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Newbie
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 10/3/2009 12:58:27 AM
Posts: 8, Visits: 48 |
| Hi all,
My dream is to realize my multi-episode screenplays with "mid-fi" 3D animations. And so I jumped on board at iClone3. With Clonecloth3 now ready, I'm getting excited again. But realistically, I can't start production just yet...
I have explored and stretched V3 capacity to max, and done my web research on other iClone users works. There seems to be a shortage of character-interaction-oriented iClone movies, probably for good reasons. IMO IClone looks ripe for comedies or docu epics featuring mid-long shots, physical motions, special effects, vehicles and environments. But I wish to tell far more "emotive" character-centered stories with more close-ups, actor's faces, detailed facial expressions, psychological nuances and emotional complexity. And these requirements have yet been met...
Here's my wish list for next version:
1. No more crazytalking, just iCloning.
I have music programming and Sims custom creation background, am quite versatile and very much a long attention span tweaker. Yet 90% of the time what is done or edited in 2.5D Crazytalk turns out as something else in iClone, due to dimensional mismatch between the two programs aimed at different audiences. Workarounds can be achieved with time and effort, but the schizophrenic shuffling back and forth really, really kills the creative flow...
Facial feature editing, face multi-track keyframing, lipsync implementation and editing, puppeteering etc should really be done exclusively within iClone. I've noted the former had been confirmed for the next version. That's great news! 
Fingers cross -> all facial animation features within iClone.
[Part 2 in next post] |
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Newbie
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 10/3/2009 12:58:27 AM
Posts: 8, Visits: 48 |
| [wish list continue...]
2. Facial Features Editor needs (a lot) more sliders
However talented the surgeon, there's only that much one could do to the base models using blunt butter knives. The average PC games today come with more detailed face editors. Pre-2004 Sims2 has 2x more face sliders than iClone, and the latest Sims3 has 5x more!
The gaming designers know - better avatar customizability -> more DIVERSITY -> more visual ATTRACTION -> more creative ZEAL -> more SHOWCASES - more media BUZZ -> more users
I'm not after higher res 3D actors - I'm happy with iClone's efficient mid-res models. I particularly love the thoughtful implementation of editable teeth and hair dimension adjustability. What is needed is some UI refining of face editing - a few more sliders basically, and the face surgeon possibilities would just explode. As is, every iClone female actors - even a Big Black Mama with dark brown eyes, has the soul/eyes of Trinity! I hunger for more diverse "soul windows", more interesting mouths, noses, cheeks, sleepy upper lids, weathered eye bags, one skeptical raised left brow, a gritty smirk, a tough cleft in the chin, a stuck-on frown...imagine the expanded possibilities by simply adding a few more sliders!
So please consider my highly economized, very realistic, very very thought-through wish for additional facial feature sliders - at only a mere 2x of the current number:
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Proposed Additional Facial Features Sliders
Brow
Shape: Straight - Curve (X axis)
Distance: Squeeze - Widen (X axis)
Raise one brow: Left only - Right only (Z axis)
Eyes
Global shape: Round - Long (X axis)
Global Depth: Shallow - Deepset (Y axis)
Socket Height: Up - Down (Z axis)
Upper Lid Apex: Left - Right (X axis)
Upper Lid Height: Open - Drop (Z axis)
Outer Eye Corner - Up - Down (Z axis)
Nose
Global Height: Up - Down (Z axis)
Global Length: Shorten - Lengthen (Z axis)
Upper Bridge: Raise - Flat (Y axis between eyes)
Nostril Size: Large - Small (XYZ)
Nose Tip: High - Low (Z axis)
Mouth
Corners: Upturn - Downturn (Z axis)
Raise One Corner: Left only - Right only (Z axis)
Upper lip: thick - thin (Y + Z axis)
Lower lip: thick - thin (Y + Z axis)
Upper lip cupid bow: Sharp - Soft (X axis)
Lower lip shape: Narrow - Broad (X axis)
Chin
Height: Up - Down (Z axis only)
Depth: Forward - Recede (Y axis only)
Width: Narrow - Wide (X axis only)
Cleft depth: Normal - Deep (X + Y Axis)
Cheeks
Nasolabial Crease: Normal - Deep (XY)
Head
Global Long - Short (Z axis)
Global Wide - Narrow (X axis)
Global Strong/Flat Side Profile (Y axis)
Global Face Shift Up/Down (Z axis - brow to mouth)
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This is the 'most paired down' I could do. This should expand face-morphing variables by approximately 3x in beginner's hands and 5x in master hands. However, if the very kind iClone designers wish to surprise us with a Sims3 level facial feature editor, I would of course say YES PLEASE!!!
Feel free to probe for further elaboration of the above ideas. Glad to supply visual explanation...and if my wish above come true - I volunteer a graphics-rich face morphing tutorial for the community...
Thanks for listening, and a big congratulations to the iClone team for a very good work overall! |
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