Okay, you folks at Reallusion have an incredible product but it is like a well-muscled weight lifter with a weak back. It has the power and the output, but who can use it?

I was tipped off on the Machinima.com forum by an iClone user who said that it has a steep learning curve and is not as easy to use as people may think. Okay, I have learned a lot of the top products available in graphics arts and animation with steep learning curves, so what could be so tough about this one?

So, I watch the Tutorial videos on YouTube and from a few other locations as well as the so-called "tutorials" that are offered on the Reallusion site. Nope, you have a weak back. Your tutorials are spotty, showcasing some things but leaving out the basics. You aren't taking care of the newbies who want to use the product and us middle-aged newbies don't get any breaks either

Sorry to be a whiner, but I'd like to learn the program without all of the fumbling around that is necessary to do so. I have a lot of other projects that I am presently working on that take presidence over stumbling around trying to figure out this animation engine. Your tutorials are not designed to teach a beginner, let alone someone who knows a bit about the program. You really need to start from the ground up on your tutorial lessons and try to actually teach how to use iClone rather than just showcasing what it can do in the so-called "tutorials. Oh yeah, I went to the ICLONE TUTORIALS site but was warned off with the sign that it wasn't for beginners and you have to already know how to use iClone before you can benefit from what they offer.

So, I go back to square one and I downloaded the Manual. I will try learning it in two dimensions. But if I don't learn it from there in the 15 days of the free trial offer, then I guess I won't buy the product. And oh yeah, I downloaded the trial extras bundle but the program still shoots a nag screen into my face to download the bundle everytime I click an asset to try out.

Anyway, I have some projects that I think iClone can accomplish, but I won't be buying it for now it looks like. Maybe next version.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on iClone and the tutorials. It's always good to hear users views, good or bad. Reading your post it seems maybe you are expecting to learn more than is possible in the short time you have with the trial version, especially if you have watched a lot of the tutorials one after the other.

I would think that even without any tutorials iClone is pretty easy to get into the basics and it is a fairly simple process to add a character, scene, a few props and then apply a motion file and export your 1st movie.

From there I would advise working with the more advanced areas at a slower pace using one tutorial at a time and working through it slowly until things become clear. I know the urge is to try and see how everything works straight away but with software that has so much depth of features it is impossible to take it all in at once for anyone.

If you have looked at some of the many videos created by existing iClone users here and on YouTube etc, I think you will see that with practice and time some incredible work can be achieved. It just takes a little more time to absorb it all. I don't think anyone can learn to master everything iClone has to offer in the 15 days of the trial period but it should be enough to know whether the software is for you or not.

Thanks again for taking the time to express your feelings so far.

 

Peter Edwards
Forum Moderator

iClone Daily Blog

I deleted the trial version from my hard drive, yesterday. I went through the Acrobat manual and it didn't provide the info I needed to work the program. I think it is on about the same difficulty level as Poser with its mysterious icons that you have to stumble around with in order to know what they do. Well, stumbling around can be fun but if you are on a tight schedual, it's too much time lost and work gained.

I agree that everybody has a different learning curve. Everybody is different. But since these software titles are made for a mass audience, there are enough similarities that everyone should be able to get a handle on them in one way or another. And from reading the little forums such as at machinima.com, iClone is not taking off like the rocket that it is but it is slugging along like a snail. That's too bad, it looks like an incredible program.

I doubt if Reallusion corp can survive if it has to depend upon software wizards such as yourself (who are rare) buying just a few copies of iClone when sales in the tens of millions of units is always better. iClone offers the ability for average fellows like me to realize their animation ambitions without needing the power of a hundred computers and scores of artists and animators. As such, it looks like the ideal tool.

From what I have seen, iClone is an incredibly fantastic program. And I am really quite excited about its possibilities, even though I won't be using the present version in my work, maybe next version.

Even though I agree with some of your statements, I still have the same opinion based on my experience with the program. The problem may be that the people at Reallusion are too close to the program and don't have the perspective necessary to see its flaws. One of the examples is the tutorials for the crazy talk program. In several of the tutorials, the audio was so clipped and the hard echo from what sounded like a recording done in a closet was so sharp, that it gave a sort of amateurish flavor to the productions ... even though the tutorials, themselves, we quite good. With your experience, aknzrdude, I am sure that you would agree. So, if this is true, can you not see that there may be other areas of weakness in the presentation of these programs?

My advice to Reallusion is to give a call to the people at Lynda.com and get some help in producing educationally exacting tutorial programs. They have a lot of experience in tutorial production. My apologies to the people who made the present tutorials, but it seems to me that you are too close to the program. And by knowing it so well, you assume that the little details that you take for granted are unimportant to the stupid fools like me who have the money to buy it but not the time to learn it.

So, my opinion is the same, really. iClone is an incredible program, but unless you can teach the average person how to use it, then it will suffer from a low user base and lost sales.

In my view iClone is the easiest to learn and use and if I didn't get results quickly I would have given up because I don't have the most patience. This was my first attempt:

my first film with iClone

and althought it's not perfect it does what I want because I'm more interested in storytelling/filmaking than fancy graphics.

My Website, Warts 'n All



THE FREEDOM FORUM IS BACK!

Very impressive. How long did it take you to animate your sex with aliens video from start to finish?

I admit that Poser is tough to learn alone. But the Lynda.com tutorials made it a snap. But I am not satisfied with Poser. It just doesn't do the job. It's asset library takes forever to find anything and the characters do weird things at odd moments. Plus the render times are too long.

Anyway, I will wait for the next version of iClone with anticipation.