I have Windows 7.

My problem is that iclone freezes after about 6 avatars.
The sound stops/starts (sputters??) after more than one prop and it renders with the sputtering.
Rendering takes a loooooooooong time and sputters.

So besides low-poly alternatives I realize that I may have to do the following.
 1. Record short sections of video (about 1-20 seconds long) without audio.
 2. Use an editor join the hundreds of pieces of video
 3. Use an editor to add sound effects and voice later.

I will be using Audacity to prepare my audio files for several documentary style videos. Iclone seems to work with mp3 not wav.
I am about to evaluate editors but can't get past the perky/optimistic/missing jargon to find what is valuable such as:
1. Unlimited amount of clips joined. If there is a limit (e.g 10) then can I join those 10 in a new file and then count that as one and join ten megafiles.
2. Unlimited audio clips, if not can I get around the limits in the same way.

3. Unlimited video and audio file sizes.
4. There are "tracks" If I understand how the concept works then I plan to put sound effects on one track, background music on another and conversation on a third.
   This allows me to swap out English conversation for another language.
5. Closed Captioning. Can I enter the text with the video or is this separate.

6. Transitions. A nice to have feature.

So RECOMMEND a cheap software. Tell me any other basic/useful/required/needed features you think one should need or does my proposed car only have 2 tires?

I am still a newbie learning on her own for one year now so bear with me.
I know NOTHING about animation before buying Iclone.

I would say without a doubt this software is getting superior to most. Especially with the plugins that come with it as standard.  Video studio Pro x6.   It has a tasty trial download also.

I take several layer of my set in animation outs and place them literally in layers in the editor. This is so efficient regarding iClone streamlining that I sit back now and start wonder how far I can push that because I can cram 4 times the content into any one take and not have to suffer iClones inability to work so hard in one go.

@lpatter: could you tell us something about your system setup? iClone shouldn't stutter with 6 avatars, unless the scene is very complicated with many textures. Even with complicated scenes I get reasonable render times.

For practical reasons it is a good idea to split your movie up into scenes of up to a minute. If you want to make change in one scene you don't have to re-render all others.

As to audio files, iClone works with wave files and there is no preference for MP3s.

I use Sony Vegas Pro as video editor, but that is not a cheap solution.

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I agree with @animagic - Iclone should run more stable than what you described. I had that issue and it was due to my cpu not being fast enough. - not saying that's your issue though.

and for video editor - if you plan to buy Sony Movie Studio, make sure you check amazon.com for their prices first - night and day from the price at the sony website.

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I suggested the video editing software because upon replay of your output CVS alters the quality for playback BEFORE rendering the final take sequences. It will stop that stuttering.

I used to get that but it is only because the puter is struggling to keep up with what it deems to be a massive degree of data and it can only feed it to the screen with ram clearing for the next "package" after it itself has processed the following data package. That's why your output gets segmented. I also get the same issue if I work with uncompressed AVI. And this isn't a weak machine. I this what you suffer?

Regarding

Yes, yes and yes.
You might find that this is the best way anyway to create
1. superior transitions from one take to the next
2. grossly superior video effects and corrective lighting, coloration and hue.
3. The best audio processed output
4. unmatched credit scolls
5. layers of other content and effects

and the list my friend goes on endlessly.
 

I think you should give Windows movie maker a shot. Most of the time you don't need more than that..... I personally use Magix movie edit pro 17.

Gamer, Lover, Filmmaker

A good suggestion.

When you're new to something, free is good.

Try it, get used to the workflow, and when you start to run into limitations in Windows Movie Maker (which shouldn't take long), you'll be equipped to do some more knowledgable shopping.

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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

depending on when you bought your computer-2008-2011
cyberlink powerdirector was included with many computers and isnt exactly easy to see in the start menu.


as said above
"windows live movie maker" is free, but is very basic, not much for audio options.
but it does indeed edit video.


kind of a tip for heavy scenes:

sometimes hiding all the foreground props/avatars, and rendering the background is a solution.
then you can delete the background elements/unhide the foreground stuff and drag the video into iclone.
you have to make note of whats casting shadows though before you do this.










.

I know you said cheap, and what I'm going to say may sound expensive, but in reality it's not all that costly (at least for me). Adobe Creative Cloud subscription (again, for me) is an affordable solution to a few different needs. I get access to almost every application they have, to cover a broad range of needs. Many may criticize the renting of software, but again, for $55 a month being able to use the top of the line software for any specific need. Video editing, post processing, image editing, illustration, presentation, music, etc...

If these are things you're going to be doing a lot of, this is a good way to use a top of the line appication for each of them.

You could take a look at Lightworks.

There is a free and a Pro version available. It's being used to edit a number of Hollywood movies and has a very steep learning curve. The free version has a number of restrictions, but can still be used to produce a decent film.

Gerry

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System: Win 10 Pro (21H2), Asus X99-E WS, CPU i7-5930K -3,5 GHz, 32 GB DDR4 2666-16 RAM, NVidia GTX 1080 Ti GPU - 11 GB VRAM(Driver Studio-536.99), Samsung 850 Pro 512 GB SSD, 6 TB HD storage.