Haven't used Iclone yet but I'll give the same advice that Richard Williams gave his students. Learn to use 2B first, meaning  learn to use a pencil and draw poses...lots of poses.

All animation principles are the same no matter what medium, read the Illusion of life and the animators survival kit then apply those principles to the software you use. 

Hope that helps.

Peter

Yes.  Please send a link to your mentioned videos.

Yes I wish we all had time to do more training videos though, as I truly love Iclone and I think it has amazing possibilities. It’s just evolved into a very feature-rich tool that is very difficult to just “dive into”.

I don’t have the coding skills but I would love to create some kind of overlay for Iclone that simplified it - renaming tools and adding in-context help. I’d also love to have six months to sit in a cabin somewhere and re-write the manual lol. The team has done an amazing job but it’s impenetrable for new users! :)

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virtualfilmer.com | youtube

Mrtobycook you nailed it on the head. 

I was checking in to see if you accepted my request OP.

Once in a while I will hold lectures on iclone animation and I'm currently working on one that deals with character interaction and movement.

The first process is simple and gives the first examples of good animation, but it's something many icloners, including myself for a time, have struggled with. 

Can you make a character turn their head in a realistic and natural way? It involves a lot of the fundamentals. 

You learn that and you learn the principles of good animation and you can build from there. It takes patience and a lot of work. 

Character interactions like a kiss take a lot of adjustments, keyframing, heavy use of facial expressions, and a little clever use of camera angles. All this needs to be learned one step at a time.

iClone Certified Director and makes miserable Westerns.

Also, I’d add that the biggest issue all software training on the internet has is that experts don’t visit the forums and making training once they are experts lol.

I know even for me, I’m a tv editor for prime time broadcast tv in LA. Have I made tutorials on how to do it? No. I’m part of the (overall) problem! :))

Plus, mike made a good point - lots of the best Iclone stuff is embargoed by NDAs etc. People use it for previz, but they aren’t allowed to show you that stuff! Unless the studio releases it etc. and also, if it’s above a certain $$$ level they almost certainly used motion builder not Iclone (google previz for all the pro video examples).

(Some of us on here are 3dsmax / motion builder people too, but don’t want to spend that kind of $$$ for our own passion projects)

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virtualfilmer.com | youtube

Iclone is hard to use but so are ALL 3d animation softwares :) don’t give up!

It’s very difficult to make people interact - have you used 3dsmax and maya etc? It’s very difficult and that’s why character-based 3D animation is a unique skill set. And also why motion capture is so popular as a starting point!

There’s no “magic button” in Iclone to make characters interact, is that what you’re looking for? You have to painstakingly make it happen, using all of its tools. Just like you have to in other 3D apps.

Mostly it’s about mastering keyframe animation - posing characters and then moving the pose. Bit by bit. That’s the core of all animation.

The alternative to keyframes in Iclone is combining premade motion clips. Have you used them much? They take skill too, but you can “mix and match” motion clips (even masking out areas of the body you don’t want animations to apply to etc) in all sorts of ways. If you go down that route, I’d suggest learning about motion roots etc.

The absolute best best best training there currently is is the series “Iclone fundamentals” that Reallusion sells. It’s very very slow - you have to be patient with the guy as it takes forever for him to say things as he’s british lol - but it has character interaction!!!!!

It had a long section about characters interacting in an outside beer garden. Chatting and stuff. Not touching tho haha if that’s what you need. But it covers all the stuff you need to know.

Does that help?!

Also please don’t be flippant about the Iclone stuff you see out there in the world, cause people have spent a long time trying to make stuff. Even if it’s not “perfect” it doesn’t help the community to have people say it’s crap. :(

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virtualfilmer.com | youtube

well i do this all the time in my Projects and it is hard depending on the subject. The acting also plays a factor as well. I have been doing videos of a woman interacting with  a robot. It took some time to do. I used motionbuilder to block out what i wanted then exported back to iclone and started sampling the parts of the animation and using the curve editor.  It is time consuming working like i do but i get what i want . I do videos on this subject I would like to post the videos i have done in the four board But me posting content from my youtube channel is banned from this forum board. Talk to Peter about that. But I will put together a video tutorial how to break down a scene with two characters interacting. Here is a simple fight scene I have done I have many videos starting from scratch of how i was able to get the two character to react and fight one another. Like i said Peter banned me from making any post from my main youtube channel. But i can Send you a pm to all the videos i made on this project. 
This video in on my Iclone friendly channel but all the work i did on this scene is on my main channel.
Enjoy!

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Do me a favor and upload a video of a character turning their head first. Start with this task first.

iClone Certified Director and makes miserable Westerns.

@jsinger

Your request is a paradox for me. You joined the forum 12 years ago , and you used Iclone since the 4th version without knowing how to animate "basic" behaviors...
and you said that Iclone community level of animation is low :ermm:
I understand that animating with keyframes is not your strong point , so I suggest to invest in some mocap suit doing mocap of your need. I did this and it's a very
good way to achieve my needs ;)

I am always terribly annoyed with these blank statements that are not based on anything. It is not even worth discussing.

And I feel not inclined to offer any help or support, which you are obviously after.

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