jaw sculpt changes, plus a subtle smile.
- Individually modeled arched brow hairs and upper eyelashes; refined eye surfaces and brown iris material.
- Finer pink/white floral UV scale, small gathered fabric folds, denser cloth and sleeve topology.
- Warmer skin shading, restrained subsurface scattering, dark espresso/chestnut hair tones and fabric sheen.
- Four-joint maximum, normalized weights, same 61-joint hierarchy and Idle/Walk/Run animation contract.

The authoring scene uses Z up / forward -Y. The GLBs export Y up / forward +Z. All mesh positions and the skeleton are normalized together to a measured 1.76 metre rest height. See `character_v3_validation.json` for actual exported geometry, weights, bounds, filesizes, animation clips, and inverse-bind checks.

## Licensing and credit

See [base character credits](VRASERX_HIGH_PROVENANCE.md) for the retained source licenses and URLs. Keep the existing attribution in game credits/settings:

> Curly hair base by Elvaerwyn (MakeHuman Community), CC-BY. Adapted for VraserX.

Attribution link: https://static.makehumancommunity.org/assets/assetpacks/hair02.html

The original MakeHuman anatomical body, rig, skin and dress are CC0 as described in the base provenance. The new groom, detail meshes and sculpt are original work for this user-authorized project.

## Outputs and reproduction

- `vraserx-ultra-v3.glb` — higher-detail skinned game asset.
- `vraserx-lod-v3.glb` — separately decimated fast asset with the same rig/clip names.
- `vraserx-ultra-v3.blend` — editable source with packed images.
- `build_v3.py` — scripted authoring operations from the existing vraserx-high.blend.
- `render_v3.py` — CPU Cycles previews of the saved actual geometry.
- `validate_glb.py` — direct binary glTF validation.

Python 3.11, Blender bpy 5.0.1 and the existing MakeHuman-derived source were used. Source scripts resolve the installed cached bpy environment used in this workspace; on another machine, use a matching bpy environment and adjust the input source path as required.


Reproduction order: run `build_v3.py`, `finalize_v3.py`, `finish_cloth.py`, `finish_crown.py`, then `validate_glb.py` and `render_v3.py`. The final authoring passes clean the crown/cloth boundaries and repair the decimated fine-strand meshes. `portable_materials.py` expresses the matching warm skin tint with the standard glTF baseColorFactor. It modifies no texture pixels or binary geometry buffers.