I think it looks pretty good niko' !!!I In fact very good.. a few comments made by others offer some helpful tips... but this is great! ;)



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Here's a movie that is only rendered with iClone. And it does not look so bad.

Anytime Mark! There’s a bunch of crazy talented folks in this forum, I literally wonder if they have a different version of iclone! The stuff that you guys on this forum make shows how much you can really do with iclone. Keep in pushing the envelope folks! We’ll b watching :)

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Thanks for the kind words kung' but I still have a long way to go to learn about lighting that lighting thang :D:P



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With GI and PBR, I’ve found that I just turn off the stock key and rim lights and just use an IBL set very low. Then I’ll use practical lighting for scenes. If there’s a lamp or lights on the ceiling I’ll put a spot light or use one of the built in light props. If the shadows are too bad on the character’s face I’ll add another light to take them away. There’s an art to lighting no matter what software you choose. I’ve only scratched the surface of lighting.

There’s a guy on here you can look up Small Wonder studios on YouTube. Mark has some very well lit Film Noir shorts. I’ve always been impressed with his lighting and overall work. The last film I have posted on my YouTube doesn’t look as good in the lighting dept as the ones I made for festivals this past yeAr. If you keep making films, you’ll constantly be learning something with iclone. I had zero experience like most of the guys here and made a film in no time. It really is easy with iclone. Amazing set of tools for the price.

You can go super deep and use the curve editor with mocap for your motions, key frame with the curve editor, or just tweak stock animations chaining them together with different transition curves. It’s really up to you how deep you want to go with iclone. There are plenty of people on here that make crazy stunning vids and I wonder if I have the same Rev! Lots of talented folks really pushing the limits of the software. No matter what software you choose, you’ll have to put in the time.

What’s really nice is that the talented folks on the forum are super willing to help and answer questions. Many of the guys that chimed in here on this thread have great animations they made and they’re open books on techniques. They certainly helped me out a time or two million! That’s pretty tough to beat.

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


—> High Noon”ish” in Narrow Valley<—

Dragonskunk, I've been using iClone since iClone 3, and it's been improved in a lot of ways. I bought it, because I could afford it. I made 90% of my own scenery using sketchup and iExchange, Editing photos, faces, and touch-up I used photoshop. I haven't used any other 3D programs. If your going to be really detailed and are that picky get you a good computer. Lighting is not easy, but can be simple, and is limited to you imagination, it started off with only 4 light sources, but now it's almost limited to your computer power. My disco scene when updated to the real light sources, took days to do since I was still working, the florescent lights in the subway, had to adjusted because they over lapped and were too bright. There is no magic wand and you have to be patient. Everything you do can be saved. I spent a average of $40 or more to buy the things I couldn't make every two weeks. There's a good amount of water accessories, and particles. I have a beach scene, with people taking showers, waves, water, under the title; "U.S. Bear Teaser", which shows multiple scenes I used. To me it's only up to your imagination, of how good you want your scenery and lighting to be. Sometimes you have to fool with, colors and strength of extra lighting to get the effect you want. My videos of most of my scenes can be seen on YouTube, under "rioleo8". I've never used any other program, but I can tell you with iClone, just about everything I wanted to do, I've been able to do. I have a lot of things I done that may amaze, but I won't show until I release the full movie.     https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rioleo8



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1] Is Iclone a good "movie making Tool" what makes it so. I have no interest in exporting to game or other 3d applications for rendering
Lots of handy tools for making quick walk cycles, lip syncing, adding assets and props. A real time saver.
2] Why do Iclone and Character Creator need separate versions of Iray - as seen in the shop.
Its existing real time render is nearly the same, it can get good results but is 80% of what you can render with Ray Tracing so it's an extra cost if you want extra realism.
3] How good /easy to get realistic lipsinc results.
You can get 70% accuracy with just an audio file but it has a very comfortable interface to edit the lip sync.
5] How easy to manipulate Cameras and render out scenes.
There are many techniques to make all kinds of camera motions super easy.
6] Is it a good lighting system with easy to apply effects.
Not gotta be wanting much for anything to do with lighting, it's covered.
7] Is the particle system robust - ie plenty of features for creating particles.
Cost extra for 3D particles but you can do alot with flat emitters, sparks, fire, snow, smoke, etc.
8] ]Any liquid simulations ? ie flowing  water, ocean waves etc.
Only calm slightly wavy waters, yeah that one sucks.
9] Learning curve - is it reasonable ? 
Yeah! Easy to use and notice that here, many like nothing better than to help a fellow iCloner.

Thank you for response - Some good animations here and renders too - making me reconsider !
I think I learned I don't NEED Iray  I think too that maybe in Iclone one is encouraged to use gobal illumination or IBL - maybe it is over used and could be the reason some scenes look flat.
I use Carrara Pro8 and generally rely on lights such as spots ,distant, bulbs and area etc with adjustments to shadow strength, falloff , colour etc
I tend to think in terms of real life, placing lights in the scene where I want and use gels, shutters, bounce[ reflection ] to get a "look" and adding effects such as glow, cones and perhaps animating something over time.  - no doubt all of this is available in Iclone too ? Still checking tutorials.
I think I saw "fracture" used in a video of a building being destroyed - is fracture available in Iclone physics ? 
Once again thanks for information.
 

@0oseven: Iray rendering is indeed a lengthy process, and although I like the look, there are still certain things missing or not working correctly, so I went back to the iClone native renderer for my latest project. It is more than 2 minutes and there is no dancing, I promise...:P

I hope to have it completed pretty soon, and then you can judge if the quality is to your liking. Like mtakerkart, I'm not aiming at hyper-realism. However, working with the Iray renderer was still useful, because it inspired me to emulate certain aspects of the Iray render that I liked in iClone.

During discussions here at the forum, various useful tips have come up. You've already noticed the flat lighting in some of the animations, and iClone is certainly able to do better than that. It just takes time to set it up properly. The way I work is that I render a scene, critique it, and then make improvements. That is not very feasible with Iray. I timed rendering one project and for Iray it came to 96 sec/frame, as opposed to 2.6 sec/frame for iClone.

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@0oseven

May my videos test can helps you to choose:

3 years ago (no facial mocap) :







2 years ago (no facial mocap)







One year ago with some popcornfx particles (no facial mocap )





Few months ago , facial mocap test :



Character creator 3 extreme test :




As you can see my render quality goal is AAA video game look not ultra realistic. Ultra realistic MUST use the "raytracing" tech.