Questions regarding importing CC3 characters into Blender (any advice for this noob?)


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By arman.sayedi - 7 Years Ago
Hi there, thank you for clicking on this thread and offering any time and advice! 
 
I am trying to figure out a practical pipeline for importing CC3 characters into Blender for creating animated video content. I enjoy the animation and facial rigging components of CC3/iClone but producing the final videos in Blender is more appealing to me than working in iClone because I find it a bit more robust in terms of lighting, rendering and other features. 

I have three questions to help me get started in wrapping my head how it could be done. I don't necessarily need specific steps because as long as I know it's possible, I'm happy to figure out the bits and pieces, so I don't mind just being given the 'broad strokes'. Any general advice on the subject or your own experiences is greatly appreciated. For the record I do have 3dxchange. 

My questions are: 
1. I know the CC characters can be imported into Blender as FBX files, but can they be imported with the textures already set up? I have tried it myself but it required me manually retexturing the the mesh. (It's just imported as grey) I'm using Blender 2.8 so that might be the culprit. 

2. I can see that the characters can be imported with their bodies rigged (bones) - are they also imported with the facial rigging set up? 

and 3. I don't know the terminology to use here, but if/when characters can be imported into Blender and set up, can they then be 'injected' with the animations from iClone? Ie. Could I import a walking animation or a facial animation from CC/iClone into the Blender imported character?

My goal here is to have a pipeline/workflow that's easy and fun to make 'low budget' stuff (though I'm not adverse to hard work) so having it be perfect or high quality is not an issue. Body and facial animation are obviously very time consuming so therefore the ability to quickly whip those up in iClone/CC and import them into Blender would potentially be a very fun process for me. If there are other workflows or ideas to play around with, let me know. 

Thanks again,
Arman
By Skuzzlebutt - 7 Years Ago
you can select a animated avatar in iclone (facial included)
and go to file export FBX... select the blender preset and range of the scene
and it will transfer with all textures and animations intact
however the textures will need modifications most notably the eyelashes

this also works for props (static or animated)
By arman.sayedi - 7 Years Ago
Kipster (11/14/2018)
you can select a animated avatar in iclone (facial included)
and go to file export FBX... select the blender preset and range of the scene
and it will transfer with all textures and animations intact
however the textures will need modifications most notably the eyelashes

this also works for props (static or animated)


Ok great, this is very helpful. thank you!