Noted: RL marketed their stuff at Daz store and promoted iClone at ZbrushCentral. So here I am, a hybrid user with iClone + Zbrush + Daz experience. Since I moved on from iClone5, I've climbed the mountain of Zbrush. I can now make my own shoes and hair. The UI-mess called Daz3D is now relegated to basic bone posing and animation.

So why am I still here? What would an average Zbrusher want from iClone?

Definitely not the "bonus" Indigo. Zbrush has its own under-used advanced enough rendering system for any discerning still shot artists. Upcoming 4R7 will offer one-click Keyshot integration too. Hunger for sexy real time lighting/shadow/material update? UE4 has dynamic GI and PBR and especially straight forward model import all much discussed here apparently. The market does not crave yet another beauty-shot render middleware, unless it can do equal quality animation render, fast.

A lot of new features that iClone6 is offering, Daz3d has had them for years, albeit in a poorly documented and disorganized state. No doubt iClone has cleaner UI and physics. But Daz3D has subD, 3dconnexion and GoZ. For non-real-time rendering, Daz users have a whole bunch of choices, from 3Delight to Uber to Advanced render solutions, proper particle systems, for BOTH stills and animations. So what can iClone6 offer Daz users beyond better keyframing and twirling skirts?

RT puppeteering with your left click in 6 directions? After tedious amount of time and energy using a separate tool to import and painstakingly assign morphs and poses into yet another tool that you have to pay for separately? Sounds like fun.

What is left void in this market, is a solid character animation suite with Daz quality avatar + intuitive custom morph + one click wardrobe/hair/prop importation + 2012-era game-quality dynamic reflection/shadow/ao + native PBR + solid documentation

Will iClone6 fulfill that market void?

-Daz quality avatar. With tessellation... Yes. Not filling a void per se (Daz Genesis1+2 remain relevant) but achieving iClone's own milestone.
-Easy custom morph import. No GoZ. 3DX remains a HUGE pain. So no or maybe (will know Q1 2015)
-One click wardrobe/hair/prop importation. No GoZ. 3DX remains a HUGE pain. So no, or maybe (will know Q1 2015)
-PBR. Still unclear if it's real PBR or tied to Indigo or limited to Substance license, which means it's probably non-applicable for RT anim render. If so a dated feature among peers and a gimmick.
-2012 gen game quality Dynamic RT render for animation. Related to above. No sign of dynamic bounced light or transparency or mirrors in promo vids. Unknown.
-Solid Documentation. As is, returnees like me are bombarded by sales and promos of product packages that failed to elaborate which version won't/work with which suite and whatever whatever just buy them all. If I was new to the RL system I'd just take note of the packaging-over-substance mindset and move on. Serious overhaul and a new global product guide and manual are urgently needed.

Volumetric particles will be nice, but the above basics should do. Thanks for listening.


  >>> Indie Generalist modeler-rigger-animator <<< Hardware: AlienWare i7-HK 32G GTX1080 2T-SSDs BenqSW320 Wacom-Intuous 3Dconnexion ||| Software: IC6 Pipeline - CTA3 Pipeline - ATK2 - Indigo ||| Zbrush4R8. Blender 2.79. DazStudio 4.9. Carrara. Poser. Octane.