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By Epluribusunum56 - 8 Years Ago
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Who can I talk to about having (buying) a complex iClone character created for me?
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By Epluribusunum56 - 8 Years Ago
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Does anyone know someone that creates and sells complex iClone characters? Though, I can create normal characters on my own, what Ihave in mind would probably take someone with extreme expertise to create.
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By Delerna - 8 Years Ago
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A description and or an image of what your after should help to get an answer.
Also you could go to the marketplace and do a search for characters and check them out to see which developers make characters to the quality your after.
Then go to their store and post a request.
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By Epluribusunum56 - 8 Years Ago
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H responding. I want a special character that is beyondwhat I can create. I need a translucent fluid crystalline female figure. I have search the web for a company that produces iClone 7 figures, but have not been able to find any. I just do not have the experience to know where to look for them. If you could direct me to a specific location where I can have the crystalline figure created, I would appreciate it very much. She is all I need to start my project.
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By Pitapan - 8 Years Ago
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Without a reference image it will be difficult to contribute meaningfully.
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By Pitapan - 8 Years Ago
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If you need Sci Fic characters I will suggest Warlord. He is specialized in that field. Check this out
https://youtu.be/pLiIo7KbL_4
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By Lamias - 8 Years Ago
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I think an image is necessary in order to achieve better results.
It doesn't have to be a single image. You can give us one referrence image which would show her skin type and color, another image with the hair that you like etc.
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By Delerna - 8 Years Ago
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Yes an image is absolutely necessary in order to know what you want.
But I threw this together in 5 minutes thinking something like this might be what you mean.
I don't think this is what your after but is it something along this line?
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By Delerna - 8 Years Ago
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Or this
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By Delerna - 8 Years Ago
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And I was saying to take a look at characters here
You might not find the character your after. I mean look for characters that impresses you enough for quality and note who developed them.
Then you can goto that persons store and request it there.
They will want images to be sure to know what your after though
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By Kelleytoons - 8 Years Ago
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Funny how different folks visions are -- just from his description I thought more of this (which I whipped up myself in five minutes):
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By Epluribusunum56 - 8 Years Ago
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Hello Delerna, Yes, I did extensively go through Marketplace looking for the type of character that I have in mind, but I did not find anything that came close. However, I spent many hours educating myself on the available props and characters in Marketplace. I was hoping to find and contract a character designer to create my crystalline female figure, but I have not yet identified a company or anyone that does that. The two characters you illustrated are heading in the right direction. Actually, the default female character in Character Creator is the perfect female shape and face that I am looking for. Specifically, what I am looking for is a non-sexual nude female (no nipples) that has a translucent clear crystalline form; like she is made of shimmering water. I think almost like an angelic spirit. I want to use her as ‘consciousness’ in the form of a female. I am willing to pay whatever it cost to create her. If you, or someone that you know of, can help accomplish this for me, I would be very grateful. Sincerely, Mark Maloney
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By Epluribusunum56 - 8 Years Ago
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Hi Kelleytoons, Yes, that is getting closer to what I am looking for; how did you do that? Mark
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By Epluribusunum56 - 8 Years Ago
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I am still learning how to post...
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By Kelleytoons - 8 Years Ago
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Epluribusunum56 (8/23/2017)
Hi Kelleytoons, Yes, that is getting closer to what I am looking for; how did you do that? Mark
As you note, the default female figure, and my first pass was just to make her skin and body parts mostly transparent (just dial down the opacity) and while that does give a basic effect I wanted more of a shimmering, so I fired up After Effects and created a video shimmer FX, which I then applied to the face and body (it's easiest to see if you make the video full screen but it kind of stops at the very end).
The drawback is you really need a longer video -- I couldn't find a way on the timeline to just extend that video (must be something I'm doing wrong, but for the life of me I couldn't see a material video on the timeline, when I can see all the other videos I put down there). I only made about 15 seconds but if you are going to use the character in a scene you might want to create a 60 second version so you have enough time. I also turned it into PopVideo because iClone works a lot more efficiently with that (and it's a lot smaller).
I think that's the general idea you need to go for -- there's really no end to the kind of FX you can do in AE but even if you don't have that you might find suitable video on the web somewhere. And I'd certainly be glad to give you the video as it is (but if it's not quite there I'm not so sure I want to spend a lot of time on it, although you're lucky in that right at the moment I'm in a kind of holding pattern waiting for the FW stuff to come out. Once that comes out I will be unavailable for almost anything).
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By justaviking - 8 Years Ago
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Willing to pay "whatever it costs"? Sign me up!
Meanwhile, I will offer a free suggestion.
Expanding on what Kelley did with his model, you (or I, or someone) could create an "animated Substance" that could ripple and shimmer, without needing to apply a video overlay. There is already a free "caustics" substance (great for the shimmering light below the surface of water in a swimming pool), or a person could create one similar to that. I have successfully done that. iClone 6 didn't support that type of Substance, but iClone 7 does.
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By Kelleytoons - 8 Years Ago
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Animated Substance is a good idea -- never occurred to me (then again, I'm right in the middle of creating a lot of video textures for use on monitors, etc, so AE is fresh in my mind).
There may well be some out there for free you could use -- try doing a search (at one point I had so many I couldn't even manage them all, and got rid of most of them that I just never used).
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By Epluribusunum56 - 8 Years Ago
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Hey Kelleytoons,
Unfortunately, I am still to new at this to understand how to apply FX or AF, or even what they are or where to find them. I did experiment with the base figure after seeing what you did, but was unable to even come close to what you have created. I can see that I have a long way to go in learning animation. Fortunately, I am old and retired and have the time, I think, to learn all this stuff. However, old age and death are closely related; bummer.
Actually, I am looking to have this particular character created for me, so I can concentrate on producing my movie. However, if worse comes to worse, I will have to learn it for myself and do the best that I can. I don't have much hair left, so I don't want to frustrate myself to much. What program does FX or AE?
Old, but not in dippers yet,
Mark
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By Kelleytoons - 8 Years Ago
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You're probably not as old as I am, but the advantage I have is that I've been doing this stuff (and retired from the industry) for a long time. But I know what you mean about death -- it's looking over my shoulder even as I type <g>.
I suspect someone here can help you out with the texture -- I wouldn't advise you to try and learn an FX program like After Effects right now (you have enough on your plate with iClone and such). You *can* look around the web for it, though, and if you can at least find a still image that shows what you want in the way of texture it will help others help you (just post it here).
I'll look through what Substances I have to see if there's anything helpful and if it's free you can have it (or if not I'll tell you where to buy it). The texture is just applied to the material of the skin -- you can do this in either Character Creator or iClone, and I would suggest you become familiar with at least how to do it in iClone because it will help with other things you can also do there (you will find that working with materials in iClone is an important part of getting the right look to your project).
So search around for an image and I'll post back here if I find anything that might work for you (and learn how to use textures in iClone! <g>). And others might jump in here as well (as I said, I'm on hold awaiting FW so I have a *bit* of time, although I'm also trying to gear up).
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By Kelleytoons - 8 Years Ago
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Here's a good tut on Substances (not everything you need to know, but enough to get the basic idea). You can do everything they do here (and more) with the textures on a character.
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By justaviking - 8 Years Ago
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Kelley,
We are both throwing away an opportunity to get rich. ;)
Take a look at this Substance: https://share.allegorithmic.com/libraries/23
If you have a moment, drop it onto an avatar and see what happens when you press "Play" in iClone.
I honestly don't know for sure what it will look like, but in iC7 it should do "something."
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By Kelleytoons - 8 Years Ago
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Oh, and let me address one more thing -- I know you said "I'm looking to have this character created for me" and I understand that 100%. What you need to know are your own limitations, and what you actually need to learn in order to get your vision completed. No one can know it all, or even most of it, and it's foolish (IMHO) to try and be an expert on everything (particular at an advanced age -- I only have so many years left!). What you can do is understand enough of the fundamentals, though, to know what you can and can't do.
In the case of this character it's not very much to ask you to get most of the way there, if I do understand what you're trying to do. It will teach you a LOT of things you really do need to know, and while the temptation is just to say "give it to me!" I think you'll find that getting most (or all) of the way there with this one thing will be beneficial in the long run. If nothing more it will teach you what you really shouldn't mess with (with me it's modeling -- I've learned enough to know I'll never be talented enough to model what I can buy. But I AM glad I know enough to get by on some very simple things).
So take at least a day or two to try and get there with this and it will pay off in the long run.
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By Kelleytoons - 8 Years Ago
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justaviking (8/23/2017)
Kelley,
We are both throwing away an opportunity to get rich. ;)
LOL -- yeah, my wife tells me that all the time ("If you're so smart, how come we're not rich?")
But you know as well as I do that taking money for this we'd feel WAY too guilty (besides, some day this guy will help us. I've learned that the hard way).
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By Kelleytoons - 8 Years Ago
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Oh, and thanks Viking -- that does look pretty cool (not sure how it will look in iClone either, but there are times I need a good caustic and I haven't had time to look -- even forget I had an account there until it logged me in automatically :>).
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By Epluribusunum56 - 8 Years Ago
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Hello justaviking,
Your advice is well taken. After reading some of the responses to my posts, I had to put my hands in my pockets, tilt my head down, and slowly walk away kicking the ground, muttering, I thought that I was ready; now, I have to go back to the YouTube training videos; again!
Apparently, I am one of those two weeks into animating numskulls, trying to cut corners, thinking I can manage to get by. I hope this phase passes quickly or I might have to take up drinking.
If there is a skin texture that I can apply to a character to get that result, that would probably be the best direction to go. I thought that I needed a specially created character to do that, but ignorance has a way of misdirecting one over the cliff. At my age, I have lots of experience of walking over the edge; it's a hobby...
Thanks again, and looking forwards to conversing with you until you start your next project,
Mark
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By justaviking - 8 Years Ago
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Mark - I think your last post was meant for Kelley.
I agree with what he said. We can't know or do it all. For myself, I greatly enjoy learning enough to where I can better understand the effort that goes into modeling/texturing/animating/lighting/editing/everything, and have a deeper appreciation of other people's talent and skill.
If I get a chance to apply a caustic material to a character, I'll post some results (unless Kelley or someone else does it first).
Good luck, and remember you're having fun. :)
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By michael7 - 8 Years Ago
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The glass lamp shade. This was done very simply by bringing the opacity of the shade down between 5-20 % and then by turning on the reflection and refraction buttons and playing around with the sliders. This picture doesn't do the video justice it looks very realistic, but you can at least see the distortion of the background through the glass. If you are looking for a glass looking figure I suggest importing in a Daz character ( I tried doing it with an iclone character but as soon as I tried adjusting the opacity slider nothing happened until after the 50 % mark, and then the character completely disappeared ), and doing to her body parts what I did to the glass shade. You will have a very realistic looking glass figure walking around.
Then, if you need the surface of the character to have planes on it ( to give that crystal look ) instead of it being smooth looking, Daz has many morph packages you can buy to turn a basic genesis 2 character into any form you want.
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By Delerna - 8 Years Ago
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Just got out of bed and found Just a Viking and Kellytoons (which is good to see) have already taken this where I was heading if I found that this was something like what you were after.
This is all just texture mapping and is pretty simple to do, try it yourself, I think you will find it is not as difficult as you thought.
As for removing the nipples use the mesh editor in CC to smooth them out and then whichever texturing suggested by Just a Viking and Kellytoons that gets the character looking how you want
Here is the basic mesh editing process I mean
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By Delerna - 8 Years Ago
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I shall try re-wording what I am trying to say to see if I can make my point more obvious.
I didn't mean to go to the marketplace to find this character your after now (but if you do ever happen to find the character you want then great)
What I am trying to say is in response to your initial question "Who can I talk to about having (buying) a complex iClone character created for me?"
Rather than give you a name I was trying to say go to the marketplace and see which developers make characters that look good to you.
Then you will know some developers who make nice looking characters to your own opinion and preferences.
Then go to their store and ask them if they can make the specific character that you want.
Most developers have a request section at their store for that very purpose, so people can request something that hasn't been made yet.
And seeing as I and others have shown this character your after at the moment is easy enough to make I don't mean to go and ask someone to make this one for you.
I mean in the future, when there is something you need someone to make for you. Goto marketplace to find good developers and ask them.
Be aware, they will most likely ask you for images of what you mean though.
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By Epluribusunum56 - 8 Years Ago
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Hey Delerna, Kelleytoons, justaviking, and michael7; good morning...
I am still looking to make someone rich creating a special character for me.
I have been spending most of the last two-weeks choreographing realistic character motion in timelines, stage creation, and working with animated props. Once I start my project, I will then take on learning detailed camera and lighting effects, and working with complex facial expressions. I think I am ready to start my project now, but I do not have my main character yet; I am still trying to find someone to create her for me. I did send an email off to FashionAlley, but they have not replied yet. Any suggestions?
Anyway, happy animating,
Mark
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By animagic - 8 Years Ago
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One thing that's nice about iClone is that you can apply animations to a character and then replace it with another character just by selecting the original character in the scene and then double-clicking the replacement character from the Content Manager.
So you could start your work with a "stand-in" CC character to get going and then replace her with your ideal character, which may take some time to develop. Just a suggestion. Your stand-in should have more or less the same proportions as the ideal character.
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By Epluribusunum56 - 8 Years Ago
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Hey, how do you extend the timeline past 30-seconds? One can't make a movie only 30-seconds long.
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By Epluribusunum56 - 8 Years Ago
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Hey, Delerna,
How do you extend the timeline past 30-seconds? One cannot make a movie only 30-seconds long. I have checked the online manual and did an internet search for increasing the timeline, but there does not seem to be any data out there about extending the timeline past 30-seconds; any idea's?
Asks, the little old man, from Newport WA.
Mark
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By toystorylab - 8 Years Ago
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Epluribusunum56 (8/24/2017)
Hey, how do you extend the timeline past 30-seconds? One can't make a movie only 30-seconds long.
Go to "Project Settings" and change "Total Frames" to your desired length...
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By justaviking - 8 Years Ago
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FYI - In the extreme top-right corner of your browser, you might notice a little icon announcing the presence of a private message (PM). Maybe. It could happen.
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By Epluribusunum56 - 8 Years Ago
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Thanks toystorlab,
The highest I was able to set it typing in a value was 44,444 frames, which is only 12.34 minutes. You can then use the increase arrow to further increase it, but that is very slow; I don't know if that has a limit? To make an hour-long movie/video, do you have to put video segments together?
Mark
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By Delerna - 8 Years Ago
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Don't make an hour long single project in iClone.
Split it up into separate projects for each individual scene and then use a video editing program to join them together into the hour long movie
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By Kelleytoons - 8 Years Ago
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Yes, Delema's right. In general you shouldn't have any scene more than 30 seconds (this is actually intolerable long -- watch ANY movie to see). Now because we have the ability to switch cameras the temptation is to push this, but you really ought not to have even any one sequence set for longer than a few minutes, even with camera switches (again, watch any movie to see: unless you're watching a movie made from a Sam Shepard play you will always see the scene changes every few minutes, not staying in the same location).
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By Epluribusunum56 - 8 Years Ago
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Thank you Kelleytoons, Delerna, and animagic,
I bought CyberLink's PowerDirector video editing program. I understand the concept of joining them together, but am a little concerned how putting video clips together to make a movie might be a bit precarious? How many 30-second video clips does it take to make a one-hour video; yikes, that is 120 clips. My storyboard just got vastly more complicated. I have to learn a whole new level of organizational skills to keep all those clips coordinated; maybe I can build the video as I go?
'animagic's' suggestion of using a surrogate avatar was great information. I think I will be starting my project in the morning. I hope I survive this adventure...
Starting to shake and quiver, and perspiring in anxiety, I step, sort-of-boldly, into the unknown future of video production. If I don't survive, who will feed my cat?
Mark
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By Delerna - 8 Years Ago
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Just to give you a couple of reasons why as far as I see.
1) 1 hour long project would require huge computer resources. I have never tried it by I would say no computer has enough resources to do that.
2) And this one applies even with short scenes.
You do all the animation start to end and at some stage you decide you need to adjust the animation of a character in the middle.
That is possibly going to upset that characters animations after the changes you just made and you will have to fix them up which is possibly going to upset that characters animations after the fix you just made and so on and so on.
At least, that is what I have found. A scene in the same building. Animation/discussion in one room then they walked to another room followed by some more animation/discussion in that room.
All only a couple of minutes so I had it as a single project. Then at the start I adjusted how one of the characters opened the front door and that upset his following animations
So I ended up splitting that into 4 projects.
1) Character entering the hall
2) Animation/discussion in the hall
3) Characters move to the lounge room
4) rest of the Animation and discussion
Now I can edit any of those projects without upsetting the rest
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By Delerna - 8 Years Ago
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Edit
Oops, I clicked the add post twice which ended up adding my comment twice
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By Epluribusunum56 - 8 Years Ago
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Delerna,
You made the point very well; it scared me to my core. I am already reconfiguring how I will approach my storyline. I am thinking that I need to have two copies of each segment; one in the native format, just in case I need to change something; and the other a rendered copy placed in the video editing program. What you said is a potential nightmare scenario, so I will be extra diligent in putting my project together.
Thanks for the heads up,
Mark
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By Delerna - 8 Years Ago
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Don't let it affect you too much. I have found ways to get around the issues I had back then, but really, I think the only way anyone is going to find the best way for them to make videos is through their own progressive learning (yes I'm still learning and I have tons still to learn). Listening to suggestions made by others is helpful, but still work according to how you want to work.
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By justaviking - 8 Years Ago
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Good advice, as always, from those seasoned veterans.
Also, be very wary of such a long video. It's great to have a vision, and ambition, but seriously, a 5-minute video project is a significant undertaking when you are starting. Ten minutes is a good amount of time too. In addition to the massive amount of work, the story needs to hold the audience. And, unfortunately, people's expectations are that most non-Hollywood videos on YouTube will be rather short. But once you get a couple short projects completed, you'll be able to judge how far you want to go.
About multiple iClone projects, .YES!, do that. Also be sure to "Save As" on a regular basis, just in case you have an unrecoverable crash, you will only lose hours of work rather than days or weeks.
My longest project ever was about 44 minutes. I was a HUGE undertaking, and I still left many things in a rough state (sets, props, background sounds, and lighting especially). I will have to look up my old project, but I suspect I had maybe 10 to 12 iClone projects. Some projects supported multiple scenes for me because they were in the same location (set).
When you have multiple iClone files, various avatars, lots of recorded dialogue, sound effects, music, the iClone rendered output, and the NLE (video editor) files with those final outputs, there gets to be a surprising amount of bookkeeping involved. I'd be happy to discuss that in more detail when the time comes.
The downside of multiple iClone files is most things are "embedded" in the .iproject file, not referenced. If you change something in a set, and that set exists in three different iClone files, you need to make the same change in all three files.
But... it's all possible. Start with small steps, then keep on stepping forward, and you'll be able to go as far as you want. (Wow, that sounded deep. I should put that on a poster.)
(The edit was only to correct some minor typos.)
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By Delerna - 8 Years Ago
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Totally agree with justaviking here. Starting with iClone to make an hour long video is ....... wow.
However I also think that breaking up an hour long video into many separate projects enables me to treat each of them as their own small project.
Also enables me to do the scenes in any sequence I desire.
I also think if I can make each one of them enjoyable to watch individually (and there is my greatest difficulty, I need to be a better story teller for that) then that will make my hour long video better to watch ...... if I ever get there.
Wow, this has gotten way off the topic of who can help creating a new character
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By Epluribusunum56 - 8 Years Ago
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Hey guys,
Well, I do understand your points. However, I have a very specific project in mind, and I am fully aware of the difficulty and time that it will take to accomplish. I spent the last two days learning to tweak human motions down to minute details. I was going to practice finger animation with a guitar player, placing each finger in the right fret and string: both cording and picking. That kind of detail takes hours to perfect. An entire song could take many days. But, I am starting my project tomorrow and so I don't have the time to play with my fingers. With the experience that I have acquired over the last two weeks, I am fully aware of the mammoth task that I am taking on.
When I write, I write sixteen to eighteen hours a day, sleep eight hours, then do it again, day after day; usually going to bed an hour or two later each day. When I write, entire seasons have passed without my notice. Animating is just another form of writing, though vastly more detailed and influencing than words alone.
I am also learning that if I need help, this forum is a vast resource of interactive experts. As Forrest Gump would say, "it's always good to have experts around." Life is a unity, the more we work together, the stronger humanity becomes...
Mark
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By toystorylab - 8 Years Ago
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There is no need to stay within 30 seconds but i would not go over 2 minutes. (depends on PC specs)
And the shorter your projects are, it is no big deal to re-render if you had to change motion/environment...
My current (commisioned) work is about 75 minutes packed into about 80 projects,
ergo about 80 video-files to combine in Hitfilm, soundwork in Audition...
This has been done in about 11 months (NOT 16-18 hours a day!:crazy:)
 
I'm almost done and now the whole thing is in the render machine so my client gets an UHD 3840x2160 movie... (this takes a while!)
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By Kelleytoons - 8 Years Ago
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Dennis (Viking) said exactly what I was going to type this morning (and others have confirmed but let me give you my two cents).
Yes, you have a very specific project in mind, and yes it's an hour (or whatever. If you don't start out with a project FAR shorter you will NEVER get that longer project done (or if you do it will take decades). Here's the dealio: you can't possibly understand all the pitfalls and problems of your workflow until you refine it properly, and you can't refine it on such a large project. You will be restarting and redoing almost everything over and over again. On this you really need to trust me. I have seen literally hundreds of such projects abandoned a few years (for the most determined -- sometimes only months) after they were started.
Here's what you do: try a short (not more than a few minutes) project that contains all the elements of your longer one. It doesn't have to have all the characters, but at least one or two (but not more than three). Not all the sets but no more than two. And it should have practical FX, sound FX, titles, whatever you intend to do in your longer project, do it there. It will take you a month to get it right (again, you have to trust me, but I promise you your first two minute project you will work on for a month). Once you have it right you will have learned EVERYTHING you need to know about your longer project, and saved yourself years (and, more importantly, actually have a chance of making that longer project).
I'm an experienced animator - at the time I had decades worth of experience -- and in making our first series which was only 22 minutes or so in length (for each episode) I STILL followed this advice. We made a series of shorts, a minute or so in length, and after that I found out all I needed to know (and refined and changed a LOT of what I had been planing on doing). No reading, no other person, can give you the information you need. You need to find it for yourself, and you need to find it this way or you never will.
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By Sunbah - 8 Years Ago
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Kelleytoons (8/25/2017)
Dennis (Viking) said exactly what I was going to type this morning (and others have confirmed but let me give you my two cents).
Yes, you have a very specific project in mind, and yes it's an hour (or whatever. If you don't start out with a project FAR shorter you will NEVER get that longer project done (or if you do it will take decades). Here's the dealio: you can't possibly understand all the pitfalls and problems of your workflow until you refine it properly, and you can't refine it on such a large project. You will be restarting and redoing almost everything over and over again. On this you really need to trust me. I have seen literally hundreds of such projects abandoned a few years (for the most determined -- sometimes only months) after they were started.
Here's what you do: try a short (not more than a few minutes) project that contains all the elements of your longer one. It doesn't have to have all the characters, but at least one or two (but not more than three). Not all the sets but no more than two. And it should have practical FX, sound FX, titles, whatever you intend to do in your longer project, do it there. It will take you a month to get it right (again, you have to trust me, but I promise you your first two minute project you will work on for a month). Once you have it right you will have learned EVERYTHING you need to know about your longer project, and saved yourself years (and, more importantly, actually have a chance of making that longer project).
I'm an experienced animator - at the time I had decades worth of experience -- and in making our first series which was only 22 minutes or so in length (for each episode) I STILL followed this advice. We made a series of shorts, a minute or so in length, and after that I found out all I needed to know (and refined and changed a LOT of what I had been planing on doing). No reading, no other person, can give you the information you need. You need to find it for yourself, and you need to find it this way or you never will.
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By Epluribusunum56 - 8 Years Ago
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Kelleytoons,
I do agree with and appreciate your experience and advice, but you do not understand the stage and context that I will be using in my project. I have practiced using all the elements; sound, motion, interactive character script's etc. relevant to my project. I needed to know for myself what was involved, and how complex coordinating everything is. I did a number of experiments to see what worked and what did not. I had to change a few of my scenarios, based on what was possible and what was not. Learning, expectations, and producing are fluidic in nature.
I have a 512GB SSD solely dedicated to my project, and secondary cloud backup to protect my files. As toystorylab demonstrated, organizing files and clips is imperative to comprehensive construction of a large animation project. Though, I do not have experience in animating, I do have a vast amount of experience organizing and implementing large projects.
My project has a simple stage and only a few props. I knew from the start that simplicity was my greatest asset. Based on what I have experienced in my practice sessions, I think the first segment of my project will take several months to complete. There are only two stages, and introductory and exiting stage, and the main stage, which is extremely simplistic.
I have no doubt that I will experience problems that I cannot anticipate; but with the help of this forum, I think that I can deal with them as they occur. The great difficulty that I am having right now is importing props, such as motions from the iClone store. I also need to learn how to create vector paths. Know any good video tutorials that can help me with that?
Please be kind with the "I told you so" comments you will surely have as I jump head over heels into this project.
Mark
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By Kelleytoons - 8 Years Ago
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I have no doubt there are projects that could be scaled up without doing almost any preliminary work, but when you say things like "I've done all I need in advance to know what I'm facing -- now how do I add props and motions to the scene?" you remind me of my grandson who told me he wanted to be a paramedic and knew all it entailed and then asked "But the sight of blood bothers me, do you think that will be an issue?"
I think you have ZERO understanding of what you are getting into, but I could be wrong. Good luck.
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By animagic - 8 Years Ago
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Your statement "I do have no experience in animating" is somewhat of a concern. I wish you the best of luck, of course, but I also think doing smaller projects first as Kelley suggests might not be a bad idea.
Do you have experience in film-making? If you do that would be of great help. An animation film is a film, after all, and the cinematographic component is important. I find that every time I do new project it gets a bit better (to me at least). I also try to concentrate on things that I feel I have to learn more about, and doing that in a project is a great learning experience.
And, as already pointed out, we are all here to help.
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By justaviking - 8 Years Ago
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animagic (8/25/2017)
And, as already pointed out, we are all here to help.
+1
How to help by sharing real-life experience and battle scars, but without demoralizing the recipient... it can be a challenge
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By but0fc0ursee - 8 Years Ago
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Epluribusunum56 (8/25/2017)
...I spent the last two days learning to tweak human motions down to minute details. I was going to practice finger animation with a guitar player, placing each finger in the right fret and string: both cording and picking. That kind of detail takes hours to perfect. An entire song could take many days.After you get your feet wet, (learning iClone animation tools).... Be aware that animating bone by bone.... can be drastically sped up by doing this..... ~ Pose ~ Block ~ Aniticipate
Here, you don't animate bone by bone... You learn to animate.... Pose to pose.
Example:
~ Pose the "Finger"
~ Move along the timeline and "Block" in the next Pose (Using STEP Tangent)
~ Move along the timeline and "FREEZE" the next Pose. (Set Key)
~ Move along the timeline and "SET THE SAME POSITION" as before. "This "Freezes" the motion.
(Set the Tangent to "Ease-In Ease-Out")
Now "Go Back" and change your "Step Tangent(s)" to AUTO.
Result: 10 time faster.
Most here.... blend motions... rarely animate.
Hope you find time to learn this method.
Hope This Helps ;)
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By but0fc0ursee - 8 Years Ago
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@Epluribusunum56, If your not too busy and listen to what I'm say....
Your animation skill level with rise above most.
Why??
Because.. you'll be ahead of the game when Reallusion releases there "Motion Graph Editor."
You finger animation... complete in minutes.... Not Days.
Use Blender's animation curve editor, NOW.... it's free and will prepare you for...iClone motion graph editor.
Practice what I'm telling you, please.
"You'll never animate bone by bone ever again!":cool:
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By michael7 - 8 Years Ago
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Epluribusunum56 if you don't cut your project up into many sequences you computer will bog down to barely a crawl, no matter how fast it is. Plus some errors will be introduced into the animation along the way ( it's inevitable ) and you'll end up screwing up a lot of your hard work.
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By Epluribusunum56 - 8 Years Ago
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Come on guys,
Look, I learned to cook Hamburger-Helper reasonably well, though my cat won't eat any of it; with his attitude, I really should have named him Morris instead of Mr. Bob. I found in the preparation of Hamburger-Helper, that hamburger is optional, and you don't have to use milk and water; it's crunchier that way. I just put the box in the microwave for three-minutes then eat.
I am taking your advice and making short clips that I will combine in a video editor. I look at the clips like pages of a book, with each page/clip a part of the ongoing story. If I don't like a page, I can redo it until it's what I want. I will be embedding a lot of PowerPoint animations into my movie. My last PowerPoint project had 1017 slides, with more than half having complex animations. (Yes, I know, PowerPoint animations are child's play, and don't count in the real world of animations.) I only need two stages/sets, two avatars, and six props to make my movie. The primary prop is a monitor that will play my PowerPoint animations. The remaining props are for cinematic effects to keep the movie interesting.
My primary avatar is going to be an amazing character; I am hoping that she will be spell binding, but that all depends on how I present her demeanor. She won't be doing any acrobatics, just passive teaching. Though the subject matter I will be presenting is very complex, the presentation itself will be fairly simple.
I do have some challenges ahead. First, I need to learn how to embed PowerPoint animations into iClone. If anyone knows how to do that, please can you tell me how. Secondly, I need to learn to use dummy props better in animating interactive hand and arm movements with the PowerPoint animations. I have only found two videos on that subject. And thirdly, I need to learn lighting and camera effects. Well, there is more like learning to use vector paths, but these are first and foremost in my needs list. I do listen to and think about what you guys say, and you have changed my strategy many times already.
Hey, do you guys have a pool betting on when I will crash and burn and give up; I'll put a dollar on the never date...
The little old man learning to animate,
Mark
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By justaviking - 8 Years Ago
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I'll PM you with PPT-->iClone notes.
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By dr.zap - 8 Years Ago
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Epluribusunum56 (8/26/2017)[hr
Hey, do you guys have a pool betting on when I will crash and burn and give up; I'll put a dollar on the never date...
The little old man learning to animate,
Mark
Haha, I like you. Good luck with your project.
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By Kelleytoons - 8 Years Ago
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Mark,
The problem with your analogy is that you then assume anyone would want to actually EAT what you cooked with hamburger helper (anyone but yourself, that is). If you really do want folks to watch what you make, you're going about it all wrong.
But that's all I'll say on the point -- again, I do wish you the best of luck, but my own bet is not so much you won't finish (although you won't) as a few months down the road you'll realize the advice many of us have given you is right and you'll start all over again. Nothing wrong with that, either.
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By paulg625 - 8 Years Ago
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The good thing is Mark is the fact no matter weather you fail or not you will be learning and sometime we learn more from our failures then our accomplishments.
" That which doesn't kill us makes us stronger"
I am impressed by the mention of the 1000+ frame power point especially if you work with a lot of the tools. You right its not the same but what is, is the dedication it takes to do it...
Good Luck.
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By michael7 - 8 Years Ago
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Mark you can bring other animation/essentially video into iclone by right clicking drag and drop or by importing under file>import. And you can have said video play as an image layer, plane, or billboard. You can also bring a video to play out on an objects channel like diffuse.
BTW, I don't think anyone has any thoughts on thinking you'll crash and burn. You asked for advice, I think people are honestly trying to give you that based on their experience.
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By Epluribusunum56 - 8 Years Ago
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Hi all,
I did an experiment making a fifteen-minute video segment. It took 54,000 frames, which is the max that iClone allows. I arbitrarily sequentially stitched together all the moves that come with iCone to animate each character. At first, I had serious physics problems with the hair, but fixed that using physics controls. I did get some feet sliding, but was able to fix that as well in the timeline controls. I tried to overwhelm the program and my computer to see what the limits were, but they both worked flawlessly; no lags or crashes. I cannot see a reason why you cannot make fifteen-minute video segments? Am I missing something?
Timeline controls are easy to work with, sequencing is easy to choreograph, and making corrections are easy as well. The biggest issue I had was composing a storyline. Granted, my test project was simplistic (only taking a few hours,) but it demonstrates that making videos longer than 30-seconds is quite possible and practical, and fairly easy to work with. Performance interactions take time to choreograph, but this is the only real difficulty I had.
I had two characters dancing in sequence for the first few minutes, then each performing independent moves from that point on. Towards the end, I made two more characters visible, then had them dance in sequence, then independently. The software had no problems animating all those motions. I can see with a little bit of practice, that creating fifteen-minute animated videos is both possible and practical. Working with the timeline takes practice. A complex animated story takes time to compose, but technically, is easy to do.
I still need to learn to work with lights and cameras, but will learn that as I compose my first video. Instead of globally learning everything in iClone, I am only learning what I need as I need it. I use YouTube videos (and soon D-Tube videos) to see what is possible, and if I want to use those attributes, I will learn them when I need them. I plan on making a couple of iClone beginner-beginner 'how to videos' based on my experiences of trying to learn how to do simple things like turn on and off the grid, extending the timeline, and turning characters and props on and off.
There is a great deal I still need to learn, like how to import props and motions into iClone. I bought some motions and a few props, but cannot figure out how to add them to the menu in iClone. HOW DO YOU DO THAT? (A tutorial video on that topic would be helpful.) Right now, I have to drag them onto the character from my computer files. Good thing I have two monitors, otherwise, I think that would be a nightmare.
One other problem I noticed. Most of the store iClone props and characters were created for past versions of iClone, and are not realistic, nor really compatible. The new props and characters are realistic, but there are not many to choose from at the moment. As time goes by, I hope that prop and character creators will quickly fill the void; BUT I WANT THEM NOW. I want them I want them I want them NOW: oh, that felt good to get out of my system. That was a senior citizen tantrum.
Anyway, that's my pre-school take on iClone. I am hoping in a few months, I will make it to first-grade, and maybe in a year, middle-school...
Happy animating,
Mark Maloney
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By Delerna - 8 Years Ago
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I have to say that all the comments made on how long to make a single scene are based off experience with previous versions of iClone (iClone7 is very new).
However, in all the comments no one has said you cannot make a long project. The point people are making is that it is best practice not to make them too long.
I say that because I started making long videos and over time, and as I progressed, I found that the statements are true. But again, in reality it is based of older versions of iClone and iClone7 may be able to handle things better. But I do think you will find as you start to add props and build your scene and add lighting etc etc that keeping your scene's not too big is helpful. However, as I said previously, it is worth listening to suggestions and comments from others but in reality the only way you will learn the best way for yourself to work is to work according to your own idea's. Maybe your right and you posting comments like this one will help others to adjust their own workflows.
However, I'm guessing from your statements you only had 2 characters at first and then added a couple more. Now try building a complete scene with lights,IBL and everything else needed for a complete scene and see how it goes then.
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By Delerna - 8 Years Ago
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Oh, just wanted to add.
How long should the scene projects be? I do not think every project scene needs to be the same length. The length of the project depends on the complexity of the scene. So if the scene is simple enough for a 15 minute project then make the project 15 minutes. I think it would be kind of silly breaking it up into 30 second projects when it works fine as a single project. I also said previously that issues can happen when you decide you need to adjust a scene because as you progress with you full project you decide you dont't like your initial idea of an earlier scene because it doesn't fit what you have now. If its all in a single project making adjustments can cause problems with animations after it. All I mean by that is that I find that having it all broken up into several projects makes making changes easier. Changing animations, changing the order of the scenes (the lady who wrote Harry Potter did that a lot in her story). All of that is easier to do if its not all in a single project.
But again, I am only making suggestions according to what I have found from my own trials and errors, I am no expert/professional. You need to experiment and find the way that works best for you. If anything I have said assists you in doing that then that's is all I intended.
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By Epluribusunum56 - 8 Years Ago
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Hey Delerna,
Of course, you are right; adding in hundreds of sound files and PowerPoint animations, along with lighting and cameras will both complicate and use up more computer resources. As I have previously said, I engaged in this venture with a specific project in mind. I only need two simple stages/sets, and I will only have two human avatars, two non-human avatars, and maybe six other props. So, what I am after is vastly simpler than what seasoned animators use to build their animations.
I need longer videos because they are mostly conversation between two people. I wrote an audio conversation between two people a few months ago, it is an hour long, but I am planning on rewriting it, expecting that it will take about 90-minutes to cover the ground that I want. It is the first in a series of eleven videos that I am planning to produce.
Once I have my primary character, I will be off and running. I think that it will only take a few weeks to produce my first video, but I scheduled twelve weeks for it; just in case. It is my hope to complete all eleven videos within a year or so; I have no choice, I am quite ill and making it another year is a challenge for me.
I know there are some animating difficulties ahead of me, but I feel confident that with the help of this forum and YouTube tutorials, that they will be resolved as quickly as I encounter them. I am a workaholic type, averaging sixteen-hour workdays, seven days a week; so, I will probably be spending more time composing than most people do.
I have not render yet, but from what I hear, it can take hours or even a day to render, can you give me more information on that topic?
Even though I am old and know a lot, I am almost as ignorant as I was when I was born; go figure...
Mark
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By Delerna - 8 Years Ago
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Do you mean rendering the video? IE just exporting the project as a video?
If that is what you mean then no, that only takes a few minutes (depending on the length of the scene).
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By Delerna - 8 Years Ago
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Oh, and I am almost 62 so I know what you mean
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By Delerna - 8 Years Ago
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stupid double clicking post comment
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By Delerna - 8 Years Ago
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 If it is just a video you want to render this is how I do it
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By dr.zap - 8 Years Ago
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I think the bit about keeping your animation shots short has a lot to do with storytelling. It depends on the content. Is this a cinematic video? Is it a documentary? Is it a instructional or training video? Each of these formats entail different ways of getting your message across. A traditional cinematic film rarely employs shots longer than 3 minutes (there is the dramatic and much sought after "single shot", but that is singular and somewhat esoteric cinematic decision). Documentaries often use long shots to study their subjects and instructional or training videos might consist only of one shot. I think most people want to use iClone to make their own movies with traditional formats of storytelling, therefore would never consider (for both practical and creative reasons) animating 15 minutes of video all at one time. But whatever floats your boat. As you say, you don't have time to burn.
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By Epluribusunum56 - 8 Years Ago
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Delerna,
Can you still edit your animation after you have rendered it?
Mark
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By Epluribusunum56 - 8 Years Ago
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Hellow dr.zap,
It's a dramatic documentary. I plan to compose it in fifteen-minute segments. Most of it is conversation, but I need a little theater to keep it interesting; after all, what good is a movie if it bores the audience away. Keeping it cinematically interesting keeps your audience attention. I will be using two non-human actors for humorous antics to keep the boring factor away; I hope; keeping your audience attention is no easy task. I think I will be learning a lot while composing my first movie. I will be calling on the iClone wizards to help me along the way...
Mark
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By but0fc0ursee - 8 Years Ago
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First... I follow a script. People like dr.zap, animagic and Kellytoons...
Dem's... "Director Dudes!" they know how to polish "Tha Words." Keep it interesting. :)
Epluribusunum56 (8/29/2017)
...Can you still edit your animation after you have rendered it?
Yep,.... Right Here is what is all about.
why??
Because the script "always change."
This is where I come in.
~ Rigging
~ Animation
1st Rule:
NEVER make long animations....
The longer the animation.... lights and shadows CHANGE, too.
This adds to the complexity of adjusting the animation.
I keep it to....(1 to 3 mins Tops).
When them "Director Dudes" grow a wild hair :P and say.... "Hey, I want this to change to THAT!." :crazy:
You MUST be ready! :cool:
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By Epluribusunum56 - 8 Years Ago
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Hello everyone,
I am working with "looking at," but am having a little trouble using it twice in the same scene/timeline. I activate the "looking at," then activate it a second time at a different location just before where I want t to activate the "end looking at;" which allows me to control when the process of "end looking at" starts. That all works fine. But, when I try and use "looking at" again at another location down the timeline, it starts the process back at where I activated the "end looking at." How do I place a second "looking at" that starts at the new location where I place it in the timeline?
I spent an hour looking through YouTube tutorials trying to find one to teach me how to do that, but could not find anything; does anyone know of a tutorial showing how to use multiple "looking at" positions on the timeline?
However, while searching, I did learn about Physics Constraints (basics,) WOW, iClone 7 has some really ingenious abilities; every corner I turn, I am learning something new and interesting; what an amazing program.
Anyway, can you help me with the using multiple "looking at" positions on the timeline?
Mark
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By Delerna - 8 Years Ago
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Just an example
If you put a look at character1 at frame 10 and then put a look at character2 at frame20 then the animation between frame 10 and frame 20 will gradually merge the look at from character1 to character 2 over those 10 frames.
if you want a sudden look from charcter1 to character 2 then you need to say lookat character1 at frame 10 then do look at character 1 again at frame 19. Then at frame 20 set lookat to character 2
To make it not so sudden then do the second look at character 1 at frame 15 and then look at character 2 at frame 20
Again all these numbers are just to illustrate it. Trial and error will find the actual frames you need to do it at
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By Delerna - 8 Years Ago
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And if you think about this issue you just had in relation to what I was trying to tell you about having long projects and modifying the animations can cause issues with other animations in the project you might begin to understand what I was trying to tell you.
I am not trying to say that for this you should separate this into 2 projects. This is simple enough to fix in a single project. But the more animations you put in your single project the more complicated it will get to get around these adjustments.
At some point it makes sense to separate into different projects. I guarantee, you will find this out at some point
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By Epluribusunum56 - 8 Years Ago
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Hey Delerna,
Thank you, it works perfectly now. I was trying to 'lookat' then go back to 'stoplookat' before looking at another object. I wonder how long trial and error would have taken to figure that out myself; I think you saved me a large chunk of time.
My character changes attention between objects, so it was imperative that I be able to use 'lookat' throughout the conversation to give it the realistic feel.
When I used 'lookat' with my experimental dancers, it almost broke their necks when having to twist their heads around to see the other dancer. Is it possible to commit character manslaughter with moves you should have known better not to use???
Thanks again for your expertise and help...
Mark
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By Epluribusunum56 - 8 Years Ago
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Delerna,
Everyone is saying break it up into small pieces! I will if I need to, but I want to see how far I can go before having to do that. Along with the "I told you so" I will probably be getting down the road, I will probably be saying back, "oh, now I see what everyone meant." If I need to break it up, I surely will, and into as many pieces as I need to, to get the results that I want.
I am just concern about how splicing all those pieces together in a video editor will work out in the end; I don't want my movie to be choppy because it's composed of fifty pieces spliced together.
Today, I will be spending my time learning 'Physics Constraints;' I will probably have a question or two along the way. I am putting off lighting and cameras until I have the basics of motion construction down...
Mark
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By michael7 - 8 Years Ago
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When/if it comes time that you need to build your movie out of sequences, it won't get choppy if you make a record of when sequences start and end. For instance, let's say your working on sequence one, and ( for whatever reason ) you want to end it at key frame 1006, but for sequence two you need it to start off exactly where sequence one ended; in sequence one, go to key frame 1006, right click on your characters and select remove animation. That will get rid of the characters animation but retain the pose. That way you can go back to the beginning of the time line to start a new animation sequence from the last pose.
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By Delerna - 8 Years Ago
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Epluribusunum56 (8/30/2017)
When I used 'lookat' with my experimental dancers, it almost broke their necks when having to twist their heads around to see the other dancer. Is it possible to commit character manslaughter with moves you should have known better not to use???
Mark
Yes, it is easier to make the lookat work without breaking their necks if you get your character to lookat a dummy object rather than another character. In case you don't know, a dummy object is an object that is not seen. Load something like a cube (something that is lo polly) and in its modify panel tick "set as dummy" It will be invisible when you do that. Untick it so you can see it. Now you can get the character to look at the cube. Then in your timeline you can just move the cube to wherever it is you want the character to look. Remember though, if at frame 10 the character is looking left and at frame 20 you move the cube so the character is looking right then in the animation the characters look position will gradually merge from left to right. For sharp motions between lookats make him look left at frame 10 then at frame 19 only slightly move the cube and move it back so the cubes position stays there between frames 10 and 19. then at frame 20 move the cube so the character looks right.
With the cube you can position it near the other character so it looks like he is looking at that character and if at some point in his dance his neck twists then you can move the cube to fix that without having to upset your other characters animation in order to fix his neck
That is how I made these characters look at each other while talking. Each character has their own cube to look at and I just moved their cube to wherever I wanted them to look.
This was done in iClone5
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By Delerna - 8 Years Ago
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Oh, and you can link the cube to the other character so it moves automatically with the character if that is needed in order to simplify the animations .
You can still manually move the cube to different positions and it will still follow the character it is linked to.
Your just going to have to experiment with all of this stuff in order to get it to do what you need
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By Delerna - 8 Years Ago
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By the way. You really should start creating new questions in new topics.
I am not complaining at you. I am only saying this for one reason.
The topic and the answers you get may help other people to find the answers you get when they are looking for answers for the same topic
Posts within a topic really should relate to the topic to some degree and this posts topic is finding someone to create a new character
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By Epluribusunum56 - 8 Years Ago
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Delerna,
I have tried using dummy objects a little bit, a week or so ago, but I need to practice using them a lot more. I will definitely try what you are talking about. I watched a video animation made by Justaviking, showing motion paths using dummy objects to control the motion of the camera. I could see then, that using dummy objects was going to be a very useful tool. Between 'lookingat,' and using dummy objects, animating interactive conversation is going to work really well for my intended application.
Your video clip was a great example. I noticed that it is 2:03 minutes long, how many segments did you use to make it?
I will start posting my upcoming questions as new topics. I just did not want to chance losing you guys; you're experts at this. YouTube is great but not as great as having living experts to answer how-to questions. You just make the world that much better for all of us.
Thank you so much for the great information; see you in new topics...
Mark
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By justaviking - 8 Years Ago
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Epluribusunum56 (8/30/2017)
I am just concern about how splicing all those pieces together in a video editor will work out in the end; I don't want my movie to be choppy because it's composed of fifty pieces spliced together.
It won't be choppy because you'll put CUTS in your video anyway.
In any video you see, even a documentary or a simple interview, they CUT from one person to another. You might cut to a reaction when the other person it talking. You cut between wide shots, medium shots, and close-ups.
In the video editor, you can replace the audio (that came from iClone) with a nice, continuous audio track so you don't have any audio glitches.
<------ Camera Angle #1 ----------> <------------- Camera Angle #2 -------------->
<----- Audio #1 -----> <--------------------- Audio #2 -------> <----- Audio #3------>
Make a one-minute test video with various lines of dialogue, two or three camera angles, any background music and sound FX, and you'll see it all come together.
ADDED...
I do not claim this is an example of a "best practice," but it does show how a scene can consist of many components. I'm attaching two screen shots of my NLE. This is for ONE SCENE of my longest iClone project.
- The top track is all "titles" that I used for closed-captioning.
- Then I have different tracks for video, dialogue, music, sound effects, etc.
- I was not rigid in my approach, as you can see some video on track 4 along with audio clips
The second screenshot shows where I used the NLE to cut between camera angles (though I did a lot of that in iClone, too).
I find every project is a learning experience. I learned a LOT doing that large project. Many things I would do again (sooner, and more of it), some I'd do differently, and I also found a few things I'd avoid.
You can also see where I keframed some volume and also faded out some music, which iClone cannot do.
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By Delerna - 8 Years Ago
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That was all done as a single project when I started to learn that it is best to split long stories up into several projects.
However, as I have said splitting up a project just because it is more than 30 seconds doesn't make sense to me.
I split them up based on the complexity of the animations and whether I think I might be likely to want to adjust it later to suit what I have done.
I tend to design my videos as I animate them rather than completely design the video before I start animating it. So it is very likely I will want to modify scenes I have already done.
That video was not so complicated so I had no problem doing it as a single project. Act1Scene2 (yes there is still up to Act20Scene??? still to be done, gotten highly involved with assert development since then so I will likely never get them done) is the one I was talking about with adjusting animations.
I did a single project with Harry walking into the house and meeting up with his aunt in the hall with them discussing why he was there. Then his cousin came down the stairs said some things then they all walked into the lounge room and did some more discussion. I then adjusted harry opening the door and that altered the animation of him discussing in the hall and walking into the lounge room and his discussions in there.
So I saw that I could split that into 4 projects Harry and aunt meeting up in the Hall, Discussions and cousin coming down, all of them walking into the lounge and sitting down, them all doing more discussion because I could merge their videos together in my video editor with scene merging effects. That is the way that works best for me. Not everyone would agree with my process but that doesn't matter, it suits me. That is why I say its worth listening to what other people say but in the end you need to find the way that suits you best. However my process still does agree with the principle of what everyone is saying. It is best not do everything in a single project when your video is long
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By Delerna - 8 Years Ago
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And JustAViking has shown some good demos, I will be checking them out more when I get home
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By but0fc0ursee - 8 Years Ago
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Delerna (8/30/2017)
That was all done as a single project when I started to learn that it is best to split long stories up into several projects.
However, as I have said splitting up a project just because it is more than 30 seconds doesn't make sense to me.
I split them up based on the complexity of the animations and whether I think I might be likely to want to adjust it later to suit what I have done.
I tend to design my videos as I animate them rather than completely design the video before I start animating it. So it is very likely I will want to modify scenes I have already done.
That video was not so complicated so I had no problem doing it as a single project. Act1Scene2 (yes there is still up to Act20Scene??? still to be done, gotten highly involved with assert development since then so I will likely never get them done) is the one I was talking about with adjusting animations.
I did a single project with Harry walking into the house and meeting up with his aunt in the hall with them discussing why he was there. Then his cousin came down the stairs said some things then they all walked into the lounge room and did some more discussion. I then adjusted harry opening the door and that altered the animation of him discussing in the hall and walking into the lounge room and his discussions in there.
So I saw that I could split that into 4 projects Harry and aunt meeting up in the Hall, Discussions and cousin coming down, all of them walking into the lounge and sitting down, them all doing more discussion because I could merge their videos together in my video editor with scene merging effects. That is the way that works best for me. Not everyone would agree with my process but that doesn't matter, it suits me. That is why I say its worth listening to what other people say but in the end you need to find the way that suits you best. However my process still does agree with the principle of what everyone is saying. It is best not do everything in a single project when your video is long
I agree 100%.... Intuitive, methodical and you can change the anims when the need arises.:)
Scenes lenght... via Complexity.... Yep.
+1 :Wow:
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By justaviking - 8 Years Ago
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Resurrecting this thread...
Another reason most people using multiple iClone files for their video project is because it is common to use multiple sets and locations.
If you have someone in front of their house, mowing the lawn, and later inside the house, watching television, you would normally want that to be two iClone files. There is no need to burden the outside shots with all the furniture and other indoor props. And the reverse case it true, too.
I don't remember anyone mentioning that (though after this many posts, it could be that I simply have a gap in my memory).
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By Delerna - 8 Years Ago
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Here here.
Even in outdoor only sceens. IE He mows the lawn and then walks down the street to buy some beer. I would have that as 2 or even 3 scenes If I needed to see him inside the .alcohol store.
I would even take screenshots of the street scene (as an example) and use it as a background image in the mowing scene if I needed to see the street while he was mowing the lawn.
Or use the street image as a background while he was in the store.. I might even make a 4th scene of the street with cars driving along and people walking along it just so I can produce a video of that for use as a background while he is in the store or the yard.
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By Delerna - 8 Years Ago
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And I just noticed warlord posted a tutorial on the exact thing I was talking about there
Here
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