@KenCoon. A bit late but...do you know about the more affordable solution with an Autodesk monthly subscription? For $290 monthly you get a choice of 3ds Max or Maya. For $340 monthly you get both. They throw in MotionBuilder and Mud on both plans. I think you get a cloud service and a few more things too.

Here's the link
http://www.autodesk.com/suites/entertainment-creation-suite/buy

- Mo' Millis  

Official Mo' Millis | Music & Animation

American rock musician and award winning songwriter.
3D photorealistic album art, posters, and tee shirt prints for independent artists.
Founder and composer of Scene Music. Certified animation content DEVeloper.

I am retired and living on a pension. Don't really have that kind of money to throw around.
i will find a way if it means using only the things that come with iclone.
thanks anyway.
Ken:)

If blender is not an option there's two proven 3d software that are used in tv and film that are a lot cheaper than what Autodesk offers. The renderers built in are extremely versatile should you decide to render outside of Iclone.

Lightwave 3D - cheapest professional 3d software with beautiful renderer and genoma rigging makes it easy to rig stuff for Iclone.
https://www.lightwave3d.com/

https://www.lightwave3d.com/community/gallery/?page=30


Modo Indie - the only limitation here is the 100000 poly limit per model and locked to one user per license. No sharing of files. Rigging has to be done manually from scratch. Beautiful renderer.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/321540

http://community.thefoundry.co.uk/gallery/

For fast custom character creation I model in zBrush, upload to the AutoRigger in Mixamo (sometimes use their 3D Max script to change from bones to BIP) then into 3D Max to add a jawbone or facial rig. If I'm just using a simple jawbone... I convert to BIP and use one of the ponytail bones for the jaw. I've hardly ever use blendshapes but thats just because I facial rig with bones since that's the way I know best. Vertex rigging is hard to beat for smooth movement at least for me but it's slow.

With this method I can create several characters in an extremely short time... particularly for use in previz. Nothing complex though. Those still take me a day to two just to sculpt and a day to vertex rig manually in 3D Max if they have to have facial (20+ bones), toes and fingers... and sometimes a multi-segmented tail.

zBrush->Mixamo->3D Max->3DXchange->iClone is my prevalent pipeline for work or play.

I'm not married to any piece of software but Studio Max is the prevalent application for most of the shops I work for so it's what I use most often. Blender could be an easy substitute from what I've seen. Mixamo AutoRigger is the only real expense in the equation and I use it for work so I have the annual access plan which is the only reason it's feasible for me.

--------------------------------------------------
I LIVE to anymate, irritate and machinamate. Not necessarily in that order.