Just watched the latest vid posted from RL on Facebook, and in the interview with RL's John Martin (SO nice to see some faces and hear voices from some of the RL staff) he says, specifically about the Faceware and XSens plugin technology, that the idea is to create software "for all budgets and skill levels."

Hmmm.  REALLY?  It's an interesting statement and one I do think that RL believes in.  John goes on to allude to some of the great sci-fi directors starting at home, with home movies, so he's not talking about the independent studios here, but the typical hobbyist (which, as I keep saying, make up the core of RL's user base).

Pretty obviously it flies in the face of what he's talking about, though.  XSens is WAY out of the budget of any but a studio.  And the upcoming FW plugin?  I am hoping against hope the "early bird pricing" does fulfil John's promise, although others here keep telling me I'm crazy if I think it will come in at less than $1K (which is NOT what a "home movie maker" could afford, as several folks here have testified).

I hope iClone doesn't lose sight of their core and loyal base -- and, yes, there will be those same voices here (people with far bigger budgets than most of us) who will say "Who cares how much this great software costs?"  Well, unfortunately, most of the rest of us DO care.  For now I'm going to trust that RL has not forgotten us.

---

Alienware Aurora R16, Win 11, i9-149000KF, 3.20GHz CPU, 64GB RAM, RTX 4090 (24GB), Samsung 870 Pro 8TB, Gen3 MVNe M-2 SSD, 4TBx2, 39" Alienware Widescreen Monitor
Mike "ex-genius" Kelley

if you cant deal with the xsens prices , you can use perception neuron like me  or kinect mocap
i loving how the reallusion trying to be exposed in market like a pro tool. iclone 7 really deserve it
in my opnion is too close to be a game changer in the animation market.
maybe i dont undestand your point ( language gap )

With much respect, Kellytoons

1K for the latest High-End facial mocap software...WITH (Solver & Retarget)
7 years ago I purchase markerless facial mocap. It has a very accurate (Solver), but I have to 'Retarget" the animation using the curve editor.
Note: I set this up "One Time" 7 years ago and NEVER have to do it again,..but..

Today you get it ALL... with a few clicks.  
"John Martin is RIGHT"...  This is a "Steal" at 1K.

Attempt to purchase the lastest Hot Rod with all the goodies.... see what the early bird price is.
Better... but not dirt cheap.

Let me help those of you (and I am suspecting we'll see at least three more I know of) who are clueless here (and perhaps it is a language problem -- I'm not sure English is Swoops primary language either):

iClone 7 can be purchased for $200.  FW plug is 6 times that.  iClone is positioned as hobbyist software.  It would be similar as if you were to buy a car priced in your range (I won't presume, but let's just say a nice, reasonably priced car) and then were asked to spend, for a sunroof, something that cost 5 times the price of the car.  Does that seem reasonable?  Even if it's a GREAT sunroof?

Facial mocap isn't essential, but it was promised and many of us committed to iClone as a result and it was said to be affordable to hobbyists even as recently as last week.  Affordable does NOT mean 5x the cost of the basic software, no matter how good that plugin is.

But it doesn't surprise me that you two are commenting like this -- as I said, this will cause a divide here in the forum and perhaps it will be as big as the one when there was a war previously.  I hope not, and (as I said) I still have hope RL will treat us right.

---

Alienware Aurora R16, Win 11, i9-149000KF, 3.20GHz CPU, 64GB RAM, RTX 4090 (24GB), Samsung 870 Pro 8TB, Gen3 MVNe M-2 SSD, 4TBx2, 39" Alienware Widescreen Monitor
Mike "ex-genius" Kelley

For years.... I scream.... RL provide the Latest and Best Tools...
RL listens and provides (THE BOMB) facial mocap software.

...and you're not happy because the price is not (Dirt Cheap)
You can NOT have the latest technology at a (Dirt Cheap) price. Sorry

WebAnimate, Brekel and others are alternatives...at a (Dirt Cheap) price.

Not for nothing, but what if KellyToons went to a conference and in an interview says:
"I'm going to be doing an animated feature using iClone, I think everyone using iClone can be proud and will love it..."

Then he gets advice and tips from the iClone community, but then he goes and does it with 3DS Max.  Wouldn't you think that was messed up?...

He's not saying a company can't charge what they want, he knows that.  He understands that they are a business.  He knows if they want to price the plugin high, and drive a divide into the iclone crowd, and also risk frustrating those who bought when there is an issue due to it having had a high price, that is their professional right to do so.  

Instead, What he is alluding to is that if the plugin package is priced right, it's a win-win.  More of the hobbyist crowd will buy, and ongoing work is justifiable

Good topic, KellyToons.  

-Tony D.

Thanks, Tony.  And I do have to say I'm confident that RL IS going to do the best they can with this (and I have some good reason to believe it).  I just wanted to point out that they, themselves, have the philosophy to provide the tools "to the masses".  I'm pretty sure they want as many of us as possible to be able to afford this.

The good news is that it appears FW IS the best, so we couldn't have asked for a better solution, as long as it IS affordable.  We'll know soon enough (can't come soon enough for me -- I've wanted this for at least two years now and have been actively promoting this as much as I can).

---

Alienware Aurora R16, Win 11, i9-149000KF, 3.20GHz CPU, 64GB RAM, RTX 4090 (24GB), Samsung 870 Pro 8TB, Gen3 MVNe M-2 SSD, 4TBx2, 39" Alienware Widescreen Monitor
Mike "ex-genius" Kelley

The waiting on the price/software is killing me!!!!

I see both sides of the argument. Professional tools, pro price. Simple.... buuuut not so simple; KT's point is if pro tool cost more than double the base software, isn't this way out of line as a commercial model for those who bought the original software? Again we can argue to death both sides and both sides will actually have valid points. Hopefully the discount will soften the financial blow enough for most users. At least by all reports RL chose the right product. That's a start. But it's the waiting that is driving me insane at this point!!! Fingers crossed we have a lot of happy iclone users once it's finally announced.

My "NEWEST" Latest:)  Movie Made With Amaaaazing iClone


—> High Noon”ish” in Narrow Valley<—

You're saying that because the price is to high for you...
" Reallusion is causing frustration and diving the iClone crowd by bringing Faceware and Xsens to iClone"
That's no fair.

Some people were extremely upset when iClone 6 was released and required significantly more powerful graphics cards that iC5 did.  (And some hated the new user interface, too.)  Numerous people refused to buy the upgrade because of the additional hardware costs.  Others had pre-ordered the upgrade and discovered they lacked the hardware to run it well.  But it was often pointed out that it was understandable that you need a "modern" GPU to power modern capabilities.  That resulted in the huge firestorm which was alluded to earlier.

With no mention of the price range, Reallusion has been telling us this new capability would be coming.  Now we finally see it, and it looks great.  But lacking any price information, because nature abhors a vacuum, we could only imagine a price range based on past experience and other modules in the iClone suite.  What did we pay for the Substance tools?  Or Indigo?  Or the Pipeline version of 3DXchange?  Speedtree?

So on one hand we have a "Pro Tool" which, understandably, can command a "Pro Price."
On the other hand, we have an add-on that may potentially (likely) cost several times more than the base product we are enhancing, which is unusual.

Meanwhile... we wait for official pricing information...

---

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