FBX vs Alembic

Author	Message
AutoDidact	AutoDidact Posted 8 Years Ago
Distinguished Member Group: Forum Members Last Active: 4 Months Ago Posts: 2.1K, Visits: 13.6K	animagic (11/15/2018) So then, what is a feasible pipeline for including volumetrics that doesn't break the bank? I wouldn't be opposed including Blender, and Houdini Indie is something that I would be able to afford. After discussing the impossible maybe it's time to think positive and discuss what's possible. If by Volumetrics you mean volumetric smoke and fluids Your only free option is Blender obviously. I personally would wait for a stable rease of 2.8 before migrating to a Blender bsased rendering & VFX pipeline. I am not sure what the import features are for Houdini indie are. however $199 per year is quite reasonable. And there is allways the option to export your Iclone cameras to the VFX,Volumetrics app as FBX ,render the VFX and composite them with Hitfilm or similar At any rate you will have to find an integration method. for your Iclone animated characters with which you are comfortable. RAG DOLL COLLISION ANIMATIONS FOR ICLONE 8 & 7 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ghost Origins My latest Feature length film created with Iclone. My Sci- Fi Graphic Novel on Amazon: https://a.co/d/9k3cwoY My IMDB listing Anabran Abdhul Quarnain - IMDb

urbanlamb	urbanlamb Posted 8 Years Ago
Distinguished Member Group: Forum Members Last Active: 2 Years Ago Posts: 1.2K, Visits: 3.5K	Those would both be good things Houdini has a lot of things that are quite handy and its got procedural stuff as well also good for things. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "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

animagic	animagic Posted 8 Years Ago
Distinguished Member Group: Forum Members Last Active: Last Month Posts: 15.8K, Visits: 31.4K	So then, what is a feasible pipeline for including volumetrics that doesn't break the bank? I wouldn't be opposed including Blender, and Houdini Indie is something that I would be able to afford. After discussing the impossible maybe it's time to think positive and discuss what's possible.

AutoDidact	AutoDidact Posted 8 Years Ago
Distinguished Member Group: Forum Members Last Active: 4 Months Ago Posts: 2.1K, Visits: 13.6K	illusionLAB (11/15/2018) I don't see the point of an Alembic import. There are probably 50 features that would be far more useful to implement into iC that everyone would benefit from - iClone is essentially a game engine, and there are already systems that provide volumetrics and simulations which are optimized for real time. Open VDB would be a more logical path, although again, would most likely cripple the system from performing in 'real time'. I agree completely. RAG DOLL COLLISION ANIMATIONS FOR ICLONE 8 & 7 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ghost Origins My latest Feature length film created with Iclone. My Sci- Fi Graphic Novel on Amazon: https://a.co/d/9k3cwoY My IMDB listing Anabran Abdhul Quarnain - IMDb

animagic	animagic Posted 8 Years Ago
Distinguished Member Group: Forum Members Last Active: Last Month Posts: 15.8K, Visits: 31.4K	The misunderstanding that "iClone is a game engine" has haunted it for years unfortunately.

urbanlamb	urbanlamb Posted 8 Years Ago
Distinguished Member Group: Forum Members Last Active: 2 Years Ago Posts: 1.2K, Visits: 3.5K	illusionLAB (11/15/2018) I don't see the point of an Alembic import. There are probably 50 features that would be far more useful to implement into iC that everyone would benefit from - iClone is essentially a game engine, and there are already systems that provide volumetrics and simulations which are optimized for real time. Open VDB would be a more logical path, although again, would most likely cripple the system from performing in 'real time'. I dont see a point in either direction but some people gave some valid points. ^^ ..so in the cases given i can see it being more favourable "in then out" for lack of a better way to put it. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "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

animagic	animagic Posted 8 Years Ago
Distinguished Member Group: Forum Members Last Active: Last Month Posts: 15.8K, Visits: 31.4K	@Autodidact: That would be Houdini. Mind you, I'm pre-novice, but I played a bit with it a while ago and would make an effort in really learning it as it has a lot of capabilities. So I'm not opposed to using other applications but I like to minimize it.

illusionLAB	illusionLAB Posted 8 Years Ago
Distinguished Member Group: Forum Members Last Active: 4 Years Ago Posts: 393, Visits: 4.8K	I don't see the point of an Alembic import. There are probably 50 features that would be far more useful to implement into iC that everyone would benefit from - iClone is essentially a game engine, and there are already systems that provide volumetrics and simulations which are optimized for real time. Open VDB would be a more logical path, although again, would most likely cripple the system from performing in 'real time'.

urbanlamb	urbanlamb Posted 8 Years Ago
Distinguished Member Group: Forum Members Last Active: 2 Years Ago Posts: 1.2K, Visits: 3.5K	AutoDidact (11/14/2018) The reason why people need Alembic (or MDD in my case) is when you have one application that can create animated meshes of Characters or even fluid & cloth simulations with the fidelity you want. However you need to render them in another application in the rendering pipeline that has greater quality than your animation creation application. I see no reason for Iclone to have alembic import because its natve render options are way behind even apps Like posers firefly or Daz Studio 3Delight ,to say nothing of the Major 3DCC applications like Maya, Lightwave or Maxon ,C4D. i actually see more sense in the import to iclone simply because iclone has less capability then most of those target applications you list. (well daz and those i dont consider particularly usefull sorry lol good for concept but not final animation) the others have so many tools at their disposal that I get confused at why you would limit your options and use alembic export considering iclone is less powerful then they are. So this is why I asked. The major applications have full toolsets so to use the alembic seems .. a waste of time to me because of how it works. So I was just curious. As whenever i tackled the issue i threw alembic aside because i was bringing it into a full suite package where I could achieve the same but without wasting all that space and spending all that time to produce those files which.. i may need to tweak and repeat for lack of a better way to put it. Seemed easier to just add the assets and build the scene from scratch to get the result. The bone based animation and morph system inside iclone dont give good animation results for something like maya or max or blender because I can use a superior system to create better results. So I get confused with some of the features of software. Anyhow I got the answers but to be honest (although I dont think iclone can handle it) given its limitations i see more merit in importing via alembic from something like blender then I do in exporting ^^ but that is me because I see iclone more as a render engine rather then an animation tool because of some of the limits it has as a result of what it is. edit: tried to remove some typos .. hope it makes sense now.. moving too fast today.. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "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

AutoDidact	AutoDidact Posted 8 Years Ago
Distinguished Member Group: Forum Members Last Active: 4 Months Ago Posts: 2.1K, Visits: 13.6K	animagic (11/14/2018) AutoDidact (11/14/2018) I see no reason for Iclone to have alembic import because its natve render options are way behind even apps Like posers firefly or Daz Studio 3Delight ,to say nothing of the Major 3DCC applications like Maya, Lightwave or Maxon ,C4D. That's just you. I would be very happy with Alembic import and would certainly use it. I have heard for about 10,00 years that iClone's renderer is behind, so I just ignore such comments and move on to make my films. EDIT: BTW, for those of you who feel that Alembic import is a useful feature, you can vote for it here: FT #3363. I am curious what external Animation applications are you using right now ....that exports alembic mesh caches?? I only ask because you have made it clear that you prefer to do everything in Iclone. An alembic importer ,in Iclone , would presume that people are using external applications to create animations not possible in Iclone such as Fluid /VDB simulations or Ragdoll physics. Such External applications Houdini, Blender ,Maya ,Lightwave, Cinema4D, all have better render engines as well as the ability to handle the massive,multi- gigabyte Data sets that Alembic caches create .( I know as I have used them with Lightwave) Reallusion would have to radically change Iclone to be able to handle Hi resolution geometry from any decent Looking fluid sim from Blender or Houdini so it is not just about adding an alembic importer. RAG DOLL COLLISION ANIMATIONS FOR ICLONE 8 & 7 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ghost Origins My latest Feature length film created with Iclone. My Sci- Fi Graphic Novel on Amazon: https://a.co/d/9k3cwoY My IMDB listing Anabran Abdhul Quarnain - IMDb

FBX vs Alembic - FIGHT!

FBX vs Alembic - FIGHT!

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