CC MasterClass #4: Fast Cartoon Design with Character Creator

In this 4 part series for – Master Class “Fast Cartoon Design” Luis Duarte shares his tips and tricks on how to take advantage of Character Creator and iClone to create a cartoon character and animate his face and body easily. This 4 part series will cover the entire of process with Character Creator, ZBrush, Substance Painter, and iClone.

Luis Duarte – 3D Artist

My name is Luis Duarte and I am a 3D instructor on LibelStudio.com.

Part #4: Face & Body Animation in iClone

Export avatar to iClone

There are two methods to sending characters to iClone for animation; the first method is saving it as an avatar file from Character Creator, and loading the file in iClone.

The second method is for workflow lovers. We simply activate the ‘Send character to the iClone’ option that is in the taskbar of the CC window.

Poses and animations

Once in iClone, we can do countless tasks with our model. First of all, try different dynamic poses from the content panel to see in real-time how the meshes we have built will behave.

Then we can apply different motion files just by dragging them onto the scene. This phase is very fun because we see how our character comes to life after a long design process.

Generate a high-resolution render

After having played with the model, we can define a definitive pose that we like and start playing with the variables of the scene. For this phase, I recommend adjusting to slightly decrease the value of the default lights.

The next step is to generate a pair of spotlights that will illuminate the face on the right and left sides. Finally, a point light very close to the face to achieve a reflection in the eyes.

To improve scene detail, I recommend turning on Global Illumination and adjusting the setting for Ambient Occlusion. For this design, I’m going to export with a transparent background and then include an improved background in an image editor so the background color is not relevant.

Then at the time of export, I define the final resolution, the storage path and that’s it! We have a very clean image in almost no time at all.

My name is Luis Duarte, and thank you so much for following my tutorial!