@Dr. Nemesis,

That was a great side-by-side comparison.  Excellent results.
Thank you for sharing it.

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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

I think that peoples  expectations are as varied as sands on a beach..You have some out there who are (pureist's) in a sense , and  hack everything to pieces in the film world if it doesn't  meet their ideal  measures and rules of what THEY  consider good film making.I have even  seen posts where someone even had the snobish audacity to state that  (Unless you can create a cinematic masterpiece that meets the status quo, (whatever that is )   then you should leave ICLONE alone and let the professionals  handle it. It is this kind of snobbery that leads to the stifling of creative thought in cultures.  remember, Historically  , the most memorable of (anything ) in POP culture were almost always the very ones that were berated, and told by the "PROFESSIONALS" that their efforts would never amount to anything. 
A good example to the flip side of the Pureist's coin would  be TROMA films headed by Lloyd Kaufman...who was beat down by the naysayers at nearly every step of his career, but in spite of all the opinions and "learned" professionals out there STILL became a legend and cult phenomenon weather we liked it or not . So  I tend to ignore most peoples opinions and hold tight to a simple philosophy...Art is Art......be proud of what you have created...and always strive to make the next better.I create ICLONE movies.They can be found on you-tube under the name iclone movies by headrushindi...I love commentary  both  positive and negative..but I don't live for it ..nor do I subscribe to those opinions in most cases. ICLONE is a tool to express your self...the stories you have inside , or the ideas lingering in your soul.My whole concept of creating film with ICLONE is akin to the way  a regional or local theater operates in  a community.They begin with nothing but a script or idea, they canvas the community enlisting whatever help, and creative souls they can find in the local arts centers or schools...and they plaster together a production from the collaboration of the many talents they can find...its just that simple.So god bless  all of you who are (professionals) and create at a different level of perfection.. I love that too, I can enjoy it, and can appreciate and learn from it ...but never get too snobby that you crush the creativity of the little guy out their who just spent his last dollar on ICLONE because he loves the creative process, and the act of creating art for art's sake. because that little guy we pee on on the way up the ladder , may be the very one that passes us again on the way back down when we fail to be what our expectations have set for us ....There is a place in ICLONE and in the world for all artists  ......lets remember to encourage , not to destroy on the way .PS: I am not making this comment because i feel the Post here is berating  anyone  ..I am just expressing my response anytime i hear anyone band about their concepts of  what is acceptable in film making.

Most iClone videos on YouTube consists of random avatars dancing, or some quick "showcase" of random avatar in a random location with no explanation.

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My iClone short films: https://www.youtube.com/iClone316

RAG DOLL COLLISION ANIMATIONS FOR ICLONE 8 & 7
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Ghost Origins

My latest Feature length film created with Iclone.
93% of original size (was 540x16) - Click to enlarge

My Sci- Fi Graphic Novel on Amazon: https://a.co/d/9k3cwoY

My IMDB listing
Anabran Abdhul Quarnain - IMDb

The problem is not iclone, but the community. More concerned to  looking at software problems than seeing its own limitations as an artist, reallusion currently slapped the community with bridge to unreal. several people used it, and what did I see? More iclone animations, rendered in unreal, nothing more. my last iclone x unity test was in animation that I did as keyframes animation training. matrix reload Once ready I saw and thought: damm I can do the same in iclone. I am currently working on two short films, which unfortunately I will not be able to post on youtube because they will compete in festivals in my country. but I will send some pictures. one of the two I will use iclone the other unity but not for the sake of rendering quality because I find everything very similar today. but for the extra features I have with particles in unity, there are several scenes that I will need to make a path to particles, something impossible to do with popcorn inside iclone.
my angels short pics 

93% of original size (was 540x16) - Click to enlarge
93% of original size (was 540x16) - Click to enlarge93% of original size (was 540x16) - Click to enlarge93% of original size (was 540x16) - Click to enlarge93% of original size (was 540x16) - Click to enlarge93% of original size (was 540x16) - Click to enlarge

the actual iclone version is perfect for me. with just some things need to be corrected

1 - activate TAA to render frames and put the actual supersampling algoritm in HELL! 
2 - more fast render for 4k resolutions. 
3 - correct the discrepances between render in full screen to the viewport. 
4 - put individual controls for light and reflections on ibl slider.
5 - put out HBXAO+ and use VXAO or put option to setup the ao by camera shot. like we can do on unity or unreal, 
6 - more softshadows, to be more exact, use the same softshadow algoritm used on toolbag 3 or nextgen softshadow script on unity. 
7 - SSR ! PLEASE!
this is the unique problems on render features actualy for me ( thinking about, SSS is comming) but perfectly avoidable. i can do my work without that. 
 

RAG DOLL COLLISION ANIMATIONS FOR ICLONE 8 & 7
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ghost Origins

My latest Feature length film created with Iclone.
93% of original size (was 540x16) - Click to enlarge

My Sci- Fi Graphic Novel on Amazon: https://a.co/d/9k3cwoY

My IMDB listing
Anabran Abdhul Quarnain - IMDb

LOL I do those sorts of videos using UE4 too

The matrix recreation was animated without much attention to weight and acceleration, nothing feels impactful or feels like there is mass. It's like marshmallow matrix. But the consistency of design between characters is a nice touch.

93% of original size (was 540x16) - Click to enlarge

My guess as why we haven't seen many iclone films that are good is that in order to make a decent short film you need the following:

1) PATIENCE. Something hard to find in people now a days. One example of this would be iray, there are many people that claim it is not suited for animation because it doesn't render quickly enough, which it actually does, it is quite fast, i just rendered 2400 frames in a day and half with one computer and one gpu, think about it, same scene but with software tech from only 2 or 3 years ago would have taken me a week to render the same thing even with my current computer. Now think about how many things must be done in order to make something you can watch and say "oh that looks really good". Even with all the tools that iclone has and its no bs approach to make your life easier it still takes time and patience to do something good.

2) Teamwork. You can't do everything by yourself and you can't certainly do everything well. You might be good at lighting but not so much at animating, you could be a great animator and a big fat turd at modelling. You can be great at texturing and suck at rigging, you can be a great editor but you have the ear of a blacksmith when it comes to audio. Know your strengths and your limitations and team up with people that compliment your weaknesses. If i was to participate in the making of an iclone short film i wouldn't even open iclone at all, why? I'm an audio guy, sound is my thing, my passion and my strength and i do it at a pro level, animation? i wish i was an amateur, texturing? i'm a little below amateur, modelling? you don't want me near that i suck at it big time, rigging? not a freaking clue, lighting? maybe i can manage some of it. My point is no one excels at everything and you need other people to fill in the gaps. I used to do animatics for ad agencies, i did most of the iclone technical stuff, along with lighting, and some texturing, but for animation i used an actual animator who knows traditional animation, even if we were using some mocaps, because if i did the animation no one would have been payed and probably we would have had some legal issues.

That's not saying you can't do your own films, sure you can and you should just for the fun of it and finding out what you are good at and what not, what do you enjoy and what you hate. But keep in mind something, some part of it will always be amateurish.