Well, being my first post here, I hope I'm putting it in the right forum.

I've worked with creating some "short film" programs using the Auto-CAD 3D program, but it isn't anywhere as easy as iClone is! I've currently downloaded, and and trying, the trial version. (No offense meant, but I won't purchase it until I'm sure it will work for what I need.)

Currently I am working on a project for a family campground that wants to use a 3D introduction on their website. The setting is outdoors, with several campers and a few cabins in the background. That's a simple thing to do. There's a pool where people are milling about and swimming, including children. A playground, hiking trails, and so on are to be included.

All said and done it will be about 5 minutes of animation and voice "talk over" for the project.

However I became frustrated at the problems I was having with the trasitions between scenes. They weren't as smooth as I'd like, actually jumpping from one scene to the other, then back to the fade out and back to the new scene again.

Thus leading me to a search for a new program to help with editing and recording the "movie" for this project. However I've run into a bit of a problem.

All of the charaters I've created for this are in .acd format. I've converted a few to .obj format, but they look very....how do I put it?...cartoonish. Not at all like they should for the film, or as they do in the Auto-CAD program.

In searching your site I found the 3DXchange program and downloaded the trial version of it. The one thing that I'm not able to do is place my charaters in the selections. I have 78 charaters I need to use for this, all in various states of movement or activity, but not one of them is usable with iClone.

So my question is why?

My second question is: Is there a program/upgrade that will allow for what I've recorded/created to be moved to the iClone files?

I will admidt that iClone is, by far, a much better program for making the movies, but I am seeing some major limitations with it.

If I am unable to move the charaters over, are there other charaters availible for me to use?

What formats will iClone support, aside from the .vns? The xchange seems limited to .3ds and .obj files, and then are not usable other than for objects or secenery, unless I am missing something alone the way.

I look forward to your reply.

Hi Maverick,

Sadly I don't think there is an easy way to get your characters from Auto-CAD 3D into iClone other than as props via 3DXchange.

The characters that come with iClone use their own bone system and currently the only way to create new fully animated characters is through the use of 3DS Max and the iClone plugin. Of course the many characters that are available with iClone are fully customizable so you could create the characters you need with iClone but those existing ones you already have in .acd format will not be useable other than as mentioned above.

iClone uses the .vns files exclusively so everything has to be converted to this format for use. 3Dxchange, 3DS Max and Maya are the only means of making that conversion so any 3D scenes, props, accesories must come via one of those, or created internally within iClone.

Obviously it is a pretty daunting prospect to recreate 70 characters from scratch in iClone but the versatility that iClone provides to film makers is worth the effort in the end.

Sorry I couldn't offer an easy solution to you.

Peter Edwards (movicomuk)
Moderator

http://iclone-daily.blogspot.com/

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the information, it's very helpful. I'm giving serious consideration to buying the full version of iClone. It's very simple to use and has taken my eiditing time down to 1/4 of what it is with Auto-CAD.

The bad news is not being able to use the charaters I've created for the film, but the good news is that I can use the props and scenery. I tried converting them over and they worked just fine.

To be honest I've never heard of 3DS Max, so I took a look at it after reading your reply. It seems to be very functional, however at over $3,000 for the program it's very cost prohibitive right now. There is a trial version of it with a 30 day fully funtional use (something that would be good for iClone to consider doing). I'm downloding it to see what it's like and if I can convert the charaters I've created over. If not then I'll have to see what iClone has for charaters that I can use.

Just an FYI, I use the Auto-Cad program because I was trained with the original Auto-CAD program for building designs. The 3D version is very similar to the main program, other than some commands being in a different location.

I'll let you know what I think of the 3DS Max program after I've tried it.

Mav.