Justaviking,

I think your basic idea about merging projects is good, but probably not the best way to accomplish what you are asking. I've requested similar features in the past that I think would be a better fit for what you want and more in line with a good production pipeline.

Without going into too much detail, the basic idea is to have the ability to create and manage scene setups within a project. For example, you might have a living room set for a TV show, but would like to have daytime, afternoon, and evening setups complete with lighting parameters, prop placement, etc. So, your project would have a place where you have these individual setups and you simply select which one you want active and it automatically switches to that lighting, prop placement, etc. Similarly, you could have a cast of characters defined and setup with specific clothing, props, and even positions and then switch on which set you want for that particular setup. In addition, the project would be smart enough to reset back to each basic setup and all animation that you do would be applied to your output scene only. Therefore, you could always switch to a different setup, reset to the starting parameters, and then animate your final output without ever disturbing the initial setups.

Other things that could be put into these setups could be fog, cameras, sounds, etc. I think this capability is well within reach for iClone. If having too many setups bloats a project and takes too long to load then you can have on-demand loading for just the setups you need.

Rampart,

Regarding MUVIZU, the fly in the ointment is that muvizu cannot compile/build & let the user control audio clips in the timeline.
Muvizu presently only allows recording one continuous track per character. The user cannot split clips and relocate them on timeline.
This is a major point in iclone's favor as you can record or insert plus move dialogue anywhere at any time.
If and when muvizu overcomes this limitation that program will be the go to software for many.

It has always been a head banging against a wall issue for me since iclone's early years that basic easy movement control was never developed further especially when Moviestorm had it from it's inception.

My earlier sarcasm aside, I keep hoping that Reallusion corrects their neglect in this area.
I'm not knocking their stellar offerings of great effects and ways to pipeline Iclone to work with other 3D software as they have raised the bar pretty high in those areas, but there are many users who are not modders or have a clue about 3dmax, blender etc.

Iclone needs to progress but it should be balanced progress that is in tune to what customers have been pleading for, for so long.
By all means make iclone 6 as technically challenging as any die hard 3D expert could dream of but make the basics that should be simple... simple

i agree, making the scope of iclone from entry level easy all the way to unlimited and innovative is what will claim the 3D throne. While maya has the unlimited option available, it has nothing that resembles ez. Iclone's pipeline ability opened the unlimited, next we need to lock down the ez!

not that it isn't easy now, but if easier were possible, do it!

in the end, I don't think easy for new animators is what matters, it's being able to save time on basic processes that does. everyone grows out of being a noob, but no one ever has enough time! I think my point is to make going from point a to point b faster, not necessarily make point A so easy it's limited.

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"To define Tao is to defile it" - Lao Tzu

@Magique,

I appreciate your insight.

Some of this might be a result of me being a relative novice, but I don't think that's the entire reason.

Example 1:

As part of a larger scene, I wanted to have a character pick up a baseball bat and hit a mailbox.  With each strike, the mailbox was damaged (which I did by having 4 versions of the mailbox, but only one was visible at any given time).  With the final swing, he knocks it off the post and onto the street.

I didn't know if I would be able to do it, and it wasn't entirely essential to the main scene.  So I developed the mailbox pounding in a standalone test project.  It was a success.

So now the problem is moving that back into my "real" project file.  I don't want to have to re-animate it.  I can use "iMotion" or "iMotion Plus" files, but that only gets the avatar.  I also need the mailbox post, four mailbox props and their associated visibility, the mailbox door which is animated, and the animation of the last mailbox as it falls off the post and bounces on the ground, and of course the bat too.

Moving all those elements into my main project is an arduous task.

What if I really liked my mini-clip, and wanted to use it in three different projects?  It would be the same avatar/prop interaction, but on different sets?

Example 2:

I developed a scene in two files, out of concern that it would be too long, and I had a "flashback" sequence in the middle anyway, which I new would be edited in using my NLE later.

Now in hindsight I wish I was working with a single project file instead of two.  I still need to decorate my set, light it, and stuff like that.  I now know there is no valid reason to have this project split into two files, and it would be easier to have a single project file.

I wish I could join those two files together.

Wrap-up:

Maybe hitting the mailbox is a poor example, but how about a cashier at the checkout counter, doing the same thing, but this time it is in a different store with different lighting and different customers?  Not just the cashier, but the counter and cash register and stuff like that.  Oh sure, I could take the original project, delete everything but the cashier, and build the new scene around that, but that's not always going to be a very viable option.

I'd love to be able to have a building block of "avatar + animation + props + transformation + sound" and simply add it to my new project.  It could be a single person doing one thing, or an entire crowd of avatars.

It there's a better, more efficient solution, I'd love to learn it.

Thanks again for your input.

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iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
Desktop (homebuilt) - Windows 10, Ryzen 9 3900x CPU, GTX 1080 GPU (8GB), 32GB RAM, Asus X570 Pro motherboard, 2TB SSD, terabytes of disk space, dual  monitors.
Laptop - Windows 10, MSI GS63VR STEALTH-252, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 (6GB), 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD

@Viking: AML scripting was intended to do some of that, but it got shelved as a user feature and was never reintroduced. We have LUA scripting now, but it's not being made available in an easy to use format. Maybe iClone 6?

In particular: animations and positions are saved with a prop, so I believe you could attach every thing to a dummy and reuse it.

In general, tedious will always be part of doing animation, but I agree things could be made easier. I've looked at Muvizu, and even though I like some of the features, I find it too limited in the end. So, for me it's always back to iClone. I just keep working at it and every time I get a bit better and things become a bit easier. Without iClone I would probably not have made the films I've made.

I don't frankly know if there is an easy road to animation that also has a personal touch. Which is one of the things I like about the iClone creations: the variety as well as an overall steady improvement. Others may disagree with that statement, which is OK...

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Thanks, Job.

I know I need to get better at the tool.

Several times this past week, I easily copied some Titles and video clips and audio clips from one project into another in my NLE (Pinnacle Studio).

Select... Copy... Open other project... Paste

I found myself thinking, "Man, I wish I could copy things from one project to another that easily in iClone."

I know there would be complications, but that's what software designers and programmers are for.

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iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
Desktop (homebuilt) - Windows 10, Ryzen 9 3900x CPU, GTX 1080 GPU (8GB), 32GB RAM, Asus X570 Pro motherboard, 2TB SSD, terabytes of disk space, dual  monitors.
Laptop - Windows 10, MSI GS63VR STEALTH-252, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 (6GB), 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD

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It would be superior if, upon the triggering of a particle, we could allow execution of a complimentary sound file. Or better, randomise a series of sound files to trigger upon particle trigger. For example, bubbles popping. Flames crackling. Raindrops landing. Magical effects appearing.

You can use an outside editor like Sony Vegas Pro, edit your audio files and then import them after you all your dialogue synchronized with the precise length for all files. This way you save render them out of Sony Vegas as individual wav files. if you have synchronized each actor with all the other actor voice scripts in the project you should have equal length voice files. Remember when one actor is speaking the others aren't and you have blank space on the non-speaking actors timeline.

I use this method for building all my audio for iclone. I load my avatar and then apply the specific voice script file to that actor. Then I do the same for the other two actors. The voice files should stack precisely ontop of each other the same length on iclone timeline.

I do this, because working with audio in iclone timeline is extremely sluggish, crashes and its buggy. Sony Vegas Pro is my choice, but there are other editors. I suspect Audacity would do the same thing. I just do it in Sony Vegas, because I am familiar with it and I can do my edits very fast.

Look at my sony vegas timeline in the attachement.

This method should also work in Muvizu I would think.

That's how I work as well, I just prepare everything in Audacity, but it's the same idea. The main reason I do it is because I don't use the audio from iClone. It also easier to process the dialog files afterwards, as you want to have them as clean as possible in iClone.

Sound design I do in Vegas, so any environmental sounds are added there. I'm not so sure if doing it directly in iClone would work very well, unless there was much better control over the audio, like an envelope to control the volume for each sound track. 

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Animagic

I laughed when I read this part of your post



I do only what I have to within the iclone timeline. I won't even try to explain, it would be preaching to the choir.