Reallusion is thrilled to announce the seamless integration between Character Creator, iClone, and Audio2Face. This robust connection, empowered by NVIDIA’s AI animation technology, revolutionizes multi-lingual facial lip-sync animation production. Not only does this integration bolster NVIDIA’s Audio2Face with a versatile cross-application character system, it also enhances facial editing capabilities, enabling users to export character animations to leading 3D engines like Blender, Unreal Engine, Unity, and Omniverse.
NON-LINEAR AI ANIMATION GENERATED BY AUDIO2FACE
Lip-Sync Animation and Expressions Straight from Audio
As an AI-powered application, Nvidia Audio2Face (A2F) produces expressive facial animations solely from audio input. In addition to generating natural lip-sync animations for multilingual dialogue, the latest standalone release of Audio2Face also supports facial expressions, featuring slider controls and a keyframe editor.
Multi-Language Lip-Sync and Singing Animation
Unlike the majority of English-centric lip-sync solutions, Audio2Face stands out with its exceptional ability to generate animation from any language, including songs and gibberish. Besides the standard AI model Mark, have access to Clair, a new deep-learning model tailored for female characters proficient in Asian languages. Clair’s friendly complexion is well-suited to customer interaction.
SEAMLESS CC – A2F – ICLONE INTEGRATION
Two complimentary plugins enable an automated workflow. With just a single click, configure a CC character in NVIDIA Audio2Face, animate it in real-time alongside an imported audio track, and seamlessly transfer the talking animation back to iClone for additional refinement before exporting it to 3D tools and game engines.
One-Click CC Character Setup in Audio2Face
The CC Character Auto Setup plugin for Audio2Face is the result of a collaboration between NVIDIA and Reallusion, condensing the manual 18-step process into a single step. By importing a CC character and choosing a training model — Mike or Clair — artists can instantly witness lifelike talking animations synchronized with audio files. Experiment with motion sliders, automatic expressions, and even set keyframes. The finalized animations can then be sent to iClone for additional refinement.
Full-Spectrum Animation Refinement using iClone
The free Nvidia Audio2Face plugin for iClone is tailored to receive animation data from Audio2Face. In addition to importing animations, it enhances the liveliness of facial features, resulting in a superior cut suitable for final production.
Facial Adjustment by Parts
Animations can be tweaked via a dynamic interface. Adjust various parameters such as expression strengths, head movements, or adding darting eyes to enliven the performance. Enlarge the jaw open range to enhance emotional tension and fine-tune the position of the tongue to mimic precise enunciation.
Smoothness Enhancement
Generative AI animation is susceptible to noise, particularly when audio files are captured by low-fidelity devices or within unfavorable environments. Reallusion Audio2Face integration circumvents these limitations by deploying a highly refined noise filter to eliminate jitters and achieve optimal results despite poor audio quality.
RAISING THE BAR
After obtaining a satisfactory animation from Audio2Face, a finishing touch becomes necessary, particularly when faced with emotional shifts or when emphasizing specific mouth shapes at varying levels of dialogue. iClone empowers facial editing, allowing for refined lip sync, the addition of natural expressions, and the incorporation of head movement sourced from mocap equipment.
The integration of Character Creator, iClone, and Audio2Face marks a significant milestone in AI-driven animation technology, offering creators unprecedented source audio flexibility and efficiency in their production workflows. The Character Creator Auto Setup plugin and iClone plugin are now available as free downloads from Reallusion, empowering creators to streamline their animation pipelines and unleash their creative potential.
To learn more about iClone Audio2Face Plug-in, please visit:
The Making of ‘Fetch’ – Leveling up your Cartoon Animator skills to PRO
Cartoonist and animator Garry Pye achieved a remarkable feat with Cartoon Animator(CTA), producing a full 2D animated film in just two weeks! His primary goal was not merely to use the tools of Cartoon Animator but to leverage them to craft professional-level animation.
Designing and rigging his characters for CTA, this solo animator wrote, animated, edited, and released his short film ‘Fetch’ within a swift 14 days. Join Garry as he shares his incredible journey from concept to the final film.
“I’ve been using Cartoon Animator (CTA) for 2D animation for over a decade now. I stick with CTA because it allows me to create animation quickly, enjoyably, and effortlessly, but still gives me a wealth of powerful tools to help me fine-tune my animations and get the results I want. Its user-friendly functionality means I’m not weighed down by technical details, allowing me to focus on the creative aspect of animation.”
Venturing beyond my usual 20 second animations, I aimed to create a fully animated short with a storyline – a challenge to myself. I’m drawn to characters who persist despite constant setbacks, and found that Klaang from my Alien Squad series was the perfect subject for this animation. In this short, Klaang innocently throws a stick for his pet, only to find it retrieving a stick of dynamite instead. Panic ensues, and Klaang has only seconds to solve the explosive situation.
I prefer writing plot points over storyboarding because it allows me the freedom to explore new directions spontaneously. The thrill of unexpected ideas fuel my creativity, and I like to remain open to the possibility of detouring from a set path. Storyboarding always feels limiting to me.
CHARACTER DESIGN
During my time with Cartoon Animator, I’ve designed and rigged over 500 characters. CTA’s user-friendly templates offer a solid foundation for character building while allowing complete design flexibility. Whether it’s shape or size, the possibilities are endless!
In this project, I was keen to feature one of my favourite characters, Klaang, from the Alien Squad series. Klaang, a G3 vector-based character with a 360 head, offers seamless face rotation for enhanced animation. With Cartoon Animator, I really focussed on customising mouth and eye sprites, designing over 55 mouth shapes and ensuring maximum expressiveness in his character animation.
Klaang’s energetic, dog-like pet was an adaptation of one of my Bonkers characters. By transforming him into a fuzzy ball of fur and removing the arms and legs, I not only achieved the look I wanted but also streamlined the animation process. Less keyframing, more bounce!
THE CONCEPT
When starting a new animation, I always seek challenges to elevate my skills. In ‘Fetch,’ I focussed on two specific targets to push my boundaries and grow as an animator.
For my first challenge in ‘Fetch,’ I aimed for detailed character interactions and prop handling in a single camera shot. The aim here was to show CTA users that by paying attention to small details, the final result will be of a much higher standard. Its easy to use the tools of Cartoon Animator, but they also give you the power to really bring your characters to life.
The story required having the dog retrieve the stick, drop it, and then watch Klaang pick it up seamlessly. The audience needs to believe the stick was genuinely in the dog’s mouth or Klaang’s hand, and not simply pasted on top.
For this animation Klaang was going to have to believably hold the prop in his hand. To achieve this I created a series of individual props of the hand, and then replaced those for the original hand in Cartoon Animator, simply placing the new prop in position on his wrist, linking it to the character and then making the original character hand invisible. Then I was able to switch between hand sprites so Klaan could grab the prop in a convincing way.
Another challenge in ‘Fetch’ focused on rapid character movements, creating a sense of urgency and panic in Klaang’s actions. This approach was a departure from my usual character animations. Also, rather than using premade motions, this animation required me to keyframe everything except the walk cycle. Swift transitions between full-body keyframes were crucial to maintain clarity in Klaang’s movements. But CTA gives me total control over every body part and keyframe, so that with attention to detail I can produce the results I want.
WHERE TO START?
My first step is scene setup. I import fully layered PSD files as scenes, setting the depth of field for each layer to create a parallax effect during camera movement. Next, I position characters within the scene. Importantly, I save this setup as a separate file and then begin animating on a new save, providing a safety net to return to if needed. Another valuable tip is to create multiple versions of the project as you progress. After completing important or challenging animation sequences, I save that at that point and continue on a fresh file. This ensures the ability to backtrack a short distance in case of any issues without losing the entire project.
When starting any new animation, my initial focus is on blocking out basic character motion, with the priority on arms and leg movement, along with the character’s position on screen. What sets Cartoon Animator apart from other animation processes like traditional hand-drawn animation is its flexibility—you don’t need to tackle everything at once. I can lay out a character’s basic movement over 3,000 frames and then return to frame 1 to refine details like hand gestures, eye expressions, and head turns. With CTA, it’s a gradual process of building on a character’s performance, allowing fast and easy adjustments when required.
CHARACTER PERFORMANCE
After blocking out basic character motion, I dive into my favorite part of animating—character animation. The goal now is to meticulously refine every aspect of the character, bringing them to life in a way that gives them believability with the audience. With Cartoon Animator, I enjoy total control over every nuance of character animation, from the subtle turn of the head and focus of their eyes to shaping the mouth and eyebrows. It’s this level of control that allows for a truly immersive and realistic character performance. The more attention to detail, the more convincing the character becomes.
Cartoon Animator operates on a cut-out puppet system for 2D animation, where character parts move around pivot points. However Reallusion provides a wealth of tools and features designed to give these puppets the feeling of traditional hand-drawn cell animation. Tools like Free Form Deformation and Spring Bones play a crucial role in breathing life into characters, creating a smooth and realistic animation experience.
I start every character’s performance by focusing on the 360 Head motion. This feature gives animators the capability to smoothly turn and rotate a character’s head, creating a simulated 3D effect. Creating custom 360 Heads for characters is easy in CTA’s Composer Mode, offering complete control over the design and face animation. To me it feels like crafting a hand puppet.
After blocking out the head motion, I return to frame one to start layering my animation. I focus on individual face parts, employing tools like Transform and Deform to alter their shape and position. The Face Detail Settings come in handy, providing absolute control over nuances such as smooth eye squints for Klaang. Paying particular attention to the finer points of movement enhances the expressiveness of a character’s performance and makes your 2D animation more professional looking.
Directing your animated 2D character’s eyes towards specific points enhances believability in their performance, and Cartoon Animator’s Face Puppetry feature provides complete control over the movement of both eyes, whether together or individually. Keyframing eye movement ensures precision, allowing your character to focus exactly where you want. This method of working extends to various eye sprites, enabling quick and effortless expression changes during animation.
My goal is to always maximize the expressiveness of my animated 2D characters. So I aimed to make Klaang’s performance exaggerated and over-the-top. The challenge was to give him quick, smooth changes in his emotions, both with his body and face animation. This is where CTA’s Deform tool proves invaluable as it provided me with total control over shaping Klaang’s body parts like his mouth. The Deform Tool allows seamless blending from one mouth sprite to the next, ensuring fast and smooth transitions in expressions.
A valuable tip for achieving realistic character performance is to keep all parts of the character in motion. While modern animation often focuses on moving only essential body parts for efficiency, I love subtly tweaking every character part. This approach looks closer to traditional cell animation. For instance, when Klaang raises one arm, his shoulder lifts, the torso bends slightly for balance, and the opposing arm lowers to offset the shoulders. It’s about animating the entirety of the character. I even added a subtle wobble to Klaang’s helmet when his head moved quickly.
CHARACTER INTERACTION
One challenge I set for myself in this animation was to incorporate a lot of interaction between the character and prop. Cartoon Animator’s puppet system means that each character and prop are essentially a separate layer. The specific challenge here was figuring out how to convincingly make Klaang holding the stick or dynamite in his hand.
To do this, I created a number of separate images of the hand holding the prop and imported them into Cartoon Animator. Then I simply link the new image to the original hand and make the original hand invisible. This way, when the character moves his arm, the new prop moves with it.
The process for having the dog character carry the stick and dynamite in his mouth followed a similar approach. I created an additional sprite for the character’s mouth and incorporated it into the character rig, enabling seamless switching between the new mouth sprite and the ones already built in to the character. Cartoon Animator allows animators to customise characters in every conceivable way.
I even took the extra step of adding a specific hand prop exclusively for when Klaang pats his dog and ruffles his hair. This custom prop allowed for a more realistic interaction, with Klaang’s fingers convincingly brushing through the dog’s fur. Attention to details like this enhance the overall realism and connection to the animation for an audience.
THE FINAL TOUCH
In the final stages of my animations, I set up my actors hand gestures. Cartoon Animator offers characters two hand options. First, sprite hands allow you to seamlessly swap between pre-drawn hand gestures built into your character.
For a more advanced approach to generating hand poses, Cartoon Animator offers Bone Hands. These are fully rigged hands with their own bone structure, allowing for articulation and the creation of hand gestures using preset templates or manual adjustments of each finger bone for precise control. The use of Bone Hands ensures seamless transitions between different hand gestures, providing a high level of smoothness in the animation.
An excellent tip for every Cartoon Animator user, after completing your animation and feeling 100% satisfied, step away and leave it for 24 hours. When you return with fresh eyes, you may spot minor errors or inconsistencies, or notice a part of a character’s motion that needs improving. Taking the time to correct these minor details is crucial—what you notice, your audience might as well. Correcting these details makes the difference between a good animation and a great one.
BREAKING UP THE SCENE
For longer animated films, relying on a single static camera shot may risk losing audience attention. Cartoon Animator provides full camera control, enabling dynamic movements such as panning, zooming, and rotating at any speed. Layering scene elements with varied Z-axis values adds depth to the scene, enhancing the overall viewing experience.
To maintain audience engagement and enhance storytelling, incorporate a variety of camera angles, ranging from wide shots to close-ups, and even use camera tracking in your animated film. The dynamic shifts in perspective will give you a more engaging and visually appealing film.
Camera cuts not only make a story more engaging but also serve as an effective strategy to break a longer animation into smaller files. This practice helps manage overall project size, making it more manageable and allowing for faster work. Keeping separate saves for each camera cut ensures smaller file sizes for efficient editing and reduces the risk of losing the entire project in case of a file error, as you only need to redo a small segment rather than the entire animation.
HELPFUL CARTOON ANIMATOR TOOLS
With the introduction of Cartoon Animator 5, a variety of new tools have elevated 2D animation, making the animating process much more professional. The capability to work with vector files in CTA 5 brings several advantages, such as the ability to zoom in much closer to characters without any loss of quality, blurring, or pixelation. Additionally, this update gives you control over color management, allowing animators to change colors as needed and create entirely new character looks from a single actor.
My Klaang character takes advantage of CTA5’s new Spring Bones feature, which gives automated motion to character parts and props. I applied Spring Bones to his head, giving him a jelly-like motion as he moves, and also added them to the antenna on his rocket pack, providing an extra touch of subtle movement. What makes Spring Bones fantastic is their automated motion once applied. Cartoon Animator controls their movement based on parameters you set, and you can effortlessly add Spring Bones to any character or prop yourself. The setup takes only seconds, eliminating the need for tedious keyframing of items like props, hair, and clothing—CTA handles it all for you.
Cartoon Animator 5 introduces another powerful tool – Free Form Deformation. This tool is a game-changer, offering the ability to apply squash and stretch to your entire character. This feature enhances the final 2D animation, making it resemble traditional hand-drawn animation rather than a cut-out puppet. Whether you want subtle motion or wildly exaggerated moves, Free Form Deformation allows you to manually apply squash and stretch to characters and props. You can also leverage one of the many premade templates provided in CTA5. How you use it is up to you, but Free Form Deformation adds that perfect touch to your 2D animation.
THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX
The key to making your 2D animations more professional is to think outside the box. Take what Cartoon Animator provides and then think about how it can be creatively used. For instance, I had the idea of capturing a quick shot of Klaang turning to the camera with his body following his head. However the character’s body is a flat cut-out puppet, meaning a body turn cannot be accomplished.
So to achieve a turning shot where Klaang’s body follows his head, I approached it by repurposing the 360 Head model. Instead of using it as a head, I transformed it into a body. Setting up the layers for the body, similar to creating a head, ensured that the parts would move into position correctly as the body turned and rotated. The process is very straightforward. I then added a copy of Klaang’s original head on top of the new 360 Body model and linked them together. This allowed me to animate his head turn and synchronize the body turn to match. When the footage was cut together, it seamlessly appeared as if it was the same character throughout the shot.
I applied this same process to create the UFO model. I really wanted the UFO to rock back and forth as the dynamite hit, so I knew I needed a more three-dimensional appearance in its movement. Employing the 360 Head model once again, I transformed it into the UFO. This allowed me to rotate and turn the UFO in any direction, creating the illusion of a 2D prop moving in three-dimensional space.
My advice to fellow CTA users is always, don’t ask, “Can CTA do this?” but rather, think, “How can I make CTA do this?” If you can imagine it, Cartoon Animator can make it happen. Sometimes, a touch of creativity is all you need.
HELP FROM DECLAN WALSH
One of my favorite Cartoon Animator developers and animators is Declan Walsh from Dex Art. With a background in traditional 2D animation as a Disney animator, Declan’s animated effects like smoke, water, and fire are unparalleled. For the final UFO explosion, I enlisted Declan’s expertise to achieve a traditional animated effect. Declan rose to the challenge and delivered an incredible frame-by-frame sequence of the UFO exploding. You can use a similar approach in Cartoon Animator by creating your own animated props. Simply import a sequence of frames and using Collect Clip you can animate them at the press of a button.
EDITING AND SOUND
After completing my animation, I exported each individual clip as a 4K MP4 file and then edited them together using my preferred editing software, Pinnacle. However, there are numerous editing software packages available, so you can choose the one that best suits your needs.
For music and sound effects I subscribe to a site called Audio Blocks which has everything I could ever wish for in the way of sound.
CONCLUSIONS
I’ve been using Cartoon Animator for 2D animation for over a decade. I stick with CTA because it allows me to create animation quickly, enjoyably, and effortlessly, but still gives me a wealth of powerful tools to help me fine tune my animation and get the results I want. Its user-friendly functionality means I’m not weighed down by technical details, allowing me to focus on the creative aspect of animation. As a creative individual, I simply want to animate and have fun, and CTA enables just that.
Reallusion consistently adds more tools and features to CTA, with many free updates in each software version. New tools in CT5, such as vector scaling, color management, spring bones, free form deformation, and motion pilot, provide me with greater control over every aspect of animation. In many cases, these tools automate parts of the animation process, speeding up production time and allowing me to concentrate on essential aspects like character animation.
With Cartoon Animator you can level up your 2D animations to a much higher standard.
Welcome to Neriverso, where the captivating world of video games meets the expertise of Neri Neto, a seasoned technology journalist and skilled game programmer. Through Neriverso, Neri shares his profound insights and boundless passion for everything he adores.
As a dedicated game programmer, Neri has lent his talents to numerous indie projects, crafting engaging mechanics and contributing to the development of captivating titles. Embrace the Neriverse and embark on a journey fueled by Neri Neto’s unwavering enthusiasm and commitment to his craft and community.
In his latest video, Brazilian game developer and content creator Neri Neto – covers the new ZBrush Facetools for Character Creator, highlighting how AAA studios now have complete control to create characters IPs with ZBrush and Character Creator.
For new animators, the world of 3D animation can be a complex maze of conflicting information while longtime pros are just wanting to get the job done professionally as soon as possible. There was a time when these two groups needed different software but now, iClone provides a solution for beginners needing software that is easier to use and for long-term professionals that require software that gives them more control.
The former group needs a few “easy buttons” to get started and not be discouraged along the way. The latter group needs software capable of filling professional needs with tools that help and complement their skills. The problem with easy software was the limitations of being somewhat “locked down” without a lot of control. The more robust, hence more expensive, applications had the tools and freedom to work but also much harder to learn with a huge, and sometimes long, learning curve.
By the time you learn the software, the creative urge could be long gone. Let’s not forget the almost prohibitive costs if you weren’t using the software commercially. This why beginning and amateur animators were left out until iClone came along.
iClone started as a low poly application for inexperienced animators with its drag-and-drop characters and motions. You could make a video in a few hours even if you had never seen the software before. The original version also had a powerful image-to-face tool that could make a character look very close to the image. I discovered iClone in version one and have used it ever since while watching it mature into a powerful animation tool.
iClone’s tools and features can be used by beginners and pros but below I will break down some of the standout features and tools in terms of how they can be useful for each group. Just because a tool or feature is listed in a certain group doesn’t mean they won’t offer features both groups can find valuable, and many tools not listed can be used by anyone, so this is not an inclusive group of everything iClone has to offer. I had to cut it off somewhere or this was going to turn into a novel-length article as iClone is that feature-packed.
Drag and Drop is an aspect of iClone that is not fully appreciated until you work with software. It’s much more than just drag and drop a character into the scene. You can drag and drop almost everything including a right-click-based menu system for working with 2D images in a 3D environment to point to where the images should go or how they should be used.
We can drag and drop the character then drag and drop a motion or series of motions on the character to animate it. Then we can drag and drop textures onto the characters, props, and accessories. Drag and drop videos onto objects. Almost anything that can be loaded into the scene via a menu can also be dragged and dropped directly into the scene for fast deployment and scene creation.
SMART CONTENT MANAGER
The Smart Content Manager is shared by iClone and Character Creator with its own section in each application. This gives us the ability to manage our 3D assets like characters, props, and accessories across both applications with multiple locations and drives with a few simple settings. It doesn’t matter if iClone, Character Creator, or the 3D assets are installed on your main drive, or another drive the Smart Content Manager makes sure that new assets saved from either application are available to both applications without duplication.
The Smart Content Manager keeps your content organized by type of asset with quick access via visual or search. It keeps track of what content you’ve downloaded locally and versus content owned but not downloaded. If you are trying to save storage space this feature can help by allowing you to download only what you need to save disk space. You can use the robust search feature to find items too.
The Smart Content Manager not only downloads your assets on demand, but it also keeps them updated via notifications that a pack or packs need to be updated. You can also package your content into virtual content packs for ease of identifying or searching for a certain group or genre of content.
PREMADE MOTIONS
This is one of the real gems for beginning animators. The ability to drop a premade motion directly onto the character at the time it is needed cannot be overstated if you have never animated anything before. If you have never heard of a timeline or worked with a 3D character, then there is a lot to take in at first.
Being able to drag and drop a motion at the proper time takes out the complexity of learning the timeline before animating anything at all. In fact, a new animator can drop a series of motions at the right time and animate a character with barely a grasp of the timeline at all.
This allows the new animator to be productive, to get something done for the gratification of another skilled learned instead of the frustration of more time spent learning and not animating.
There is also the bonus of a large library of motions available from the Content Store, ActorCore, or Marketplace as well as a generous assortment of motions that come with iClone for general animation and the Motion Director.
CROWD SIM & ACTOR GROUPS
The Crowd Simulation is a feature that is listed for both beginners and professionals as it can be very simple to use for small crowds, street scenes, and audiences while still being able to create a crowd that can fill the needs of a professional. An easy-to-use system of creating NavMesh and walkways can be quickly grasped with little learning curve.
Creating and using Actor Groups is another easy and time-saving way to create parts of a crowd that you can reuse or randomize depending on the crowd type. Some Actor Groups loop motion to the end of the timeline if needed and don’t require knowledge of the Motion Director for group movement.
This makes Actor Groups an ideal tool for beginners to quickly populate a scene with characters while remaining a robust crowd simulation tool for pros.
Motion Director is a tool that beginners can use for simplified tasks like the point-and-click movement of a character or characters or containing a small crowd within the confines of a prop like a floor or street. Motion Director works in close collaboration with the Crowd Sim tool, but it can also move an individual character around with a gamepad, keyboard, area prop, or point click movement depending on the setup.
Beginners can benefit from learning the tool over time starting with simple point-and-click navigation to move a character and from there create more complex uses as they learn the features.
PROP DISTRIBUTOR
The Prop Distributor tool is another time and labor-saving tool that scatters props and just about anything you can attach to a prop across a landscape, room, or other parts of a scene within certain provided parameters. Like most iClone tools it is easy to use with little to no learning curve.
You can fill a landscape with rocks or use a path to place streetlights along a boulevard. The Prop Distributor can work with paths to streamline the creation of repetitive items like guardrails, utility poles, and other items that fill a scene, even traffic cones and barriers. The Prop Distributor takes over the tedious task of placing repetitive objects over an area and saves the aggravation of having to place those props one at a time.
FOR PROFESSIONAL ANIMATORS
PRECISION CURVE EDITOR
The curve editor is a tool used to manipulate the timing and motion of animated objects or characters. It allows animators to control how attributes such as position, rotation, scale, and other parameters change over time. Curve editors are essential tools for animators to create realistic and expressive animations by precisely controlling the timing and motion of animated objects or characters.
With a curve editor, we can adjust the timing and interpolation of keyframes to create smooth motion. We can also control the timing and easing of animations for realistic movement with acceleration, deceleration, and other dynamic effects.
We can create our own custom animation style that can be applied to other projects.
If you are a pro reading this then you already know what a curve editor can do and why it is necessary for consistent animation, so I won’t belabor the point any longer. If you are a beginner reading this with no idea what this is all about you can rest assured that you will find out what a curve editor is eventually when you have enough background to grasp the concept. Until then it’s not something you have to know to animate.
MOCAP (MOTION CAPTURE)
The free Motion Live plug-in interfaces with many of the industry’s leading mocap solutions including mocap suits and gloves, webcam, and iPhone tracking. Motion LIVE is the go-between that connects your motion capture gear to iClone for editing. You can also export to Maya, 3DS MAX, Blender, Cinema 4D, Unreal Engine, Unity and CRYENGINE.
Also available is the accuFACE commercial facial mocap plug-in that tracks facial movements from live or recorded video and multiple sources. iClone is built for using mocap and is a core feature of the application.
Reallusion has strived to make iClone as pipeline-friendly as possible with plug-ins and add-ons. There is a wide range of industry-leading animation, modeling, and rendering software compatible with iClone including NVIDIA (Omniverse), Unreal Engine, Unity, Blender, MotionBuilder, Maya, and Substance Painter.
iClone is also Python-friendly for authoring custom or commercial plug-ins and already has a library of free and commercial Python-based plug-ins.
There is also direct or drag-and-drop industry standard FBX import of assets that can include baked-in animation.
CROWD SIM & ACTOR GROUPS FOR PROFESSIONALS
The Crowd Sim feature can be used by novices, but it excels in the hands of an experienced animator who understands optimization and decimation along with using Motion Director for complex walkway crowds. Paths can be created, then widened for walkways and inter-connected with choices in direction of travel and number of pedestrians.
With Level of Detail choices from 17K to 7K to 800 KB (or custom settings) you can layer a crowd of high-quality characters close to the camera with medium resolution characters filling in the midrange and the extremely low poly characters as filler far in the background.
With custom Actor Groups you can create various groups of sitting characters for audiences or sidewalk café tables and chairs, street benches, and other areas of the public that attract sitting crowds. Mix all of this with easily created random area crowds using a self-generated NavMesh or volume and you will have a complex crowd of people that add life to any scene.
Custom Actor Groups also allow us to create genre-specific groups with appropriate props like science fiction, western, or Steampunk to name just a few. It would be easy to drag in a Steampunk hot air balloon with a couple of Steampunk characters to create base or random groups that can be randomized upon deployment to fill the sky with hot air balloons. These custom Actor Groups are only limited by our imagination in that respect.
MOTION DIRECTOR FOR PROS
Like the Crowd Sim and Actor Groups, Motion Director can complement the skills of a professional by taking on the workload of animating large groups.
Motion Director does so many things that it is difficult to list it all. You can animate NPC players via Path, Zone, or Follow Object. There is a Live Camera Switch with nine camera views for quick switching. Characters react to surface changes without editing and you can use either a keyboard and mouse or a gamepad for control.
There is a lot more to Motion Director than I have space to write about so visit the Motion Director webpage for more information.
SUMMARY
I need to stress again that this is not a complete list of iClone features and tools. There is an extensive 3D Facial Expression System and Dynamic Wrinkles for a more emotive performance. Animation layers are another power tool that lets animators work with and record specific parts of a character instead of all at once. AccuLips provides professional lip sync from an audio file that detects and generates precise text and visemes from audio.
In fact, there are so many tools and features in iClone that Reallusion has provided hours and hours of tutorials from in-house experts, industry professionals, and power users to provide you with a jumpstart on each topic. Reallusion Courses provides top-tier training and tips to reduce the frustration of learning a new application or skill.
This article is loaded with links to more information and tutorials regarding iClone and its related plug-ins so what are you waiting for? Take the plunge and download the free trial today!
MD McCallum – WarLord
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.
Faster, smoother, and more versatile – the latest upgrade of Unreal Live Link 1.3 for iClone is here, now supporting the latest Unreal 5.3 and addressing industry pain points head-on. A notable improvement is overhauling the Live Link transfer process to support masses of characters with speed and stability.
Moreover, our latest upgrade addresses challenges encountered during animation recording in the Unreal Engine Sequencer. This ensures improved performance across diverse scenarios, even when handling multiple full-body rigs at once. Additional streamlining of the manual data setup process necessary for transferring motion to Unreal Engine projects will also improve efficiency — particularly for interdisciplinary collaborations between team members and individual contributors. By offering these improvements for free, Reallusion hopes to provide a smoother and more enjoyable user experience.
Improved Transfer
Live Link 1.3 brings swift parallel processing for iClone FBX to Unreal exchange, guaranteeing seamless editing within iClone and expedited transfer speeds. Direct import within the Unreal Editor provides transparent and informative updates on the transfer process.
Automated Sequencer Construction
Live Link 1.3 enables the effortless utilization of multi-pass exports from iClone scene group manager. Furthermore, camera data can seamlessly transfer and switch from iClone to Unreal, accelerating the entire animation workflow.
Refined Sequencer Positioning
Both static and dynamic objects can be attached to an iClone origin and repositioned independently within Unreal with ease. Whether fine-tuning the placement of key elements or orchestrating dynamic movements, this upgrade transcends complications. Grouped animations from iClone can also be independently transferred and positioned in Unreal, giving artists the final say in scene and shot composition.
The Live Link enhancements feature parallel processing for both iClone FBX export and Unreal FBX import, guaranteeing uninterrupted editing in iClone while transfers seamlessly proceed.
For the Unreal Engine Editor, the transfer progress bar has been enhanced to provide detailed real-time updates regarding import statuses.
For handling extensive crowd scenes, a new option called “Exclude Morph Targets” is available to accelerate transfers by excluding expression data.
Sequencer Creation & Crowd Sim Pipeline Unreal 5 | Unreal Live Link 1.3 Tutorial
Users now have the ability to opt for the “Create Sequencer” feature while performing motion transfer, seamlessly consolidating characters, props, and cameras into Sequencer objects within Unreal, streamlining the process of cinematic animation rendering.
Multi-pass export
Utilizing iClone’s scene group management, individual passes can be merged under the master sequencer as sub-sequencers for added convenience in Unreal.
Effortless Camera Handling
Cameras, along with their motion, can be imported with a single click during the Sequencer creation process. Additionally, iClone’s camera switching data seamlessly transitions to the “Camera Cut” track in the Sequencer.
Flexible Repositioning
The place of action for Sequencer objects can be defined by attaching them to the iClone origin, which enables manual positioning in Unreal. This feature goes beyond static objects to include dynamic bodies such as moving vehicles. Unreal Engine objects can now influence iClone animations during runtime, allowing for the polishing of character animations within iClone.
Positioning with iClone Origin in UE5 | Unreal Live Link 1.3 Tutorial
Installation Guide
To fully install iClone Unreal Live Link, please make sure to prepare the latest version of the following software.
iClone 8.4 (8.4.2505.1) – install from Reallusion HUB
Unreal Live Link Plug-in for iClone 1.3 (1.3.2530.1) – Install from Reallusion HUB. If you have a previous version installed, make sure to update it by selecting “Updates” in the HUB.
iClone Live Link plugin for Unreal 1.6 – Download and install from Unreal Marketplace / Unreal Launcher
Auto Setup for Unreal 1.33 (1.33.6129.1) – Download and manually copy folders to the Unreal project. Refer to the provided guide for instructions.
For a comprehensive installation guide, refer to the manual and tutorials listed below:
The new Crowd Sim in iClone 8.4 has been enthusiastically received by the iClone community since its release. It is now easier than ever to add crowd filler to indoor and outdoor scenes to give more movement, more action, and more life to a scene. While I haven’t yet released my full review of the crowd sim (still experimenting with certain aspects of it) I have been more than pleasantly surprised with its ability generate mesh-based crowds in little time.
From a handful of pedestrians and seated characters to armies running into the hundreds, I have had few problems and practically no learning curve (my favorite thing about Reallusion products) as I have tested many different scenarios involving different-sized crowds. A lot of those scenes have used anywhere from a dozen or fewer actors to over 700 mixed LOD 1 (7K) and LOD 2 (800 KB) characters decimated and optimized in Character Creator 4. iClone handled these crowds just fine but when switching to Edit mode on a few hundred characters be prepared to wait a minute or so.
Yes, I know. A minute or so can seem like forever but I am talking about changing hundreds of Lite meshes to edit to make changes or duplicate. These edits can be slow due to the sheer computational load placed on the computer. Once switched back to Lite mode iClone is back to normal.
One thing to keep in mind is that while the new Crowd Sim can create filler crowds it is not designed to create massive crowds like armies or stadium crowds in the thousands or tens of thousands. As usual with new 3D tools, you give us an inch and we’ll want a mile because we always want more. So let’s take a look at the difference between these massive high-end crowd generators versus the Crowd Sim.
HIGH-END CROWD GENERATORS
When you look at crowd solutions like Massive for Maya priced at $3500, $500 for monthly rental, uCrowd at €1,600 per month, Golaem (an incredible crowd tool) comes in at €7,000 per year while Goaem Lite can be rented for €1000 per year you can see the major problem. None of these are what we might call “budget-friendly” unless you are using them commercially to support the cost.
Simulating huge crowds is hard to justify for the average amateur or home animator and is out of the reach of a lot of freelancers who would love to work at this level of crowd creation. I can spend way too much time playing around… err… experimenting with these types of crowd generators instead of getting the work done but the budget for these tools just isn’t there unless it is baked into a contract or provided by your employer.
Most of these heavyweight and high-price tools rely on a variety of ways to bring down the poly count like basing the crowd on a particle system with lower computational overhead. Crowd agents, proxies, and other means are used to produce mixed crowds that are not generally one hundred percent mesh based as are crowd sims like iClone.
One of the reasons 3D crowds in triple AAA productions seem to flow is because they do. In some cases, the particle simulation is almost like flowing water with the crowd being deflected by large objects while moving others smaller objects with their flow. Anyone that worked with fluid simulations can recognize that flowing movement and yes it looks great in the right situation… with the right budget or a rich grandmother who throws money at you.
How did Reallusion work on the crowd problem to give us what we have? Knowing this company and its leadership, I would bet this was long ago baked into a roadmap of future research and development because we needed some other tools like Optimize and Decimate along with the powerful Motion Director tool to get the system we have today. I would be very surprised if the Crowd Sim “just happened” because few things at Reallusion just happen without planning but it could also be the natural evolution of the prior tools and Reallusion adapted the roadmap for it. Either way, we’ve wanted a crowd sim and now we’ve got a crowd sim.
LITE MODE
Lite Mode, to me, answered my question of how they pulled this off. Many of us have tried other solutions like the crowd generator in 3DS Max (too limited) and Anima Crowd (a bit clunky and can be a hassle to get characters and assets into). We always ran into a wall as to how many characters iClone could handle as it was easy to create the crowd, but it could bring iClone to a crawl if it had too many characters.
It didn’t seem to matter so much about the poly count as it did the number of characters we were trying to use. Past a certain point… usually somewhere between 50 to 100 characters, iClone would start protesting and staging a work slowdown until you gave it something less resource-intensive or just grind on through the process. Lite mode solves this problem as explained below.
EDIT MODE VS. LITE MODE
Whenever you can’t edit a group of characters created with the Crowd Sim that is due to the new modes and this is where these modes come into play. The Lite mode flattens everything but the transform animation to reduce the computational overhead to provide a smoother real-time playback and working experience.
When in Lite mode, the only feature left for the characters is the Transform settings.
All the character’s animation-related settings or effects will be temporarily flattened and inaccessible in the Lite mode.
You can only see the Transform track in the timeline.
If the character animations utilize constraints, such as Reach or Link, then perform Flatten All Motions with Constraint before converting the character to Lite mode.
Now don’t panic. When it says it flattened the animation-related settings, making them inaccessible, it doesn’t mean you’ve lost all that animation information. Just select the character or characters and press the Edit Mode button to get all that back in editable form.
This is a lot easier than you may think. While working with a 735-character Roman Legion army I created groups of 49 (7 X 7 rows and columns) evenly spaced which is very easily done in the Crowd Sim. I needed to make some changes including duplicating the groups instead of generating them every time. I could easily select a group or groups and press the Edit mode button giving me back control to make extensive edits.
Just don’t forget to change them back to Lite mode when finished.
TIP – Don’t panic. If you can’t control or edit a crowd-generated character or characters you need to select that character or characters and change them to Edit mode. Lite mode only allows for the transform to be available. Everything else is flattened unless you go into Edit mode.
WALKERS & STORMTROOPERS
One of my early attempts was a Star Wars-themed crowd with Stormtroopers and bipedal Walkers. Out of necessity, I altered the knees to go forward instead of backward as they were originally. This was so the walkers could access iClone motions including the same motion as the Stormtroopers.
I rigged the AT-ST/A Walker with AccuRIG in Character Creator 4 and masked out the bones from the pelvis upward. You could leave those bones active and possibly rotate the weapons on each side, but time was short, so I used masking to eliminate unforeseen problems with “ghost bones” that are not being used.
I created a custom Actor Group with a Walker and several Stormtroopers so I could drag and drop the Actor Group, with randomization options, onto the battlefield in a skirmish line with forward elements. I used three groups that totaled three Walkers and around 100 Stormtroopers which gave iClone absolutely no problems. It ran the scene as it would any without a sign of trouble. A very pleasant surprise.
As you can see from the image above right, I have only used the legs (white bones) and masked out all the bones from there up to the head (black bones) to quash unneeded movement from human walking motions which opens the iClone motions library for use with the Walker.
After this, I went back in time a bit to create a Roman Legion from Xurge 3D’s excellent Julius Ceasar outfit in the Marketplace. I created 5 variations of Roman soldiers at 7K and 800 KB. This allowed the army to have one 49-man 7K unit close to the camera and the other 800 KB units around and behind that main unit as the camera pulled back.
I added a higher quality character closer to the camera riding horseback, inspecting the Legionnaires. The horse is an older iClone prop, Warhorse, with built-in animations. The 736-character scene (including the main character) gave iClone no problems until I added the old, inefficient, physic-enabled banners. That slowed real-time playback and added hours to the render. With the banners set to smooth it rendered in about half an hour. In fairness, those banners were ancient, from the old Bullet physics engine, and were way too heavy in polycount.
WARNING: VIDEO BELOW CONTAINS AUDIO
A 735-character army may not seem huge but 735 people in a street scene would be extremely busy so keep all this in context. A lot of scenes are not going to require thousands or even hundreds of characters as you don’t want to make a scene so busy it’s hard to keep up with the characters and the story they weave.
I haven’t finished stress testing the Crowd Sim yet, but I also haven’t come into a scenario where iClone couldn’t handle a crowd once it was all in Lite mode. Edit mode can be slow if you open 400 hundred characters at once in Edit but iClone never crashed. I could move them, duplicate them, and work with them, it just took some time, but I was trying this in the extreme for testing.
The new Crowd Sim is just what we needed without having to shell out big bucks for an extensive crowd system that probably wouldn’t be blessed with iClone’s well-known simplicity. For those that want Lord of the Rings-size armies, you can always create them in iClone and use the multi-take recording in Unreal Engine.
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.
Behind the Scenes of ‘KIHA’- with iClone and Unreal Engine
Dom Fred – Director / Producer / Editor / 3D Animator
Dom Fred
Dom began his career in the television advertising industry, directing commercials using new production’s digital and 3D tools. Over the past 20 years, he has also worked on music videos and documentaries, catering to a global clientele.
Since his childhood, Dom has been a martial artist, mastering various disciplines such as Taekwondo, Aikido, and Kung-Fu. His exceptional skills in Taekwondo, particularly at the Olympic and spectacular levels, have highlighted his talent for stunt work and acrobatics from a young age.
In 2007, Dom established his own company, DOM ANIMATION STUDIO, specializing in product and post-production. With a unique touch, he incorporates 3D characters into real environments, integrates special effects (SFX), and creates martial arts and acrobatics action sequences for commercials.
In 2010, Dom directed a short action film utilizing camera tracking, motion capture, and 3D compositing techniques. Two years later, he produced and directed his first independent short films, which received several awards in Los Angeles, Texas, Las Vegas, and New York for Best Action Sequences, Best Action Director, and Best Short Film.
Introduction: Unveiling the Vision
“KIHA,” a captivating science fiction short film, stands as a testament to the boundless creativity and technical prowess of director and Maya 3D animator Dom Fred. In this quick behind the scenes, the magic unfolds through the seamless integration of iClone, where every detail comes to life with precision and finesse.
Character Creation: From Concept to Reality
The journey of “KIHA” begins with the intricate design of its characters, meticulously crafted using the powerful tools within Character Creator. Here, Dom Fred finds a canvas to breathe life into his vision, ensuring that each character embodies the essence of the story with unparalleled detail and authenticity.
Motion Capture: Breathing Life into the Narrative
Enter ActorCore, a treasure trove of high quality 3D animations that infuse “KIHA” with a sense of realism and authenticity. With a diverse array of motion captures at his disposal, Dom Fred navigates the nuances of performance, seamlessly integrating them into the fabric of his narrative to evoke emotions and captivate audiences.
Mastering Animation: The Power of iClone 8
Central to the fluidity and technical precision of “KIHA” lies the formidable power of iClone. Dom Fred harnesses the powerful iClone 3D motion editing tools at his disposal to imbue his characters with lifelike movements and reactions, ensuring that every frame resonates with depth and emotion. With precise control over animation keys, Dom navigates the intricacies of action scenes with finesse, sculpting moments of tension and intrigue that keep audiences on the edge of their seats.
Real-Time Production: Bridging the Gap with Unreal Engine
As the narrative of “KIHA” unfolds, the seamless integration of iClone and Unreal Engine emerges as a pivotal asset in the director’s arsenal. Through iClone to Unreal LIVE LINK, Dom Fred navigates the dynamic landscape of real-time production, fine-tuning the placement of characters, settings, and camera movements with unparalleled precision. This synergy between iClone and Unreal Engine empowers the director to sculpt his vision with unrivaled flexibility, ensuring that every frame resonates with cinematic brilliance.
The Grand Finale: Lighting, Composition, and Rendering
As the pieces of “KIHA” fall into place, the stage is set for the grand finale on Unreal Engine. Here, Dom Fred meticulously orchestrates the composition, lighting, and rendering, elevating the visual splendor of his creation to new heights. With Adobe Premiere Pro 2024 serving as the final canvas for post-production, Dom Fred weaves together the threads of his narrative with precision and finesse, culminating in a cinematic masterpiece that transcends boundaries and captivates the imagination.
Conclusion: A Vision Transformed
In the realm of digital filmmaking, “KIHA” stands as a beacon of innovation and creativity, a testament to the limitless possibilities of technology and imagination. Through the collaborative synergy of iClone, Character Creator, and Unreal Engine, director Dom Fred breathes life into his vision, transforming dreams into reality with every frame. As “KIHA” takes flight, it invites audiences on a mesmerizing journey through the depths of the human experience, where the lines between reality and fantasy blur, and the essence of storytelling shines bright.
Mesh topology. Probably the most important yet least utilized and discussed topic among those new to 3D modeling and animation. Why? Because it can be hard to master and implement for many users. This is one of those skills most of us can learn but not all of us will be good at it. Many will go about their 3D journey without considering good topology and its effect on the movement of the mesh.
Clean, good topology means the underlying mesh of the model is evenly distributed with consideration given to areas that bend a lot like the eyes, shoulders, and elbows. In some cases, these areas will consist of denser mesh such as armpits or near the mouth.
Even though I have been in 3D for decades, topology was one of those areas that I knew about from a working perspective but had to research to be able to explain it better. This article depends heavily on that research to explain some facts about mesh topology that you may not have considered before.
Exploring Good Topology: Understanding Different Types of Topology
TRIANGLES (TRIS)
In a 3D mesh, triangles are the fundamental building blocks that make up the surface of a 3D object. A 3D mesh is a collection of vertices, edges, and faces that define the shape of an object in three-dimensional space. Triangles are the simplest type of polygon, consisting of three vertices and three edges.
Triangles make up many models, particularly legacy models. While tris can make just about anything they can also collide and collapse causing the mesh to buckle in an unnatural way or stretching of vertices that is noticeable due to the texture stretching with it.
Key points about triangles in meshes.
Basic Unit: A triangle is the smallest unit of a 3D mesh. It is defined by three vertices and three edges.
Rendering Primitives: Triangles are commonly used to render primitives in graphics pipelines. Many rendering engines and hardware are optimized for processing and rasterizing triangles.
Simplicity and Efficiency: Triangles are computationally efficient and simple to work with, both in terms of mathematical calculations and rendering algorithms.
Interpolation: Triangles allow for easy interpolation of attributes such as color, texture coordinates, and Normals across their surfaces. This is crucial for achieving smooth shading and realistic rendering effects.
Deformation and Animation: Triangles play a key role in character animation and deformation. They define how the surface of a 3D model deforms as it moves, providing flexibility for realistic animations.
Smoothing and Normals: Normals (vectors perpendicular to the surface) are often calculated at each vertex of a triangle to achieve smooth shading. This helps simulate lighting effects and create a more realistic appearance.
Triangles (Tris) based game character.
QUADS
A quad is a polygon with four sides (edges) and four vertices. Quads are often used in 3D meshes to represent planar surfaces or faces of 3D objects. They are an alternative to triangles. Quads have some advantages and are commonly used in certain modeling scenarios.
Key points about quads in 3D meshes:
Planar Surfaces: Quads are well-suited for representing planar surfaces, as they form a flat, four-sided shape.
Modeling Convenience: During the modeling process, especially when creating surfaces that align with a grid or require a regular structure, quads can be more convenient and easier to work with than triangles.
Edge Loops: Quads are often used to create smooth edge loops in character modeling. Edge loops are sequences of connected edges that follow the natural contours of a character, helping with deformation during animation.
Deformation and Animation: Quads can deform more predictably than triangles in certain situations, especially when modeling characters or objects that need to bend or deform smoothly.
Subdivision Surfaces: Quads are commonly used in subdivision surface modeling. Subdivision surfaces involve iteratively subdividing the faces of a mesh to create smoother surfaces, and quads play a key role in this process.
Smoother Shading: In some cases, quads can contribute to smoother shading when rendering, especially if the geometry is planar and the lighting conditions are appropriate.
UV Mapping: Quads can simplify UV mapping, the process of applying 2D textures to 3D surfaces. UV mapping is often easier with quads compared to triangles.
Quad Topology ZBrush Demo Soldier
DECIMATED (OPTIMIZED) MESH
Decimation involves reducing the number of polygons in a 3D model while attempting to preserve its overall shape and appearance. The goal is to simplify the geometry by removing unnecessary detail, which can be useful for optimizing the model’s performance in terms of rendering, animation, or real-time applications.
The process of decimation typically involves the following steps:
Polygon Reduction: Decimation algorithms analyze the geometry of the mesh and selectively remove vertices, edges, and faces while attempting to retain the essential features of the model.
Preservation of Important Details: Advanced decimation algorithms aim to preserve critical details and features of the original model, such as edges, contours, and surface characteristics, to maintain the model’s visual fidelity as much as possible.
Simplification for Performance: The primary motivation for decimating a mesh is often to improve performance in real-time applications or when dealing with large and complex scenes. By reducing the polygon count, the model becomes less computationally intensive to render or animate.
UV Mapping Considerations: Some decimation tools take into account the UV mapping of the original model to ensure that texture coordinates are preserved, minimizing the need for retexturing after decimation.
Adjustable Parameters: Decimation tools often provide adjustable parameters that allow the user to control the level of simplification, balancing between reducing polygon count and preserving details.
RE-MESHING VERSUS RE-TOPOLOGY
The primary goal of re-meshing is to alter the overall geometry and structure of a mesh, often by changing the distribution of polygons or altering the topology. Re-topology involves creating a new surface for an existing 3D model, often with the goal of improving the topology for better deformation, animation, or UV mapping.
WHY DO WE SAY CHARACTER CREATOR 4 HAS GOOD TOPOLOGY ?
Clean and Efficient Geometry: Character Creator 4 mesh topology has clean, and efficient geometry with as few polygons as necessary to accurately represent the character shape avoiding unnecessary details in areas that don’t require it.
Evenly Distributed Geometry: Character Creator 4 mesh also relies heavily on evenly distributed geometry that maintains a consistent polygon density across the model to ensure smooth deformations during animation.
Consistent Normals The consistent Normals of the CC4 character mesh avoid shading problems and other issues.
Quads (Four-sided polygons): Character Creator’s four-sided quad topology allows for more predictable deformations than triangles and is generally easier to work with during the modeling process.
Topology for Animation: The CC4 mesh also takes into consideration the intended use of the model which in this case is smooth bipedal animation. CC4 topology deforms well during rigging and movement. Joints and areas of deformation have sufficient geometry to bend naturally without buckling or collapsing.
Edge Flow: CC4 character meshes also maintain a logical and consistent flow of edges that follows the natural contours of the object. Good edge flow is also essential for animation and deformation.
UV Mapping Considerations: The UV Mapping in Character Creator 4 meshes prevents seams from showing up in highly visible areas of the character. Normal maps are used for finer details to optimize performance.
Efficient Use of Detail: CC4 mesh focuses on adding detail where it matters most, such as the face or areas that will be prominently featured.
Character Creator 4 mesh topology checks off all the important points regarding quality character meshes so you can create a character with the confidence it can withstand the intense scrutiny of a camera closeup.
Before I close, I want to also point out that using tris does not, by itself, mean bad topology. If they don’t collide or bunch up tris are fine. So are less than optimal models that may not have perfect quads and contain mixed tris if they are distributed evenly enough to provide good vertex manipulation for animation and posing.
I repeat… whatever topology you use, even distribution is key. We are not seeking perfection but a workable mesh that won’t twist, collapse, or distort allowing the animator to pay more attention to the details of animation and less time on problematic mesh.
And… as usual, Character Creator has your back when it comes to characters. CC4 takes care of topology by providing clean base meshes and industry-standard optimization and decimation. From smooth, front-line characters to highly decimated background crowd actors, CC4 does the work, while you do the storytelling.
MD McCallum – WarLord
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.
Peter Haynes is a filmmaker based in New Zealand and a prior winner of the Epic MegaGrants award. He takes time out of his busy schedule to generously provide a quick tutorial on his process for enhancing lip-sync animation using Reallusion iClone. This article demonstrates his mastery of iClone AccuLIPS in the creation of expert lip-sync animation.
Effective ways to make stylized lip-sync
I believe that my mini-guide will prove useful, as existing resources focus on AccuLIPS and Face Puppet separately without much integration. I aim to emphasize the effective combination of these tools to achieve a more dynamic and dramatic character performance, moving beyond simple lip-syncing techniques.
iClone is just really simple. The pipeline between Character Creator 4, iClone 8, and Unreal is pretty seamless once you’ve done it a few times.
My workflow for lip-sync animation
1. Before I do anything else I like to enhance the AccuLIPS clip by going into the lip options and setting the smoothness to 1 and the strength to 1.2. I find this just tends to make the movements look a bit more natural.
Setting the smoothness and the strength for lipsync animationSetting the talking style for lipsync animation
2. I then like to set what I call my “base emotion” for the clip, which can be done with an animation from the Digital Soul pack of pre-animated facial expressions, or by capturing my own expression from my iPhone via Motion LIVE for facial mocap.
3. After that, I make another pass, often with face keys, to enhance and finetune particular moments in the dialogue.
4. Then I’ll make another number of passes with Face Puppet, adding more emotion at key points and generally moving the mouth in a more expressive way.
5. Finally, I add some head motion with Face Puppet, and then whatever body motion the character requires for the scene.
