Hi, I really wish to thank you all for you suggestions, they have really help me a lot to get my rendering better than before, I will like to follow you all on your YouTube channels if any so I can at least see what you guys are doing so I could also learn some more.
I will also like to share my works so that you guys can help me check it up and advice me on what to do and not to do.
Am also making arrangements for Iclone 7.2 as I have checked and seen what you guys are talking about. Thanks to Iclone cause I don't know anything before but now I can fulfil my long term dreams on 3D animations.

Hi thank you for your suggestion, I had Iclone 6 before 7 came out, I have been practicing with 6 for some time now but I never really practiced rendering that much until I started making some few projects.

How is it that you have Indigo 6.5 to begin with, wondering why you didn't buy iClone 7? 
Because now you are asking about getting better visuals, and everything you want, and will want, is in iC7.
Who, or what, told you/suggested, that you buy iC6 now, as opposed to iC7?

The PBR, IBL, and GI make a big difference in iClone 7.

In iClone 6, there is IBL. Use it! It will simulate GI reasonably well, and even give you some PBR-ish results on your materials. It is a form of indirect lighting that will work better than the ambient light setting in most cases.

Yup.  We all want "pro" results at an "amateur" price.

First, I will reinforce what the others before me have already said:
a) You can get nice iC6 pictures, but...
b) You can do much better with iC7.
c) I would pay to upgrade to iC7 rather than look to buy some other plug-in or software.


Other comments:
d) There will be an "Iray" plug-in coming soon, but that's for iC7, and we have not put it to the test in the real world yet.
e) TEXTURES AND LIGHTING --- With any tools, including Indigo, Iray, or anything, if you have poor lighting and 2-cent textures, you will get a bad result no matter what software you use.
f) LIGHTING --- Practice that skill, and color grading and post-effects, and only after you are good at that will upgrading the rendering software give real value
g) TEXTURES --- Take a look at the first two pictures (roll of bathroom tissue - a.k.a. toilet paper) in this thread:  https://forum.reallusion.com/FindPost366316.aspx  Not to brag about it, but I think it's a good example of the difference between a crappy texture (pun intended) and a better one.  Same geometry in both pictures, but especially if you look at the full-sized images, there is a huge difference in the two models.  Neither Indigo, Iray, Arnold, Renderman, nor any other software will give you high-quality results with low-quality input.

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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.
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I agree with 4u2ges.

IC 6 scenes can "appear realistic" only if they have an artistic tone. Rogue Anime's image is a nice example of what I mean. If there is extreme lighting or darkness, or if the lights are positioned behind the characters etc, the results will be nice (and artistic).

However, if you want a character to appear as realistic as possible in an everyday outdoors scene with average sunlight, this is not really possible in IC6. Do as Rogue Anime suggested and experiment with the visuals tab, but at the end of the road, an upgrade to IC 7 is necessary to achieve better results.

Of course the models must be of high quality in order to look as realistic as possible in your render. Again, this is only if you want everyday scenes to appear realistic. If you have extreme lighting then the quality of the model is not as important.


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My YouTube Channel
Phoenix   ;)

I understand you are with IC6, and Peter was too shy to mention option to move to IC7. But instead of investing into other plugins and software, why not to upgrade?
I am not saying with IC7 you would get rendering results like you are getting with Indigo, but with new lighting, shading and other features it's pretty much close. Well worth to upgrade IMO anyway.

Ice - You can get really decent looking results from iClone 6 using the methods our friends have described above. Further, I would look at your visual tab, and explore the tone mapping & ambient occlusion fields. Using/tweaking these fields while in 'high' mode and exporting that project in a PNG sequence will give you really nice results in both iClone 6 & & 7 programs. There are tutorials out there on all these features of iClone 6. By doing all these things Wires & Peter have mentioned, you will get excellent results within the iClone rendering engine. Here is a frame from one of my iClone 6 projects. ~V~

       Val RogueAnanda

Thank you Peter for the idea, I will give it a try and see if that helps but what I want to achieve with my project is to get my whole project looking like something rendered with indigo with sharp looking characters like the pros.
If I can get  more ideas from you, I will like it. Thanks Peter, you have also helped me here...

Thank you Wires, am great full for your reply, can I get a link to a tutorial that will guide me on the export and rendering of my project and the name of the software I can use for the rendering to get a perfect job. ( I have 3D exchange).
And can iclone 7+ render a full project with or without indigo? Thanks a lot