Creating Character animation for Unreal


https://forum.reallusion.com/Topic466267.aspx 		Print Topic | Close Window

By tre4b - 5 Years Ago
Hi There,
I am using CC3 and have been using blender to do animation.  I started wondering if iClone might do a better job however I am only doing this for fun,  I'm pretty bad at it so won't get to a point of selling stuff ;-)  CC3s benefits were clear for what I was doing but the IK in blender is not easy and iClone feels like it might be easier.  The challenge I have though is that those characters need to come out of iClone to Unreal.   I can't load the plugin right now because I am using 4.26 and it only goes as far as 4.25.  When I try to export it says I cannot without 3DXchange.   

So to the question.  Does this mean I have to purchase 3DXChange as well as iClone if I want to export characters?  Or is there some limited 3DXchange functionality included in the base iClone product (like skingen in CC3) or through the Unreal pluggin.

If I have to spend more then I can't really see a benefit of iClone7 even if at some point I could plugin my Kinect ;-)  In truth the information does not seem to be all that clear on reallusions site.
By Peter (RL) - 5 Years Ago
Hi...

If you wish to export from iClone to Unreal either directly or using Unreal Live Link then you will need to have 3DXchange 7 Pipeline. However, you can also use iClone 7 to create your animations and then use Character Creator 3 Pipeline to export the character and motions. When using this workflow 3DXchange 7 isn't required.
By r78zj99 - 5 Years Ago
hi peter even you are saying that cc3 can do this

that's is surprising 

I already tested this but only the dummy motion is place as a output!

give it a try and find out.


from Alan
By AutoDidact - 5 Years Ago
Peter (RL) (12/17/2020)
Hi...

If you wish to export from iClone to Unreal either directly or using Unreal Live Link then you will need to have 3DXchange 7 Pipeline. However, you can also use iClone 7 to create your animations and then Miuse Character Creator 3 Pipeline to export the character and motions. When using this workflow 3DXchange 7 isn't required.



Thank you Peter, 
Here  is video explaining the CC3 to Blender animation pipeline. 
By tre4b - 5 Years Ago
Many thanks for your help, not that I can figure out how you get to save the animations in iClone.  As the two output export options are disabled on this version and both say you need 3DXchange and the only other way to save is as a .iProject which CC3 does not seem to be able to open I can't understand how I would save the animation.  Potentially something that unlocks if you are not on the trial version.

At this point I suspect that my best bet is to actually learn to use cc3 properly and then relook at iClone down the line.
By animagic - 5 Years Ago
You will need to do some research on how (see manual), but motions created in iClone can be saved out using Collect Clip from the timeline.

For body and facial motions combine, save as MotionPlus for just body save as Motion. You can of course also motion clips that are part of iClone's content.

The resulting files have an .rlMotion extension and can be added to FBX to be exported as shown in Autodidact's video.

For saving motions, see this recent post: https://forum.reallusion.com/FindPost466507.aspx.