By now I'm sure most of you have seen the email where RL laid out pretty much all their plans for the coming, uh, months/years?

Anyone have any thoughts about it?  While I'm hugely happy for CC 1.5 (since it will give us the abilities we have wanted since CC first came out with the new character format) and definitely will welcome the PBR stuff (even if it has to wait until next year) I'm a little disappointed no mention was made of facial mocap.

To me this would be the biggest missing piece in the whole mocap arena and while I realize it still may be happening the fact that not even a word of it was mentioned makes me sad (where it might have belong would be in any mention of any upcoming CT enhancements, and that was definitely missing).

But I'm sure everyone has at least one major wish item that this email took care of -- so good on RL for making it known.

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Alienware Aurora R12, Win 10, i9-119000KF, 3.5GHz CPU, 128GB RAM, RTX 3090 (24GB), Samsung 960 Pro 4TB M-2 SSD, TB+ Disk space
Mike "ex-genius" Kelley

You missed that part, I guess ...

"Please take note that if we did not mention other items that you have been waiting for, then its not because they have been cancelled. Its just that we will be announcing them once we have some visuals to go along with the news."

I liked it all most of it was stuff that was on my wish list.  I didnt see anything about particles, but that doesnt mean its not there lol.  I like the new thing they have for features and wishes it will probably make it easier for everyone to see what they are working on etc etc and what others are interested.   

My two pet peeves revolved around animation and the other is around a new more modern particle system oh and I guess clothes for the CC that is a third, but its all there.  I also use the CTA and was considering purchasing anime studio but they added bones now to the CTA so I am glad I didnt spend money on that and waited until the new cta 3 features were announced.    

I am already quite happy with iclone even with the animation system only half complete and have been happily plugging away at a short little movie.  Its a bit rough but its still fun to do and I will finish it anyhow blips and all




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"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own, and you know what you know. And you are the guy who'll decide where to go."
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Dr. Seuss

Thanks for the heads-up I missed this one, I do wish facial animation tool updates were on the radar, but the PBR will go a long way putting smiles on RL customers faces. It does appear from the videos and pics 3D Coat will be well integrated, I noticed you acquired a copy last year. Are you pretty happy with it?



Virtual Media® / VTV® / The Virtual Entertainment Network...
http://VTVLive.com

I think 3DCoat is amazing, but even more amazing is the developer himself, who is a stand up guy.  Can't say enough about him (he helped me out and went above and beyond the call of duty).

I just haven't had enough time to play with it.  Sigh, so much software, so little time.

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Alienware Aurora R12, Win 10, i9-119000KF, 3.5GHz CPU, 128GB RAM, RTX 3090 (24GB), Samsung 960 Pro 4TB M-2 SSD, TB+ Disk space
Mike "ex-genius" Kelley

I am completely with you on this my friend.

The facial expression tools in 3dxchange and iClone are fantastic, top notch, HOWEVER...
the best animator around can not get the equivalent results of a solid facial mocap software that I've found. Why? Because with facial mocap you can use the actor's entire face to animate all the features, all at the same time, in real time, in fine detail.

AutoDesk has the Character Generator software that gets pretty darn good results, but really lame compared to Reallusion's Character Creator, HOWEVER... Maya's Character Generator exports the character WITH face bones, so I can get facial mocap animation onto those characters and into iClone.  

iClone's lip sync looks pretty good, HOWEVER... it does not compare to facial mocap, and affordable facial mocap is just around the corner, so in conjunction with Perception Neuron and others, the character animation projects are going to explode. Who is going to be ahead of that wave? Reallusion?

SOLUTION - SUGGESTION to Reallusion
I don't like Maya. I don't want to deal with it at all. I want the animation pipeline to be self-contained in the world of Reallusion. The solution is to get that Reallusion facial mocap software up to par and released before moving forward with anything else. Without it, iClone will be relegated to a niche market, but with it, iClone will be the one to catch. Decent facial mocap in conjunction with the Reallusion puppet tools and facial expression tools, will take the potential quality and control to such a level that competitors will be chasing Reallusion, which is where you want them. 

If Reallusion is not already developing facial mocap software, then please get started ASAP. You have the framework for doing it. Basically all you need to do is track iPhone video of a face. The user can set the predetermined specific tracking points for the eyes, lips, cheeks, eyebrows, etc etc just like the face mapping concept, except on multiple expressions rather than one. Okay, I'm not a programmer, and I know it's tough to get it right and make it work, but the payoff is huge. If you're on it already, then FANTASTIC!! Let's all have a drink

Meanwhile, we are going to continue to design characters, and build sets, practicing with Perception Neuron in the hopes that by the time we have all that in order, Reallusion's FACIAL MOCAP will be released and we can create amazing content. 

Yes... yes, well said and I agree totally with you and Kellytoons on this missing link!  I appreciate the lipsync upgrades that Reallusion has for provided us, but without  FACIAL MOCAP, getting the character's facial expressions to look more human than robotic is way too time consuming and the results still look plastic to me.  This is a feature that I really want too. 


Dell XPS 8900, Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700 CPU @ 3.40GHz, 3408 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s), 16 GB RAM, - 4 GB GeForce GTX 745, NVIDIA compatible.
Acer Aspire V Nitro Laptop,  2.5GHz Intel Core i5-7300HQ processor with 6MB cache,  256GB solid state drive, 16GB Ram,  4 GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics.

Good to read your comments on 3dcoat.  I bought it during the Christmas special, installed it and have never had time to actually use it.
Most of my learning software applications is when I have to dedicate myself to learn for a working on a current project
This way I retain what I have learned much better than just tweaking away at the GUI.
I have also found video tutorials aren't much help unless I can work along with the instructor and learn interactively.

Free stuff turns me off completely.  Paid software helps, because I am vested in the application.
I have never paid attention to Audacity or Blender, which I understand are excellent free software.
I pay for everything I use, which helps my focus for what I need and best way to apply it.

You could give me 3dsmax, Maya, Zbrush or other superior software free,  I would never use it.
If I bought it for a purpose that would be the difference for me.
'
I do buy content items or packs when they are offered at good price as I anticipate their use in future projects.
I miscalculate on this practice frequently and have a lot of "get around to it" stuff..


 

I've bought so much software I've never used it isn't even funny.  I'm basically a software whore -- show me a good program and I'll spread my legs (or open my wallet).

I bought iClone 1 and never even installed it.  A year or two ago I got an offer from RL and bought iClone 5 and CT 7 and installed them and never once even opened them up (when I got a new computer I didn't bother installing them on it).  Only this last time around when Character Creator was released and I got an offer to upgrade did I buy and install iClone 6 and finally used it.

I still haven't used it much, but I will, particularly as the last pieces of RL's roadmap get into place (the ability to create your own hair and clothing items for CC will help a lot, as will PBR).  I still need Facial Mocap but I'm hoping this piece will get done this year, even if it's not until late this year.  But I'm known for being overly optimistic.

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Alienware Aurora R12, Win 10, i9-119000KF, 3.5GHz CPU, 128GB RAM, RTX 3090 (24GB), Samsung 960 Pro 4TB M-2 SSD, TB+ Disk space
Mike "ex-genius" Kelley

I assume, I deleted this e-mail. Could anyone tell me what's in it?