The Path to iClone
Reallusion
Posts: 115
Hello Everyone !
Since we have had several requests from users who are new to iClone, then we have decided to start with the very basics of the iClone Animation Pipeline. We will start by posting some of the introductory iClone tutorials and gradually move to more advanced ones. This will allow any user to pick up from their particular level or interest with iClone and then work their way up.
The list here is tentative and it guides you from --- the basics of iClone, to character customization, to facial & body animation, mocap animation, motion refinement, and final packaging prior to exporting to DAZ. Now you don't necessarily have to follow every tutorial as some users may only need certain steps, while others may need the entire list. Also, be sure to check out the other "iClone Resources" forum, where we will be periodically giving away iClone freebie characters and animations for DAZ members.
The Path to iClone
1. Introduction to iClone
2. Turn a 2D Photo into a 3D iClone Character
3. Customize your Character in iClone
4. Create instant Facial Animations
5. Use advanced Facial Animation tools in iClone
6. Create fast Body Animations
7. Learn to modify Body Motions in iClone
8. Intro to Kinect Motion Capturing with iClone
9. Kinect Motion Capture refinement with iClone tools
10. Intermediate Kinect Motion Refinement (Looping and Motion Layer Editing)
11. Consolidate all your iClone motion data for Export
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Comments
How DAZ users benefit from iClone Facial and Body Animation
Reallusion has established a streamlined method for you to bring your Daz characters into iClone, where you can utilize a wide range of versatile and powerful real-time facial and body animation tools in order to bring your character to life. Use everything from real-time Facial and Body Puppet Tools to Human IK/FK key editing and detailed facial muscle manipulation. A blended MixMoves animation system and Kinect Motion Capture give you even more options for animating your character, not to mention iClone's embedded motion library and online Marketplace, where you can purchase thousands more custom animations for any character.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ78loEhAmg
Tutorial # 1 - Introduction to iClone
When you first start up iClone, it can be a confusing place. What are all of these tools for? What is this stuff over here?
Well, if you're new to iClone and not yet familiar with the UI, then this is the tutorial you'll want to watch. Also, even if you're an experienced iClone user, you just might still be able to learn a few tips to make your workflow more efficient by using hotkeys and utilizing features you probably never even knew existed!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITzL-iNhAgk
Tutorial # 2 - Turn a 2D Photo into a 3D iClone Character
In addition to the various character customization options you have with iClone, you also have the ability to create a brand new 3D head from your own personal 2D photos!
In this tutorial, you'll learn about the important concept of facial fitting, and how you can use it to bring your own head photos to life in 3D. You'll also learn a bit about customizing the texture and surface appearance of your new face, as well as making subtle changes to the facial features. All you need to start is a 2D photo of yourself or anyone else you want to make into a character.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKEQr9KncSM
Tutorial # 3 - Customize your iClone Character
There are many different options for creating and customizing your characters in iClone5. This tutorial will teach you how to take any iClone character and completely change it into your own unique creation by using the powerful character modification tools. Learn how to change facial and body proportions and textures, create unique clothing and hairstyles, and much more. This tutorial is essential for learning about the various options you have for characters in iClone5.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF6uoZzL3Aw
These are some great tut's! I have dabbled in iclone, wanting to use it along side Daz Studio. I am in the middle of an animation but I'm still using V4. I will be moving to Genesis for the next one. In the meantime, I have had trouble with with iclone animations and V4. I can get V4 into iclone via 3dxchange. The animation look great on her even when brought back through 3dxchange. BUT when I import them into Daz Studio, they don't work right. Any suggestions?
Also, be sure to check out the other “iClone Resources” forum, where we will be periodically giving away iClone freebie characters and animations for DAZ members.
Do you have link for it please .
Hi Jaeba,
We are glad to hear that you enjoyed the tutorials. We have more of them coming!
For your question:
This Daz issue is well known, unfortunately there's not much we can do about it, since the problem is that the DAZ FBX import method is quite unique with pre and post rotation requirements (our FBX files import just fine into other 3D software) I would recommend that you contact DAZ technical support on this. Sorry if this was not the answer you were expecting.
Hello Bigh,
The iClone Resources thread has not yet been posted. We are still preparing the files to give away, so it will probably be up and ready next year. I'll post to let everyone know once we have this up!
Importing Daz Genesis Characters to iClone
The Daz Genesis character creation engine allows you to customize and create a wide variety of characters, all of which can be easily imported into iClone via 3DXchange5. In this tutorial, you'll become familiar with the pipeline of bringing Daz Genesis characters into iClone, and how to make characters more suitable for a real-time animation engine by looking out for character polygon count and the size of your texture/material maps.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWPLx_LBs5o
Tutorial # 4 - Create Instant Facial Animations
One of the coolest features with iClone 5 is the ability to create realistic facial animation in literally minutes! This tutorial will give you the low-down on how to do this. That's not it though... iClone 5 allows you to make much more detailed edits to your facial animation to create subtle nuances in expression and give you complete control over your characters facial movements.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qahyP3kGpEQ
thank you for the new tutorials !
Happy New Year
We are happy to hear that you appreciate our hard work.
Thank you for your support. =)
Happy New Year to you to !!!
The Reallusion Team
Tutorial # 5 - Use Advanced Facial Animation tools in iClone
In this facial animation tutorial, you will learn all about the powerful features of the iClone's facial puppet and others tools that can help you bring your character's expression and speech to life. You'll get a walkthrough of audio lip-syncing and how to refine it, as well as how to add emotions using various facial animation options.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aoS9-xyzUk
Tutorial # 6 - Advanced Facial Animation iClone Techniques for your Daz Characters
Thanks to the new Facial Pipeline, Daz Studio users can now animate the faces of their beautiful models in iClone! The extensive collection of real-time facial and body animation tools in iClone make it an ideal choice for any Daz user wishing to bring life to their characters.
In this tutorial, you'll see how your Daz characters can lip sync any audio track and how you can fully customize and refine that lip sync. You'll also learn about the real-time facial puppet tools, which is fully customizable, giving you an insane amount of freedom and depth when creating your facial animations.
With the DAZ Genesis Extension, not only can you easily convert, and fully animate all DAZ Genesis characters in iClone, but you can even define your own unique expression styles by utilizing the enclosed .DUF file which includes all of the standard facial expressions and viseme shapes and automatically applies them to your Daz character. You can get this Extension as a free bonus after purchasing the Facial Pipeline Character Pack.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR9ChxwN_68
I can see iClone wants to make nice with DAZ. Let's see what happens.
Hi Rottenham !
Corporate-wise our companies have been working together for some time. That is the reason why Reallusion now sells official DAZ content packs in the Reallusion Content Store, and why DAZ also promotes the iClone Pipeline bundle as there is significant value for animators to use both products in sync.
When we talk about iClone's capabilities many people tend to ask how we compete with DAZ, or Maya, or 3Ds Max, etc... This is a misconception, as we are not competitors but collaborators as iClone cannot do what DAZ can and vice-versa. DAZ provides a incredibly powerful platform for intricate character creation that iClone could never match, as we specialize in fast facial and body animation. So when users cleverly learn to work their way around both applications, seamlessly importing and exporting content for their projects, then they see the tremendous advantage they have when exploiting the pipeline.
The problem is that it doesn't matter how good our DAZ and iClone solutions are, if we cannot communicate this to the 3D community. Many iClone users are just starting to explore the immense possibilities with DAZ, so we are now making an effort to bringing both communities together by being more active on forums.
We don't always have all the answers, but there are always workarounds and that's why we want to be more involved with the public. We hope our efforts prove useful for all you folks. =)
I bought the iclone animation pack awhile back, it came with a duf file that helped me get genesis into iclone. But since I updated to D|S 4.6 I get this error. D|S can't read the file anymore. Any ideas what I can do to fix it?
Hi Tyesuke!
I asked our developers about your issue and they state:
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"It sounds as if the new version of Daz Studio has issues with backwards compatibility. Users will need to contact their technical support for further assistance. I tested the DUF file in Daz Studio 4.6.1.39 Pro Edition (32bit), and it works just fine. Could you ask the user to provide his/her work procedure? I cannot confirm the reason for failure in Daz Studio 4.6. "
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So Tyesuke, could you provide us with a little more insight into your procedure? I'll then share it with our developer to give you a hand.
thanks !
it works fine for me in Daz Studio 4.6.1.39 - 64bit and 32bit .
Hi Enoc
Are there plans to make iclone real-time compatible with other mocap systems? For example.. Optitrack? Right now, the only way I can do real-time character performance is by using Motionbuilder. (and you know how expensive that package is)
I have customers that would be very interested in such an option (I'm a distributor for several motion capture manufacturers, including Optitrack)
Thanks
Hi Bryan Steagall,
Optitrack is awesome. We had the chance to try it before, and were very impressed. Unfortunately, we don't have any road map on integrating it directly with iClone. What you can do is directly import your BVH motion files to iClone via 3DXchange, but that of course defeats what you were searching for.
With that being said, we could consider having a discussion with the Optitrack crew.
Who knows? Maybe integration with iClone is a simple plug-in away.
Could you send me a private message, with information on your Optritrack contact window?
If you can introduce them to us we could of course take up a conversation with them!
thanks for the suggestion,
E
Tutorial # 7 - Importing BVH Motions to iClone via Daz Studio
Importing motions into iClone from DAZ and other various sources, and vice versa, will be one of the most common functions you will perform with 3DXchange 5.
In this tutorial, you'll get a quick run-through of how you can import BVH motion files via Daz Studio, use the Daz Genesis bone rig template to calibrate them, and then convert and apply them to your characters in iClone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9_J8Sp2U4o
Tutorial # 8 - Create quick Body Animations with iClone
iClone’s Body Puppeteering panel offers a unique and easy way to animate your characters with highly-customizable animations. You can preview your motions in real-time and make minor adjustments as the animation loops. The Body Puppet panel also gives you the ability to mask out body parts, and layer different animations for different parts of the body on top of each other. You can easily create, blend and mask animations to create truly unique motions in minutes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUqB_HRQd7k
thank you
is there a video that shows how to bring clothes ( for Genesis or other ) from Daz Studio ?
I know we can bring clothes over with the model .
Hello Bigh,
No, I don't believe we have a video showing how to bring only clothes from DAZ Studio, as the clothing is part of the model mesh.
Hello Bigh,
No, I don't believe we a video showing how to bring only clothes from DAZ Studio, as the clothing is part of the model mesh.
thank you - was hoping we could .
Tutorial # 9 - Easily Modify Body motions in iClone
The Motion Modify option is a new feature with iClone 5.5 that allows you to modify postures and animated poses of your character after the motion clip has been recorded. This tutorial will teach you how to use this tool to make subtle and unique custom adjustments to motions from the motion library, and from motions created with iClone's real-time body puppet tools.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTPt9HdusMw
thank you - was hoping we could .
only thing you could do is export nude Genesis figures of identical proportions and clothes fitted to a hidden Genesis figure so only the clothing mesh exports, then load both in same spot and use identical animations on both.
sort of works
thank you - was hoping we could .
only thing you could do is export nude Genesis figures of identical proportions and clothes fitted to a hidden Genesis figure so only the clothing mesh exports, then load both in same spot and use identical animations on both.
sort of works
thanks - done that
every now and again I will get a figure that will just crash 3DX5
usually comes down to one clothing or hair item or bump textures
but sometimes cannot isolate it
oddly 3dX4 will usually import them , I export as an iProp reload in 3DX5 and if I keep the figure at base and no subdivision I can load a genesis figure saved with duf face key on it in expression editor for morphs.
I usually need to load all the textures too
but removing textures is not the answer, tried that too.