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Adobe announces the end of Fuse CC

Ahh…, Fusette 2015. Nothing free lasts forever.

Adobe has announced the sign-off date for Mixamo’s figure creation software Fuse. It will be pulled from their Creative Cloud service at the end of summer, 2020.

in an official Adobe blog post, Mixamo’s own Jeanette Mathews announced:

“We have tried to keep Fuse available as long as possible, but, unfortunately, it will soon stop working on the newest Mac OS (10.15), once it releases later this year, due to incompatible technology components. You will continue to be able to use Fuse on older Mac operating systems or on Windows for the next year. Fuse will be removed from Creative Cloud and will no longer be available for download starting on September 13, 2020.”

https://theblog.adobe.com/an-update-on-adobe-fuse-as-adobe-moves-to-the-future-of-3d-ar-development/

Adobe acquired Mixamo in 2015, but were cagey about their 3D ambitions. At the time they announced that Fuse would be worked into a Photoshop plugin, but later revealed they wanted the Mixamo team for software that would become Adobe Dimension, a user-friendly 3D program for graphic designers. Fans of Mixamo were devastated as Adobe slowly unvealed changes to the online Auto-rigger that ended support for Unreal Engine and cut off older versions of Fuse from easy rigging and blendshapes.

Adobe recently acquired Allegorithmic creators of Substance, and have announced plans for an AR art tool. It’s interesting to note, the announcement suggests the Mixamo Auto-rigger will still be available, possibly in connection with their online marketplace.

Fuse will work without being connected to the Creative Cloud – as defiant users of Mixamo Fuse already know. The figures can be morphed and textured within the program and exported as OBJ, serving as a base mesh for workflows outside of Mixamo.

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Script for importing Adobe Fuse character model into Unity (fixes materials)

A common beginner’s complaint in the Fuse forums is the confusion of how to set up Unity’s Standard Shader to interpret alpha channels. The Standard Shader has four opacity modes: Opaque, Cutout, Fade, and Transparent. Unity detects the alpha channel in the Fuse textures and defaults to transparent – appropriate for glasses but not hair or eyelashes.

Saulth created a script to simplify the import workflow of Adobe (Mixamo) Fuse CC figures in Unity. In addition to fixing the opacity issues, the script will also:

  • Set shader render modes correctly per material
  • Create new materials for Eyes and Eyelashes
  • Correct the MetallicAndSmoothness map (has inverted alpha)
  • Set texture import settings correctly (alpha channel, normal maps)
  • Set smoothness per material to roughly match visuals in Adobe Fuse CC (beta)
  • Create prefab ready for easy use

Download the script from the Unity Forums:
Script for importing Adobe Fuse character model into Unity (fixes materials)