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| Within a week of the appearance of iClone 4, I thought I had successfully ported my two characters over to the new G4 heads. / There are no G4 bodies, remember?  /
But something hard to define has prevented me from being as happy with my G4 head work as I was with G3.
So I've been working and working and working all month to improve my faces.
I suspect that it may be higher accuracy of rendering in iClone4? combined with a more sophisticated head model?
Whatever it is, ** iClone 4 will actually challenge you to become a better artist!! **
So forget everything you ever saw from my animation tests.
Tonight, with powerful medicine from the great animation wizards at Reallusion, I am unveiling my LATEST animation test with my BEST avatar.
"I receive now again of my many translations—from my avataras ascending—while others doubtless await me..."
This could be Walt's reaction as Fred tries to convince him not to embark upon a dangerous lecture tour out West.
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| Great great work. Thank you for inspiring me, and let me se how it could be don. |
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| The happy couple.
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| Extreme closeup of the Whitman 3D face (1024x497) looks very painterly
& *significantly* more striking at Digital Cinema resolution (2048 x 858)
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| | Hey M! You animated cartoons look like actual ink and paint work! Especially the facial areas are outstanding! Are you planning on doing a lengthy video with this novel technique you hae developed? I am amazed! As I remember you told me you do a lot of hand work, frame by frame. You got to be a very patient artist to do so. I still remember my rotoscoping days, when there was no motion trackers. Very, very ARTISTIC indeed! Mike
Mike Aparicio Reallusion Certified Content Developer Really Certified 
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| Hi Mike, thanks for the comments.
Are you sitting down?
While you were sleeping  my techniques greatly evolved. My finished work is mostly coming straight out of iClone with no handtouching.
The goal is a 5-minute film in Digital Cinema Initiatives format. That's PLENTY ambitious. I can't imagine accomplishing anything beyond that for the forseeable future.
I've continued to tweak the model; here's the cleanest version of my primary animation test:
Clean render |
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| | Well done. Really want to see the final product of this unique approach. |
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| | Is that so, Mitch! Well.... You are the very first person for long time that got me thinking... Hummmmm! Almost totally from iClone? You would then be using NO lights at all! And probably setting self illumination for all materials.... My best guess! I might be totally wrong! You.... Rascal! Again... Very, very original, artistic and innovative! Mike
Mike Aparicio Reallusion Certified Content Developer Really Certified
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| Yes, in principle, it's all self-illumination and ambient light set to pure white. Zero gloss. Zero specular. Everywhere. . .
. . . In practice, there is one complication. The eyes in iClone 4 simply offer no access for a self-illumination property, and I find their illumination behavior a little hard to understand.
Walt has pale violet irises, and needs pale violet either in the ambient light or a secondary light in order for them not to appear as simply white.
Fred has pale gold irises, and likewise needs some pale gold source.
(By the way, this clears up a little mystery in a former thread of long ago.
I was praising one of the RL partners for a "flat" look on some clothing, and you thought I needed to achieve that look by turning off bump maps.
What you could not have known is that "flat" is a peculiar idiom used by a few Americans to mean "plain solid color, no texture."
The models you see here can therefore be described as "flat" colors. Sorry for the obscure jargon!) |
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| I might add that it was an artistic breakthrough which inspired me to develop this technique--the brilliant French animation, La Reine Soleil.
A close study of these characters reveals a host of design rules employed by character designers Philippe Leclerc and Fred Trouillot, such as:
- the upper lip is normally in shadow; the lower lip is normally just the illuminated face color
- nostrils NEVER, EVER appear as holes, but rather as thinly lined rims
- all characters have a chin shadow, unless the lightning conditions are very unusual
- NO external inklines (makes things so much easier for the artist!)
- features which need to be distinguished, such as nose, cheekbone, and fingers, always have color-coordinated internal inklines
Unfortunately, La Reine Soleil entirely lost its French web presence! On the other hand, you can still see the gorgeous character designs in the trailer at
Greykid |
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