I try to do as much as possible within iClone, but have slowly (with feet dragging) come to realize the need for Blender for certain tasks not possible within iClone. (for *film making*). (at the moment I still use Sketchup for parts that I can't achieve in Blender - yet). DaVinci Resolve is great for compositing scene layers (exported from iClone as PNG sequences). And this plugin from Victor is fantastic - enabling heaps of possibilities that go beyond the standard CC3 morphs - I don't know how I would live without it now that I've *discovered it*. Many thanks Victor! 



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Please be patient with me ..... I don't always 'get it' the first time 'round - not even the 2nd time! :(  - yikes! ... 

● MSI GT72VR Laptop, i7 7700HQ 4-Core 3.8 GHz 16GB RAM; Nvidia 1070, 8GB Vram ● iClone-7.93 ● 3DXChange Pipeline 7.81 ● CC-3 Pipeline 3.44 ● Live Face ● HeadShot ● Brekel Pro-Body ● Popcorn FX ● iRAY ● Kinect V2 ● DaVinci Resolve17 ● Mixcraft 8.1

RAG DOLL COLLISION ANIMATIONS FOR ICLONE 8 & 7
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Ghost Origins

My latest Feature length film created with Iclone.
93% of original size (was 540x16) - Click to enlarge

My Sci- Fi Graphic Novel on Amazon: https://a.co/d/9k3cwoY

My IMDB listing
Anabran Abdhul Quarnain - IMDb

Oh boy... Don't let me start on that one. :)

Blender or not, FBX import into iClone (and I guess CC) is highly inadequate. So there is a lot that needs to be fixed. I wrote about that a while ago (didn't do an FT entry though), but there wasn't any interest in the problem.

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93% of original size (was 540x16) - Click to enlarge

Blender is a popular and second to none app for those who cannot afford Zbrush.
I personally prefer to weight stuff in Blender where I work a lot faster than in CC.
Then I can create dozens of morphs for cloth in Blender and import them all in one shot.
Why not to have an easy and convenient way to import a rig back, specially that I might have to do it a few times in an hour where I do not have to worry about wasting time saving outfit, reloading avatar, or reloading skin, etc, etc. 
There some who still prefer to work within RL eco system - surprise, surprise...
With latest FBX Key it's almost working and would not take much effort to perfect it, while so much effort was put by RL to develop various Auto (and not so Auto) setup links.
So why not?

RAG DOLL COLLISION ANIMATIONS FOR ICLONE 8 & 7
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ghost Origins

My latest Feature length film created with Iclone.
93% of original size (was 540x16) - Click to enlarge

My Sci- Fi Graphic Novel on Amazon: https://a.co/d/9k3cwoY

My IMDB listing
Anabran Abdhul Quarnain - IMDb

If I were to guess, I would think CC3 looks for a certain fbx version/format to reconstruct the materials (Maybe the format Z Brush uses to send the characters beck to CC3 with GoZ). When it sees the fbx format generated from Blender it doesn't bother.

Probably right, then they have to make sure it does :)

From the Blender import point of view, even if I knew how to interrogate the key file for material settings, not every export from CC3 (or any from iClone for that matter) comes with the fbx key.

That one is easy. FBX key is generated only when it is possible to import character back not distorted. There are strict rules set by RL and they are known:
It relates to exported pose. First frame must be a Bind Pose. That is respective to the base Bind pose in Mesh only export. Calibration in Mesh and Motion export.
For Current and Custom pose, "First Frame in Bind-pose" must be checked. Also Delete hidden mesh cannot be checked. Only then the key is generated. Users would know that.

But I highly doubt RL would ever share the Key structure with us. That is why I opened an FT ticket with them. And I am pretty sure it's possible to develop.
Blender tends to rename mesh/materials with specific rules, which could be taken into the account during export from CC one way or another (mapping in the key, renaming it before the export...etc).

New/amended materials/mesh in Blender could have specified restrictions. It is not that critical. We can certainly shade our new/added items in CC without much effort (that is what I do). And then there is Substance Painter pipeline for that too.
I'd be very happy as long as exported from CC character is coming back after Blender "materialized" to the state before the export (PBR, DHS, IRay, SkinGen modules intact).

But as you said, if there would be a way to generate a Json data file on export from Blender and RL would pick it up and parse it on import to CC, that would be a huge +.
Even more, Json file could be generated on FBX export from CC (instead of hiding it in the key) and be available for us to manipulate.

But again it all merely comes down to the will of RL developers to help us with this. Lets hope for the best.

If I were to guess, I would think CC3 looks for a certain fbx version/format to reconstruct the materials (Maybe the format Z Brush uses to send the characters beck to CC3 with GoZ). When it sees the fbx format generated from Blender it doesn't bother.

From the Blender import point of view, even if I knew how to interrogate the key file for material settings, not every export from CC3 (or any from iClone for that matter) comes with the fbx key.

The CC3 to Unity / Unreal exports generate a Json file that contains all the object / material / texture and all the material parameters. If the Blender export were to generate a similar Json file, I could use that data to set up the characters (almost) perfectly and entirely automatically.

Any changes to material parameters made in Blender could be written to Json file and CC3 could pick up on that Json data to reconstruct the materials and the character when importing back in. Any new objects and materials could be added to the Json data and CC3 could import it all back in, maybe not perfectly but better than it currently does.

FT 8011: https://www.reallusion.com/FeedBackTracker/Issue/Importing-characters-back-from-Blender-to-CC-Please-develop-GoB-or-similar

I wonder as to why? This question should probably be addressed to RL, but you might know more on the inside.

Couple of scenarios after exporting character to FBX with Blender profile (I did not try others).

1. You immediately import the same FBX file back into CC.
Materials come fully textured.
Material Sliders value and Check boxes are preserved (Opacity value slider and 2-sided for instance)
Custom tweaks for DHS are preserved.
SkinGen modules info is not preserved and it's getting baked (suppose that is happening on export)
Iray materials restored to default.

Obviously FBX does not hold all that materials info and most of it is coming from the Key. Key used to be a small 200-300 Kb in size.
Now it's megabytes of data (last one I tested was 121 MB - 10 times bigger than FBX file itself). And unencrypted portion of it indicated a lot of shaders routine.

2. You import FBX to Blender with *Traditional* importer. You then export it out and import it back to CC
Materials comes sparsely textured.
Material Sliders value and Check boxes seems to be preserved (Opacity value slider and 2-sided for instance).
Custom tweaks for DHS are preserved.
SkinGen modules info is not preserved and it's getting baked (suppose that is happening on export)
Iray materials restored to default.

I wonder why it textured sparse. I see normal maps are there, but no any opacity or metallic/roughness maps.
It is not a problem with broken Mesh/Material link (Otherwise normal maps would not load either). Right?
Then I suppose the Key does not map it correctly?

3. You import FBX to Blender with your plug-in. You then export it out and import it back to CC.
Character comes not textured at all - fully white. It seems all mesh/material links are broken.

We sure can use other ways to sculpt/create stuff in Blender and bring it back. But an *easy* way back, while having full, clothed, textured character in Blender would have been awfully nice :)

Again, it is not a direct question to you. You did an excellent job developing one way pipeline and it's very much appreciated.
But rather to Reallusion - is it not a time to have a stable way to re-import a character back to CC? An easy GoB button?