Greetings everyone, 

I'm trying to create a werewolf short, but I've hit a wall and don't know what the solution is to be able to continue. 
The Morph Creator has a limitation listed below:



This creates a big problem when trying to do things like scale a model. Without some kind of "blend shapes" or "shape keys", I can't create any sort of transformation short, which I need for my work project.

Does anyone know a possible workaround or workflow for this? 
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

There virtually no true workaround currently for morphing bones in iClone.
Some cryptic workaround with great deal of limitation: https://forum.reallusion.com/FindPost500521.aspx

Aw man that is extremely disappointing (Thank you for the proposed workaround). 

So here's what I'm thinking - I'm extremely pleased with IC4's animating tools and capabilities but this is a deal breaker (The entire point of purchasing this software was so I could make transformation animations for my project). If a transformation animation can't be made using Reallusion software, is it possible to:

1) Create the source and target model in CC4 (Same vert count)
2) Animate the source model in IC4
3) Export the animation data to something like Blender
4) Create the target Shape Key so the model can morph at the selected point during the animation? 

In my head I figure I could go shot by shot, going back and forth between IC4 and Blender.

I do not think that would work. Animated or not, Blender or not, your rig is still at the original size and it would deform mesh accordingly.
And would look something like that:



It maybe possible to morph animated model entirely in Blender (because it does support bones scaling on a timeline I believe). And then export character mesh as Alembic.
But I am not a Blender animation guru to advise on a workflow.

Here, some bone scaled on a Blender timeline on top of the animated character from iClone and then exported as Alembic and applied to the same character in iClone (I used a Game Base for simplicity).
Clear disadvantage is, that you have to morph/scale your character in Blender. Maybe good for short transitions.

I think I have a solution for you now. Sorry, it did not occur to me earlier in support.

Create your initial character and werewolf character.
Create the morphing using the morph animator in iClone. Just the mesh changes, no scaling.
Select the character in the scene.
File>Export>FBX.
Choose a frame range to match your transition time.
Import that FBX with the animated transition into iClone.
Props can be scaled, and bone position changed in the animation layer. So make the needed the scale changes as keys for the prop "character".

So you will need to do some hiding/showing between the real character and prop character, or characters for non morphed and morphed.

Hello! 

I was also very disapoint when I noticed that I couldn't animate a transformation involving size change in iClone. It's been a while that I made a ticket about it (2019) but I didn't get any answer sadly. 
I still hope that one day this feature will be released :crying:
But in the meantime the best solution to achieve this is to apply the Rampa method. It's restrictive if you want to make interactions but there are no other solutions.
I recommend in the meantime to vote the ticket I created on this subject : Change the size of a character in the timeline - Feedback Tracker (reallusion.com)

Thank you all for the replies, it's much appreciated!

I ended up using this solution:

Anyone play the old game Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 (2006)? It's selling point was that it was 3D and you could make your coaster fly off the track and onto the other side of the track. 
The same process is what I used to morph a guy into a beast, send that mesh off the bone..

1) Using iAvatars made in the CC4, I would create model A to animate, and model B for what they would become. 
2) I'd animate model A into the pose I'd want them to morph in, duplicate it, and import model B so it was in the same alignment and pose. (Bless the Align To tool) 
3) I'd then take model B and bring it to the Morph Creator to save out as an OBJ. 
4) I'd then turn off visibility for model B in iClone.
5) I'd take model A and import the OBJ of model B as a morph target and do the whole bake process and send to Morph Animator. 

From there I could animate model A morphing and when they were fully changed, I'd turn off visibility for model A, and turn on visibility for model B so that it can animate as usual.

The big limitation with this is you can't move the model much during the morph without starting to break the mesh, so major hand movement or body turns is out of the question.