Nildo Essá – FX Animation Studios
Hello, my name is Nildo Essá and I am the Owner of FX Animations Studios. The studio was founded back in 2004 and up until around the year 2017 we were focused mainly on working with TV Commercials being mostly sub-contracted by local advert agencies. Lately we also cater to NGOs and such to make animated PSAs (Public Service Announcement Videos) dealing with several day-to-day issues.Alongside client work, whenever we could, we would invest our time on our own IP, Os Pestinhas aka The Troublemakers
Over the years we have produced a few award-winning shorts and several PSAs using these characters and with great success. Seeing how well they were received locally, we thought it would be a good idea to take the next step… doing a feature film.
As we complete 20 Years of existence in 2024, we find ourselves in the middle of production of our very first Animated feature film “KIBWE” and when it’s complete, it will be the first Animated film out of Mozambique.
We are now using Blender, Unreal Engine, and Reallusion’s iClone and Character Creator 4 (CC4) tools. As a small team, we can leverage iClone’s LIVE LINK and the CC Control Rig plugin for Unreal Engine to enhance speed, efficiency, and enable real-time animation editing, character control, and synchronized camera movements.
“The ideal scenario is iClone to Unreal Engine, and with the iClone to Unreal LIVE LINK, and Control Rig plugins, making that bridge less painful. The Reallusion team has been very helpful and receptive to ideas to improve their tools, and I’m glad to consider them our partners in this crazy adventure that is to make a full feature film with a team of just 2 people.”
Nildo Essá – FX Animation Studios | CEO, Founder, Writer
‘Os Pestinhas‘ aka The Troublemakers
Kibwe is a story about Lili’s life and her journey to save her grandmother who was poisoned, while discovering stories from her past, unravelling mysteries of her tribe and family of traditional healers. They are a group of 3 children headed by a 10-Year-old girl named Lili who is very spirited and inquisitive and always wants to know the why of things. She was raised by her grandmother and never got to know her parents due to a curse placed on her family when she was born. The other kids in the group are Minhoca aka Stretch and ZeGordo. Stretch is 12 Years old. He is an environmentalist/inventor that is always trying to come up with interesting ideas to use waste in his inventions. ZeGordo is the Glutton. Despite being chubby, under pressure he can be quite agile. Lili and he grew up together and they are like brothers. ZeGordo is super protective of her.
Kibwe, Lili’s story, unfolded amidst the lush greenery of their village, where the scent of medicinal herbs lingered in the air. As they delved deeper into the mysteries that entwined their lives, Lili’s curiosity drove the trio forward, seeking answers to age-old questions. Stretch’s inventive mind brought a new perspective, turning discarded bits into treasures, while ZeGordo’s loyal presence provided a sense of security in their perilous journey. Together, they embarked on a quest that would test their courage, faith, and the strength of their bond.
Ensuring Animation with the Right Tools
This will be our hardest project yet as we aim really high in terms of quality. Our team is very small… it’s just me and my wife. And because of that we are always looking out for tools that will help us tell our stories without “breaking the bank”. Up until 2020 our main tool was Autodesk 3ds Max. In that year we switched to Blender and seeing how Reallusion was developing their animation tools and plugins that connect with Blender in a seamless manner, it seemed to make perfect sense to add those to our pipeline as well.
Today all our characters are Character Creator 4 (CC4) based and every animation we do we start in iClone 3D software. Then we refine them in Blender , to have the Unreal Engine being the end render goal of the pipeline. This workflow works very well, and it is stable. But being a team of 2 (Me and my wife), it’s still time consuming especially when it comes to export/import times involved between all 3 applications.
The ideal scenario is iClone to Unreal Engine, and with the iClone to Unreal LIVE LINK, and Control Rig plugins, making that bridge less painful. The Reallusion team has been very helpful and receptive to ideas to improve their tools, and I’m glad to consider them our partners in this crazy adventure that is to make a full feature film with a team of just 2 people.
Optimizing Transfers with iClone Unreal LIVE LINK
The new iClone Unreal LIVE LINK version provides the functionality we’ve been looking for. Previously, we could only export characters through Live Link and save animations using the Sequence Recorder tool in Unreal Engine. Exporting animations through the standard FBX workflow was not ideal for us.
The improved iClone to Unreal LIVE LINK transfer now supports parallel processing for iClone FBX export and Unreal FBX import, ensuring uninterrupted editing in iClone while transfers are ongoing. You can monitor the transfer progress through the progress bar in Unreal Engine to estimate the completion time.
I appreciate how all characters, props, and cameras transfer seamlessly at once. The cameras animated in iClone and the switcher setup, transition smoothly to Unreal sequencer with correct camera cuts, reflecting the work done in iClone.
With our previous pipeline we had to export the animations from Blender one by one, and then the cameras as well.
At a certain point we even tried exporting eight characters with all their animations as subdivided meshes and the plugin with the free Auto Setup tool for Unreal, did it in such an effective manner and all was neatly organized in their proper folders inside Unreal Engine.
CC CONTROL RIG FOR UNREAL ENGINE
The best part was yet to come however, and this was the CC Control Rig for Unreal Engine plugin. With this tool developers now have the freedom to seamlessly control CC characters using the familiar MetaHuman control rig, enabling precise manipulation and customization of both body and facial animations.
When the Reallusion team said that they were working on an Unreal Control Rig version for CC4 Characters, we immediately jumped on board to beta test it. We are still in the Previz stage of the film but have already crafted about 80 minutes of animations in Blender.
After some tests with the Control Rig plugin and the iClone LIVE FACE facial mocap tool, we are moving ahead with the production using mainly iClone and Unreal Engine.
“Combining the powerful capabilities of iClone and Unreal Engine, our production workflow is now streamlined and efficient. The seamless integration of the Unreal Control Rig plugin for CC4 Characters and the iClone LIVE FACE facial mocap tool has truly elevated our project to new heights. With these cutting-edge tools at our disposal, we are confident in delivering a stunning visual experience that will captivate audiences. “
Nildo Essá – FX Animation Studios | CEO, Founder, Writer
The Control Rig plugin is designed in such a way that you can just pick your transferred character in Unreal and click a button. After a few seconds it will be ready to be animated within the engine with rigs for both body AND face. This is especially helpful in our case because then it means that we can just bake any animations to the Control Rig and tweak/refine them in real-time, considering the final sets and cameras angles. This is a dream come true for any animator!
There’s even a Picker to help in selecting the controllers of your Control rig and you can have multiple characters in the scene and the picker will list all of them properly named.
“This is especially helpful in our case because then it means that we can just bake any animations to the Control Rig and tweak/refine them in real-time, considering the final sets and cameras angles. This is a dream come true for any animator!“
Nildo Essá – FX Animation Studios | CEO, Founder, Writer
Conclusions
Lastly, I would like to thank Reallusion for the continued support to this ambitious project. Their availability to help solve issues and the tools they are making really empower anyone to start telling their stories in a very cost-effective way.
I am glad that Reallusion has been such a supportive partner throughout this journey. Their dedication to assisting with problem-solving and providing accessible tools truly enables individuals to unleash their creativity and bring their narratives to life without breaking the bank.
Follow FX Animation Studios:
Website:
www.fxlda.com
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/FXlimitada/videos
Learn More
Related Posts
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
The original article was written by Nildo Essá and is also featured on AWN.
