RAG DOLL COLLISION ANIMATIONS FOR ICLONE 8 & 7
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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

Re-rendering (which you were doing) doesn't hurt anything but the time it takes to do it.  But as you approach your final project you need to re-render smart.

In your video editor you drop the PNG frames as your video track.  Now you put in your audio for voices and sound FX and music, adjust any video FX (perhaps color adjustments or fade in/out or whatever) and then you notice an arm isn't right.  You go back and re-render but you overwrite the PNG files so that your video editor still has the latest (so no worries there -- your project is still set up with no further changes needed).

This becomes more and more important the longer your project is -- imagine you have ten scenes but only need to re-render the third and fifth.  Your entire project in your video editor stays intact even if you make changes to individual scenes (timing changes are another thing, but you will get used to dealing with those in your editor as well).

This is mostly stuff you'll learn by doing.  One day you'll say "Why am I rendering this entire scene when the only thing that changed was two seconds where his arm penetrated his body?"  In reality, that's ALL you need to re-render (so your workflow goes faster and faster).

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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

Is anytime I render a video a 2nd time from the same project a re-rendering?  

In our John the Baptist scene, I rendered a video (as a "final render" high quality video) along the way. 

Should I only be doing those as "preview renders" until it really is the final render instead?  

And if so, is there a difference at all in what the audience would see?

I did the final render / high quality levels when we made any significant change in it to see how it was coming out. 

I wanted to see exactly how it would come out as the final render. 

For example: Wind adjustments, 10 or 11 motion tracks, then with 15 motion tracks, then with 19 motion tracks, etc. 

I saved it as a new project name each time, but it still sprouted from the same project. 

Also, what does re-rendering do to the project, please? 

~ Kimmie

www.TrackingJESUS.net 

--> More Information On This Bible Film Production Can Be Found At: 
www.TrackingJESUS.net/Productions 

--> Become An Early Subscriber To The 'Tracking JESUS' YouTube Channel At: 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEMx91AySc3QuF-SS_3mGQQ

Mike already explained perfectly a preferred workflow.

One frequent task is syncing footsteps to walking in the animation.

In Vegas, which I use, this is very easy to do. I can time-stretch or shrink the audio clip with the footsteps so that they fit the visible footsteps. If the footsteps are irregular it's a bit more complicated, but doing it in the video editor still has its advantages.

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I can only speak for "best practices" -- things that folks who do this for a living (including me, at one point) have learned over the years.  There are a LOT of different ways of defurring the same feline, and if something works well for you it's never wrong to do it that way (although I would always advise anyone to try the best way ONCE to see before they go reinventing the wheel).

For such a workflow you never want to do your audio in your animation program.  Keep the processes separate -- audio in your dedicated audio program, animation in your animation program, and then bring both (along with SFX) in your video editor for the final product.  That way you always have the best tools doing the work they are designed to do.

That said, if often helps to have audio in iClone to time things to, so for this you just lay down a "rough" base track.  You do NOT worry about sound FX or music or anything else that isn't needed for timing (if you need to time things to sound FX, then by all means use that -- you might want to put a gun shot or similar item in).  After you render the animation frames you can also render out the audio track and then match up your REAL audio to this (which will be superior anyway).

If this makes sense to you you have it already -- you don't need to mess around, in iClone, with anything more than just a general audio track containing the sound you need for timing.  All else is added later.  This general track can be made in your audio editor as well, but don't spend too much time on it because the separate pieces you'll put together in the video editor.

Why do we do it this way?  Because there isn't any way to easily adjust things in iClone.  You have that aforementioned gunshot -- you line it all up in the animation, but in the final pass in your editor you realize it isn't loud enough.  Easy peasy -- you just increase the volume there for that one track.  Oh, and at the same time you need to fade out the sound of the river while someone makes a critical speech, but bring it up afterwards -- again, easy.  You do NOT re-render your iClone project for minor audio edits.  (Plus it won't have as good sound in iClone).

If you don't see how this should work I can put together a short tutorial on the whole process, but it really just comes down to -- hold off on final changes for things you don't need to adjust until the last moment.  So, no final audio for sure (that is the LAST thing you will do).  

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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

Kelley-Toons: By an overall sound file, do you mean pasting more than one voice file into the timeline to create one overall sound file for a back and forth audio piece?

Or do you mean overall sound file as in background music or other background sounds in addition to the voice files? 

I saw a video tutorial (I think it was by War-Lord) where he put a sound file into a 'box' in the scene.  I have been looking forward to trying that. 

We are obviously going to be needing to create some sound files for this project as well. 

For example, there are 2 separate occasions where JESUS knocks over the tables of the merchants at the Temple (because those guys just didn't learn the 1st time :-D ). 

But there will be speaking as well during those times from the Gospel book writers together with the sounds of coins flying and landing on the ground. 

Another example: The Sea of Galilee will have water wave sounds - and on one occasion very strong winds with that,while the waves knock against their boat.  And multiple people will be speaking in the storm scene.  

I am very intrigued at how all of these things will be done - and also without 'running over' the voices speaking. 

All thoughts on this you guys, please and thank you! :-)

~ Kimmie



www.TrackingJESUS.net 

--> More Information On This Bible Film Production Can Be Found At: 
www.TrackingJESUS.net/Productions 

--> Become An Early Subscriber To The 'Tracking JESUS' YouTube Channel At: 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEMx91AySc3QuF-SS_3mGQQ

Each character can have their own voice file (AND you can have an overall sound file for the project).

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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

Can we have multiple voice files in IClone or would you "splice" them into one file?  

Kimmie,

What we would do for our Fox show is to record the dialog for all folks at the same time, so they could talk back and forth (and interrupt).  Then we would cut it up afterwards and create the separate tracks, as others have suggested using our audio program.  

For facial mocap nowadays I do two different sessions, although one day I hope to have another iPhone X (perhaps the XR) to do both at the same time (normally even in the most dialog intensive shows you usually only have two people talking at the same time.  The exceptions can be handled).

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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

And you should be finalizing your audio in your Video editing program where it will be quite easy to have people's voice tracks interrupting or even talking over one another depending on the narrative and your camera cuts of course.

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