Gone are the painstaking days of piecemeal 3D building assembly. The iClone BuildingGen plugin empowers architects, professional designers, and hobbyists alike to effortlessly create diverse 3D buildings using procedural Blueprints. This plugin streamlines the entire process by allowing the organization of 3D module collections into effective and cohesive packages.
Construction styles can be defined using interchangeable components and materials to enjoy maximum design flexibility. Best of all, BuildingGen’s nondestructive workflow ensures that design iterations can be made in confidence, with the integrity of the original design staying intact with impromptu modifications.
The key features of BuildingGen include:
Unlimited Architectural Styles: Harness a diverse range of modular components to craft a myriad of housing styles, whether it’s modern, sci-fi, sustainable, cartoonish, and beyond. BuildingGen can perfectly tailor each building to complement your 3D environment.
Creative Modification: Effortlessly modify the building structure by adding or removing selected Units, incorporating pillars, fences, or steps to fashion terraces, balconies, or open-air spaces. Watch Tutorial >
Adjusting Levels: Add or remove floor levels for the buildings at any moment in production. Or save time by duplicating certain floors and rearranging orders as you see fit. Watch Tutorial >
Refine Materials and Elements: Even after a building is constructed, a world of possibilities awaits. From replacing wall and facade materials to swapping out elements like door and window frames, this is where building aesthetics can be enhanced.
Smart Rebuild: Modify the entire structure, restyle levels or components while preserving the overall integrity of the building. Make precise changes without starting from scratch, thanks to BuildingGen’s nondestructive building process.
One-click Day/Night Switch: Building materials offer day and night modes, enhancing realism with realistic illumination and illuminated windows. Other details can also be added and enhanced such as realistic glass reflection and window dressing.
Optimized & Performant: BuildingGen optimizes performance by consolidating repeated textures and models, reducing redundancy. Its modular design allows multiple buildings to share resources, improving efficiency. Enjoy smoother operation and reduced frame rates, enhancing responsiveness while working with crowd simulation.
Free Sample Content: Access over 210 free assets, including 10 reconstructable iBuildings and 200+ 3D components and materials. Each building offers four distinct styles for easy customization, allowing users to fully experience all major BuildingGen functions.
Creative Expansion: BuildingGen packages streamline building deployment for specific styles, blending seamlessly with any motif. Customize packages by importing external content or incorporating your assets. The intuitive Packager tool assigns roles and materials to building components. Watch Tutorial: Setup > | Packager >
BuildingGen is poised to revolutionize the way architects and designers approach 3D architectural design. With its intuitive interface, powerful features, and unmatched flexibility, BuildingGen proves to be an indispensable tool in the arsenal of every 3D designer.
Expansion Pack: French Styles
Introducing “BuildingGen – French Style”, the premiere modular prefab package for constructing commercial, residential, or multifunctional buildings with French flair. Explore 10 premade structures and 8 extensible styles to effortlessly recreate architectural landmarks. Design traditional roofs, balconies, and terraces using over 600 component options. Adjustable day-night material settings enable dynamic window lighting and dressing, giving the impression of genuinely utilized and inhabited buildings.
Creating Ultra Realistic Digital Humans for the 3D Fashion Industry
At its core, Unexplored Fields is a collective of 3D artists who intricately blend art, fashion, and CGI. Specializing in art direction and the production of digital campaigns for the fashion industry, the studio boasts a diverse team skilled in various areas such as art direction, 3D modeling, avatar and environment creation, cloth simulations, material generation, realistic renderings, and sound design.
Through collaborative efforts, they infuse the essence of partnered brands into their visuals like Calvin Klein, Lacoste, Dr. Martens, ADOBE, Golgotha, and more. Their approach involves deliberately blurring the lines between reality and the virtual realm, playing with perception. Ultimately, Unexplored Fields aims to imbue the world of computer graphics with an organic touch, crafting visuals that authentically resonate with their audience.
For this Pitch & Produce session, three designers from Unexplored Fields collaborated together to leverage Character Creator digital human technology with Blender, Clo 3D and Houdini: Virgile Biosa, Etienne Kawczak-Wirz and Ilyès Taïebi
“We found out that Character Creator (CC) offers the smoothest pipeline integration with Blender, but it’s also really easy to combine it with ZBrush and Substance Painter. While solutions like Unreal’s MetaHuman Creator are impressive, Character Creator’s compatibility and efficiency with our existing toolkit made it the optimal choice for our digital fashion creations.”
Virgile Biosa – Art Director / 3D Apparel Designer
Étienne Kawczak-Wirz – Art Director / 3D Generalist / Music Composer
Etienne Kawczak-Wirz introduction : “Étienne Kawczak-Wirz is a French artist who graduated from the Fine Arts in 2016. He juggles multiple activities, each feeding into the other: a personal artistic practice, collective work within Unexplored Fields, and a musical project under the name Zone Minor Modification.
The medium of 3D gradually asserted itself as his principal tool of expression. His influences primarily draw from art history and cinema. The notion of refuge has been irrigating his work for many years, and his ongoing project “Vercors Refuge” is an opportunity for him to address this theme in a more direct manner. Within Unexplored Fields, one of his roles involves leveraging his expertise in artistic direction and technical abilities to serve the major brands collaborating with the studio.
Virgile Biosa – Art Director / 3D Apparel Designer
Virgile Biosa introduction : Virgile Biosa is an Art Director and 3D artist based in Lyon, France. With a background in Fashion Design (Saint-Luc Tournai, Be) and Fine Arts (Ecole Duperré, Paris, Fr), he continues to explore fashion design through digital tools, all the while maintaining a keen eye for artisanal aesthetic.
Inspired by his promenades through natural and urban landscapes, as well as a wide range of art forms, his projects frequently focus on the natural world and the intersection between nature and technology. Virgile Biosa has collaborated with a range of clients, including brands such as Suicoke, Hagel, PAG Neckwear and more… Co-founder of Unexplored Fields, Virgile plays the role of art director and 3d specialist with a focus on fashion. He is also involved in the digital archiving company d_archive.
Ilyès Taïebi – 3D Apparel Designer
Ilyès Taïebi introduction : Ilyès Taïebi is an image creator and 3D designer based in Biarritz, France. With a background in styling (Saint-Luc Tournai, Be) and fashion design (Atelier Chardon Savard, Fr) he now combines his skills in 3D modeling and his passion for design in the search for new ways of creating, designing and communicating through images. Today he creates authentic, narrative digital campaigns, giving free rein to his imagination and exploring the different horizons of his ideas in order to sublimate the appearance of a product, in the environment he chooses according to the story he wants to tell.
Ilyès Taïebi works for brands ranging from ready-to-wear, to sportswear, to luxury, collaborating with the likes of Décathlon, 686, Off-white, Heron Preston, Chloé and more… Also co-founder of Unexplored Fields, Ilyès plays the role of 3D Designer and 3D fashion specialist, creating original and aesthetic designs, while getting involved in the narrative world of the campaigns he creates.
I admit it. I had a deep-rooted, long-embedded phobia of 2D work.
This was due to its complexity early on in my freelance career. Motion Graphics were great, but character-driven 2D animation was time-consuming and tedious. This was long before Adobe bought After Effects. Cell shading was making a retreat as digital art had taken root.
Being as I was a grunt at the bottom of the animation chain, I generally got the jobs that no one else wanted, and that somewhat tainted my view of 2D work. As strange as this sounds today, back then my experience was that 3D was easier and less stressful than 2D work and I’d rather do that on a regular basis. What I had not counted on was audiences being trained to Pixar-level quality and the “uncanny valley” effect that tanked Polar Express, a project many thought was revolutionary while others couldn’t watch it.
These aren’t even considerations in 2D. Near perfection is not expected in all 2D work like it is in 3D.
Author, animator, and all-around talented artist Anita Bell replied to a post I made in Facebook about trying 2D:
Yeah, 2D is very forgiving. In 3D, everything is so realistic these days, that the slightest glitch of a motion for a fraction of a second, and everybody notices… but in 2D, simplification of motions is expected…
Got foot sliding? Just raise the camera so we can’t see the feet.
Got lighting problems? Ha, no ya don’t there’s no lighting.
Got shadow problems? Nope. Just delete em… assuming you added them as a prop in the first place. Bugs bunny never needed shadows, unless it was to prepare viewers for a gag, where he wouldn’t be touching the ground.
Got cinematic style problems? Nope… any cinematic style can be added as a LUT afterwards.
Anita Bell
Wise words and now I’m starting to think a little differently about this 2D thing. Some of what Anita mentions has caused burnout on more than one occasion for many 3D animators, myself included. Garry Pye replied with an offer of help anytime I needed it. Other users replied with words of encouragement and advice showing Cartoon Animator is just as much a community as iClone is. Having plenty of help was certainly a plus.
There was more of a distinct line between 2D and 3D in the early days. They shared some tools but for the most part, it was different tools and different skills with different groups like fine artists instead of digital artists. I tried Toon Boom and others, but it was very different from 3D and rudimentary in its early release.
Fast forward to today and it is a whole different ballgame in 2D animation.
Without looking at a single tutorial or opening the manual I was able to move around in the Cartoon Animator interface and create some rudimentary animations. Being a long time iCloner the interface was familiar and everything I tried up to this point worked as it would in iClone. From opening the timeline to adding characters and animations it seemed like I had been using Cartoon Animator for years even though this was my first look at it since version one of Crazy Talk Animator thirteen years ago.
Cartoon Animator user Dirk Baeten had told me in the same thread mixing CA 2D and iClone 3D would be a walk in the park with my iClone experience and he was right.
I haven’t produced any jaw-dropping 2D work at this point, but I have produced 2D work in a short time. Lots of it I might add… compared to my previous 2D output. This assignment had changed from a rather begrudging learning of Cartoon Animator into an enjoyable artistic experience as I advanced through the basics quickly.
I don’t know the “rules” of 2D like I do 3D or live-action, but I know I’m not running into the roadblocks and choke points of 3D. This has become a welcome diversion from everything Anita Bell mentioned earlier and has made the experience fun.
My first 2D scene was very rudimentary using the included Tumba character with a four-legged walk motion and a background from the Forest Paths Background pack. My creation was nothing to brag about, but it was completed quickly and nearly effortlessly. The only snag was turning the character on the zig-zag path. Like the 3D’er I am I overcomplicated it and went off in search of a 2D animation for the turn when all I had to do was flip the character with a button on the top toolbar.
It took a few minutes of searching for a non-existent motion before I realized I just needed to change tactics and flip the character. Could this be? It was too easy! As Anita confirmed… it is acceptable. Maybe in just the right situation but a sudden flip would never be acceptable in 3D. You would jar or worse, lose the audience immediately. There are probably better ways to do the turn than a flip but at least it didn’t stop my progress and dull the creative edge searching for a solution.
Below is that first attempt with Cartoon Animator which also included a path and some scaling from small to large throughout the clip. You’ll see some foot sliding but for a first effort it was incredibly easy and the sliding could be dealt with but I was moving on to another scene.
The new scene is in a meadow with plant and tree props placed in front of a background image along with an animated Bird silhouette (Puppet & Path) that was duplicated twice after animating it flying across the screen. I used the butterflies from the Puppet & Path pack to learn about the Motion Pilot, moving them across the screen, around the character, and offscreen. The girl was Garry Pye’s School Squad Penny character and I stuck a default tree branch prop in the upper right corner of the screen.
While still short it incorporates a young girl’s voice from Eleven Labs for lip sync and a background sound effect of the outdoors. I also learned how to use the camera during the creation of this scene which pauses at the beginning then follows the butterflies and eventually pulls back to a wider shot.
NOTE: The video below has background audio.
When you click on the 3D view you will see a visual breakdown of the placement of the various plants, trees, and other assets that make up the scene. It might not be necessary to have the layers this far apart, but this provides a better visualization of how the 2D stage works. The final render will always be the flat view.
Again, no masterpiece but by this time I had already put together several elements of an animated short and I didn’t have to worry about lighting which could tie up a 3D project which pushed me to another test of an underwater scene.
This type of scene is a bit more difficult to pull off in 3D depending on the VFX and lighting you have available during the project. I knew the scene wouldn’t be hard to do but how would I, as a Cartoon Animator newb, dull the sharpness of the scene to make it look like it was underwater?
Since I didn’t know any better, I used my old standby technique of adding a solid blue image layer (filter) over the top and using its opacity setting to set the final look. This dulled the sharp image and gave it more of an underwater look.
Below are the results:
I used this project to learn more about Motion Pilot as it drives all the animation in the scene. From the coral swaying to the fish swimming Motion Pilot handled the job in less than a minute for each prop not counting experimentation. The blue filter image layer is turned off in the image below.
As to the old-school use of the blue filter, you can see the difference it makes in the image below. This is a personal preference as you may want a sharp, clear look versus the duller, washed-out look I was going for.
RENDERING
This is a question for a lot of would-be Cartoon Animators wanting to know how the render time stacks up against a 3D app like iClone. In my experience, these projects were rendered extremely fast. I couldn’t count as fast as the frames rendered so in this instance rendering time is a non-issue.
SUMMARY
I will be covering Cartoon Animator with more in-depth articles in the future as CA has proven to be an easy-to-use tool that makes me look a lot better than I am and that is a bonus that I will gladly accept. If you have experience with iClone then you’ll recognize the interface and will adapt quickly. Cartoon Animator, like iClone, can work for beginners, amateurs, and professionals and all you have to do is look over this magazine to see proof of that. If my experience so far is any indication of what this learning process will hold then I look forward to the task.
Digital Artist MD “Mike” McCallum, aka WarLord, is a longtime iClone user. Having authored free tutorials for iClone in its early years and selected to write the iClone Beginners Guide from Packt Publishing in 2011, he was fortunate enough to meet and exchange tricks and tips with users from all over the world and loves to share this information with other users. He has authored hundreds of articles on iClone and digital art in general while reviewing some of the most popular software and hardware in the world. He has been published in many of the leading 3D online and print magazines while staying true to his biggest passion, 3D animation. For more information click here.
A Step-by-Step Guide from ZBrush Master Pablo Munoz Gomez
The Facial Profile Editor
Alright, to wrap up this in-depth guide to the Face Tools plugin, I want to give you an overview of one of the most powerful features in CC4 when it comes to expressions: The Facial Profile Editor.
With the workflow we’ve been following in this guide, we manage to create an original custom character with its unique set of expressions and of course unique wrinkles. However, all of the custom tweaks we’ve created are being applied to the generic rig in CC4, this means we can definitely generate some really cool and interesting expressions like these 3 main expressions I wanted to achieve:
But what takes this whole process to the next level is the Facial Profile Editor. Since no one set of expressions is the same just like no human is the same, the Facial Profile Editor allows you to tweak the generic rig and truly customise the expressions of any given character.
To illustrate this idea, here are my final expressions for this tutorial. The images on the left-hand side show the custom expression morphs and custom dynamic wrinkles and the images on the right show the exact same expression with the adjusted facial profile for this specific character:
In the ‘evil laugh’ expression for instance, you can also see a massive change on how low the character’s eyebrow can go and how exposed the bottom teeth are as well:
Here is the fear/surprised expression, also with the updated facial profile:
The point is, that the generic rig of CC4 can get you 90% of the way. As soon as you start working with more stylised or custom character, the Facial Editor will help you tweak and adjust all aspects of the morph sliders to creating convincing expressions:
Adjust Expressions in Edit Facial Panel
To get started with the Facial Profile Editor, I like to check my expressions and dynamic wrinkles from the Edit Facial control window. This is probably the easiest way to see how everything works and to spot areas of the expression that could be improved.
From the Edit Facial window, you also have other tabs next to Muscle. For instance, the Expression tab gives you access to a bunch of pre-made expressions that you can use as a starting point. These templates can give you a reference of how much you need to tweak your Facial Profile so you get to a more authentic expression.
The third tab called Modify is actually very useful. It gives you a much more granular control over each portion of the expression. So just as a quick example, here is the same ‘Angry’ Expression from above but with some of the sliders in the Modify tab tweaked (exaggerated opening of the mouth, angled brows, etc).
Now let’s dive into the Facial Profile Editors so we can create more custom expressions for the character.
Create More Custom Expressions in the Facial Profile Editor
From the Modify window, click on the Facial Profile Editor button. The character would go back to a neutral expression:
From the Facial Profile Editor, you’ll see all your morphs to the left of the window. After selecting a morph, you can see the different sliders you have to tweak that part of the expression
In my case, you’ll notice that even with the ‘EyeLid’ selected, pushing my ‘Eye_Wide_L’ slider all the way to a value of 100 doesn’t significantly open the character’s eye (partly due to the exaggerated size of my pupils).
The idea here is to fine-tune this particular slider using the Modify tab. Firstly, from the Morph tab of the Modify window, I located the morph section corresponding to my eyelid:
Then I used the ‘07_Wide_L_high’ to push that top eyelid past the edge of the iris of the character; this is how you can truly customise your expressions.
Now, in order to apply this change to my facial profile, I need to click on the tiny ‘thunderbolt’ icon next to the slider in my Facial Profile. In the pop-up window click on Ok. You can apply it to the current slider or to split part (I prefer to use the current slider and manually mirror the effect).
The mirroring process is just a matter of clicking the ‘mirror’ arrows icon from the opposite slider, ‘Eye_Wide_R’:
These are the main steps of the process to adjust your expressions in the Facial Profile editor. After you do a couple, it is just rinse and repeat. Here is an example of the exaggerated left eyebrow raised:
Another significant advantage of editing your profile is the ability to adjust the placement of facial elements (such as teeth, eyes, tongue, etc.) based on the expression. For example, when my character opened its mouth, the lower teeth were pushed back too far. To rectify this, you can utilise the Facial Profile Editor by clicking on the Proportion button (the fourth one in the Expression tools section):
This will display the bones associated with the face meshes and you can just click on them and move them around. In my case, I selected the bottom teeth and pushed them forward a bit while the jaw was down. The idea is that after adjusting this, the teeth will slide a tiny bit forward as the character opens the mouth:
That’s it in terms of the Facial Profile Editor. You can spend as much time as you need to in this step to further tweak each expression. But, in general, there will only be a couple very specific sliders that need tweaking, unless you really want to stylise your expressions.
The final aspect I’d like to demonstrate regarding the Facial Profile Editor is the capability to create your own custom sliders and incorporate them into your profile. These sliders could represent the effect of a single area of the face, such as ‘Super High Brow,’ or they could encompass multiple sliders to form a custom slider representing a complete expression.
Here’s a quick example where I utilised several sliders from the facial profile to generate this random expression:
Then, at the bottom of the expression morphs, I clicked on the New Slider button. A window will pop up where you name your slider and save it within a category. I named mine ‘WeirdLook’ (yep, I’m aware of the type-o in the screenshot). You can even upload a bitmap thumbnail with the expression so you know what the slider does.
Once you click OK, you’ll have your new slider in the custom category at the bottom of the expression morphs list:
You can now click on the big Edit Expression green button at the top to get out of the Facial Profile Editor and all your changes will be saved into your character. One last thing I like to do is test the full range of my expressions and dynamic wrinkles after I adjusted my facial profile using the animations that come with CC4.
From the Animation window, you can click on the Motion dropdown and go to Facial Rig > Extended Linear (or similar) to load an animation to test the expressions:
Here is a snippet of what the animation does for checking the expressions:
And finally with all the tweaks on my Facial Profile, here are my final CC4 renders showing the 3 expressions I set to create with this tutorial series:
AngerEvil LaughFear/SurpriseFinal Expression Demo
About The Author
Pablo Munoz Gomez is a renowned 3D concept and character artist, with a passion for education. 3D sculpting, visual development, and other mixed-media form the pillars of his artistic passion which he channels through the various platforms that he owns, including ZBrush Guides, 3D Concept Artist Academy, and 3D Snippets Project. Thanks to his vast online following, he is able to reach artists from around the world and help them advance in a variety of 3D-related disciplines.
A Step-by-Step Guide from ZBrush Master Pablo Munoz Gomez
Adjusting Expressions with Face Editor in CC
Alright! Time to get into the custom expressions; this is what all the fuss is about!
Up to this point, we’ve refined the base mesh, incorporated basic high-frequency details, and adjusted the textures, resulting in a visually appealing ‘static’ character. However, our goal extends beyond mere aesthetics; we aim to create a character capable of dynamic animation and conveying natural expressions. Hence, the forthcoming stage is dedicated to achieving precisely that.
In CC4, I used the Face Editor to create a quick smiling expression. I just added a bit of squinting, raised the eyebrows a tiny bit and push the corners of the mouth app and here is my smiling character:
Not a bad smile right? but it could definitely be improved… Currently, even though I’m using the default morphs and the sliders I think are involved in the smile, I’m getting more of a ‘nervous smile’ so it doesn’t feel very genuine.
This is where the real power of the ZBrush Face Tools comes into play — the plugin allows us to customise and work on just 13 areas of the face (expression morphs). Based on those, CC4 can create a whole range of expressions for our character.
13 Core Expressions in ZBrush Face Tools
The way the editing expression works in ZBrush is also very simple… form the plugin all you need to do is click on one of the switches containing an expression and edit the range
For instance, let’s begin with ‘Mouth Smile’. This expression typically presents a ‘fake’ or ‘nervous’ smile, which could be attributed to the adjustments made to the head base.
By clicking on the Mouth Smile switch, a distinct sculpting layer is activated within the head subtool in ZBrush. This allows you to focus solely on editing the changes related to the activated areas of the smile.
In fact, there is a pretty cool tool in the plugin called ‘Range’. So after you enable your expression to edit, you can also click on the switch called Range next to Diffuse and this will enable a temporary texture map applied to the head that will show you exactly the areas you can tweak for this specific expression:
Now, when it comes to adjusting expressions, I’d suggest you follow the same workflow we used to edit the base mesh of the character. Basically the rule of thumbs is: to make large proportional changes use the lowest subdivision levels and to sculpt or adjust small things, use the highest subdivision level.
Another useful feature of the plugin is that it sends the character from CC4 with polygroups intact. This enables you to isolate specific areas by holding Ctrl + Shift and clicking on a polygroup. This functionality proves particularly handy, especially when working on intricate areas such as the mouth.
Using the ‘Move Topological’ brush with AccuCurve enabled at subdivision level 1, I refined the corners of the mouth, pushing them upward to craft a more natural smile. Subsequently, I progressed to higher subdivision levels to sculpt the volume around the mouth area.
I also refined the volume around the nasolabial fold and accentuated the fold a bit more since this is an area that will be more prominent with this expression.
Once you are happy with one of the expressions that you tweaked, you can simply click on a new switch and continue with the refinement. If you leave the Range switch on while changing to a new expression, the texture range will be updated and applied automatically.
Modifying the Rest of the Core Expressions in ZBrush Face Tools
Here is a quick reference of what I updated for my Brows Drop morph:
Here is what I adjusted for the Mouth Frown:
And a bit of the Mouth Pucker:
Just like this, you can adjust all 13 expression morphs. Once you are happy with the edits, you can click on the Update to Character Creator button — but this time the selection from the pop-up window is going to be different.
We won’t be altering the texture, base mesh, or details covered in the Base Update section (as those have already been addressed). Our focus now is on updating the expression. Therefore, ensure that you enable the Update Expression / Wrinkle section and disable the Base Update section.
Then, from the expression sections we want to enable only the Expression Morphs switch and select all the expressions that you have updated. you can actually edit and update expressions and wrinkles in a single pass but to keep things organised, we’ll focus only on expressions first.
Back in CC4, I tested the smile expression with the Facial Editor and straightaway the difference between the default expression and the custom one for the smile is significant.
Here are quick expression test involving some of the morphs I changed in ZBrush:
To underscore the significance and effectiveness of this process, here’s a comparison between the default smile expression obtained from CC4 upon designing your base mesh, and the considerably more natural and genuine smile achievable through a straightforward adjustment in your custom expressions:
Sculpting the Dynamic Wrinkles
After completing the core 13 expression morphs, we can move on into adding some details to the expressions with the Dynamic Wrinkles. This feature from CC4 is a very clever way to apply specific details to a section of the face based on the area or ‘muscle’ that is moved.
The idea behind this feature is that there are a bunch of normal maps with detail information for different parts of the face, and when you use the morphs to create an expression, CC4 will blend and display the relevant details or normal maps for that expression.
Here is an example of the same expression before and after adding the dynamic wrinkles:
Creating these wrinkles is as straightforward as the workflow we’ve been using to edit the head shape, texture, and expression morphs. There’s just one small thing I’d like to address, and that is the level of subdivision.
From CC4, when we send the character to ZBrush to create the expression wrinkles, I personally like to send the subdivision level 7 which will produce 4K resolution normal maps when CC4 converts the details. This means that in ZBrush we’ll have lots more polygons to play around with but it will also be heavier than if you send it at subdivision level 6… not a big deal, just something to keep in mind for your project.
Once in ZBrush, the workflow is exactly the same as the previous one to tweak the expression morphs. The main difference is that we’ll spend more time in the heights subdivision level so that we can add those nice wrinkles and details.
So, just as a quick recap, all you need to do is make sure you are at subdiv level 7 and then click on the switch of a specific expression like Mouth Smile. This will obviously show the updates we made to the larger shapes of the ‘smile’ with the expression morphs, so you can start sculpting the crevices that are created naturally as the character smiles.
Another cool tip you can use to see how much the dynamic wrinkles are actually affecting your expression, is to turn off the last layer of the sculpting layers (the Details Layer that has the base details we created a few steps ago). This will show you a very clean base mesh with only the dynamic wrinkles you are adding on the selected expression:
Create Custom Wrinkles for the 13 Core Expressions in ZBrush Face Tools
Once you do one set of wrinkles, the process is pretty much the same for the rest. You can also take advantage of the Range feature from the Face Tools plugin to see how much area will be affected in the selected expression and make your detailing process a bit more accurate.
Make sure you go through all the 13 expression morphs to add your details so that CC4 can then create a full set of expressions with the wrinkles.
Once you’re done with your details, converting those wrinkles into normal maps in CC4 is also straightforward. After clicking on the Update to Character Creator button, ensure that in the pop-up window, the Wrinkle > Normal switch is enabled, the Normal checkbox is ticked, and the resolution is set to the desired size of maps you want to generate (assuming you’ve edited all the expression checkboxes, they should all be selected).
As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to have sharper details and more resolution so I produced 4K maps by selecting the 4096 switch in the Wrinkle Resolution section before updating to CC4:
Once you are back in CC4, if you don’t have the dynamic wrinkles activated you’ll get a pop-up window where you can simply activate Expression Wrinkles:
That’s it! you should have a fully-rigged character with expressions and wrinkles that are displayed as you change your expressions.
I used the Edit Facial window to select some controls, and with the middle mouse button, pushed them around to test the effect of the wrinkles in my expressions. Below you can see how the folds around the bridge of the nose appear with the ‘sneering’ expression:
Here is another one that is pretty obvious with the smile expressions and the wrinkles generated around the corner of the mouth:
About The Author
Pablo Munoz Gomez is a renowned 3D concept and character artist, with a passion for education. 3D sculpting, visual development, and other mixed-media form the pillars of his artistic passion which he channels through the various platforms that he owns, including ZBrush Guides, 3D Concept Artist Academy, and 3D Snippets Project. Thanks to his vast online following, he is able to reach artists from around the world and help them advance in a variety of 3D-related disciplines.
A Step-by-Step Guide from ZBrush Master Pablo Munoz Gomez
Detailing the Skin
One of the biggest advantages of the connection between CC4 and ZBrush is, of course, that you can leverage the ZBrush capabilities and features to sculpt intricate sets of details into your characters.
Gather the Reference of Skin Details
In this next stage, we are going to concentrate on the skin details. One of my favourite resources to study the intricacies of skin patterns is a website by photographer Daniel Boschung: https://www.danielboschung.com/. This website has a bunch of portraits in incredibly high resolution that allows you to zoom in into every single pore and skin imperfection:
Switch one the Detail Layer on ZBrush Face Tools and Start Sculpting
To start with the process of sculpting details in ZBrush, you can utilise the skin details that come from CC4, since we originally brought in the Normal map as details. To visualise the details, make sure you click on the Detail Layer switch in the Face Tools plugin and that you are in the 7th subdivision level (or 6th depending on which one you sent from CC4). This is to ensure the details are nice and crisp.
For my project, I wanted to cover every aspect of the sculpting process; so, I decided to sculpt my own set of skin details. However, I still think that it is very useful to take advantage of the details layer that comes from CC4. So I used smoothing brushes to reduce the influence of the details from CC4 but keeping a tiny bit of the surface deformations.
Since the subdivision level is pretty high and there are lots of polygons, the standard smoothing brush might not give you the result you expect. In the ZBrush Lightbox, you can go to the brushes folder and within ‘smoothing’ brushes, load ‘Smooth Stronger’. This brush will have a much stronger effect and help you to smooth things out at a higher subdivision level.
Although you can use any of the standard brushes in ZBrush to sculpt details, I used a custom set of brushes that I’ve designed specifically to add high-frequency details to any skin type. This is not necessarily a shortcut but it does help to speed up the process and give you control over the placement of certain details.
At the highest subdivision level, I created the base of details which is a combination of a simple skin pattern, bumps and smoothing peaks:
In the custom brushes pack there are various brushes for specific purposes and areas of the face. I used the eyelid pattern for the eyelids and the stretch pores for the areas closer to the nasolabial fold (smile lines):
Ultimately, the process of sculpting details is all about patience and really spending the time to add the right type of pores or details in the right areas.
Update Details from ZBrush to CC
Once you are happy with the base details of the skin you can send them back to CC4 and the plugin will automatically convert those high-frequency details into normal details.
So in this case, after you click the Update to Character Creator button, we only need to select the Details > Normal switch from the pop-up window. This is to transfer all the ZBrush details into a normal map that CC4 can use.
If you encounter an ‘error’ similar to the one depicted in the image below, there’s no need to panic. This occurs when details such as teeth, eyes, or tongue are not included, and the checkboxes in the pop-up window (shown above) are left unticked. Consequently, the plugin attempts to generate a normal map from a high subdivision level, but since these objects lack details in my case, simply click OK to proceed.
That’s about it. Here is a quick comparison of the default details and the custom details I created as a base in ZBrush:
I decided to stylise and exaggerate my details a bit more to make my character look a bit older with some more memory folds and wrinkles. Back in ZBrush, I spend a bit more time working on the custom details until I had this:
Updating the details is another very simple process following the same steps I covered before. However, this time I selected the 4096 switch from the Texture Size section of the pop-up window when sending it back to CC4. This allows me to have a lot more resolution so the details in CC4 will be a lot more crisp and well-defined.
After updating the details map into CC4, here is what my project is looking like:
Keep in mind that we’ve only tweaked two basic things so far: the overall base mesh shape and the details layer. We still need to go through the expressions and Dynamic Wrinkles to create a convincing effect for the deformations of the face.
Texture Polypaint
Another very cool feature of the Face Tool plugin is the texturing portion. I wanted to cover a bit of the texturing process as polypaint to give you some extra tips and tricks before we start with the expressions.
So, within the Face Tools plugin, you can click on the Diffuse switch at the top. This switch will essentially enable the Albedo colour from CC4 as texture in ZBrush:
In order to modify this texture in ZBrush, you need to first convert the information from the texture map into polypaint. This requires you to be at the highest subdivision level so you can capture as much detail as possible from the textures, and then from the Polypaint palette click on the Polypaint From Texture button:
Once you click on the Polypaint From Texture, ZBrush will project the texture map onto all the polygons of your mesh, recreating the texture as vertex colour (or polypaint in ZBrush).
One thing I like to do every now and again when I’m working with textures in ZBrush, is to enable the Flat render type from the Render menu. This is a great way to see a shadeless version of your texture without any information of the material so you can see the true values and hues of your texture:
In terms of the process, the polypainting techniques are pretty similar to the sculpting ones. It is all about subtleties and patience. I like to use the Standard brush (turning ZAdd off and enabling the RGB), with the Stroke set to Colour Spray and using ‘Alpha 08’ that comes with ZBrush.
These simple settings should give you a lot of variation and control:
You can also click and drag from the colour selection in ZBrush to pick up the colour or press the letter C while you hover over the mesh. For my character, I chose a dark desaturated blue colour to add a subtle shade of blue around the eye regions. I also reduced the RGB opacity value to something like 25% so that I have a more gradual transition and ultimately more control over the placement of this new hue.
You can keep tweaking the standard brush to add all sorts of details. For instance, you can change the stroke to ‘DragRect’ and use ‘alpha 22’ (also comes with ZBrush) to add small veins and tiny blood vessels like I’ve done here on the nostrils… they are pretty subtle:
Create Custom Mask & Variate the Albedo Colour
Another of my favourite tricks in ZBrush when it comes to texturing, is to use the masking features in the Masking palette to create custom masks and variate the albedo colour.
For example, you can use the Mask By Cavity button to mask all the deep crevices and details on the surface. This is a great way to also visualise the intensity of some of the wrinkles and details that we manually added:
Not only do you have a ‘one-click-operation’ to mask all your details but you can also use the Adjust Mask section to blur the mask a bit and create a softer transition to the unmasked areas:
The rest is more of the same, I like to invert the mask and hide it and then with a darker red tone, I can highlight some of those deep crevices like the wrinkles around the eyes:
Other masking features I really like are the Mask by PeaksAndValleys. This will give you a more random mask pattern, but it is perfect to generate a subtle variation like ‘sunburn’ patches.
With any mask that you generate, you can also use the Adjust Colours button from the Polypaint palette to adjust the hues, contrast and gamma:
If you use the same tool (adjust colours) without any mask you can totally change the colour palette of your skin. Just for fun, here is a ‘zombie’ version of my skin palette:
I intentionally wanted to make a drastic change of colour, just so that I can show you one of my favourite features of this entire workflow… so here it is:
Let’s say that you are happy with the polypaint and all the colour changes you’ve made. You can go ahead and click the Update to Character Creator button, and from the pop-up window, choose only the Polypaint > Diffuse option. For texture resolution, I chose 4096
The plugin will take care of the rest… it will convert all your changes from the polypaint into new textures and send them to CC4 with one click:
Back in CC4, is where the magic happens… you’ll get a pop-up window and since we are now sending a new texture map to CC4. The Auto Adjust Texture section is available so make sure you tick the Apply Head Colour to Body check box:
Then when you hit ‘update’ CC4 is going to import the new texture (from ZBrush polypaint):
AND, here is why this is so cool… CC4 will match the colour adjustments you did to the head, to the entire body of the character so it feels totally integrated!
At the end, I went back and reverted the ‘zombie’ skin changes and ended up with something like this:
About The Author
Pablo Munoz Gomez is a renowned 3D concept and character artist, with a passion for education. 3D sculpting, visual development, and other mixed-media form the pillars of his artistic passion which he channels through the various platforms that he owns, including ZBrush Guides, 3D Concept Artist Academy, and 3D Snippets Project. Thanks to his vast online following, he is able to reach artists from around the world and help them advance in a variety of 3D-related disciplines.
A Step-by-Step Guide from ZBrush Master Pablo Munoz Gomez
Concept and introduction of ZBrush Face Tools
This comprehensive tutorial dives into the world of expression creation and dynamic wrinkles using Character Creator 4, ZBrush, and the Face Tools plugin. Learn how to leverage this powerful combination to create facial rig and breathe life into your characters.
Before we get started with the step-by-step process of how you can create custom expressions for your characters, let’s take a look at an important stage of the process that is sometimes overlooked: The planning stage.
The planning for this project is fairly simple but it is quite important. It is also an opportunity to understand how the meshes from CC4 work and how the expressions and wrinkles are applied so that you can make the most out of it. Here is a simple head project with a texture overlay showing important areas of the face and the clean topology that is used:
These colourful textures are a great way to understand the range of motions and areas where the dynamic wrinkles are applied to create custom expressions. In this case for instance, I’m using the Facial Editor to pull the eyebrows down and towards the centre to produce this ‘frown’ expression:
Using the ZBrush Face Tools plugin, I can easily send the entire head from CC4 to ZBrush and make further adjustments… we’ll get to that in the next section, but here is an example of how simple this workflow is and how well it translates to ZBrush:
Collect the expression reference before using Face Tools
Building a solid reference library is crucial for capturing nuanced expressions in your character, especially during the planning stage. While individual experiences shape unique smiles, the core elements of happiness often involve common muscle movements like raising the corners of the mouth, engaging the zygomaticus major, and potentially crinkling the eyes with orbicularis oculi activation.
Consider gathering high-resolution photos or video clips showcasing diverse individuals expressing happiness, alongside anatomical studies to understand the underlying musculature. This way, you can reference both the commonalities and variations within the expression, ultimately breathing life into your character’s emotions.
To keep things simple but effective, I like to use Pinterest to find my references simply because the algorithm that this platform uses to suggest similar images is fantastic. This is the top results I got from typing ‘Expressions’ in the search bar:
I personally also like to use PureRef to collect all my inspiration and references in one place. So I usually place the browser on one side of my screen and fill the other side with the PureRef board so I can simply drag and drop images from Pinterest into PureRef:
After a few minutes of collecting references, here is what my inspiration board looks like:
I tend to collect a lot more images than what I might actually use as reference — but it never hurts to have more! However, it is important that you filter down your images to just a few that are of high-resolution and that will actually help you to create the expressions.
Set the iconic expression for your character
For this project, I decided to focus on three main expressions. Therefore, I create three small clusters of expressions including ‘anger’, ‘surprise/fear’ and ‘evil laugh’:
Another thing that could be very beneficial is to generate some quick sketches of the expressions you are trying to achieve. This might not be 100% exactly what you will end up with, but it will give you a target to hit and keep your project moving in one direction:
An extra step that I find particularly useful, is to do a paint over using your preferred reference image and the expressions range to figure out how you can adjust the CC4 base to match a reference.
I like to emulate a quick expression using the generic project, in this case, a simple smile:
Here is a comparison of the neutral expression and the simple smile:
After selecting one of my reference images, I utilised Photoshop to overlay the colour distribution onto the photo, examining how I could enhance the base mesh. In the image below, observe the subtle light pink hues denoting the cheeks and the nearly absent red shading defining the upper lip. These visual indicators are crucial focal points I would meticulously attend to when recreating this specific expression with a similar customised character (thin and elderly):
Project setup in Character Creator
To start with the practical steps, let’s set up the project first and get our base mesh ready before we add any expressions or wrinkles.
In CC4, I used Kevin, one of the male default projects. You can use any character from CC4 but I like Kevin as a base because it is a scanned human figure that provides some extra nice details.
With the character selected, you can use the Modify tab to morph the head and body into the shape that you want for your character. You can be very precise and adjust a lot of very specific parts of the body and face:
I wanted something quite different to the default project, so I exaggerated the proportions and facial features. I also like to temporarily turn off the body textures so I can have a better read of the volumes I’m changing.
From the texture tab of the modify window, you can Shift + Click select all the textures of the body and turn them off at once:
If the skin looks too white or overexposed, you can change the Diffuse colour to a darker grey using the swatches from the Material Settings section:
After a few minutes of tweaking (playing with morphs sliders), I landed on this shape for the head of character:
However, I wanted more control over the shapes, and ZBrush makes that pretty easy. Plus, if you decide you don’t want to stick with a human character and fancy turning it into an elf with pointy ears or something, ZBrush is great for those kinds of adjustments.
This step of adjusting the base mesh in ZBrush is really easy. In CC4, you can go to Plugins > ZBrush Face Tools > Face Tools:
Then, select Base Model Only form the pop up window and hit OK.
The next pop-up window allows you to specify some of the parameters to send to ZBrush. In this case, I set the Action to ‘Create New’ so that CC4 creates a new project with the character in ZBrush, then set the subdivision to ‘Level 6’ and finally made sure that the Normal Details checkbox was ticked:
That’s about all you need to do. The Face Tools plugin will take care of the rest and set up the project in ZBrush using the Normal map from CC4 as the details in the highest subdivision levels in ZBrush.
To visualise the normal details that are sent from CC4 to ZBrush you can click on the Detail Layer switch from the ZBrush Face Tools panel (in the Plugins palette). Make sure you are in the highest subdivision level so you can see all the nice details:
In ZBrush you can use the move, standard and smooth brushes to refine the look of your character. In my case, I wanted a flatter head with a shorter forehead and thicker nose so I adjusted the head in the lowest subdivision level to make the process easier.
The advantage of having the multiple subdivision levels in the model, is that you can go back and forth between higher and lower subdivision levels to adjust either large portions of the mesh (at level 1) and define folds and crevices on a higher level (at level 4 o higher):
After a bit of tweaking of the base mesh, this is the character I ended up with:
Once you are finished with the edits to the base of your character, you can simply click on the Update to Character Creator button (at the bottom of the ZBrush Face Tools plugin), and ZBrush will send everything back to CC4.
From the pop-up window, you just need to make sure that the Base Mesh switch is enabled so that ZBrush knows that we want to update just the base model at this stage.
Back in CC4, you’ll get another pop-up window; make sure all checkboxes are ticked (except Texture which should be greyed out since we didn’t tweak the texture yet).
At this point we’ve only updated the base model to make it a bit more interesting. I like to test a couple of expressions on this updated model to make sure the range is good and there are no weird artefacts.
Using the Facial Editor you can just select areas of the face and pull them around to see the effect in real-time.
So to wrap up this first stage of the process, here is a comparison between what we setup in CC4 and what we ended up with after the adjustments in ZBrush:
About The Author
Pablo Munoz Gomez is a renowned 3D concept and character artist, with a passion for education. 3D sculpting, visual development, and other mixed-media form the pillars of his artistic passion which he channels through the various platforms that he owns, including ZBrush Guides, 3D Concept Artist Academy, and 3D Snippets Project. Thanks to his vast online following, he is able to reach artists from around the world and help them advance in a variety of 3D-related disciplines.
Dom Fred – Director / Producer / Editor / 3D Animator
Dom Fred
“The Stone” is a 3D animated short film, by Maya animator and director Dom Fred, showcasing action cinema techniques, featuring a formidable stone monster under attack by a military team.
Leveraging ActorCore’s motion capture library, Dom and team achieves exceptionally realistic body movements, enhancing the authenticity of live combat sequences.
With a focus on realism, the project seamlessly integrated iClone, ActorCore, and Unreal Engine to produce a cinematic short, boasting detailed rendering of colors and an ultra-realistic environments.
Crafting an entire 3D cityscape bustling with animated characters engaging in daily activities was a formidable undertaking that consumed months of effort to accomplish. New technological advancements paired with the right tools paint a new and better picture —Today, such a feat can be achieved with spare minutes to the hour.
What is also a boon to the movie and gaming industry represents a paradigm shift in how individual artists express themselves: By harnessing software such as iClone 8 and its newly introduced Crowd Simulator, any enthusiast — regardless of their skill level — can swiftly prototype and execute massive animated crowd scenes.
iClone 8 Crowd Simulator was designed with the removal of restraints in mind, both in terms of reducing technical complexity and refining user experience. The freedom to bring vibrant worlds to fruition for an individual artist, as opposed to a large production team with extensive time and budget, marks a new era of self-expression that Reallusion is actively encouraging.
Shaking Up the Movie and Video Game Industry
In both the movie and video game industries, the creation of dynamic and populated environments plays a vital role in storytelling and building immersive experiences. Traditionally, this task required extensive work from large teams of highly skilled artists and significant time investments. However, with iClone 8 Crowd Simulator, this laborious process is reduced to mere minutes, empowering a single visionary armed with nothing more than enthusiasm.
The accelerated production times made possible by iClone 8 also open new possibilities for indie game developers and small studios, enabling them to craft rich and vibrant worlds that can rival those created by larger entities. By increasing efficiency, artists can focus on what matters most: bringing their unique visions to life and captivating their fanbase with awe and excitement.
Empowering Indie Creators – like Yourself
But all these pie-in-the-sky concepts mean nothing if individual artists aren’t positioned at the forefront. After all, it’s about basics and practical steps that give results. It is the same practicality that enabled Indie Developer Zeng Xiancheng to create all assets for his video game in just two months — and that was before iClone 8 Crowd Simulation even existed. Just imagine what you can do now.
So, how can creators like you practically utilize iClone 8 Crowd Generation? What better way to learn than through a tailored tutorial by none other than our featured recurring artist and instructor, Mark Diaz.
Crash Tutorial on iClone 8 Crowd Generation
Hey there! I’m Mark Diaz, but let’s fast forward the formalities and dive right in. My mission? To show you the fastest route from zero to hero with iClone 8 Crowd Generation features.
Step 1: Instant City Creation
Alright, so we’re kicking things off with building your very own 3D city in iClone 8, and guess what? You’ve got options! Whether you’re all about getting straight to the fun part or you’re the hands-on, do-it-from-scratch type, there’s a path for you.
Quick and Easy: Grab a City Off the Shelf
So, you’re excited to jump right into animating and not so keen on spending months on modeling and texturing, right? Well, iClone 8’s got your back with a super shortcut. Pop over to the Reallusion Content Store by going to Help menu > Reallusion Content Store.
Go to search, make sure you have iClone selected, and type “Modern City” in the search bar, and boom, you’ll see a bunch of ready-made cities just waiting for you.
There’s this cool one called “Modern City New” that’s just perfect for what we need. It’s $30, but think about it — it’s like skipping ahead two or three months of hardcore city-building work. Just click, drag, and drop, and you’ve got yourself a slick cityscape ready to roll. How awesome is that?
On a Budget? No Worries, We’ve Got You.
Now, if you’re watching those pennies or you’re all about that DIY life, there’s a totally free way to get your city started too. Dive into the Content panel, and follow the breadcrumb trail: Template > Item > Stage > 3D Scenes > Mesh_Medium. Look for “iPlaza_noneCG” — it’s a solid base for practicing crowd simulation and getting the feel of urban design.
Click and drag it to the scene, and you have got a plaza to practice with.
This route might take a bit more time and elbow grease, but hey, it’s all about the journey, right? Plus, it’s a great way to learn the ins and outs of city crafting without spending a dime.
No matter which path you pick, iClone 8 is here to make sure your city-building adventure is a blast. Ready to get started? Let’s dive in.
Step 2: Path Creation for Characters
Before we dive into path creation, a quick pro tip: make sure your cursor is parked on frame zero. Trust me, it’s a small step that makes a big difference.
Now, ready to roll out some paths for our animated friends? Just head over to the Create menu > Path, and click away in the scene to map out your route.
Need to adjust the width? The Modify panel has got you covered with the ‘MD’ option for that perfect fit.
And don’t forget to generate that NavMesh — it’s crucial for keeping our characters on track. Just go to Create menu > Generate NavMesh.
You can adjust some settings if you want, and once you are ready, click Generate.
Step 3: Populating the City with Walkers
With the paths set, we populate them using the Crowd Generator tool. Just go to Create menu > Scatter > Generate Crowd.
Then in the crowd generation box, we can click and drag characters that you want to set as the crowd from the Content panel. And if you want to repeat some characters but have them with different colors for the clothes, make sure you check the option “Deploy with variant materials”.
The actors selected for this tutorial are all the characters from the pack “Actor Group”.
Then for the animation, I use the Motion Director feature, by going to the “Motions / iMDs” section, and selecting “iMD.” Then click and drag some Motion Director clips from the Content panel that you would like your characters to be animated with when they walk.
The ones I used for this tutorial are:
CrowdSim_Walk_A.iMD
CrowdSim_Walk_C.iMD
CrowdSim_Walk_F.iMD
CrowdSim_Walk_M.iMD
Then, for these characters to walk on the path we created in the last step, we just have Generation Type as Random, Spawn Region as Pick Object, and then we click on Pick Object, and select the path in the scene.
You can tweak some options. I like to have Optimize NavMesh activated, have 14 actors, and have the Direction Ratio set in the middle.
Then you just click Deploy Actors, wait for iClone to process the characters, and there, you have characters ready to be animated.
Step 4: Adding Idle Characters
Animating the inhabitants of our digital city comes with options, each offering a different balance of time investment, cost, and variety. Let’s explore the three ways to bring those idle moments to life, making your city not just a backdrop but a living, breathing world.
DIY Animation: The first route is the most hands-on, animating each character one by one. While this method offers the most control over individual movements, it’s a real time sink. Perfect for those who love to dive deep into every detail, but be warned, it’s a lengthy process that can extend to weeks or months.
Utilizing Motion Clips: A quicker alternative involves using pre-existing motion clips designed for idle characters. This method speeds things up and keeps things simple. However, the downside is a potential lack of variety, with characters possibly repeating the same few animations.
Investing in City Life: For those looking to combine speed with diversity, the “City Life” pack is a game-changer. Priced at $99, it’s particularly suited for game creators or anyone aiming to animate a city with a dynamic, natural feel quickly. The pack offers a wide range of idle animations, from folks chatting on their phones to others enjoying a quiet moment on a bench, bringing an authentic vibe to your urban scene.
For our tutorial, we opted for the “City Life” pack to ensure our city felt as real and vibrant as possible. The diverse animations provided by the pack allowed us to populate our streets with characters engaged in various idle activities, effortlessly adding depth and realism to the urban landscape.
With that in mind, we are ready to use the Crowd Simulator tool again, but here we change from IMD to Motion, then for this tutorial, we pick clips from “City Life” to add a natural variety of personalities.
Now with the settings on random, and spawn region on volume, I click create volume, then click and drag on the scene to create an area with these characters.
Then I set the random orientation all the way to 1. I keep pressing generate placement until I’m satisfied with the positions. And then deploy actors.
Done! If you want, you can reposition some of those actors easily in the scene, by moving and rotating them.
Step 5: Camera Animation
The hardest part is OVER. Now we finish with the last 3 quick steps.
First I position the Preview camera in place, then go to Create menu, Camera>Orbit Camera.
Then I move forward in the timeline and then set the second position of the camera.
Done. The camera animation is ready. You will notice the 2 keyframes of the camera in the Timeline.
You can do some quick adjustments and then we’re on the next step.
Step 6: Add Sky and Sunlight
For the sky, I go to Content panel >Template > Set > Sky, change to Item, And select the “SunsetSky”.
Then just click and drag to the scene.
Then I add a lens flare by going to the Create menu, lens flare. And just position it behind that building near the back.
And just like that, you now have a sky and a beautiful sunset.
Step 7: Add HDR Effects
Finally, you can get some finishing touches by going to the Visual panel, which if you don’t have it you can go to Window menu > Visual Settings. Then go to the first setting, the Atmosphere, scroll down and activate the HDR effect.
Then quickly play with the settings, and you are done!
The HDR effects add a bloom effect to your scene. Here is a comparison (see if you can spot the difference in the bloom effect):
Conclusion
Through this tutorial, we’ve demonstrated how iClone 8 and the Crowd Simulator feature can revolutionize content creation, making it accessible, fast, and efficient. This process opens up new horizons for creators across industries, enabling them to bring their visions to life with speed and ease previously unimaginable.
