It is common knowledge that in the videogame development industry, what is new today may be tradition tomorrow. This means that from the moment you start a project until you finish it, you have the need to keep evolving and improving both graphically and in terms of animations and character design. Adapting the work done to the latest innovations in software development and the new features they offer.
At the point of development that we were at when Reallusion launched iClone 8 and Character Creator 4, it was for us an unprecedented step forward in the history of our studio; as far as character creation and animation is concerned. As originally we began work with the previous software iterations of Character Creator 3 and iClone 7.
We can really see a before and after in our project, once we have obtained the results of applying these improvements from Reallusion to our Lucidus Mortem project, which we initially introduced with the Pitch & Produce program.
A strong point for us has been the intelligent human skin colour function and the magnificent SkinGen Premium tool. Another strong point for us is the advanced controls for morphs and facial expressions. This combined with the eyes, mouth and lips have allowed us to significantly improve the design of our characters, being able to appreciate as we said: A before and after.
The possibility of importing any rigged character into Character Creator 4 and from there being able to characterize and transform it, and then exporting it to iClone 8 for facial and body animation, is extraordinarily useful.
iClone 8 comes into its own with all its power, to create realistic and effective animations; creating transitions that blend one sequence into another with rigorous accuracy. This is just the beginning, as later on we can perform an extra clean-up where we can trim and smooth the sequence of animations even further. The Curve Editor helps us in this in an extraordinary way. At this point, we want to highlight the new and magnificent illuminations included in the software; which allow us to check how the character looks immersed in different environments.
Being able to see the result in real time in the engine with Unreal LIVE LINK and the compatibility with the main MOCAP systems, make iClone an essential software for us.
In short, we are developing a very complex project and we are sure that with the new Reallusion tools our Lucidus Mortem will be born ready for the future. – Indigo Studios
