Iclone 6 wishlist!

Iclone 6 wishlist!

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https://forum.reallusion.com/Topic123071.aspx

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By planetstardragon - 13 Years Ago

I thought since RL was so kind to include the panel for a future IC5 build ...

It may be nice to mention things I'd like to see for IC6 ...

Firstly for IC5 - i love all the new additions, it's a very ambitious upgrade and I give kudos to the team for taking it there ...it's leaps and bounds from the last versions and the only thing beyond the request for the panel I have ...is to tighten up what we have to be a flawless release.... imo ic5 is a staple of quality animation tools in an easy to use system - prior versions were nice but not enough to go beyond the sims ....being honest ..#justsayin :P
with the new upcoming panel and current animation features in ic5, we have the tools to do some amazing animations and create custom super interesting characters.....

Now ...on to IC6

Since IC5 focus was animation and physics.....I'd like to see IC6 go back to focusing on the Visual side of things .... and maybe an integrated / easier way to add spring effects to characters so we can have springing hair ....and maybe even add physics to clothing so we can have flowing clothes..... and maybe some sort of wind contraption so the flowing hair and clothes can blow in the wind, and we can have grass and oceans flowing in the wind!!

I have to agree with swoop about the occlusion culling - when i see how some of the new tech games coming out and how amazing they look in real time.....it makes me consider that iclone should look better than that....

another feature I'd like to see in IC6 - is baking - swoop is also correct in being able to handle UV's to get our movies to a higher level ...so it would be nice to be able to get our characters to look how we want with our custom texturing ....because that's an awesome feature ...but it would be nice to be able to consolidate all that stuff to one solid uv / texture so we can now have more resources to film more effectively, the more free resources we have the more space we have to make our sets more interesting with lots of detail!

Effects - the particle system is good ...but again, when I see what modern games are doing in real time .... Iclone needs to be equal or better.

basically, from studying all modern games .....iclone should be able to emulate what they can do in real times ......I won't talk about the cut scenes because most of the time those are maya / max / lightwave / cd4 renders ...so thats not a fair comparison.....what I am comparing is the quality in real time play......Iclone 6 needs to be better than the best realtime rendering games today imo. - so I am benchmarking my requests on game engines - not industrial level animation softwares.

I'll add more to the list as I find it, but for now ... in IC6 I want to be able to emulate what I see the dragons and magicians do in realtime game engines, but better! I want people to wish my videos was an mmo!! lol

:)

update - just remembered another, a new art trend i'm finding is mixing 3D with 2D - looks amazing too - ( it's actually an old technique of using mattes, but now they are emphsizing the 2d...and not trying to make 2D look 3D, the beauty of that art is the actual contrast of 2D vs 3D ) would like to see some sort of bridge between cta and IC6 for this type of art ...I know it's really unnecessary ....because we can just transfer picture and video files between both programs ...but a formal bridge imo would be a way of creating a suite of products that is meant to cater to that style of art.

By Paumanok West - 13 Years Ago

planetstardragon (5/18/2012)

It may be nice to mention things I'd like to see for IC6 ...

Since IC5 focus was animation and physics.....I'd like to see IC6 go back to focusing on the Visual side of things .... and maybe an integrated / easier way to add spring effects to characters so we can have springing hair ....and maybe even add physics to clothing so we can have flowing clothes..... and maybe some sort of wind contraption so the flowing hair and clothes can blow in the wind, and we can have grass and oceans flowing in the wind!!

...

another feature I'd like to see in IC6 - is baking - swoop is also correct in being able to handle UV's to get our movies to a higher level

Ha, when THE DRAGON speaks, we listen. Because the Dragon is really pushing the new features of IC5/3DX5. :)

These are really fantastic ideas and I agree. Getting better physics into clothing and hair is extremely desirable to me.

Re: texturing, I recall people talking about displacement mapping. It sounds like a pretty important advance... is that right?

By planetstardragon - 13 Years Ago

ya, displacement mapping would be awesome...until it eats up so many resources that you can only have one character in your scene .....so it's super important to find a way to consolidate ...what I'm basing my thinking on is how amazing these games look in real time.... thats not possible with so many things eating up resources in real time

another thing that influences my ideas is music workflow .... in music we do what is called bouncing .... basically when you have tons of tracks with tons of resource heavy plug ins you reach a saturation point that you simply can not make a mix sound better unless you print what you already like ...well the same applies to animation ......we add so much customization in real time to our scenes ....we would need a way to consolidate what we've done already to free up resources and continue to add more.

Edit - here's an example - say for instance you wanted to spend a week on just developing your environment ...added a ton of trees, houses from google warehouse, rocks, grass, you got the perfect hd lighting no holds barred....so much detail you started to see your computer slow down before you even added your multi uv HD texture characters ...animating them in such an environment would be a pain ...so....... you click a "Bake Scene" button ....this all becomes one mesh with one texture ....i know thats a tall order ...but would no doubt free up so much resources - the art quality output would increase dramatically simply because you you could add more. Not to mention become a great tool for making gaming environments. I so want to make huge lands like some of these games, but don't see how from the mass amount of items they have in game.

if i sound like i say anything worth reading, it's only because i really appreciate Iclone and everyone around it... ♪ ♫ ♬ ✌

By planetstardragon - 13 Years Ago

in blender it's called "Join" you basically take all the meshes and join them..... then for bake ..just make a new uv and print.

I suppose the more expensive versions of it would include ray tracing ....but considering that iclone isn't about ray tracing -it may greatly simplify the process.

edit to respond to your edit lol - ya ...animating the mesh would be unreasonable. ....I'm thinking mainly environmental design and customized characters ...

for example .... most of my shorts tend to choke when I try to get into a lot of details. ...especially when I add like 5 ( bloated ) house meshes from googlewarehouse..

Making a scene like a community in a jungle is killer on resources from all the trees and bloated meshes from gw. so unless I go 3rd party ( rip out my hair from all the excessive tuts ) it will be impossible to go beyond a certain level of quality in scene. well, not impossible if i did all sorts of advanced time consuming techniques ...but thats not what Iclone is about.

and for the characters, your argument about the multiple uv issues is correct ....but I like the multi meshes for designing the characters to begin with ......so the best of both worlds would simply be to start with a G5 character .....go all out with HD textures ....then bake it to a final character you use for the movie.

I want to be able to compete with realtime gaming engines ....not high level 3D software.

By planetstardragon - 13 Years Ago

well thats where the user has to commit to ideas before baking - keeping everything in some sort of real time mode is whats expensive.

as a director, make up your mind before you commit to a bake. give a little , take a little...you can't unbake ...only start over.

By planetstardragon - 13 Years Ago

naw ...of course not!

again, comparing it to real time games - the environment is one big mesh ....and the characters are a bunch of little meshes.....

once you hit saturation point with characters - ie a battle scene - then you bounce any characters into a video matte if you need to go further.

my drive for this is that - iclone being a dedicated movie software, should look better than real time games that have mega sized lands and tons of characters....

we have most of it, except our resources get eaten up from the luxury of keeping all tweakable items ....tweakable in real time.

ps - i am half techie / half artist. .one reason I often go against your grain for technique, is not because I disagree with you..... it's because I already went there for music, spent way more than the cost of Max in time and money to learn them....and now that I'm at an advanced stage ....I only use a small amount of tools and have closets full of money and time that it took to get me here lol...... I simply don't want to go through that again ...and am using that experience to simplify my animation experience.....I want to spend more time being an artist than a techie in this 3D world. Trust me I can go far with 3D tools....but i'd rather have more time to go to have a drink with you and tell you why you are actually a noob in person lmao :p

By planetstardragon - 13 Years Ago

dude, you have the brains and knowledge...make it happen.

close the door, shout at the top of your lungs about how we are all noobs, throw something around, i'll send you some records and cd's to break if you want.. ...and one day say "AHA" I know what will fix this .....and let us complain about what you did because we havent the slightest clue of the hell you went through to make an easy button.!!

simple. :hehe:

By planetstardragon - 13 Years Ago

here's some super advanced very high level insight ......it's free too...

sometimes people love something I made ....and it took me 10 minutes to make ...and I'm left slack jawed ...sometimes insulted because .....the song I took 6 months to make and tweaked for hours on end .....sucked tomatoes according to people.

moral of the story - they just wanna let out stress, not hear my lecture of the proper way to eq a song. the tracks they liked weren't even mastered, the equpment was roughly 2 million dollars sub par ... and the mix was crap because i screwed up on the bass and the music was distorting. go figgur.

-

the game torchlight 2 ....is sub par graphics according to todays standards ....it's about 60 million shy of diablo 3's production work ...it's going to get hacked to death and will gain a cult following.

thats why it's a winner. people will crack d3 for fame.....people will hack torchlight 2 because they love the game ....and the fans who dowloaded the cracks will faithfully buy t2 while d3 will become an ongoing joke.

ps - i think you will appreciate this article - http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/09/activisionblizzard-idUSL1E8G9HMG20120509

sure, I'm your grasshopper...I'm a noob! :p at first I hated it, but now it's the most beautiful thing in the world

Make it happen mr pro dude!! -smirk-

By planetstardragon - 13 Years Ago

exactly, thats why we need you as a plug in!

creating art for consumers and creating tools that help artists, are not the same market.

ideas and tools are not synonymous - but they do compliment each other. :D

By planetstardragon - 13 Years Ago

btw - i didn't mean to imply that you are a tool.

and i won't bring up the cliche' if the shoe fits.... :w00t:

By planetstardragon - 13 Years Ago

i would agree with you ....except i noticed something.

youtube videos getting millions of hits that sound like crap. the fans that sing it ...sound off key, and the songs are some of the most inane topics I've heard.

there are various grades of presentation - I have no desire to create a 3D hologram for a concert...just something for the king of b rated entertainment..aka youtube.

I need to let out ideas ...not the perfect shadow. when someone buys my idea, then maybe i'll have enough of a budget to hire someone to get my crappy shadows right ..and by then i'll need tons of them to convince wall st investors to give me a bigger budget.

sinsei, don't miss the forest for the tree - it will leave you cross-eyed.

we live in a world where people become global stars because they ate a bar of soap on youtube.

By planetstardragon - 13 Years Ago

just give me the tools i need, and luck will have nothing to do with it.

you know why blizzard is suffering ? because they didn't give their idea guys enough credit.

if walls could talk, I bet some of the craziest arguments happened between the art department and the programming department....to the likes of

programming department - "are you freaking crazy ? we can't do that, do you have any idea how much hardware we would need to pull off that idea ? you have no idea of what you are talking about.."

idea department - "yeah but thats what the kids like"

it's the idea guy's job to be called crazy - i'm sure the lightbulb was once a crazy idea. - it's called progress.

By animagic - 13 Years Ago

I don't really follow the discussion between you two, but I think iClone is evolving nicely, also in looks. Per scene, my worlds are relatively small, so manageable, even in 32 bit. In 64-bit this will even get easier as it will allow me to use higher resolution textures. There is alot you can do with textures without resorting to complex geometry.

That said, any great ideas to improve the quality of the looks are welcome. Maybe something one notch above Pixel Shading for the final render.

By planetstardragon - 13 Years Ago

we are really just voicing things that we'd want to buy in iclone 6 - simple changes are a patch, revolutionary changes are an upgrade lol :) - join and bake! i can do that in blender, but it's a pain to assemble and export everything in iclone and re-assemble it in blender to do it. that would save resources..occlusion culling, so i can look like the big games! THAT would make me wanna get ic6!! lol - i think i've been watching the blizzard forums too much! ..whatever..thats what the kids like!

By planetstardragon - 13 Years Ago

nah, i said it just fine, the best thing i did was drag you into the conversation because you know what i mean and would have a better way of explaining it in a technical way than I would
like i said, art and technology compliment each other..i just had to get you to compliment me creatively :P

it was all part of the bigger plan lol

By planetstardragon - 13 Years Ago

thats why i push for iclone, i want iclone to be my complete method.

the goal is to put everything together in iclone ..and if I ever need to render a cool project i made in iclone in a software that has v-ray ...it's easy enough.

it's the same pipeline concept as the reason software ....pipelining to protools.

reason has almost everything protools has in an easy button consumer kind of way. as a result it became a standard tool in most if not all big studios....but it started in the same concept....small easy to use pseudo studio gear.

the idea is to cater to artists that aren't very technically inclined. to be able to make something decent enough to shop around....not necessarily put on big screen. - although with enough skill, i've seen some pretty impressive iclone videos already - but not something the average iclone user can easily pull off without some technical skills.

By Dreamcube017 - 13 Years Ago

I've got an idea... why don't they finish the features in Alt+Shift+S, C, and D... and then why don't they FIX THE REFLECTIONS... and then maybe we can worry about iClone 6.

By animagic - 13 Years Ago

Dreamcube017 (5/21/2012)

I've got an idea... why don't they finish the features in Alt+Shift+S, C, and D... and then why don't they FIX THE REFLECTIONS... and then maybe we can worry about iClone 6.

Reflections, yeah! Thanks for reminding us...

By Shaky - 13 Years Ago

I would like to see some resource indicator. That way I can tell if I am using too much of my wimpy computer's resources on any particular scene.

By martok2112 - 13 Years Ago

I completely agree that I would want iClone to be my be-all end all right now for animation work.. for all its flaws (which many of them do get worked out) iClone is a great animation app, and I probably would NEVER have gotten into this stuff if it weren't for the relative simplicity of this program.

So, I stick with Blender for building ship, set, and prop components. Blender is quite intuitive for my purposes of building such things.
3DXChange obviously for the conversion,
And iClone for the rest. :)

What I really love is how, if I build things big enough in Blender, when I export their components to 3DXC for conversion, and then import the converted parts into iClone, the pieces all fall into their proper place, as long as I haven't altered their pivot points. :)

By Peter (RL) - 13 Years Ago

Thank you all for the suggestions. There have been passed to the iClone team for review. :)

By Magique - 13 Years Ago

This is a big request, but I think it's valid. As nice as iClone has become with enhanced rendering features, I feel it still lags way behind what we can get right now in an inexpensive real-time game engine such as Torque 3D. Particularly in the area of real-time performance. I think that Reallusion should seriously consider replacing the base rendering system with something like Torque 3D or Unity 3D. I'm not sure how that would work licensing-wise for Reallusion, but the benefits for iClone users would be really nice.

For example, I wanted to use iClone to create an island scene with a pirate boat coming in from a distance. However, the water, while not half bad, doesn't look anywhere near as nice as Torque 3D and it has no buoyancy properties, which forces me to hack together some substandard floating effect on the boat. And the performance of a scene with an entire island of vegetation, the water, and the boat is just so slow that is barely workable. But Torque 3D just churns along both in development mode and real-time without a hitch.

So I've actually abandoned iClone for this scene and am using Torque 3D instead. Bottom line is that iClone needs a more robust rendering engine with the same kind of features we see in real-time 3D engines and that performs well in real-time like we see in these engines. Admittedly, iClone is certainly improving in the feature department, but still has a long way to go to be on par with game engines we can get right now. And real-time performance has never been a strong point for iClone.

By Magique - 13 Years Ago

Let me add to my request above. I look at it this way. Reallusion shouldn't be in the business of creating rendering engines or physics engines or whatnot, but rather creating the tools we need to make movies. I can relate this to my own experiences in attempting to make an MMORPG once upon a time. We kept trying to build the perfect game engine for our game and wasted all our time trying to do that instead of making the actual game. What we should have done was take the best game engine technology we could find, regardless of its limitations, and build the best game off of it. I think the same thing applies here. Take the best rendering technology you can get your hands on and build the best tools on top of that. Stop trying to bring the rendering up to spec and spend more time building great tools on top of existing technology that's rock-solid and feature-rich.

By toby.f.cotrim - 13 Years Ago

I would like to have safe areas, in order to know what we are exporting out when it goes to tv sets. Another thing some sort of global retiming.Ex: If I need to speed it up or to slow down parts of or the entire sequence...I have to go to many layers changing one by one. Some kind of grouping or assigned sequences. Would that be possible?

By Peter (RL) - 13 Years Ago

Thanks again for the continued feedback. This is very much appreciated.

By animagic - 13 Years Ago

toby.f.cotrim (6/27/2012)

I would like to have safe areas, in order to know what we are exporting out when it goes to tv sets.

You could easily create a safe area template using the Image Layer feature, which would show you the safe area in preview. You can then switch it off when you render.

By Artman009 - 13 Years Ago

Here's my list:

- Increase the number of Directional Lights, Spotlights and Point Lights PLEASE! Ideally, an infinite amount would be great but how about at least bump the number to 10 or 15 each?

- Allow Point lights to "Self-Cast Shadow". The drop-down is there but presently it doesn't do anything.

- Please introduce some Multi-pass rendering-friendly features. Example: Allow avatars and objects to not be visible during a render but still allow them to cast shadows. This would help immensely in manually performing Multi-pass rendering to fake depth-of-field blurring.

- Speaking of depth-of-field, please correct the depth-of-field/alpha channel problem (ie, depth-of-field not working around hair).

More to come.

By Pollux - 13 Years Ago

Hi,

I would love a terrain editor within Iclone and not just plugins or be able to import from Earth Sculptor, Bryce or Vue d'Esprit.

To place, move, for example on a hilly landscape, a building , house, we have to edit the terrain outside Iclone to make a platform/building site and it can takes a long time.

Pollux

By Shaky - 13 Years Ago

Pollux (7/29/2012)

Hi,

I would love a terrain editor within Iclone and not just plugins or be able to import from Earth Sculptor, Bryceor Vue d'Esprit.

To place, move, for example on a hilly landscape, a building , house, we have to edit the terrain outside Iclone to make a platform/building siteand it can takesa long time.

Pollux

This would be great.

By planetstardragon - 13 Years Ago

I like the terrain Idea....it's hard to make a terrain in a 3rd party program to imagine what you are going to place where .....I tried to make a terrain to create a small village on a hill, and it was harder than I thought....at that point I wished I had a terrain editor in iclone too!!

one of our members had an innovative approach to it, they added bones to a flat mesh...but painting / texturing / UV tools would be nice as it gives the freedom to paint roads and such appropriately.

By Peter (RL) - 13 Years Ago

Thanks for all the continued suggestions. These have been passed to the iClone team and will be considered for future updates or versions.

By LarryPlane - 13 Years Ago

I'd like to echo for the inclusion of a safe zone marker. It's absence as a standard film making / editing tool is a negative reflection on iclone's ability to be a cool movie making tool. More focus on iClone as a movie making tool is desirable.

By Paumanok West - 13 Years Ago

Paul_Ekert (8/5/2012)

I don't understand: can't you just craft a simple transparent overlay?

That would take less than two minutes of your time.

By Magique - 13 Years Ago

[b]

I don't understand: can't you just craft a simple transparent overlay?

That would take less than two minutes of your time.

And thus very easy for Reallusion to do, don't you think?

By LarryPlane - 13 Years Ago

I agree, the workaround to no overlay is simple enough, in fact I learnt how to do if in the early 90s when I first got into video editing, I'm just surprised I still need to do it so many years later. I think the bigger picture or grander point I want to make is the focus on cleaner movie making tools should be a priority.

Adding things like the safe zone overlay is a small but important step in that direction.

By martok2112 - 13 Years Ago

Artman009 (7/28/2012)

+1 to both the above. :) Improved light sourcing would be awesome.
Also, the ability to use more than just one light source in "Toon" mode. :)

By guidocornia_20100928110210516 - 13 Years Ago

I should like improvements in water. For exemple that it meves on place without run away in a direction. And the foam near the coasts.

And an improvement in particles: with the collison control.

About the terrains:the way to transform in prop also the height map large.

By Artman009 - 13 Years Ago

Multi Pass Rendering anyone?

The ability to render out multiple passes (diffuse, specular, shadow, AO, Z-Depth) would help immensesly when doing compositing in programs like After Effects.

Anyone with me?

Examples:
http://youtu.be/huHjOYHpgrg
http://youtu.be/6ZJbww8fUcA
http://goo.gl/vwncs

By planetstardragon - 13 Years Ago

@ the multi-pass rendering, that would definitely raise the value of iclone....I personally would never use the feature, ( cuz im a noob :w00t: ) BUT - i know it's a feature highly regarded by pro animators!! :cool:

By moviemaker100 - 13 Years Ago

Here my wishlist:
* Finish what you have begun:
ALT + SHIFT + D CHARAKTER PHYSICS SETTINGS
alt + shift + c charakter physics cloth settings

= Make avatars physical. It is hell on earth, to spend hours and days, just to make workarounds for half working and half not working physics.
Would that be easier, people would be able to make better and more movies - and you get free advertising.

It would be very worthy for you, too. Lots of props and avatars could be sold "again" ;)

* Lot of physical props (f.e. the famous ragdoll of Wil Veeke) make the preview senseless. Please repair that.

* Plz. kill the senseless message "missing links found...", that sucks our nervs since 5.23.

* Program and sell an polygon-reducer. We all need it soooooo badly!!

* "True" Water. You can spend hours and days to edit particles - and it won´t look good.
Another reason für physical avatars and props. ;)

* Revise the "memorymanagement". I think a lot of problems are produced by this at moment.
As I know only over a trick iC may use all memory of the modern machines. So give us all our payed memory to make big movies in a big world!

By Magique - 13 Years Ago

moviemaker100 (8/17/2012)

I agree with most of this and these would almost all be fixed if they would grant my wish item, which is to pick a proven, battle-tested rendering engine instead of trying to invent their own. There are some great rendering engines out there that outperform and have more features than iClone. Why re-invent the wheel? Reallusion should be in the business of creating a great front-end movie-making tool and NOT the business of making a rendering engine.

By moviemaker100 - 13 Years Ago

@Magique
Please not.
The RL guys are nearly overwhelmed with ONE engine that they know.
Two engines or a new engine would end in a desaster, for sure. :w00t:

Besides you can combine on your own and film with two engines.
I suggest crysis1 as additional game engine.
This has a lot of things of what you can just dream of in iClone. Cool Water; physical ragdolls; fancy destruction from houses down to simple bottles(!); programable chars, helicopters and cars; fancy particles; terrain builder and a visual, own programming language supporting the wysiwyg editor.
Price: 10€ and watching the lot of youtube tuts.

If you like more fantasy / medieval, I suggest Dragon Age. Unbelievable mighty editor even with lip sync.
Price: 10€

These engines are easy to combine with iClone. Just take the faces of the game chars + textures and put them on iClone chars for close shots.

Help yourself - not wait for ever, that RL will donate it to you.

No, iClone needs to get physical avatars, a terrain builder, "memorymanagement" or any similar way to get in more avatars without crashing iC and physical water.
Connections are already provided - they just have to program them, finally!

They should make better what they already got - not risk all when they invent something new.
iClone is the best animator around - you just need AT LEAST physical avatars and a lot of "bug hunting" - and iClone is supreme!

By Magique - 13 Years Ago

moviemaker100 (8/17/2012)

No, you are wrong. What they are doing NOW is inventing something new. Spending time re-inventing the wheel instead of making great movie making tools. It was a bad decision from day one to build their own rendering engine.

Combining what I have in iclone with other game engines is a poor mishmash. Yes, it would take some time to replace the underlying engine with something else, but no where near as long as you think. I am a senior level C++ programmer for Bally Technologies and I've developed 3D game engines and worked with dozens of others. The process of replacing the core is not as hard as you think. I estimate the process would be a year project and that's well worth it for what would be gained.

By moviemaker100 - 13 Years Ago

Magique (8/18/2012)

What they are doing NOW is inventing something new. Spending time re-inventing the wheel instead of making great movie making tools. It was a bad decision from day one to build their own rendering engine...

1. What do you exactly mean with "inventing something new"..?

2. I don´t think our problems have something to do with the rendering engine.
But perhaps I just don`t understand, what you mean.
What exacly you understand under "rendering machine"..?

By planetstardragon - 13 Years Ago

part of the beauty of iclone is it's fast rendering and ability to create scenes fast and effortlessly. 3DX5 is the option to export what was created in iclone to another program that has more advanced rendering engines. I'm personally not for anything that would slow down iclone's rendering speed because for what it is, the Iclone renders do look really good - about the only thing I'd request is the ability to control the glaring when going for certain HD shots.

I'm just not for waiting for hours for a render - its one reason I avoid other 3D software. I get all fuzzy inside when I see how fast iclone renders now lol.

By Magique - 13 Years Ago

Neither of you are understanding. As far as rendering speed and capabilities, iClone lags way behind a great many game engines on the market. By replacing the rendering engine with something that already has great physics, realistic water, and other high-end effects you wouldn't be losing speed and capabilities, rather you would be gaining. From my experience, typical modern game engines outperform iClone in every way, allowing higher polygon counts, better rendering results, and all in real-time just like iClone.

By Sen - 13 Years Ago

hi Magique ,

yes , you are right .

By moviemaker100 - 13 Years Ago

@Magique
Sure, you are right.
My machine has in Arma2 or Crysis no problem with a whole war of x soldiers, tanks and helis fighting, fireing and dieing.
In iClone I got problems, if more than a handfull avatars are doing something.

But...what you want is no "reinventing" of the wheel - it is something totally different.
They will do that NEVER.
Simply because there is f.e. Unity 3d.

Since 3dxchange pipeline you can "feed" Unity 3d with iClone content.

Be honest: How often a mass of chars has to speak in your movies..?
In most of the cases they just have to speak, when there are only some chars in the room or on the battlefield.
iClone is perfect for interaction of chars. Game engines just cannot provide it, except you invest a lot of time in importing, programing and similar.

I originally came from game engines - so I know from what I´m speaking.
I went from engine to engine - just because every game engine didn´t provide lipsync - or just over difficult "workarounds".

No.
Invest 10€ in your favourite game engine like Crysis, Arma2, Fallout3 and GtaIV for movies of today / war / town life / scifi or Dragon Age for medieval life - and you will get fast and more or less easy your footage of mass.

Then take the faces over screenshots(!) from the game chars and make in iClone the near shots, interaction and lip sync.
Additional you got fancy destruction-possibilities in iClone, that most of game engines don´t provide. Crysis just if you are ready to learn a lot about the sandbox.

If you are ready to program a lot, use Unity 3d and import your favourite iClone content.
But if you know what you are doing, you get seemly all you want out of it:

Just watch it.
Think you will find a lot of things that you wish to have in iClone. ;)
Crysis provides better graphics, is with 10€ much cheaper, but it is much more difficult to get content for it.

So every engine has pros and cons.
Best way to deal with it:
Just combine it!! ;)

By rampart - 13 Years Ago

Whenever we edit body profile it would be nice if depth adjustments did not affect back and front. I tried to build pregnant woman and couldn't because with belly increase I got butt increase.

So... separate front depth and back depth would be ideal, or you could also provide a switch for simultaneous front and back depth adjustments.

By Shaky - 13 Years Ago

I wish there was a remove all animation from everything button. As a beginner, I think that would be great. I sometimes get myself down a bad path, and have to clear animation on characters, props, lights and cameras. A remove all animation from everything button, would save me a lot of time.

Also, how about a night vision toon shader?

By moviemaker100 - 13 Years Ago

@Shaky
Your button is inside iClone since a very long time.
It is named "reset" and left from the framedisplay in the center bottom-bar.

By Shaky - 13 Years Ago

moviemaker100 (8/20/2012)

@Shaky
Your button is inside iClone since a very long time.
It is named "reset" and left from the framedisplay in the center bottom-bar.

Thank you! I wish I had posted this Saturday... hee hee

By planetstardragon - 13 Years Ago

Honestly, I would love to hear RL's side of the story on rendering..... I would think that understanding the challenges / reasons they have on updating the rendering engine / software would help us make better requests. what are the pro's n con's and what would we have to compromise in iclone to get what is becoming a standard in modern gaming engines.

By moviemaker100 - 13 Years Ago

@planetstardragon
You can be sure, that RL will make a lot out of iClone, but a game engine for sure NOT!
For that there is the much more expensive Unity3d.
iClone is the animator - Unity3d the game engine, that is connected over 3dxchange and fbx to the animator.
If you want a game engine, buy Unity3d, Crysis, Dragon Age, GtaIV and some more.
Then handle all the bugs of their editors, fight with 3ds-Plugins and hope the (mostly very silly) AI works right.

If you want an easy animator where you can easy control every thing in your movie - take iClone.

If they give us physical avatars and a clever "memory management" so that iClone crashes not soooo often - most of our greatest problems are past.
Physical water would just be the additional point on the "i" . ;)

Anyway.
iClone is an animator and will stay that.
Else Unity3d makes no sense anymore.

Additional game engines which you can combine easily with iClone over putting the faces of the game chars on our avatars: Skyrim for fantasy and Fallout3 for science fiction. If you want to film star wars like fights: X3.
If you like war movies, take Arma2 with the best editor that I have ever seen.
Together with the "director mod" you are able to make unbelievable movies fast and easy.

By Magique - 13 Years Ago

moviemaker100 (8/20/2012)

I never said I wanted a game engine. Your comment makes no sense. What I said was that most modern game engines today have more advanced rendering features and outperform iClone. A game engine, at its core, is a rendering engine, which is what iClone is at its core. Both are real-time rendering engines. What I suggested is that Reallusion use a better rendering engine at its core and this can be done by teaming with a company that has a solid rendering engine instead of inventing their own rendering engine. Is that so hard to understand?

By planetstardragon - 13 Years Ago

I usually try to look at all sides of the picture and if the engine can be better in an effective way for both consumer and company, then great and worth considering....but if it's not practical , it would be nice to hear why so we can move on to other options. I'm personally happy with the iclone rendering system - less the glaring i get when i try to do photo realistic type shots and crashes when i go there lol - :P

By rampart - 13 Years Ago

1st thing----------------------

I use several video editors, Sony Vegas Pro 11 and Adobe Premier Pro CS6

The timeline is the focal point, not an extra thing you do.

I would like to see the timeline be as configurable and prominent a part of iClone as Sony Vegas.

The iClone timeline isn't easy to work with, because you it takes up alot of room and too many tabs confuse things.

The iclone timeline, is where it all finishes. I screw up frequently, forgetting to reset the timeline to the start or worse I am trying to do things when the timeline is running (like in Vegas)

2nd thing-------------------------

Selecting is also a random process to say the least. If you are too far away from the objects you are selecting it may or may not select. If you don't click on the right part of the object it may not select. If you use the drag box you still may not get the object selected, for whatever reasons I'm not sure.

I just persist to select until I get it done.

Frequently, I have the object selected (with handles showing) and I cannot get move,rotate or scale to work. I just keep messing with it until it works, which means I have to undo and reselect several times in many instances.

Maybe, I'm doing something wrong. If I am too far away from objects to select it sure would be nice to have a blinking signal or something to indicate I'm too far away to select. At least, I wouldn't keep trying. Heck, I don't know if distance is the factor. I just know at distances I seem to have most trouble selecting or getting the move,rotate,scale to work.

3rd Thing------------------------

It would be alot of help if the gizmo popped up and was usable where you are viewing, not below, above or elsewhere. I never know where is it is going to popup, and constantly I have to go looking for it, especially if my screen view is close to the object I am working.

4th Thing------------------------

Why not have the modify panel items that aren't accessible completely invisible. In other words, you only see what you can work with, no greyed out choices. Better still, maybe you could provide a default switch in settings for users to choose whether to see greyed out or not at all, when modify items are NOT usable.

By planetstardragon - 13 Years Ago

the characters have stiff upper lips, would be nice to have the lower lip and upper lip separated in the motion panel to do more realistic lip motions. :)

By Paumanok West - 13 Years Ago

planetstardragon (8/21/2012)

the characters have stiff upper lips, would be nice to have the lower lip and upper lip separated in the motion panel to do more realistic lip motions. :)

Sorry, all iClone characters must be veddy British.

But seriously, this is a *great* request, one of the best so far. :D

By moviemaker100 - 13 Years Ago

@Timeline:
+1 from me.
Is a big thing, if that would be similar like Vegas. Today you have to hassle around a lot.

@Rendering:
Be careful what you wish +1 from me :w00t:
Crysis got one of the best rendering around and one of the greatest problems, too: Nearly no content is made.
I guess because the textures are very difficult to make. :P

Similar is Arma2. Photorealistic rendering, but compared to his "grandpa" "Operation Flashpoint" nearly no content.
I personally didn´t even touch the graphics of my importet models. Too high level for me to deal with.

No.
"Rendering" is not the problem.
If you want awesome graphics, go to Daz! The high poly models give unbelievable beautiful animation and photos!
A better rendering in iClone would no help.
iClone cannot handle high poly models on a good way, because of the cheesy "memory management".

So you can view the problem from various sides: All the time, FIRST the memory management MUST be "repaired" / revised.
Else: What sense have high poly beautiful / many models / and so on, if you can´t work with them, because they crash iClone fast because of cheesy memory management..???

So:
1. Improve the memory management
2. Give us the already(!) prepaired physical avatars - but please without killing the preview like the avatars of Veeke.
3. Give us a vegas like timeline.

Then most of our biggest problems are past!!

By Magique - 13 Years Ago

moviemaker100 (8/21/2012)

Maybe you can explain how iClone does its memory management then. You're not seeing the big picture here. If iClone's rendering engine is replaced with something like Torque 3D then you are also going to get a completely different memory management system.

No, I don't need DAZ to get better real-time rendering since DAZ doesn't do real-time rendering. It's a good thing the people at Reallusion understand what I'm talking about, because I know they can see the value in what I'm saying even if others here cannot.

By moviemaker100 - 13 Years Ago

@sw00000p
iClones "Memory management" is cheesy.
Put in just a handfull of avatars or about 15+ moving props (they moved like avatars) and you get serious problems, if you don´t switch to wireframe.

Or: Put in just some Daz chars without poly crunching.

You will experience crashes like hell or working in iClone is very difficult to nearly impossible.

The same machine has no problem with a big war with x exploding helis, tanks and dieing soldiers with high graphics in Arma2.

So:
FIRST repair the "memory management" - THEN do any other.
Then wie can speak over supreme UVs and so on.

If you want an engine like Torque, then buy Unity3d and import iClone content over pipeline.
There are no other options.
IC will remain being an animator.
Unity3d will remain being a game engine.
If you don´t believe in it - just check the price of Unity3d pro :P

By rampart - 13 Years Ago

This is one thing we need that would save tons of time and tedious work.

It goes back to my autocad days. You could extend, twist and turn flat planes, etc.

We need the ability to build walls, sidewalks, roadways, bridges and other items that can be stretched and turned with in 3D planes from a basic form.

Maybe some cad type tools might be required, but seriously there are plenty of things in iclone that are beyond tedious. Putting sections of props together and getting them to properly attach, turn, etc. is unbelievable time consuming. I feel like a 6 year old building my video with Lego blocks.

I still end up having to texture as a separate action.

Piecing together walls, roads, intersections and the likes are very time consuming. I was building a long garden wall and had to piece all of it together. I had to accomodate turns and terrain changes. It took most of one day to do it. I could do that in autocad or similar cad based program in less than 5 minutes.

It may be time to make things a bit more complex for building animated 3d videos. The new iclone 5 pro 800 page manual should tell you something about how all the new features are beginning to make the iCLone far more complex than was probably originally intended.

Maybe, if RL doesn't want to include cad type functionality into iclone RL they might think about using an outside cad program we can work with that has import/export functionality. This way we could build the really tedious stuff in the cad and bring it into iClone. There are several inexpensive cad programs that it might be possible to work out something.

I don't see this as a departure from iclone either. Afterall, we have all manner of users that use the 3DSmax, maya, after effects and other very complex programs. At some point I think competent iclone developers will have projects that require them to take on more complex softwares as I mentioned. The 3DXchange is a huge open door for this to happen in the next couple of years.

The Trimble"Google" Sketchup may be the answer. I know an architect that uses the sketchup pro for renderings of buildings he presents to clients. He doesn't use a highly complex rendering software, because he just doesn't have time for working with one.

By moviemaker100 - 13 Years Ago

@rampart
For me the attaching is no big problem.
I just attach prop1 to prop2 and choose at least "align position". Sometimes "align position and rotation".
So the parts are together on one place and I am quickly able to move it to the right place.
No real big deal... ;)

Changing pivot could be useful, too.

By the way: You can build your favourite prop in 3ds or where ever and export it over *.obj and 3dxchange to iClone.
Some props got sub-props to change the prop in iClone.
No big deal..

For you very intersting: Cad like Sketchup, which data can be opened by 3dxchange directly.

By rampart - 13 Years Ago

Yes, I thought about the 3DXchange after I posted. There is a lot of work that can be done with other software like sketchup.

By RB3006 - 13 Years Ago

@sw00000p

What you understand of learn and maximized UV???

Robert

By RB3006 - 13 Years Ago

Hi sw00000p,
thanks for information. :D
Now i understand better.
Until now I resized only my textures to 2056 ..
But this sounds like a lot of work :blush:, but I will try it next time

Robert

By RB3006 - 13 Years Ago

you say lot of work....
Depends on what software you're using!

3DS MAX and Flat Iron Pluin-in...
Entire Scene into... ONE MAP.................IN SECONDS!

~ Simply Render Character.... separately! ~
Character map..... MILLI-SECONDS to create! [BigGrin]

Texture Bake..... Takes alittle more time.... for Advanced Shaders to "KICK IN"

What Takes a Lot of time is...... Understanding the SET-UP Process! [Wink]
Push INK the button is EZ!

there is only one tiny problem :blush:
I have only iC 5 / 3DX5 and Daz :crying:
and the texture baker in Daz not works for 3DX (my previous experience)
so Hollywood must wait :(

Robert

By RB3006 - 13 Years Ago

Blender is a nightmare ....:w00t:
ok, in my next life I will make it better ... only using tools for adults ;)

Robert

By moviemaker100 - 13 Years Ago

@sw00000p
Ok..fine for you.
You are the first one, that has really an idea of that.
Else I read only from problems over problems and crashes without end.
Could be because RL tells the world nothing about it.

So...would be great, if you would make a tut.

And RL should make some tools or tuts to teach the mass of customers how to do that and why.

Seemly even "champs" like Warlord don´t know that as well as you.
Else he had not made the peeps and ultra low other props for building an army of soldiers or zombies..

@Blender:
Just no go!
3ds or nothing!!
Blenders interface is a gall - no tool to work with it.

By Magique - 13 Years Ago

sw00000p (8/22/2012)

Sorry RL, I wish eveybody would take alittle time and learn about UV's!

Everyone? Seriously, no. Everyone who makes content for iClone? Big yes. I don't make content, I make movies. I should never ever ever have to learn UVs. That's the job of the content providers, including Reallusion. If they or other content providers can't make 3D content properly then that's just a huge strike against their product.

But even if I had perfectly made content that ran smooth as silk in iClone that doesn't address half the reasons why I would still want a better rendering engine at the core. Better UVs won't give me better water with physics properties, fully realized physics where characters are treated as collision meshes, better lighting and effects, etc.

By martok2112 - 13 Years Ago

I personally do not have a problem with Blender. It's interface is just fine for my purposes. All I do is built prop and ship components in that app. Conversion I leave with 3DEXChange, and texturing and assembly and animation I handle in iClone. :)

Folks, let's not get into some whizzing contest about whether or not to make tuts. Some folks simply don't have the inclination and wherewithal to help new users....it's been the nature of many folks in the 3D community since it began. They tend to want to make newbs feel like dumb schmucks because all the newbs want is some help, or perhaps want to discuss ways to make the app easier to use. And such folks get off on such feelings of tech superiority and mizerliness, so that they can continue to feel "above the rest". (Hell, it's been the nature of the internet ever since it began.)

Others do feel that they should lend as much of a helping hand as possible. (Which is my bent, whenever I can, and many others here feel the same way as well.)

iClone is a really good animation app. I do feel that Reallusion could stand to write up much better, detailed tutorials to help new folks get started. Indeed, I myself had to do a lot of personal experimenting just to get some things to work properly. But, at least iClone is not so impossible to learn on one's own that it is a waste of money. I feel like I get my money's worth out of the program, and am learning more every time I use it.

But let's face it, the intention of iClone is indeed to be one big "easy" button for aspiring machinima filmmakers. The more input they receive from the users, the bigger that easy button becomes. I could see it was a big easy button right off the bat when its rendering times outstripped even the most advanced and costly 3D model making and animation apps. As iClone becomes more and more advanced, perhaps that advantage might fade away....or perhaps that advantage might continue to grow.

Yes, reading the instructions is always helpful, when such instructions are clear and detailed. But sometimes, it takes helpful users to make the vagueness a little more clear for the newly initiated. :)

By vidi - 13 Years Ago

3DS MAX and Flat Iron Pluin-in...

cost 299 $ :w00t: :Whistling:

I use DAZ Studio pro, it is for free and has a easy push button for me :D

What I ever I do I do not use max :P

By moviemaker100 - 13 Years Ago

@sw00000p
Well. If you are right, peeps & co make no sense. The big dogs would deliver props on a way like you tell us.
This they would do, because such props and avatars would look much better and they could sell them much better. Their actual cheesy "honey" of low poly crap earns just very, very less money.
So I´m sorry - I don´t buy your story, which is more or less only the opposite of all I have experienced and all I have read about iClone. Everybody could invent such stories while portraying all other as iClone noobs.
I will believe you, if you deliver a short video with...let´s say at least 30 avatars and lots of props - and not one second sooner.
That should be no problem for you. Perhaps you already got such a video..?

@Magique
*nods*
It´s not our job to invest our time in uv-learning. We make movies. The content-provider get our money for their invested time in worthy content.
But..they don´t do it. So regarding sw00000p they all have no or too less skills. Just sw00000p seem to know this mega secret since years. That´s...ridicully.

AND: You are right! Even the best UV doesn´t give me physically water and so on.
Particles could help - but for real good and longer shoots in water, it would be MUCH too time consuming!
Before I animate f.e. the falling of a single avatar into the water, I have programed a whole water battle with all I want (working ships, shooting and dieing and fallling soldiers and so on) in Crysis. :P

By planetstardragon - 13 Years Ago

"1. I am wrong and I admit it! Sorry!" - cuzin swoop

if you said that once a day, you will (hopefully ) grow up to be a fine gentleman one day!!

stop the crashes, add the autosave, do important adjustments to get what we now have functional to the max, and if what you want to add makes iclone slower, make it require a $10,000 computer to run or a PHD in rocket science, you can keep it!!

By moviemaker100 - 13 Years Ago

@sw00000p
No evidence video for me -
no trueness able to see.

Simple rules.

As long you don´t prove your claims, I am not allowed to believe just one single word.
Not today. Not in future.
Simple-minded children believe in all they hear and read of anyone anywhere.
Adults are not allowed to do that.

By DELETED2 - 13 Years Ago

Hello Big "R" and best wishes to you all and the regular Originals of iClone Breeding.

I am still here working hard as an animator though perhaps not as romantically with the Medievialities of Thi Mai and Chellah these days as with promo/demo videos for "K-Rend" and "Marmorit" currently, two International Giant top enders in Waterproof silicone renders (coatings to you and me) for buildings.

And in so doing this brings me to a request that would save me a lot of time and be a convenience timewise (I am always against the clock) and so...

I would like to see the "Remove Animation" button at the bottom of the working window take the place I am at on the timeline and delete everything BEFORE that and make my current timeline frame No.1.

That is, I make animations generally in 10 second bursts and use about 6 to 8 seconds of the out. I would like to kill animation BUT keep the posture and setting exactly as is, and make the frame I am at when I click on the reset button to become No.1. ready to start again on the next 20s. out.

Working in 20 second segments one therefore rolls into the next one and I can, at any given moment, re-open 6 seconds of anim. at any given point of the whole, re-edit quickly what I feel is a failing, re-render it, slot it into the video editor and carry on. This way I could keep scenes for the entire stretch efficiently and keep axing off the pre- and rename and rework on the beyond.

I could be made a fool of here if there is a button or system that already does this. But I havent seen it. Ive been surprised before.

On a closing note. Congratulations Big "R" on the TTS systems I saw today. Very good. I see an emmediate application for them as information systems talking to curious clientelle online. No emotion yet, but I'm sure it will come in time but for now I can use one of the Women as a Doctors Surgery Receptionist for an existing client. Very opportune email.

Best wishes always...
Armstrong.

By martok2112 - 13 Years Ago

<---deleted post because I think Armstrong found the solution. :)
But, as far as I know, there is no button in the interface that will do what you wish (delete everything except the pose key you wish so you can start the next animation with that pose).

Anyone else have any different info? :)

By moviemaker100 - 13 Years Ago

@Armstrong
Don´t think that is possible.
But...me f.e. had a similar problem.
I needed a posture of a whole move.
So I "cuttet out" the posture / part of the move and set the avatar on the position I have needed.
For your problem, more special: Go into the timeline and delete all frames / "status points" except the frame with the right posture.
Then mark all "right" frames and move it to beginning of the timeline.
Think this could have a similar result as you wish.

By RobertoColombo - 13 Years Ago

Xmas is coming ("just 4 months..!!!) so hereafter are my Wishes for SantaClaus RL :D
They would be helpful to add ad-hoc terrain elements.

1. to be able to re-shape the props, not just by stretching along X-Y-Z axis, but also squeezing them along the same axis (e.g. if a rectangle is squeezed along one side, then it becomes a triangle... obviously the associated textures shall squeeze accordingly)
2. to have an integrated tool that makes it possible to to create bumps and cavities for a prop
3. to avoid the flickering when two prop elements are partially merged and the camera is moved
4. to be able to adapt a flat plane prop over a bumpy terrain, so that it possible to add texture variations over it
5. to be able to record macros with command sequences, so that the same set of operations can be done quickly over and over on multiple props
6. to be able to change the prop parameters also when multiple props are selected

By martok2112 - 13 Years Ago

Good list, Roberto...especially number 6....I have had many times wished for something that would allow me to change parameters for multiple props with one click, instead of individually. (This would come in handy for scenes where I might have to have six similar props or ships do something simultaneously.)

By moviemaker100 - 13 Years Ago

@martok2112
Your ship problem is no problem!
Read my post some posts over this one.
It is quite simple:
Make all your animation with one prop and then save it to the library.
Then put this saved prop back into iC.
And...you got your 2nd, 3rd and so on ship doing the same like the first ship.
I made my "crowd" in this way. :)

If you need props with all the same physical properties, you only have to replicate them in iC.
The replication copies the physical properties, too.

By RobertoColombo - 13 Years Ago

I like people who always know everything :-)
Well... try to imagine that something has been forgotten, maybe one basic setting, or maybe later on you figure out that you have to change something after you have already added dozens of similar props.
Wouldn't come in handy to be able to modify something for all the props in one shot ?

By martok2112 - 13 Years Ago

@moviemaker

Hi,

I'm well aware of that particular solution, MM. :) But I (and I'm sure Columbo) am talking about making certain collective events occur at a specific point in the timeline, not just an overall animation. And as RC mentioned, sometimes, one might have overlooked something during the animation set up process, or even noticed it after exporting, and it would be nice, if it involved multiple, similar props, to be able to go back to that point, and fix it/them simultaneously, instead of one by one.

By moviemaker100 - 13 Years Ago

@RobertoColombo
You would be surprised, if you would know how many people don´t know special things of iC.
Just some posts over this one didn´t find the "reset button".
In other posts they don´t know, that the physics toolbox is now "killed by a bug".
And so on.

And I really don´t think, I know all - I just wanted to help.
Sorry if it was a misunderstanding in your case.

And for sure - a mass "marking" of points of different props / avatars on the timeline would be great.
Or very well, too: Give one motion to x props / avatars.

Or: Repairing the "memory management" that is just cheesy and only a shame for RL so we can use mor than just some avatars and props per project.

But...how long we want these things already...?
Think as long, as we just don´t get it! :crying:

By fixme - 13 Years Ago

Muscle system for avatars and imported fbx avatars
collisions between avatars (arms, legs, body,..)
octane realtime render engine

buy or join daz3d developing and teach them how to animate :P

By moviemaker100 - 13 Years Ago

@fixme
1. Octane is a professional engine, that doesn´t work with private hardware.
Exept you got a lot of money for a gpu.

2. RL will never buy a new engine. That would be absurd!

3. You already can animate in Daz. Just place poses on the right way on the timeline.

By fixme - 13 Years Ago

moviemaker100 (8/27/2012)

real 3d cost you money, you can't change that!
Octance is the future to go
I would start saving for that next-gen gpu, nothing lower then GTX690 or quadro..
no you can't animate in Daz, only basic bad/baby animations.
iclone 3dxchange have a few basic motionbuilder lookalike tools available, daz has still nothing. :crazy:

By moviemaker100 - 13 Years Ago

Gpu may be the future, but IC will never buy an expensive foreign engine.
That is for sure. Now. And in future!

And it will last a very long time until gpu is cheap enough for the mass.
It makes no sense, to only worry about, now.
Today it is just waste of time.
Come again after about 5 years.

So...Daz has just baby animations.
REALLY..????

You call that baby animations..?
REALLY..????

I would even say, that Daz studio is for some scenes better than iClone. Fight scenes with fist and weapons will be easier, because you set the avatars pose after pose into the timeline. That is less complicated, than "synchronize" the moves of iClone.
But for sure - this is the exception. Nearly all other scenes will be easier to animate in iClone.
Anyway: Animating in Daz is possible!

By moviemaker100 - 13 Years Ago

1. Do you mean that:

2. YOU yourself are one of the most experienced "tutors" of us.

By RB3006 - 13 Years Ago

I would even say, that Daz studio is for some scenes better than iClone. Fight scenes with fist and weapons will be easier, because you set the avatars pose after pose into the timeline.

oh, please show us a video with a Daz animated Fightscenes from you.
cause you know:

No evidence video for me -
no trueness able to see.

or do you only talk about it?

By fixme - 13 Years Ago

moviemaker100 (8/28/2012)

yep that's what i call bad/baby animation (youtube is full of it) ;)
the only thing in studio is powerpose.
the IK system is very bad, pin feature don't work.
constraints and parenting
collisions to animate avatars faster
ik face rigging control
the most frustrated would be, the basics
try to edit, move keyframes on timeline, easy delete keyframes, no motion curves,

should i go on?
they better ask money for a good program and not give it for free

By hj - 13 Years Ago

try to edit, move keyframes on timeline, easy delete keyframes, no motion curves,

There is a grafikeditor with motion curves for Keyframes in DAZ Studio Pro 4

By fixme - 13 Years Ago

hj (8/28/2012)

try to edit, move keyframes on timeline, easy delete keyframes, no motion curves,

There is a grafikeditor with motion curves for Keyframes in DAZ Studio Pro 4

that is from animate, a nice try.
can be better done.
looks like only some pre demo project test.

Watch this :w00t:
would be very useful to have

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRKArN8aMa8]

By moviemaker100 - 13 Years Ago

Another 2 cents:
It would be great, to save projects in "old" versions.
5.22 or any other patch between 5.1 and 5.23 did harm to iC a lot.
Nobody knows when or if RL will repair f.e. the messed up physics.
Fact is: In 5.23 a lot is destroyed.
If we could get back our data into an older version, we could work at least, until RL release the customers from beeing "beta testers". :w00t:
That should be technically possible, at least. F.e. Word and some other software is able to do that. ;)

By DELETED2 - 13 Years Ago

Thanks goes to Martok and Moviemaker for theorising a solution.
No, I havent found a solution and Moviemaker, yes, with respect to your idea it would work, but again, TIME! And............. because we're not dealing with one singular element or avatar but about 7 avatars, 12 moving props, at least half a dozen particles, 4 koi carp, ducks, swans, dogs, horses...................

I'll work on it today. See what I come up with.

Armstrong.

By Cricky - 13 Years Ago

For those who have requested multiple "Wishes" since iClone5 was released...

Just remember what....
Jimmy Genie says:

"Be careful what you wish for, sometimes you may get it" :)

By martok2112 - 13 Years Ago

Cricky, that was a really cool effect with Jimmy Genie there! :) Well done!

By Pollux - 13 Years Ago

Well done Cricky, really good.

By Peter (RL) - 13 Years Ago

Artman009 (7/28/2012)

- Allow Point lights to "Self-Cast Shadow". The drop-down is there but presently it doesn't do anything.

Unfortunately it hasn't been possible to add "Self Cast Shadow" to Point Lights because of some performance issues. However the next version of iClone will have an all new lighting system that will overcome these issues.

By moviemaker100 - 13 Years Ago

I would like to know, WHAT I undo.
At moment it´s a "secret". This causes fast troubles, if a project is only a bit more complex.

By colour - 13 Years Ago

moviemaker100 (9/7/2012)

I would like to know, WHAT I undo.
At moment it´s a "secret". This causes fast troubles, if a project is only a bit more complex.

You "Undo" your last Edit - As in all other Programs. Not just iClone;)

By moviemaker100 - 13 Years Ago

colour (9/7/2012)

You "Undo" your last Edit - As in all other Programs. Not just iClone;)

That I know - but in other programs I see, WHAT.
F.e. "undo paste".
iC has x undo steps - but you don´t know, what you undo if you do it. :hehe:
In other programs you get a message and you know to what step you get back.
And iC is much more complex than the mentioned programs like f.e. photoshop...

By martok2112 - 13 Years Ago

Peter (RL) (9/5/2012)

Artman009 (7/28/2012)

- Allow Point lights to "Self-Cast Shadow". The drop-down is there but presently it doesn't do anything.

An advanced lighting system would be a most welcome boon. :) (Probably my biggest irks are thus...)

1. Cannot seem to change lighting color in mid animation. I have to actually record the animation twice using the two different lighting colors, and then edit them in an external video editor. Not a bad problem, but it would be a convenience, unless there's something I'm missing, and I've tried everything I could think of in iClone.

2. More diverse light sourcing. Sometimes it seems like four to eight lights just aren't enough. If the "Glow" texture effects were able to actually throw off some light, (like with wall lamps, or torches) that would be something!

3. Can only seem to use one light source in "Toon" mode. This becomes problematic sometimes in scenes where I might need multiple light colors.

4. All lights, whether in Directional or Spotlight mode, need to have their movement and angle parameters adjustable at all times. Sometimes it seems like these things grey out at the worst possible times in animation set ups. ('den again, it could be just me. :) )

By Peter (RL) - 13 Years Ago

Thanks for all the continued feedback. As always, this has been passed to the iClone team to review, and hopefully implement in a future update or version.

By moviemaker100 - 13 Years Ago

It would help a lot, if ic and 3dxchange could read .dds.
The "workarounds" all the time are annoying.

By DELETED2 - 13 Years Ago

I think the imagination and Theoretics of PlanetStarDragon are a very good read as far as stretching the dream tool concepts are concerned. Everybody condemned Disney when he followed his wishes too.
But PSD seems to see things in a light not many appear to follow. Sometimes me also. That being global even, the ideas and concepts voiced alone should be worth their weight in inspiration to conceptualise other falloff beenfits that chase the same outcome.

Considering computing has only been about for 17 years or so, seriously, in the publics' hands we are still in the Laurel and Hardy stages of it anyway.

Where I fail is that I cant program the tools for this software so I also can only come up with ideas vaguely following "what is" versus "What I'd like" by bending the existing elements to streamline time consumption and refine nicks and ticks I wish I had.

I wonder where the boundaries are laid when the big "R" summarise what needs projecting with Users demands v. Softwares requirements for superior marketing. Or are they the same thing.

Armstrong.

By DELETED2 - 13 Years Ago

moviemaker100 (8/25/2012)

Thankyou, trying this now.

By funfunfun - 13 Years Ago

A walk (and walk path) system that greatly reduces feet sliding...without any tweaking by the user.

By baghdad4ever - 13 Years Ago

1- The water system so fake right now (hope to see a real 3d water like 3d max program)
hope to see some thing like that in iclone 6

2- When a character making any motion the hand go inside the body same cloth

3- Very sharp edge when you make focus with the camera

5- The render very slow even if you have a good computer

6- The physics properties really hard to understand and the tutorial sucks

7- The lighting system very bad and you control the light very well

8- The shadow still not really good need to fix

9- Hope to see HQ sky system

10- Hope to see more control properties when you editing a motion

By planetstardragon - 13 Years Ago

@Armstrong, first time I saw your post, thank you for the kind words!! :)

@baghdad4ever - you could do some pretty wicked stuff for water now , but not the conventional way - what you do is put a mesh to softbody then add a video of water for a texture or animate a still regular picture of water to simulate it flowing- the more the poly's on the mesh , the more realistic it gets, - what you do for waves is place some dummy objects under the mesh and animate them like rolling waves - you can link stuff like boats to it too - with the right settings they interact very nice!. you can also model a variety of different types of mesh to simulate rough water, calm water or wavy water = I was really happy with my results, but I need more ram to really go as extreme as you can go with it. I'm on 4gigs now and those high poly meshes with physics settings can really test your computing power!

for example, look at the picture you posted, and imagine modeling that shape to a mesh, then take the very same pic you posted and use it for texture, animate the texture to scroll...( seamless texture for best result ) then make it softbody and use dummy objects under it to move it around!

By Rampa - 13 Years Ago

baghdad4ever (11/28/2012)

1- The water system so fake right now (hope to see a real 3d water like 3d max program)

You might be interested in a water prop that I made available in this thread. Read the whole thread for usage hints.

https://forum.reallusion.com/Topic139020-281-1.aspx?Highlight=physics+water

By Dreamcube017 - 13 Years Ago

Holy ham flaps!

I've been reading this thread for 9 pages (plus some of the new pages) and there were a lot of things stated here.

One thing that sticks out to me though is PSD's request to bake objects.

Baking anything will take time. I'm sure you're aware that both Unity and Unreal currently bake all their lights right? SEGA's Sonic Team made a post talking about how it took them a ton of hours and about 100 computers to bake the lighting for Sonic Unleashed. Real time... I think not.

But I am getting a bit off topic.

If you have a very highly detailed scene and you want highly detailed characters to do things in those scenes... then here's what you do.

1. Make the high-end version of the scene and save it as a project or a group or something. Once done, hide it... or put it in another project.

2. Have low rez versions of your characters in a low rez scene.

3. Animate what you have, to using that scene.

4. Map the animations front he low-rez characters to the high rez characters.

5. Put the animated hi-rez characters in the hi-rez scene. you'll still want to do a tiny render to make sure everything matches up, but that's how you do it... That's how the big companies do it. I HIGHLY DOUBT Pixar animates with the final high end meshes.

Remember, this isn't a game and it doesn't HAVE to run in real-time for everyone. So you don't have to sacrifice.

I also saw a lot of post from people saying "Oh but the game engine had all this stuff going on." You DO realize (and I'm sure Sw000000p will back me up on this) that those meshes are highly optimized for that particular purpose right?

We're talking LODs, single UVs,the works. Does iClone do any of this... I'm guessing NO.

Lastly, and I'm freakin' sick of these posts, was someone saying "Oh graphics cards are too high end, too expensive, blah blah blah"

NO!

NO!!

Stop that noise! Yes, they are extra, yes they may not come default with your computer, and finally, yes there are slightly more expensive cards, but you can get a DECENT graphics card (NVIDIA or ATI) for around $100. These cards support DX11, has CUDA cores, and all that... Now I understand not everyone can afford these, but to say that they are far out of reach is ridiculous. Now I'm not saying that RL should stop making the software compatible with Intel cards or to force people to one brand of card, but to ignore GFX cards and NOT take advantage of what they can do is simple nonsense.

Heck, even a GT9800 will suffice in most cases.

....Hm, what's this? New lighting engine in iClone 6 huh? Well THIS I gotta see.

By DELETED2 - 13 Years Ago

We'd all like to see the refinements of "what is".

Only one person started to mention Water.
My main issues are kind of diverse but because they rear their ugly heads SO many times the way I work, I tend to feel they're common place.

MY wishes would be...
To have a water system that looked like water.
No matter that it didn't render preview, a frame every ten would be fine until final render.

RIVERS.
Splashes. I know the maths demand issue.
WATERFALLS.
Small level changes in a river of a few feet or several yards, the surf this fall would create.
CLOUDS. A cloud generator. Something that could shape, colour and form clouds on a random basis of several types.
WIND.
...that changed and altered the way the plants and trees blew AND objects, Boxes, outside objects, signs and etc.

SCALE!
I'd like to set the scale of objects on a selectable common measure.
That is, when I shrink buildings to better suit a landmass, I want everything selected thereafter to follow suit shrinking to that scale. Props, Avatars, everything.
Everything selected would have to have a plus or minus scale setting.
So "0" would be normal scale. "-5" would be half size, doubling the Landmasses potential.

BUT, because this isn't a global demand, and because I sometimes set scale artificially to represent distance from the camera (because of the limitations of mist currently) this has to be a selectable issue.

SCENE MANAGER.
When I'm working with 100s of props or so... I want to be able to colour mark several of them in the location of the camera setting.

That is, I have 300 trees... I am working amongst fifteen of them. I need to quickly group, change, reset, color change (alter tree species according to season) as work progresses and non plant props are the same.
I want to group them and change grouping as the set evolves and the takes progress.
I want to suddenly change ALL the 100 trees lining a riverside.
See them colour coded on the Scene Manager and Bang, delete tyhem all.
Change them over.
Continue.

Color code certain objects in the simplest method clicking a button on their listing to cycle through a rainbow of colours simp[ly for an "at a glance" reference to more easily change them.
Time time time time time.

You talk about moviemaking and iClone being a Film Makers tool, but I don't see much about the actual process's efficiency structure. As you mention above, throwing out one piece of music and everyone loves it... but you didn't work on it. And the ones sweated over.... no one hears as YOU do.
I lose hours and hours in issues that, with some programming, could be made into seconds.

I think iClone Quality at the moment is sufficient enough for people to gain serious output as long as their concepts and scripts/idea is sound.

In this vein animation walks.
It's all a question of getting the right people in front of the work. I keep think about the disgusting Scoobydoo quality and others like it, it is STILL being globally played and watched, making millions $£.

... and iClone doesn't exceed this?

Armstrong.

By DELETED2 - 13 Years Ago

Double post error. Windows H8. Sorry. :P:hehe:

By Dreamcube017 - 13 Years Ago

Hm... a lot of clouds could be meshes unless you want touse those Texture3D tricks... implemented into the engine that is.

I would like to see actual water. That'd be great.

Ican't agree more with a better scene manager and better selection and grouping. That'd be WAY too good.

So +1 on these things.

By Munthe - 13 Years Ago

Linux version. Seriously. Listen to Valve and what they think of the current development with Apple and Microsoft.

And to make me not have to boot out of Linux where I am going to do everything else in 2013. The future of content creation belongs to Linux and then most people in the world will consume it on gadgets running on Apple/MS stuff.

By animagic - 13 Years Ago

baghdad4ever (11/28/2012)

5- The render very slow even if you have a good computer

Compared to what?

By Magique - 13 Years Ago

animagic (12/2/2012)

baghdad4ever (11/28/2012)

5- The render very slow even if you have a good computer

Compared to what?

I'll answer this. Compared to a real-time game engine such as Unity, Source, Unreal, or Torque 3D.

By Dreamcube017 - 13 Years Ago

Magique (12/2/2012)

animagic (12/2/2012)

baghdad4ever (11/28/2012)

5- The render very slow even if you have a good computer

Compared to what?

I'll answer this. Compared to a real-time game engine such as Unity, Source, Unreal, or Torque 3D.

Everyone keeps comparing iClone to game engines which I suppose is fare since it uses DirectX... but you guys keep forgetting ONE THING...

ALL of the content in the GAMES is optimized so that it can run smoothly. That means one UV map per character and lower poly models. Take your scene and put it in those game engines and see how it does.

Now iClone COULD handle things a bit faster, but still...

Also, you should probably compare it to something like Lumion.

Remember? We're making MOVIES, not GAMES. this means that it doesn't have to render COMPLETELY in real-time. You SHOULD be comparing it to other things that render movies and videos. How slow is it compared to Max, Lightwave, Maya, C4D? ... Yeah, that's what I thought.

Now iClone CAN take some things from game engines... a lot of them are using realtime radiocity now... I'd love to see that.

As for the reflection problem... I've come to realize that this is a problem with DirectX, not iClone. So we'll have to wait for those.

By Magique - 13 Years Ago

Dreamcube017 (12/2/2012)

Magique (12/2/2012)

animagic (12/2/2012)

baghdad4ever (11/28/2012)

5- The render very slow even if you have a good computer

Compared to what?

I'll answer this. Compared to a real-time game engine such as Unity, Source, Unreal, or Torque 3D.

I'm a C++ 3D graphics programmer and your quip about comparing it to game engines being invalid is completely false. There's no reason iClone cannot run as efficiently. In fact, I can take a game engine such as Torque 3D or Unity or Unreal or whatever and put a moviemaking interface on it and make movies like iClone.

iClone needs to dump its horrible rendering layer and replace it with something more robust and efficient or it's going to be obsolete someday when someone decides to compete with it.

As far as Lumion goes, yeah it's superior in rendering by far as well. It also is at a ridiculous price point.

As far as comparing it to 3DStudio Max or Lightwave, that's wrong. They are not equivalent. Those are not realtime rendering engines and iClone is.

By Dreamcube017 - 13 Years Ago

I won't disagree, iClone can perform better.

But if you've programmed for 3D graphics, you know there's a lot that goes into it. Stuff like UV mapping and model creation being some of them.

Hm... if you're speaking of the expot times, no those are fine... but now that I think about it, if you have objects in the scene and put post effects on, it does get a little choppy and it shouldn't So you are right in that regard.

Peter did mention a new lighting system in the next version (iC6?) so that might include a newer better, render engine. Reallusion's usually pretty god about keeping up when they do make updates.

By Munthe - 13 Years Ago

Line interleaved and Nvidia 3dvision (flipbook) live preview. And tools for animating the convergence (look-at etc). Thanks.

By Dreamcube017 - 13 Years Ago

Munthe (12/3/2012)

Line interleaved and Nvidia 3dvision (flipbook) live preview. And tools for animating the convergence (look-at etc). Thanks.

I'm sorry... what? Are those feature requests?

By LeeHounshell - 12 Years Ago

Hi,

I'd like to see the Physics plugin extended to include flowing liquids.
Give iClone a natural ability for pouring drinks, waterfalls, etc..

iClone is awesome. Thank you.

By OnlyOneKenobi - 12 Years Ago

Some more feature requests from me...

1. A higher poly face import system (or give us some choices in terms of poly count face creation)

2. Volumetric lights

3. Projected shadows

4. Allow props, actors, lights, accessories to be inserted into the scene at the current mouse pointer position. (it's a massive pain the backside to import a prop or character into the scene, and then to go hunt for it somewhere amidst the other items and characters - especially if you're working on a large set or large terrain)

5. Support vertex and morph animation

6. Better renderer - look at what's possible with the 7 year old Unreal Engine 3, it's miles ahead of iClone's rendering. Enhance material system to include channels for displacement maps, specular color maps, ambient occlusion maps, gloss maps

7. Have physics simulations (hard and softbody physics) interact with and react to characters

8. Ragdoll physics for characters

By Popeye - 12 Years Ago

Many Years ago when I was modeling for Virtual Reality Environments it had what you called a replacement option when settiing up a scene. This was basically a representation lets say of a building or tessellated structure with less detail/polys on it. The further you got away from the high detail building VR software would draw the less detailed building in the background hence using less processing. You could set distances and do numerous replacements getting less and less detail the further you got away from the building.

Another thing you could do was to switch the the building off if you were not in camera shot hence speeding up things further in the scene you were looking at. This would be a good new feature it were possible ;) for making large scenes and perhaps expanding the world we could design for!

Hope this has not already been mention but did not have time to track through all the threads about this topic. Hope I have put it in right thread!

By planetstardragon - 12 Years Ago

A picture is worth a thousand photoshop keystrokes! :w00t:

By Popeye - 12 Years Ago

Never knew the name of it. Like I said it was in the 80's. Maybe it has that name now. I don't know it was that long ago and I am getting older and less concerned/interested with new technology as I have had a belly full of it while working. Now a man of leisure I couldn't give two jots LOL :P

Anyway thanks for the response!

By planetstardragon - 12 Years Ago

hey bro ;) always nice to see you!! :D what do you think of the ui - redesign ? my goal was to have more screen space so we could have more space for the timeline - would be nice to have the play buttons a floating window. I'm doing a rotoscoping task now ...and it's hard to do when you try to fully expand the body on the timeline ..as it covers a good part of the screen / character - so I have to constantly keep moving it around - i'm thinking more screen space would make it more practical for rotoscoping projects.

By Peter (RL) - 12 Years Ago

Thanks for the continued suggestions. As always these will be reviewed by the development team. :)

By Peter (RL) - 12 Years Ago

OnlyOneKenobi (2/6/2013)

7. Have physics simulations (hard and softbody physics) interact with and react to characters

8. Ragdoll physics for characters

The next version of iClone will see improvements with Physics in the above areas. All other suggestions will also be considered for inclusion. :)

By Dreamcube017 - 12 Years Ago

Peter (RL) (4/2/2013)

OnlyOneKenobi (2/6/2013)

7. Havephysics simulations (hard and softbody physics) interact with and reactto characters

8. Ragdoll physics for characters

The next version of iClone will see improvements with Physics in the above areas. All other suggestions will also be considered for inclusion. :)

YESH YESH YESH!!!!!

By qdai - 12 Years Ago

Artman009 (8/8/2012)

Yes.

Passes:
Beauty, Diffuse, Specular, Ambient Occlusion, Z-Depth, Alpha, Flat Color, Reflections, Shadows, Lighting, Effects, Background

By mjordy - 12 Years Ago

I am still waiting for the realistic eyes look in Iclone 5, it's about time Reallusion could deliver that "natural look"!:w00t: The "staring look" makes Iclone 5 less professional than other 3D softwares.

By JasonWynngard - 12 Years Ago

iClone 6 suggestions:

1. If not integration with with FaceGen modeller, then make the "Head" feature able to better place faces from photos to iClone avatars. Thus be less hit or miss.

2. Make it easier to integrate live people with avatars in scenes. Perhaps a streamline feature to speed things up.

3. I know RL has no real control over Kinect's mocap abilities or disabilities, but try to find and integrate with a vendor who does a better job of getting consistent mocap results than the existing procedures.

4. Explore the possibility of streamlining video production with vendors like FXHome, makers of HitFilm.

5. There used to be a software (messed up by Adobe) called Serious Magic Ultra 2. It had some great static and animated props for placing your video in and making it look very sophisticated. Check to see if this caught be bought, duplicated, or integrated with iClone as Props or Project selections.

Not iClone specific but relevant:

First, look at how captioning or subtitling tutorial videos for the deaf or hearing impaired should be done. http://www.techsmith.com/tutorial-camtasia-8-01-pre-recording-tips.html
or any tutorial video on their site page: http://www.techsmith.com/tutorial-camtasia-8.html
Once the video is in play, select the "CC" at the lower right bottom of the video.

Second, look at almost any captioned or subtitled Youtube. Immediately you see JUNK, just JUNK, useless irrelevant text insertions that's just JUNK. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FGv95-7y0k

By jamesknine - 12 Years Ago

My wish list?

Mind you, this is from several years of producing comic books with the software. When I'm in the mood to make a comic, I have *very* tight deadlines (20 to 30 pages a week), and everything I can do to cut down on prep time counts.

So here goes:

"Sims" style room building or maybe a CAD style house/room designer where you can drop and drag doors and windows, carpeting, wallpaper, etc. Even a basic one would keep me in program designing rather than having to look things up.

Give us a REAL character editor. Character on screen in 2.5D like in every video game that allows character creation. Have pre-generated opacity maps (and sell us more through Clone Cloth or maps from the fine indy designers), for common items such as t-shirts, pants and shorts that we can texture and have texturing options for folds, buttons, zippers, straps etc. If someone came up with this on their own as an iclone add-in, and made it a no-brain operation (10 minutes or less to create characters in *iclone format* without having to open photoshop or another modeling program), I'd gladly pay $200 for it. It's that important to me.

At the same time, Daz-style clothes physics but no requirements for DAZ. I use your program for a reason. I don't like DAZ studio. That's why I've stayed in this environment for years. While the content options are good, I like the customizations and the power of your system.

If we can't have a real character editor, I'd like better package integration. Everything you buy from the reallusion store or content marketplace should show up in your library without the work of finding it on your hard drive and dropping and dragging to iclone and hoping it works. I tend to buy packages that come with the clothing on characters because it's just easier than hunting it down and having to do it by hand.

Editable hair or just more hair styles. I have tons of characters for my comics, I buy all the hair I can get, but it's time to focus on a variety of modern hairstyles.

More lighting options. Double the spots and point lights at least. I tend to use big rooms or multi-room environments within my scenes (hey, I'm old fashioned), for my comics, so anything in the room that's constant pre-lit is great for my workflow.

At the same time, I'd love to see lighting work like "real light." No more passing through walls. I'd love to see it reflect, bounce, be absorbed etc. I'd also like to see traditional lighting packages for scenes (point light, back light, fill light) for sale that you could attach to a character or have static in the scene.

Oh yeah, finally, I'd like it out NOW with all my changes! :)

Back to lurking,

Jim

By Peter (RL) - 12 Years Ago

Thanks for all the continued suggestions. These have been passed to the iClone team for consideration. :)

By mtakerkart - 12 Years Ago

Hi Icloners!

One thing for me , a easy bridge between Faceshift and 3dxchange.... :)

Best regards

Marc

By martok2112 - 12 Years Ago

jamesknine (6/30/2013)

My wish list?

Mind you, this is from several years of producing comic books with the software. When I'm in the mood to make a comic, I have *very* tight deadlines (20 to 30 pages a week), and everything I can do to cut down on prep time counts.

So here goes:

"Sims" style room building or maybe a CAD style house/room designer where you can drop and drag doors and windows, carpeting, wallpaper, etc. Even a basic one would keep me in program designing rather than having to look things up.

Give us a REAL character editor. Character on screen in 2.5D like in every video game that allows character creation. Have pre-generated opacity maps (and sell us more through Clone Cloth or maps from the fine indy designers), for common items such as t-shirts, pants and shorts that we can texture and have texturing options for folds, buttons, zippers, straps etc. If someone came up with this on their own as an iclone add-in, and made it a no-brain operation (10 minutes or less to create characters in *iclone format* without having to open photoshop or another modeling program), I'd gladly pay $200 for it. It's that important to me.

At the same time, Daz-style clothes physics but no requirements for DAZ. I use your program for a reason. I don't like DAZ studio. That's why I've stayed in this environment for years. While the content options are good, I like the customizations and the power of your system.

If we can't have a real character editor, I'd like better package integration. Everything you buy from the reallusion store or content marketplace should show up in your library without the work of finding it on your hard drive and dropping and dragging to iclone and hoping it works. I tend to buy packages that come with the clothing on characters because it's just easier than hunting it down and having to do it by hand.

Editable hair or just more hair styles. I have tons of characters for my comics, I buy all the hair I can get, but it's time to focus on a variety of modern hairstyles.

More lighting options. Double the spots and point lights at least. I tend to use big rooms or multi-room environments within my scenes (hey, I'm old fashioned), for my comics, so anything in the room that's constant pre-lit is great for my workflow.

At the same time, I'd love to see lighting work like "real light." No more passing through walls. I'd love to see it reflect, bounce, be absorbed etc. I'd also like to see traditional lighting packages for scenes (point light, back light, fill light) for sale that you could attach to a character or have static in the scene.

Oh yeah, finally, I'd like it out NOW with all my changes! :)

Back to lurking,

Jim

Although I don't work in comics, I agree with some of the wishes listed above (bolded).

The custom character optimizer like seen in some video games sounds pretty nice (like in Skyrim or Saints Row), although I generally don't have a problem just building my character in the standard environment. However, I do like the idea of being able to texture in, or allow the option for folds, buttons, zips, cuffs, sleeve or pants roll-ups, etc. iClone has an interesting idea in the start of this (look at some of the G5 clothing content like the blouse or the hoodie for Gwynn. On the hoodie mesh, there is a separate map for the hood that you can actually choose to omit --by reducing its opacity-- if you wish to make it look more like a regular jacket.) But, to be able to implement things like buttoning (having the clothing mesh open up at wherever you designate button points), or cuffing/roll ups (you can adjust the cuffs and rollups on pants/shorts and shorts on the character itself to set the length of the sleeve or pants leg at any time....and to be able to do this from the main UI itself, and not just in the mesh map editor, so that this could allow for real time animation...allowing the animator to make the character look as if he/she is rolling up his/her sleeves as it were, or buttoning/unbottoning/zipping/unzipping their shirts/blouses/etc. And for chick characters, have an option for where they might "tie off" their tee shirts or blouses, and the fabric tightens up at that point (going for the sexier look of girls that like to tie up their tees or blouses).

Yes, the ability to style hair would be great! Right now, there are many nice hair styles, but they are very static, and the flexible hair package, whilst nice, really doesn't allow for a lot of different hairstyles, unless they are really elaborate, up-styled hair dos. The "strands" that are available are pretty rigidly shaped. To be able to create a system similar to Blender (but not quite done as a particle system) where you can actually comb the hair and adjust its length with some mouse movements and clicks....THAT would be awesome. You could set thickness and length of segments (not individual strands, although to be able to allow for a few random strands, so it isn't much processing problem). Then you just texture on the hair diffuse maps.

Ultimately, I'd like to see, in iClone, the ability to create your own clothing meshes without having to resort to external editors...something similar to the Second Skin plug in from Renderosity, but without having to leave iClone. Then you could actually set your button, zip, cuff/rollup, and fold points on the custom made mesh for upper and lower body.

By jari.peltola - 12 Years Ago

I have been using the JJ Abrams app

http://www.actionmoviefx.com/

lately, and I must say it enables in its own category something I'd like to see in iClone. After all, Action Movie FX is an app-sized program, yet it can effortlessly combine video and animation smoothly unlike any animation workstation software I am aware of, and the same goes for apps certainly. If you wish, compare the CrazyTalk app with Action Movie FX and choose your favourite afterwards. You'll see what I mean.

I did read through most of the wishes for the new release, and as an addition I have mine: quality and usability. Unfair or not, anything done with iClone will be reviewed by audience with experience on watching top professional animation. This is why the JJ Abrams app is such a marvelous piece of software. Certainly it is not an application for industry pros - it is developed by one. As a result, the movies made with it are very good and enjoyable mock-ups in their own category instead of Delgo-kind of embarrassing 'almost there' experiences, which I consider a lot of stuff I've done with iClone to be.

As for content pack, I thought of the hundreds of thousands work hours WETA people and other pro artists have spent polishing their work to perfection. This sort of work should be put to use also in home environments. After all the work is already done and sold once (or three or four times when LOTR is considered). Why not make the stuff available in 3D content pack format compatible with home systems? The actual file formats and such might well be a compromise since I am not aiming my things to be shown on movie theatre bluescreen - Vimeo size and HD resolution is just fine.

Nowadays far too many people spend days and weeks trying to come up with something similar by themselves when they could just buy the original content already made once and modify that. The idea is same as in sample libraries in music production, which are by and large aimed at those without access to own studio band and crew.

As a third-party hardware extra, I have not bumped into a USB data-glove, which could be used in controlling facial and hand expressions. Pros had one over a decade ago so it might be ripe for consumer markets also.

By martok2112 - 12 Years Ago

Too bad it (action movie FX) seems to be an iPhone/iPad only app. If it were available for PC, I'd consider it.

By planetstardragon - 12 Years Ago

we need a "recent projects" list - it would be helpful especially in 3DX5 and iclone. I'm finding that simple feature very helpful in other software - especially since I'm jumping around in several projects. it helps you stay organized and move quick between a variety of projects- a list of about 10-15 would be nice and a "clear list" also please! :D

By lynn3d - 12 Years Ago

Shoes as accessories

It would be nice if the standard characters could have removable shoes the same as hair can be removed.
When using foot contact on a terrain and removing the shoes by setting their opacity to 0 it leaves a inevitable gap between the character and the terrain.

By mark - 12 Years Ago

lynn3d (9/15/2013)

Yep that would be nice. What I find I have to do is make sure I have saved my clothes...uppers, lowers, shoes etc. Then start from scratch with a nude avatar and add the clothes as required.

By lynn3d - 12 Years Ago

mark (9/15/2013)

Yep that would be nice. What I find I have to do is make sure I have saved my clothes...uppers, lowers, shoes etc. Then start from scratch with a nude avatar and add the clothes as required.

Thank you for your suggestion Mark, appreciated :)

Do you or someone else know where I can find a nude avatar. I looked through the store but no luck

PS : rope dancer is based on G5 Chuck

By Rampa - 12 Years Ago

Sen has nude G5's for 200 points. There are free G3 nudes in your account bonus section.

By mark - 12 Years Ago

lynn3d (9/15/2013)

mark (9/15/2013)

Yep that would be nice. What I find I have to do is make sure I have saved my clothes...uppers, lowers, shoes etc. Then start from scratch with a nude avatar and add the clothes as required.

Thank you for your suggestion Mark, appreciated :)

Do you or someone else know where I can find a nude avatar. I looked through the store but no luck

PS : rope dancer is based on G5 Chuck

As I remember I got a free content pack of nude G3 avatar's when I bought iClone but Chuck & Gwynn only come with the Chuck and the Neighbors pack as far as I know and it's not free.

By Cricky - 12 Years Ago

If you use a Non-Standard Character, as in DAZ, you can adjust the contact point for the floor and the feet height (in 3DXchange5) after the shoes are set to Opacity "0".

Standard Characters for some reason don't allow anymore than Standard Bone Adjustment.

By lynn3d - 12 Years Ago

Thank you all, great suggestions

I've just downloaded the G3 nudes and will give it a try then come back with the results :)

By animagic - 12 Years Ago

Lynn, in some IC generation there were just feet that you could apply as shoes. I'll have to check were they came from. It was a freebie, I believe...

By Rampa - 12 Years Ago

If you select the "feet" tab, then you can hit the "+" sign at the bottom of the content panel to add the selected avatar's feet to your custom feet panel.

Any bodypart can be saved in the same manner, if it's tab is selected.

By lynn3d - 12 Years Ago

SUMMARY

G3 nude male
The G5 clone cloth nor the textures only cannot be exchanged with different generation
I have added the G3 CloneCloth for Essential Man Vol.1 to my wishlist though, there are some very nice variations vs. G5

On the other hand, the avatar is not shy of a bit of levitation either.
With foot contact > move > walk forward > feet lift

Solution
Since I keyframe every movement I took the tightrope out of the terrain and back as a prop and Chuck without foot contact and it works very well.
It's actually a lot easier this way to do the movements.

@Rampa

Thank you for the link to Sen's nudes, they are on my wishlist

If you select the "feet" tab, then you can hit the "+" sign at the bottom of the content panel to add the selected avatar's feet to your custom feet panel.

You've lost me there Rampa, I have a "Shoes" tab but no "feet" tab :unsure:

OK, back to animating, thank you all again for the various and very helpful hints and tips :)

By Sifr - 12 Years Ago

My iClone 6 wish is....... that it gets here, because RL is milking this IC5 cow dry. :D
There I said it.:w00t:

By animatom - 12 Years Ago

I had a wish: to stop Reallusion to assault us. Because after all this time there is no better word for constant crashing whenever we even look at color change or timeline.
All complains, all bug reports, over and over again, from many of us - still nothing.
Right now I am mad as hell, but it will pass.
Sad fact is it will pass long before these bugs will.

By Shaky - 12 Years Ago

animatom (10/9/2013)

Ya! I have developed a habit. Every time I go to change color or something on the timeline, I save before hand. It's almost a nervous twitch at this point. Also, if you are toggling snap to grid on or off, then don't touch the keyboard while the hourglass is up.

By planetstardragon - 12 Years Ago

I've noticed that if you click something 2x in a row - if the 1st time stuck ...the 2nd click makes you crash. - like if I'm clicking on color ...and it takes a second to pop up the color panel....but i click again ...boom. This happens especially with textures also, like when you click on the box to import a texture ....but your drive is in a sleeping state - it looks like nothing happened, but iclone in fact is waiting for the drive to wake .....you double click again - crash.

By martok2112 - 12 Years Ago

I rarely have crashes anymore, simply because I do a very simple thing (besides constantly saving...that's just a given), when I hover my mouse cursor over any button, I wait for one of two things: If it is something like one of the playback buttons, or a keyframe...or basically any button on the playback or timeline control bars, I wait for the little pop up text box, identifying that function to appear and disappear. For other buttons, I'll simply wait until they illuminate under the cursor (the Overwrite, Add, and Apply buttons under the content manager, or pretty much any button under the UI on the right). About the only time that the color management buttons or the timeline gives me trouble is when I get a bit ahead of myself, and slightly start to lose patience. Yes, my method is an exercise in patience, but it has saved me from far more crashes than I can count.

By Shaky - 12 Years Ago

@martok2112

Thanks! I will try that. I am a CAD operator, so I'm used to being a few clicks ahead. So, I will have to retrain myself.

By martok2112 - 12 Years Ago

You're welcome, Shaky. :) I had to teach myself to slow down too when the machine started getting bogged.

This isn't a foolproof method. There's still the occasional crash with the color swatches and the timeline, but at least they aren't as frequent as normally if I'm trying to work like nothing's going on. :)

By mark - 12 Years Ago

I was wishin' the "crash with the color swatches and the timeline" was a thing of the past but sadly it's not :w00t:

By martok2112 - 12 Years Ago

mark (10/12/2013)

I was wishin' the "crash with the color swatches and the timeline" was a thing of the past but sadly it's not :w00t:

I will assuredly agree that this is indeed a problem that needs addressed....even with my "patience" methods, like I stated before, this is still one problem that exists.

Serenity.......NOWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:D

By animatom - 12 Years Ago

Thanks, Martok, a lot. If this even little reduce crashing, you saved my day(s). Will try for sure.

By martok2112 - 12 Years Ago

You're welcome, animatom. :) I hope it helps. It definitely has helped me out. The only real issue I ever have any more is with the color swatches, same as everyone else....but, if you play your cards right with the other things I mentioned, you should have fewer crashes. :)

Remember, folks, as users, generally we are in the business of pushing iClone to its limits with our imaginations (high polys, loads of textures, tricky animations, etc)....and sometimes, we do have to take a breath and let the computer play catch up to our imaginations. :)

By Peter (RL) - 12 Years Ago

martok2112 (10/13/2013)

mark (10/12/2013)

I was wishin' the "crash with the color swatches and the timeline" was a thing of the past but sadly it's not :w00t:

The color change crashing issue that affects some users should be eradicated in the next version of iClone. For the next version the GUI is being developed using QT and this should help finally resolve this nagging problem.

By brand468 - 11 Years Ago

fixme (8/27/2012)

Muscle system for avatars and imported fbx avatars
collisions between avatars (arms, legs, body,..)
octane realtime render engine

buy or join daz3d developing and teach them how to animate :P

Hi, i agree that it would be great if iClone support Octane render :).
I am using Octane with Poser and the GPU renderings are fantastic (using GTX 780 ti) :)

By animagic - 11 Years Ago

brand468 (1/6/2014)

Hi, i agree that it would be great if iClone support Octane render :).
I am using Octane with Poser and the GPU renderings are fantastic (using GTX 780 ti) :)

I support that. It seems plugins are available for a lot of platforms already, so why not iClone.

You could theoretically export your scene as FBX, but that would require an content export licenses in most cases (expensive!). An iClone plugin would be much better. We would still have the standard iClone renderer for real-time and those who want higher quality and have an nVidia card could use the plugin.

@brand: I see you have the 780 Ti. Is there much difference (besides the price) between that and a regular 780?

By prabhatM - 11 Years Ago

animagic (1/6/2014)

brand468 (1/6/2014)

Hi, i agree thatit would be great if iClonesupport Octane render:).
I am using Octane with Poser and the GPU renderings are fantastic (using GTX 780 ti) :)

I support that. It seems plugins are available for a lot of platforms already, so why not iClone.

You could theoretically export your scene as FBX, but that would require an content export licenses in most cases(expensive!). An iClone plugin would be much better. We would still have the standard iClone renderer for real-time and those who want higher quality and have an nVidia card could use the plugin.

@brand: I see you have the 780 Ti. Is there much difference (besides the price)between that and a regular 780?

Whatever little i have read and remember, the TI uses the full bandwidth and is not overclocked.

By prabhatM - 11 Years Ago

brand468 (1/6/2014)

Hi, i agree thatit would be great if iClonesupport Octane render:).
I am using Octane with Poser and the GPU renderings are fantastic (using GTX 780 ti) :)

Do you have to replace the materials while rendering in Octane ?

By Magique - 11 Years Ago

Octane Render gets my vote as well.

By brand468 - 11 Years Ago

prabhatM (1/7/2014)

brand468 (1/6/2014)

Hi, i agree thatit would be great if iClonesupport Octane render:).
I am using Octane with Poser and the GPU renderings are fantastic (using GTX 780 ti) :)

Do you have to replace the materials while rendering in Octane ?

The most materials converts automatic but some have to be changed for best look. :)

By brand468 - 11 Years Ago

animagic (1/6/2014)

brand468 (1/6/2014)

Hi, i agree thatit would be great if iClonesupport Octane render:).
I am using Octane with Poser and the GPU renderings are fantastic (using GTX 780 ti) :)

Not really sure, you could read about i here: [url=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-nvidia-geforce-gtx-780-ti-review][/url]
One thing with Octane render is that the whole scene must be inside the GPU memory, but i guess this is no problem with iClone scenes. One thing that im not sure about is the possibility to use particles inside Octane, this is important for my use?

By planetstardragon - 11 Years Ago

it would be nice to have things like lights, particle effects, physics, and textures react to sound / audio files - to make stuff like this! :w00t:

By Am7add9 - 11 Years Ago

probably mentioned several times before,

object motion blur would be really cool,

some kind of cutting tool like procutter in max would really up the game for iclone only modeling.

a upgraded particle system with a pre-run feature. size and opacity over life. and maybe a "look at" feature

By Peter (RL) - 11 Years Ago

Thanks for all the continued suggestions and feedback. This has been passed to the iClone team to review.

By tylerzambori - 11 Years Ago

I would also like to be able to get daz / poser clothes into Iclone. That for me is the main reason for wanting to get the daz figures in, just because I have so much invested in clothes and etc.

By alanebell - 11 Years Ago

I would like better control over keyframing. It would be nice to be able to use bezier curves on key frames also tell the app that I don't want o automatic keyframe when I am in the main camera.

By rampart - 11 Years Ago

This would help everyone!

Keyframe icons that are larger or have color differences, something along those lines.

It is common to have key that are so far to the left you don't see they are there. I have had several keys all the way on the left most position and didn't realize they were there until I started clicking and dragging them to the right.
Very important--- the key icons are too small. Hard to click on.

Also, maybe a config item to somehow change color of keyframe icons.

Better still, have a color change automatic every time a key is added in the same row. Maybe have 4 or five colors. This way it will be easy to identify changes as they are made. The eye will instantly pick up on color change, not so much size or icon outline.

The diamond shape is fine. Many other software use diamond in their keyframe icons so that is good (Sony Vegas). Vegas users immediately know what the icon means.

Mostly, Keys are too small

By Rampa - 11 Years Ago

A multi-gizmo.

Currently there are three gizmos. One for translation, and one for rotation, and one for scale. Many programs have, or have an option, to combine these three gizmos into one.

It helps the workflow go smoother.

By Peter (RL) - 11 Years Ago

Thank you all for the continued feedback. iClone6 is well into development for release later this year but we still want to hear your suggestions for improvements, so please keep them coming. :)

By alanebell - 11 Years Ago

It would be nice if I could bring in Camera animation from another package via fbx for instance. I see on your home page you are touting iclone for previz. Well I use it for pre and post viz. I need to get cameras from 3d tracking software such as syntheyes into iclone for that to work well.

Another thing that would be nice is if for previz we could set the frame rate and have iclone do all the math for us. So if I have a frame rate of 24 for my export then something that happens at frame 50 actually happens at frame fifty in my output. Having to do all this math because of the internal frame rate is a pain and needlessly confusing.

Warm Regards
Alan Edward Bell A.C.E.
Look me up on IMDB I use your software behind the scenes on very large movies.

By DELETED2 - 11 Years Ago

maxae (1/19/2014)

probably mentioned several times before,
object motion blur would be really cool, ...//... "look at" feature...//

1. This is extortionate work for iclone whereas its common place in all video editing software and superior visually as it can be better layered. iClone I think has to be animation software, not a botched half cut video editing solution.

2. Isn't this already there?

By DELETED2 - 11 Years Ago

In PREFERENCE > GRID OPTIONS > ANGLE SNAP we can control rotational set design from snap-to angles of...

1. 180 degrees
2. 90 degrees
3. 45 degrees
4. But NOT 22.5 degrees.

Just 22 degrees.

This is an important angle difference.

We at least need 22.5 as an incrementally halved angle for snap-to design and layout positioning. It would be good.

By Rampa - 11 Years Ago

We need for the align motion feature to also align the rotation. Currently it only aligns the translation (position).

Better yet, would be that the pivot could always rotate with the avatar, so that the avatar would always be facing in the pivot's "-Y" direction. Currently, the pivot translates with the avatar, but does not rotate with it.

This effects saved iMotions, and makes them more difficult to blend.

Yes, there is a way to "gimble" the avatar and it's motion, but it'd sure be nice if this were automatic.

By Shaky - 11 Years Ago

Sometimes I like to tilt the camera to get that 60's batman feel for an image. But there is no way to tilt the camera while I am looking through it. What I have to do is unclick the (camera stabilizer, I don't remember what it is really called), and go to a different camera (preview), and rotate that camera. However, I can't see what I am doing, so I have to go back and forth between the two cameras to get it right.

Can we please have some way to rotate the camera as in pitch or roll from the point of view of the camera?

If there is already a way to do this, then please tell me, I might have missed it.

By Rampa - 11 Years Ago

I believe there is! In the right hand pane, uncheck "level camera" and change the numbers in the rotation boxes.

You might also be able to link your camera to a dummy which you can rotate. Position the dummy right in front of lens, so you can see it in your camera view.

By justaviking - 11 Years Ago

Shaky (3/27/2014)

a) Agree, it would be nice feature to add.

b) "I can't see what I am doing"... Use the (ugh, I forgot the correct term)... Use the mini-viewport window feature. The main window will be the "Preview" window which will allow you to see and rotate the "Bat-Cam", and the mini-viewport can be set to show what the "Bat-Cam" sees.

By Shaky - 11 Years Ago

Thanks rampa & justaviking

Those are all great ideas.

By Rampa - 11 Years Ago

I would like to see a scale feature for groups of objects (multiple selections) that would scale each one in place, rather than as a group.

For example. If I plant 23 trees using the tree brush, and then decide they are to large in relation to the rest of my scene, I would like to be able to select them all (with the select tool or by shift-clicking in the scene manager) and scale them without any of them moving from their current location.

By justaviking - 11 Years Ago

rampa (3/30/2014)

I like this idea.

My UI (User Interface) idea is it behaves in the current fashion by default, but with the scale gizmo active, a SHIFT-DRAG would scale about each item's origin, per your suggestion,

By Peter (RL) - 11 Years Ago

Thanks for all the continued suggestions and feedback. As always these will be considered for future inclusion. :)

By Peter (RL) - 11 Years Ago

alanebell (3/14/2014)

Warm Regards
Alan Edward Bell A.C.E.
Look me up on IMDB I use your software behind the scenes on very large movies.

Hi Alan,

Thank you for the suggestions. We would love to see how you are using iClone for movie production work. Please do share with us your experiences of iClone. You can contact me by PM if you don't wish to post anything publically.

By EvilGenius - 11 Years Ago

My list is simple.. BONES BONES BONES!!!!

I want 3dXchange to be integrated within iClone itself with full rigging capabilities.

By bouncer - 11 Years Ago

pipeline should have a rigging system for 4 -legged animals so many great animal characters out there
should be able to bring them into pipeline and export into iclone to use with iclone animal character motions not rigged as a human as it currently stands

By lachatina - 11 Years Ago

Lights and weather li9ke lumion 4.5? Is posible? Create exterior lights and real weather and water, day, night... sun, moon... Will be great!

Sorry for my english badly

By justaviking - 11 Years Ago

This may seem minor, and that's probably because it is. But it's been driving me crazy the last couple of weeks...

Please do NOT ask me about saving the project if nothing has changed!
And when you do ask, have it Pre-Fill the filename with the current project name.

I am constantly bouncing back and forth between different projects. Sometimes they are difference scenes, and sometimes different portions of the same scene, so my filenames are somewhat similar.

I do "Save As" on a regular basis, but I don't want to do a Save As every time I open a different file.

For example, if I open a project and render out a screen shot, and then open another project, it asks me if I want to save the project.

When it asks me if I want to save changes, I'm worried that I'll make one of these two mistakes:

I'll not save, and end up discarding some of my great work

So so ask when I've made changes
But don't bother me when I haven't actually changed the project

Accidentally overwrite the wrong file

So have the current file name already filled when doing the "Save" process
That way I won't overwrite the wrong project

I already admitted it's not the biggest issue in the world, but when I'm tired I get worried about making simple errors.

Here is an example of my filenaming. Very logical, but by design there is a lot of similarity in the filenames. All the revisions are where I do a "Save As" so I have working backups.

Project 8 - Scene 2 - Rev a.iProject
Project 8 - Scene 2 - Rev b.iProject
Project 8 - Scene 2 - Rev c.iProject
Project 8 - Scene 3a - Rev a.iProject
Project 8 - Scene 3a - Rev b.iProject
Project 8 - Scene 3b - Rev a.iProject
Project 8 - Scene 3b - Rev b.iProject
Project 8 - Scene 3c - Rev a.iProject
Project 8 - Scene 3c - Rev b.iProject
Project 8 - Scene 3c - Rev c.iProject
Project 8 - Scene 3c - Rev d.iProject
Project 8 - Scene 4 - Rev a.iProject
Project 8 - Scene 4 - Rev b.iProject

I'd rather not feel compelled to do a Save As everytime. My disk drive would be filled by next week.

Too much typing for such a simple topic? Gee, I haven't even finished my second cup of coffee yet.

By planetstardragon - 11 Years Ago

agreed, or give us a panel that allows us to customize iclone behavior.

I can appreciate that some of the workflow was created for new users, but some of these features can become redundant after you gain experience. So you can make templates for various users, while allowing custom settings for more experienced users.

By Magique - 11 Years Ago

justaviking (4/18/2014)

This may seem minor, and that's probably because it is. But it's been driving me crazy the last couple of weeks...

Please do NOT ask me about saving the project if nothing has changed!
And when you do ask, have it Pre-Fill the filename with the current project name.

This is not minor and I agree completely. This needs to be changed.

By Bezzer - 11 Years Ago

An optional 'quick costume' designer (built in or plug in) to the current clonecloth method would be a blessing for me.

Whilst I have played around with clonecloth in PS, being predominently a movie maker, I find the whole process extremely time consuming and drawn out...and with not having a great head for fashion design, my end results are usually disasters.

A system where costumes/clothing could be quickly and easily designed whilst on an iclone character or 'model' (i.e. without leaving Iclone and having to work in PS or other graphics apps 'blindly') would be ideal...it could incorporate settings for G3, G4 and G5 characters and have the usual options for textures, style, colour etc.

A 'magnetic' selection tool (similar to those used in PS) could be used for more basic cutting and shaping purposes.

It obviously wouldn't have the same creative freedom as the clonecloth approach and the results may be a bit more basic or 'everyday', but as with clonecloth, themed template packs could be an answer for variety purposes.

Perhaps, even new male and female 'quick costume' specific characters could be developed?

I think this could also prove a time/production effective tool for the previz market.

I'm pretty naive in this area and I've no idea if any of this is feasible or even if anybody has similar thoughts/feelings about this, but it's the one thing that's really bugged me for a while.

By planetstardragon - 11 Years Ago

wind!

perhaps that could be made like a plug in where you can control speed, force, radius, and direction!

with all the spring effects, and the upcoming cloth physics - seems like a must have to get that hair blowing in the wind look!

By animagic - 11 Years Ago

@Viking: You SHOULD type less... :P

My naming is similar, but shorter: for example, for "The Lost Client", Scene 10, rev 1, it would be LC_S10_1. I cycle between three versions and add an "e" to indicate which is the last one: e.g., LC_S10_2e. This approach has minimized my confusion...:unsure:

That said, I do agree with your proposal. :D

It would be even cooler if you could actually automate this and tell iClone to keep a set number of versions. :cool:

By rampart - 11 Years Ago

Now that I've been doing videos with iclone around 2 years I conclude there is one tool we need.

We need a tool like I have seen with other animation builders. A tool that makes movement, especially avatar walking, running and such easier. I'm OK with the motion editor and motion puppet for upper body movements. The most difficult and tedious processes are with the avatars walking, running, crawling and other movements from one place to another. The path command has it's own set of anomalies. Placement of paths close to each other and then trying to get avatars to follow specific paths doesn't always work well.

This video is from muvizu another animation software. This is terrific movement tool from what I can tell, and would save hours of time for basic movements of avatars in scenes with alot of avatars, walking, standing, sitting, standing, turning in place, etc.

http://www.muvizu.com/Video/17237/Tutorial-19-Directing-Character-movement

When we use the path command it takes so much time to get the character just to go where it should. Then you have the problem of motion content items that have to be started with the avatar in specific positions.

How often I have used a path command to move character across the screen and when I apply motions the avatar will do a turn. It is a pain getting the avatar going the way it should. In fact, this usually requires some kind of workaround to get the avatar to move the way you want it.

How many times I've use motion tools after I have moved the avatar to the end of path, and then when I applied the motion tool the avatar turned around and started off in that direction. How many times have I just wanted the avatar to stop at the end of a path and turn around facing the direction it came. This takes workaround to fix.

I realize there are so many other motions we can do in iclone, but why not have something simple like the video above as well. I mean we have motion editor, motion puppet.

Currently, I am working on a project where about 9 characters are walking around and moving within each scene. It is so time consuming and tedious, especially where paths cross each other or too close to each other.

I may be repeating myself here, but my experience is relevant to me.
I worked on a airport scene at the ticket counter and it drove me nuts getting all the proper walking and motions associated with the legs and turning of the avatars. Busy scenes with many avatars and alot of independent movement of avatars walking, sitting down, standing up, turns while walking, turns while standing in different directions can take hours and hours of work.

I don't care if we still have the path command, it works for flying and things like that. It is just that when paths are close to each other or cross over each other, the avatars exceed the path, don't terminate the path properly, get lost and pick path of another avatar, etc.

Seriously, the path command stinks and it needs work.

Simpler ways to do things is a very powerful message. Muvizu may not be a contender now, but they do have simpler ways of doing things...that will eventually register with alot of people. That is, if they can stay in business of course.

Time is important to me and I am not alone in this. I am constantly pressed for time.

I have an iclone project right now that I have put on hold, which should have been completed long ago. It has a large number of avatars in each scene and all those movements will take days of work to do to complete the movements in the scenes. All that tedious work is not motivating me.

It isn't fun...that is sure, and so often frustrating when things don't work as they should.

RL pays attention when it comes to things they really want to do or fix. This is not my first posting about the paths, nor the last RL is going to get about the way avatar movement is facilitated.

By Magique - 11 Years Ago

I agree on the improved animation tools needed. I posted earlier about emulating a tool called Maestro 2 for animation capabilities. I took a look at Muvizu and I think it's animation looks great. So much, in fact, that I'm downloading and taking a look at the product. Animation in iClone has always been frustrating to work with.

By justaviking - 11 Years Ago

Hey, look, Rampart almost typed as much as me! :w00t:

(~almost~) :P

By rampart - 11 Years Ago

Viking

Sure hope some of these long-winded postings create some interest. I was really telling the truth. I really reached my threshold for working with the path command trying to get something done with avatars walking, turning, stopping and turning, then applying motion files has worn my patience thin.

I have never used the director mode. It may be I can do something with that. I'll give it a go later in the week.

I need to finish a project I started couple months back, and I keep trying to get my giddy up to work on it, but it won't giddy up

By justaviking - 11 Years Ago

rampart (4/29/2014)

Sure hope some of these long-winded postings create some interest. I was really telling the truth. I really reached my threshold for working with the path command trying to get something done with avatars walking, turning, stopping and turning, then applying motion files has worn my patience thin.

Re "walking"... That is one of my greatest frustrations with iClone.

Foot sliding? Arrrgh!!!! It just shouldn't happen!!!

Short walks. It seems nearly impossible to have an avatar take a mere two or three steps.

Turning. A lot of turns are not natural. It should also be easier to turn without going anywhere.

Stop HERE. Many times when I tell an avatar to walk to a specific location, it goes two or even three extra steps, which means my avatar ends up walking into a wall, or stands in a mailbox. Sometimes he doesn't go far enough.

By moviemachine - 11 Years Ago

"Re "walking"... That is one of my greatest frustrations with iClone.
Foot sliding? Arrrgh!!!! It just shouldn't happen!!!
Short walks. It seems nearly impossible to have an avatar take a mere two or three steps.
Turning. A lot of turns are not natural. It should also be easier to turn without going anywhere"

Hey what's everybody getting worked up about?
Why I bet the team is addressing these issues as we speak!
Why I remember when Iclone 5 was released and Reallusion nearly marched all the G2 characters into extermination as the G2's were not rigged for IC5's whiz bang new technology.
Luckily though, the G2's were given an 11th hour stay of execution as the Team figured out how to get them back in the game!

So fear not!
All this gripping about wanting basic reliable control & implementation of avatars walking & turning (something that should have worked properly since IC3) will probably be addressed in IC6... you people are just expecting too much;)

Why I bet there's someone on the Team right at this very moment with an idea to have all the Avatars take on immobilizing disabilities that will prevent them from having a need to turn or go anywhere. Yes, from the nobody moves nobody gets hurt safety of their wheel chairs all the Avatars from G1 to G6 will raise their eyes to the Reallusion heavens and marvel at all the IC6 whiz bang "Effects" and they will feel privileged to have sacrificed once again for the Team.

Yup, screw basic simple moving from point A to point B
Who wants to animate human interaction or actually tell a story anymore.

Bring on the IC6 shell game:D

By Magique - 11 Years Ago

Moviemachine is being sarcastic, of course, but I totally agree. And although I am a big proponent of lots of the new features coming to iClone 6, I still think that the fundamentals of animation need to be strengthened in this next version or iClone is never going to be a usable product for anything other than fanboy films by wannabe filmmakers. Great animation tools will make or break this product and so far it has broken it. I continue to hold onto the dream that iClone will someday overcome these hurdles and be my dream animation tool, but it continues to disappoint in this area.

By rampart - 11 Years Ago

Magique

I suspect the reason RL keeps embracing the path for animations for walking, turning, and moving your avatars around in your scenes to keep selling motions. All the old standalone motions should no longer be relevant. We have the processing and graphic power now to get things working for us.

RL should move away from the standalone motions sales and move to built in motion tools that facilitate production. Walking is walking, turning is turning, running is running, what would it hurt to have basics for these types of motions and add some tweaking tools for altering those motions.

This is very important. iclone is an animation application and animation should be more competently addressed. RL needs to stop whatever they are doing, if it doesn't relate to improvements in building animations.

By Magique - 11 Years Ago

Rampart, I agree. Reallusion needs to focus on great animation tools. Some people, including myself, have pointed them to other great animation tools that are far more advanced and capable than iClone. Pre-fab motions are great sometimes, but we need the ability to make great animations without pre-fabs and to be able to get characters walking and running without complicated setups. Poser is a great example of a tool that can generate walk/run cycles. I've pointed them to Maestro 2 for LightWave that has great tools for creating your own animations. And Messiah Studio is a great example of a product that has very animation specific tools for doing just about anything.

Animation is the key feature that will make or break iClone. Without it, you're never really going to see an explosion of AAA quality films. You'll always have the one or two dedicated people who know how to work magic from almost nothing, but even they would agree that better tools would give them a better end product and faster.

By justaviking - 11 Years Ago

I don't mind the idea of buying specialty motions that would be complicated to key frame, especially ones with prop interaction.

Some examples:

Jumping on a pogo stick
Get into a vehicle (and specify any of the 4 doors)
Do a summersault
Do a "shoulder-roll"
A variety of gymnastics moves
Playing piano (in a variety of styles and flourishes)
Typing on a keyboard (wow, what if we provided the text it actually hit those letters?)
Starting a lawn mower (pull rope)
Climbing a rope
Brushing teeth

But "turn around and wave"? No, that should be easily accomplished with the base product.

By rampart - 11 Years Ago

Magique (4/30/2014)

Animation is the key feature that will make or break iClone. Without it, you're never really going to see an explosion of AAA quality films. You'll always have the one or two dedicated people who know how to work magic from almost nothing, but even they would agree that better tools would give them a better end product and faster.

Yes, I think you are spot on. There will be some people that will just work through the processes of creating animations, no matter how tedious. Then there are people like myself that just don't have time for wasting on doing things that don't utilize the principal features of computers. Computers are principally designed to facilitate redundant, repetitive tasks.

I have high expectations for iclone 6, with a new gui and all. I'm just hoping these recent discussion postings about improvements in animation are addressed.

Currently, I have pretty well come to realize I don't need any new content. Yes, I have projects in mind...but I don't have time to work them until we get some better tools for animation. I have been around for couple years now, and have been very loyal. Yet, the one project I mentioned above just dragged my attitude and motivation to new low levels.
I have not be motivated to work with iclone, so I am taking on video projects with live actors and real world scenes. I have done some Crazy talk projects, because the work flow is so fast and easy in the new version.

By rampart - 11 Years Ago

Viking

We need BASIC CORE MOTIONS and possible they should be described as such. These motions should be easily applied and altered.

BASIC "CORE" MOTIONS should include basic motions for moving avatars from place to place within scenes examples=walking, running, turning, stopping where they should, turning from stop position, sitting down, etc. Basic motions should be associated with movement below the waist of avatars and moving those avatars from place to place in scenes. BASIC CORE MOTIONS should be carefully crafted by RL for realism and easily applied and tweaked. These basic motions are used all the time, throughout all projects. We should not have to apply path commands for creating these motions for avatars.

I don't mind to work with edit motion layer, and other motion tools for above the waist type of motions. IMO, waving hands, nodding heads and such is not that big a problem as far as animation. I always set these motions as one of last things I do, long after I have created the motions associated with moving my avatars around the scene.

Also, I forgot to mention a stinky problem with the path command that I've not read previously. When you have avatar doing a walking turn the arc the avatars turns within can be difficult to set, because the avatar isn't walking directly to and doing a realistic turn. Commonly the avatars do sweeping large arc unrealistic turns. There are workarounds, but often it is hard to get the avatar to register "precise placement" on the path.

We all know you have to tweak the stopping and starting motions when using path, which is just an example of UNFINISHED WORK OF THE DEVELOPER

IMO, the inclusion of what I have described as "CORE BASIC MOTIONS" will greatly enhance the iclone, and make it a 1000% more user friendly. Path is the One toughest command to master, it takes workarounds and tweaks to do almost everything with path.

Don't even think new users master the PATH command quickly, because they don't.

By rampart - 11 Years Ago

I just changed the discussion points in my last post. I should have created a new posting, but got sidetracked. I am sorry for that.

By justaviking - 11 Years Ago

@Rampart - Brilliantly stated. 100% agree.

By LarryPlane - 11 Years Ago

I'm looking forward to iClone 6. Been too long since I used this program with any degree of will, mainly because I've been busy doing real world film making, but there are projects I want to do that require animation, at the moment iClone 5 is not always what I find useful to complete those projects for the reasons stated above, an improvement in any of those areas would be great.

A nice upgrade price would also be cool :)

By rampart - 11 Years Ago

I thought I should mention this as well.

BASIC CORE MOTIONS - should be prepared for walking up and down stairs, starting on stairs and walking down, climbing up or down ladders, walking up and down hills/inclines, climbing up and down over objects, sitting down, climbing into, etc. The basic core motions would target below the waist motion for the most part, but they should include some upper body movement in some instances.

If the avatar is on a hill, or stairs or if the avatars walks to a place to go up and down a hilll or stairs. The BASIC CORE MOTIONS would start and walk up or down properly and stop as expected.

The package of basic core motions could be enhanced over time, but we would need the most used motions to start. I think everyone would be happy with a good start on these motions.

By planetstardragon - 11 Years Ago

Moar Effects!! stuff like they have in http://freeframe.sourceforge.net/ it's an open source video / vj plug in system with tons of user made effects. - especially good for music eye candy!

maybe create a special effect creator kit so developers can create new effect packs!
a big huge panel with all sorts of faders and buttons that cause different effects, so we can do anything from psychadelic abstract videos to videos with the worn monotone movie with jitters, scratches and all that. The effects option is an awesome feature, need to expand on that!

and make it react to audio!! :w00t:

music videos are a big part of the iclone culture!

By rampart - 11 Years Ago

The director mode it seems will not replace edit mode and the path command for avatar movement. I guess RL started and lost interest in the director mode before it was mature enough to make a difference.

There are few tutorials on using the director mode. I found the iclone 5 manual is probably the best resource for finding how to work with it.

The muvizu I mentioned in an earlier posting in this thread is aquiring a pretty good following, especially among persons new to animation. Interest in the software is growing and they are introducing new content items constantly, which should continue to develop more users of their software.

http://www.muvizu.com/

RL did recently release the avatar toolkit with character builds that look almost identical to the muvizu characters. I conclude from that RL does have interest in less complex characters and possibly easier video production tools in the works.

Newbs will probably enjoy muvizu. They can start building animations so easy and fast. They aren't as slick and professional as iclone, but look at South Park, Sponge Bob and all the other lousy 2djunk animations that are very popular. Don't take this in the wrong way. I think the devils are in the details and there are probably many issues with Muvizu that aren't quickly discerned from what is being promoted. The forums can tell you alot about software programs, if all the posters aren't company insiders.

When I started with iclone it was a daunting task to learn how to use iclone fast enough to do anything with it. I have found it to be extremely difficult when you have to work, and can't really give full attention to learn it. I don't feel my situation was any different from alot of other people. One thing I find... it is extremely difficult to be a busy person and then top your workload with the extra burden of trying to learn new things. Yet, as a busy person you know those new things have to be learned as well. I say this because the entry into iclone needs to be simpler for newbs and that should not be understated. RL wants new users then they need to meet people where they are and help to grow their understanding of RL applications to build RL customer base.

By justaviking - 11 Years Ago

Two versions of the same request:

Copy-&-Paste between projects.
Join or combine projects.

I would like to be able to select some avatars and props in one project and add them to a different project, complete with transformations and actions (even sound, which is important if an avatar talks).

It'd be a great start if these additions simply got pasted to the END of the project you're adding them to. Once there, you can move them on the timeline.

If the pasted item is not already in the target project, add the item.

If the pasted item already exists in the target project, add a Key Frame at the end of the project to capture the current state, and then append to the timeline any additional transformations, sounds, emotions, and so on.

In addition to specific, selected items, I'd love to be able to add two projects together. "Concatenate" it probably the technical term. I imagine opening Project A, and doing File, Add Project, and selecting Project B. Everything from Project B could be added to the end of Project A. Similar to my cut at paste, add Key Frames for items that already exist before bringing in all the animations. And then add in all the additional props and avatars and stuff like that.

Why? I see this as a great way to work on projects in pieces, but then "merge" them together so you don't have to maintain multiple sets and keep the lighting and stuff like that coordinated. You might also do some animation in small pieces, but you don't want to work in a large project, but later you could combine things to simplify your file management.

Think of it as "MotionPlus" on steroids.

For bonus points, you'd be able to do this by copying a specific time range.

By Magique - 11 Years Ago

Justaviking,

I think your basic idea about merging projects is good, but probably not the best way to accomplish what you are asking. I've requested similar features in the past that I think would be a better fit for what you want and more in line with a good production pipeline.

Without going into too much detail, the basic idea is to have the ability to create and manage scene setups within a project. For example, you might have a living room set for a TV show, but would like to have daytime, afternoon, and evening setups complete with lighting parameters, prop placement, etc. So, your project would have a place where you have these individual setups and you simply select which one you want active and it automatically switches to that lighting, prop placement, etc. Similarly, you could have a cast of characters defined and setup with specific clothing, props, and even positions and then switch on which set you want for that particular setup. In addition, the project would be smart enough to reset back to each basic setup and all animation that you do would be applied to your output scene only. Therefore, you could always switch to a different setup, reset to the starting parameters, and then animate your final output without ever disturbing the initial setups.

Other things that could be put into these setups could be fog, cameras, sounds, etc. I think this capability is well within reach for iClone. If having too many setups bloats a project and takes too long to load then you can have on-demand loading for just the setups you need.

By moviemachine - 11 Years Ago

Rampart,

Regarding MUVIZU, the fly in the ointment is that muvizu cannot compile/build & let the user control audio clips in the timeline.
Muvizu presently only allows recording one continuous track per character. The user cannot split clips and relocate them on timeline.
This is a major point in iclone's favor as you can record or insert plus move dialogue anywhere at any time.
If and when muvizu overcomes this limitation that program will be the go to software for many.

It has always been a head banging against a wall issue for me since iclone's early years that basic easy movement control was never developed further especially when Moviestorm had it from it's inception.

My earlier sarcasm aside, I keep hoping that Reallusion corrects their neglect in this area.
I'm not knocking their stellar offerings of great effects and ways to pipeline Iclone to work with other 3D software as they have raised the bar pretty high in those areas, but there are many users who are not modders or have a clue about 3dmax, blender etc.

Iclone needs to progress but it should be balanced progress that is in tune to what customers have been pleading for, for so long.
By all means make iclone 6 as technically challenging as any die hard 3D expert could dream of but make the basics that should be simple... simple:)

By planetstardragon - 11 Years Ago

i agree, making the scope of iclone from entry level easy all the way to unlimited and innovative is what will claim the 3D throne. While maya has the unlimited option available, it has nothing that resembles ez. Iclone's pipeline ability opened the unlimited, next we need to lock down the ez! :cool:

not that it isn't easy now, but if easier were possible, do it!

in the end, I don't think easy for new animators is what matters, it's being able to save time on basic processes that does. everyone grows out of being a noob, but no one ever has enough time! I think my point is to make going from point a to point b faster, not necessarily make point A so easy it's limited.

By justaviking - 11 Years Ago

@Magique,

I appreciate your insight.

Some of this might be a result of me being a relative novice, but I don't think that's the entire reason.

Example 1:

As part of a larger scene, I wanted to have a character pick up a baseball bat and hit a mailbox. With each strike, the mailbox was damaged (which I did by having 4 versions of the mailbox, but only one was visible at any given time). With the final swing, he knocks it off the post and onto the street.

I didn't know if I would be able to do it, and it wasn't entirely essential to the main scene. So I developed the mailbox pounding in a standalone test project. It was a success.

So now the problem is moving that back into my "real" project file. I don't want to have to re-animate it. I can use "iMotion" or "iMotion Plus" files, but that only gets the avatar. I also need the mailbox post, four mailbox props and their associated visibility, the mailbox door which is animated, and the animation of the last mailbox as it falls off the post and bounces on the ground, and of course the bat too.

Moving all those elements into my main project is an arduous task.

What if I really liked my mini-clip, and wanted to use it in three different projects? It would be the same avatar/prop interaction, but on different sets?

Example 2:

I developed a scene in two files, out of concern that it would be too long, and I had a "flashback" sequence in the middle anyway, which I new would be edited in using my NLE later.

Now in hindsight I wish I was working with a single project file instead of two. I still need to decorate my set, light it, and stuff like that. I now know there is no valid reason to have this project split into two files, and it would be easier to have a single project file.

I wish I could join those two files together.

Wrap-up:

Maybe hitting the mailbox is a poor example, but how about a cashier at the checkout counter, doing the same thing, but this time it is in a different store with different lighting and different customers? Not just the cashier, but the counter and cash register and stuff like that. Oh sure, I could take the original project, delete everything but the cashier, and build the new scene around that, but that's not always going to be a very viable option.

I'd love to be able to have a building block of "avatar + animation + props + transformation + sound" and simply add it to my new project. It could be a single person doing one thing, or an entire crowd of avatars.

It there's a better, more efficient solution, I'd love to learn it.

Thanks again for your input.

By animagic - 11 Years Ago

@Viking: AML scripting was intended to do some of that, but it got shelved as a user feature and was never reintroduced. We have LUA scripting now, but it's not being made available in an easy to use format. Maybe iClone 6?

In particular: animations and positions are saved with a prop, so I believe you could attach every thing to a dummy and reuse it.

In general, tedious will always be part of doing animation, but I agree things could be made easier. I've looked at Muvizu, and even though I like some of the features, I find it too limited in the end. So, for me it's always back to iClone. I just keep working at it and every time I get a bit better and things become a bit easier. Without iClone I would probably not have made the films I've made.

I don't frankly know if there is an easy road to animation that also has a personal touch. Which is one of the things I like about the iClone creations: the variety as well as an overall steady improvement. Others may disagree with that statement, which is OK...

By justaviking - 11 Years Ago

Thanks, Job.

I know I need to get better at the tool.

Several times this past week, I easily copied some Titles and video clips and audio clips from one project into another in my NLE (Pinnacle Studio).

Select... Copy... Open other project... Paste

I found myself thinking, "Man, I wish I could copy things from one project to another that easily in iClone."

I know there would be complications, but that's what software designers and programmers are for.

By DELETED2 - 11 Years Ago

_______________________________________________________________________________________

It would be superior if, upon the triggering of a particle, we could allow execution of a complimentary sound file.

Or better, randomise a series of sound files to trigger upon particle trigger.

For example, bubbles popping. Flames crackling. Raindrops landing. Magical effects appearing.

By rampart - 11 Years Ago

moviemachine (5/2/2014)

You can use an outside editor like Sony Vegas Pro, edit your audio files and then import them after you all your dialogue synchronized with the precise length for all files. This way you save render them out of Sony Vegas as individual wav files. if you have synchronized each actor with all the other actor voice scripts in the project you should have equal length voice files. Remember when one actor is speaking the others aren't and you have blank space on the non-speaking actors timeline.

I use this method for building all my audio for iclone. I load my avatar and then apply the specific voice script file to that actor. Then I do the same for the other two actors. The voice files should stack precisely ontop of each other the same length on iclone timeline.

I do this, because working with audio in iclone timeline is extremely sluggish, crashes and its buggy. Sony Vegas Pro is my choice, but there are other editors. I suspect Audacity would do the same thing. I just do it in Sony Vegas, because I am familiar with it and I can do my edits very fast.

Look at my sony vegas timeline in the attachement.

This method should also work in Muvizu I would think.

By animagic - 11 Years Ago

rampart (5/2/2014)

That's how I work as well, I just prepare everything in Audacity, but it's the same idea. The main reason I do it is because I don't use the audio from iClone. It also easier to process the dialog files afterwards, as you want to have them as clean as possible in iClone.

Sound design I do in Vegas, so any environmental sounds are added there. I'm not so sure if doing it directly in iClone would work very well, unless there was much better control over the audio, like an envelope to control the volume for each sound track.

By rampart - 11 Years Ago

Animagic

I laughed when I read this part of your post

I'm not so sure if doing it directly in iClone would work very well, unless there was much better control over the audio, like an envelope to control the volume for each sound track.

I do only what I have to within the iclone timeline. I won't even try to explain, it would be preaching to the choir.

By thanatopsis - 11 Years Ago

mtakerkart (7/4/2013)

Hi Icloners!

One thing for me , a easy bridge between Faceshift and 3dxchange.... :)

Best regards

Marc

I agree. I hardly hear anybody talk about Faceshift here. It is expensive, but it works really well even with my Xbox Kinects.
It seems iClone, and the iCloneFaceKey DUF for DAZ characters, has almost all of the morph poses that Faceshift needs. But there doesn't seem to be an easy way to use them together.
Somebody in the Faceshift forum seems to be getting it to work with DAZ.
Is it possible to do something similar with iClone, even if it is part of 3DXchange or Avatar Toolkit plug-in?

By RobertoColombo - 11 Years Ago

One feature that I would like to see implemented is the possibility to extend the range of the camera, when something is taken from a very large distance.
Today, if a scene is viewed from a very far distance, objects starts to disappear.
Take for example the Downtown Metro Area packs from RL: it would be great to have a way to shoot a big city from a very far distance, but today I experienced to be not possible.
I think should not be a huge effort to extend the maximum camera range... so.. kindly, RL, Bruce, Peter, etc. etc. think about it ;)

By Rampa - 11 Years Ago

I could really use a box of gravity! :D

having primitives that applied physics only within themselves would be great for having localized gravity fields. Of course, they need to be able to be animated as well.

By Rampa - 11 Years Ago

Having an offset for reach targets would be helpful as well. No more dummies, just reach directly for the target prop, and set the offset for proper hand position.

Also, if we could have one avatar reach-target any bone of another avatar directly.

By lachatina - 11 Years Ago

Is possible a pluging for use luxrender render software? Or have a good real time render in iclone i´d like a motor graphic like unity 5

By pastafazoule2 - 11 Years Ago

what i love to see in iclone 6 is a whole 2d body picture turned into a 3d actor-avatar now that would be amazing

By Peter (RL) - 11 Years Ago

lachatina (8/27/2014)

Is possible a pluging for use luxrender render software? Or have a good real time render in iclone i´d like a motor graphic like unity 5

iClone6 will use Indigo RT for advanced rendering. :)

By Peter (RL) - 11 Years Ago

Thanks for all the continued suggestions. As always these are reviewed and considered by the iClone development team. :)