Transferrable between styles virtual identity systems and methods

An apparatus for switching a three-dimensional (3D) asset between art styles, comprising:

• memory to store an initial 3D asset;
• and
• one or more processing units configured to:
• receive a selected art style from a user interface, wherein the selected art style is one of a plurality of art styles, wherein each of the plurality of art styles corresponds to different style deformations comprising a set of visual shapes, materials, and shaders to be used to form the initial 3D asset, wherein the visual shapes, the materials, and the shaders are defined by an artist of the selected art style, and wherein each of the plurality of art styles are visually incongruent;
• determine identifying characteristics of the initial 3D asset;
• remove the identifying characteristics from the initial 3D asset to return the initial 3D asset to a base figure, wherein the identifying characteristics are characteristics chosen by a user when creating the initial 3D asset;
• receive style deformations corresponding to the selected art style;
• apply the style deformations corresponding to the selected art style to the base figure to form a new 3D asset based on the selected style, wherein the style deformations corresponding to the selected art style comprise one or more of a corresponding visual shape, a corresponding material, and a corresponding shader to be used to form the new 3D asset to visually fit the new 3D asset with the selected art style, wherein the new 3D asset is visually incongruent with a non-selected art style of the plurality of art styles;
• apply the identifying characteristics to the new 3D asset based on the selected style;
• determine whether the selected art style includes an override deformation for at least one of the identifying characteristics;
• if the selected art style includes the override deformation for the at least one of the identifying characteristics, applying the override deformation for the at least one of the identifying characteristics;
• and
• if the selected art style does not include the override deformation for the at least one of the identifying characteristics, applying a standard deformation for the at least one of the identifying characteristics.

A method for defining an artistic style of a three-dimensional (3D) asset, comprising:

• receiving an initial base figure of the 3D asset;
• receiving a selected art style from a user interface, wherein the selected art style is one of a plurality of art styles, wherein each art style corresponds to different style deformations comprising a combination of visual shapes, materials, and shaders to be used to form the 3D asset, wherein the visual shapes, the materials, and the shaders are defined by an artist of the selected art style, wherein each of the plurality of art styles are visually incongruent;
• modifying the initial base figure based on the artistic style to form a modified base figure, wherein the artistic style defines style deformations corresponding to the selected art style comprising one or more of a corresponding visual shape, a corresponding material, and a corresponding shader to be used to form the 3D asset to visually fit the 3D asset with the selected art style, wherein the 3D asset is visually incongruent with a non-selected art style of the plurality of art styles;
• receiving standard deformations of identifying characteristics for the initial base figure, wherein the standard deformations of the identifying characteristics are deformations chosen by a user;
• modifying at least a portion of the standard deformations of the identifying characteristics to override the portion of the standard deformations based on the artistic style and the identifying characteristics;
• and
• importing the modified base figure and the overridden portion of the standard deformations into an artistic tools engine.