Animated projects often involve lots of content that not just have to look good, but also have to render well. For this reason, it is imperative to know where to acquire the proper 3D content. Luckily iClone is compatible with assets from many 3D marketplaces.
Director Jason J. Brown is a well-known iClone artist, and fan, that is credited with iClone animated music projects like the the Mood Indigo music video. This time he shares with us, the Zombie Angel Poetry Slam (by TUK) video, where he chroma keyed live actor footage and combined it with Unity Asset Store scenery and props, inside iClone’s realtime 3D engine.
“I think this is a major turning point in scene assembly because the Unity Marketplace is MASSIVE – and every item is packaged in a standardized way that iClone can handle.” – Jason J. Brown
iClone Content & Unity Asset Store
According to Jason, there are many advantages to using the Unity Asset Store with iClone Marketplace content, as Unity has a giant warehouse of high-quality assets that can inspire and compliment iClone animated projects with props, vehicles, buildings, and accessories.
Just like iClone assets, Unity assets are developed by professionals who have years of experience in designing realtime-ready content that is optimized for realtime animation engines, and is far better in quality than those found in the free 3D Warehouse.
iClone’s powerful realtime rendering of PBR materials also encourages users to work with material channels like; Metallic, Roughness, Ambient Occlusion, Normal, and Base Color. This is good news for owners of Unity content as many items there are PBR compatible, allowing artists to significantly improve their overall visual quality in projects.
Additionally, the Unity Asset Store has lots of free and inexpensive assets that almost all perfectly convert to iClone, via 3DXchange (99% compatibility with iClone). Opening the gates of hell for legions of hungry, 3D zombie hordes. 😉
Importing Unity Assets into iClone
During project development, Jason was directed by his client to find and use props from Unity, so he had to figure out how to export from Unity to iClone; as most tutorials deal with exporting from iClone to Unity. Below, he helps by sharing the process he used.
Note: Jason’s method does not require you to learn anything about Unity. Which is a big plus!
How to import Unity assets into iClone:
- Install Unity on your PC.
- In a web browser, download items from the Unity Asset Store.
- Open Unity application.
- Open the Asset Store window (inside Unity). Click on My Assets.
- Select an asset and click “Download”.
- Unity will show you the unpacked file list relating to the asset.
- Click on “Import”. When imported, close Unity.
- The asset, in FBX format, will be in your Documents folder, with textures and animations organized in a subfolder.
- Open the FBX asset in 3DXchange.
- If it is a character, import any animations that came with it.
- If it is a character, assign a skeleton – usually Maya FBX format.
- Export the asset –in an iClone format— to a desktop folder. Do not export into iClone content folder just yet.
- Do not assign the textures to the asset in 3DXchange, it is easier to do that in iClone.
- In iClone, open the asset you saved in the desktop folder.
- Texture the asset.
- Export the asset directly to the iClone content folder.
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Zombie Angel Poetry Slam by TUK (feat. Melleefresh)
Starring: Jaymz Bee and Melleefresh
Music: TUK (Carlos Perón and Jaymz Bee)
Engineered: B.T. Lawrence
Creator: Jason J. Brown
Software used: iClone 7, 3DXchange 7 Pipeline, HitFilm Ultimate
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http://bit.ly/2uqs1Hc – iClone 7 – iClone is the fastest and most cost-effective 3D-animation software in the industry, helping you easily produce professional animations in a very short time for films, previz, animation, video games, content development, education and art. Integrated with the latest real-time technologies, iClone 7 simplifies animation with powerful plug-ins for face and body motion capture, special effect particles, keyframe animation and more!
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http://bit.ly/2mmx2My – 3DXchange Pipeline is the all-in-one conversion tool for iClone, to import and export all types of 3D assets including static objects, animated props, skin-bone rigged characters, and motion files. With 3DXchange you can also repurpose these assets with output options tailored for Unity, Unreal, Maya, Blender, Cinema 4D or Daz Studio. This makes iClone a universally essential tool for both game design and CG workflow.
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