Lets see... where am I up to?

Version 1.1.2 of the Blender Auto-setup Tool: https://github.com/soupday/cc3_blender_tools
(https://github.com/soupday/cc3_blender_tools/releases)

And introducting the CC3 plugin for re-importing the character from Blender:
Version 1.0.1 of the Python Plugin for CC3: https://github.com/soupday/CC3-Blender-Tools-Plugin

See This Post for more details.


Changelog

1.1.2

• Export accessory button no longer locked to character.
• Some import/export folder logic changed to try and cope with project folder & files being moved.
• Added custom texture node baking on export to CC3, including baking bump maps into normal maps on export.
  • If nodes are used to modify (or replace) texture inputs to material shaders, those nodes can be baked into the texture channel on export. This assumes the mesh has a valid UV map.
  • Bump maps can be baked into normal channels. Typically CC3 will only allow Normal maps OR bump maps for a material, not both, so an option has been added to combine them into just the normal map.

1.1.1

• Fix to crash from multiple character imports from iClone.
  • Note: Exporting multiple characters in one Fbx from iClone to Blender is not fully supported.
  • Characters should be exported individually.
  • If multiple characters are detected then a warning pop-up will be displayed.

1.1.0

• Updated export function to generate compatible Fbx file for CC3 re-import with FbxKey and to write back json material parameter and texture information. To be used in tandem with Blender Importer Plugin for CC3 3.44 for full round-trip character editing in Blender.
• Import/Export Interface simplified.
  • If character has Fbxkey then character is setup for editing. (i.e. Shapekeys locked to basis)
  • Otherwise (character is posed or has animation) character is setup for rendering.
  • Only Fbxkey character can be exported back to CC3.
• Optional Json and Texture write back for exports.
• Optional teeth rotation fix that affects some older generated characters when importing back into CC3.
• Bake on export function added to bake custom material nodes connected to master shader's texture map sockets into textures to include when re-importing back into CC3.
• Additional objects can be selected for exporting with the character, but must be properly parented and weighted with an armature modifier. Otherwise CC3 will ignore them.
• Some property and parameter fixes.

1.0.3

• First attempt at a single material parallax eye shader added. Which does not use SSR or transparency and thus can receive full shadows and subsurface scattering in Eevee.

The old legacy hair meshes worked reasonably well with Blender's physics, but the new Smart hair and hair builder hair meshes just don't cooperate at all. The hair meshes themselves are very dense and the physX weight maps are very opaque and so the hair barely seems to move, or it clips through the body and gets tangled up.

I suppose the the physics systems in Blender and iClone are just too different to try and do a 1:1 weight mapping.

I'm going to need to rethink some of it.

Edit: For the clothes, a lot of the cloth physics relies on the underlying body mesh being removed, so remember to use the Delete hidden faces option on export.

Hi guys.

Im just courius, i made some facial animation(+Head) and Hairs (physic) . I export this normaly to blender. i Used Physics in import to blender, my exported hair are rly messed they act 
rly different than in Iclone?

Victor or guys there is any video tutorial how to import correcty hair (especially hair physics to work correct in Blender and clothes maybe also)?. 

Thanks guys !

thanks for the hint, exporting the characters one by one solved the problem for me and now everything is looking fine

Multiple character exports from iClone have never worked well, because it bundles everything into one FBX, and it becomes impossible to untangle which textures belong to which characters, and duplicate material names from each character (i.e. body and hair materials) were overwriting each others textures.

As a rule, characters should be exported separately and individually.

What changed, is that the latest iClone version exports Json data with the characters. The Blender add-on picks up multiple armatures and expects to see multiple characters in the Json data, but as before it's all mashed into one set of character data with duplicate objects and materials overwritten, so the script crashes before it even gets to the material setup part...

With single character exports, the Json data should be complete and so sets up the character accurately. But with multiple characters the data is basically trashed, and as it's iClone doing it, there's nothing I can do to fix it once it reaches Blender.

I can stop it crashing with multiple characters, but it doesn't change the fact that it's going to be wrong. Maybe I need to show a warning message if multiple characters are detected.

I am doing some animations in iClone 7 designing characters in CC3 v3.44 and then, sending them to iClone v7.93 (pipeline). My project includes three characters, two of my own design and an actor core, all of them human. My human characters use the headshot plugin and Hair Builder and Professional outfits.

I export my characters to Blender by selecting all them and use the export option from the iClone's file menu (Export FBX).

Then I am importing the FBX in Blender 2.93. For this I am using the CC3 tools blender plugin (version 1.0.2).
My projects were being exported to Blender 2.93 without problems until two weeks ago, but since yesterday, I noticed that an error is now showing when I try to import any project in Blender with the plugin:
Python: Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Users\amten\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.93\scripts\addons\cc3_blender_tools-main\importer.py", line 689, in modal
self.run_import(context)
File "C:\Users\amten\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.93\scripts\addons\cc3_blender_tools-main\importer.py", line 581, in run_import
self.import_character()
File "C:\Users\amten\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.93\scripts\addons\cc3_blender_tools-main\importer.py", line 467, in import_character
self.import_characters = detect_characters(self.filepath, type, imported, json_data)
File "C:\Users\amten\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.93\scripts\addons\cc3_blender_tools-main\importer.py", line 349, in detect_characters
chr_cache.character_id = character_keys[index]
IndexError: list index out of range

location: <unknown location>:-1

In the displayed characters several materials show incorrectly in Blender: face skin transparent, hair with plastic aspect, transparent clothes.

I also tried the new version of the CC3 Tools plugin (1.1.0), but here is the same problem and also I notice now that in this new plugin it is not easy to locate the option for rebuild the materials (which this time does not work for correcting the problem). I saw in previous projects this problem seemed to be related with textures and shaders, and by rebuilding the materials throught the plugin use to correct several issues, but this time it does not work either.

Since the last time I exported from iClone without problems it has been a pair of updates of iClone.

I tested the problem in my two authorized computers (Windows 8.1 and Windows 10) and the problems are identical.

Yes, my problem is similar to yours, oonabe. I will place a detailed description of the problem I having exporting to Blender

is someone else having issues since the latest CC3 / iClone7 updates?

I cannot see any material settings in the blender add-on under "Material Parameters" anymore after importing with cycles build and scalps are showing a shiny reflective material now

Thank you for the useful information and feedback. Now I want to ask something else. Is there a proper workflow to import an animated character into blender with the linked prop? I attach an example image: in iClone the character is holding the rapier as a prop linked to her hand. I select both the character and the prop and export the mesh + motion to blender but as you can see the rapier is shifted. Both animations work, but the prop is not in the right position. I tried to reposition it manually but it is a pain and even if the starting position is correct, then it shifts by itself during the animation, so maybe I am using the wrong workflow. Do you have any suggestion about it? Thanks

You could try putting a little bit of subsurface in the eyelash material. It's drawing the hair properly and that has subsurface so maybe enabling it in the eyelash will fix it. Transparencies without subsurface on top of subsurface materials can sometimes produce strange artefacts, putting subsurface in the transparency too can sometimes fix it.

Setting the Subsurface input of the eyelash material's Principled BSDF node to something really small like 0.01, enough to enable Subsurface but have almost no effect. That might fix it.