Blog 4 | The new concept of iClone 3D tools

In the past few years, iClone is already improving from time to time with their character creation, animation, directing which include in 3D scene & prop, lighting, camera system and also rendering. The latest update was iClone 7 as I shown the video below.

iClone 7 Demo 

From some new features that have been improved, i will be adding and improved some new other features to achieve a new concept of iClone Software. 

Storyboard section example

As we know, in the making of previz we may need a storyboard to direct the artist in making the production ready scenes. But sometimes as the time goes, there will be some revise from the storyboard when the storyboard and previz time production is in line. So, I’m planning with adding a storyboard section in the software, to have an ability to do a rough sketch / storyboard panel which will be positioned side by side to the current 3D live viewport, to achieve a convenience way when you need to rearrange the scene time, revising or changing the shot or maybe to sketch some certain of 2D character / objects  that haven't modelled yet in 3D but still want to visualize it in the real-time 3D animation and for the other advantage of the 2D sketch, it also can be use for a 2D animation.

Viewport example 

At the other side, I will also adding a multiple viewport option to split between some different views of the current project such as the camera views, orthographic, perspective and also the storyboard section. The viewports will be in  2 - 4 split of viewports where you can arrange the size and the position of the viewports based on your need.

The purpose of this options are to make the production more effective as it will reduce the time needed when you want to arrange certain of scenes while still viewing the other kind of view of the project and also while seeing the current storyboard for the scene.

6 degrees of freedom

The other thing that will be added is the 3D navigator mouse / 6 DOF { degrees of freedom ) controller which is a freedom of movement of a rigid body in 3D space as iClone itself is also a game engines for the interactive application. Where the 6 degrees of freedom generally is an implementation to describe the games itself.  I will also improve the iClone to be more animation friendly tools and also upgraded the render tools to make it more photorealistic output and also to wider the target market.

output render example

Conclusion

By adding and having some new features, I hope it will be still a user-friendly, relatively fast software, and wider the target market and opportunity for the directors, producers, writers, and animators to collaborate in real-time visualization, and bringing scripts to life with 3D animation.

References :

Lovell, J. 2014, 'An Overview of Previsualization (Previz) Software and Methods', viewed 10 September, 2017,<http://wolfcrow.com/blog/an-overview-of-previsualization-previz-software-and-methods/>.

Autodesk. 2015, 'About Model Space Viewports', viewed 24 September, 2017,<https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/getting-started/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2016/ENU/AutoCAD-Core/files/GUID-3E43911D-0A0F-4900-BE32-5EF846AF36D8-htm.html/>.

Antunes, J. 2017, 'iClone 7 : unmatched with the industry', viewed 24 September, 2017,<https://www.provideocoalition.com/iclone-7-unmatched-industry/>.

Lovell, J. 2014, 'An Overview of Previsualization (Previz) Software and Methods', viewed 24 September, 2017,<http://wolfcrow.com/blog/an-overview-of-previsualization-previz-software-and-methods/>.

Reallusion. 201, 'iClone 7 : new features guide', viewed 24 September, 2017,<http://renderositymagazine.com/iclone-7-new-features-guide-cms-1319/>.

Blog 3 | Scenes Previzualitation with iClone 3D tools

In the movie production, when a team have a concept or an unfinished script or maybe they have already done it all but want to concentrate on the camera movement & angle, layouting the shot at it best or referencing for real life execution, they will usually do a previzualitation.

Storyboard

2D Illustrations

3D Animated Visualization

3D Storyboard

Previzualitation itself actually can be breakdown into 4 method which are, 2D hand - drawn storyboard, 2d conceptual illustrations, 3D animated visualization and 3D storyboard. Some of the 2D method still usually used until now, but it is actually less effective than by making it with 3D tools.

For the 3D tools previzualitation, we have DAZ & iClone. Basically, they have the same purpose as a 3d tools, where you can drag and drop a character directly into a scene, adding environments, adding an animation into the characters just in a few steps and in fact they both actually quite great on their level and iClone itself already quite improving too in the past few years with some of their new features like bullet physics with their new PhysX engine for soft cloth where it can make the character cloth move realisticly just with a simple step and details features to the lighting, shadows and dynamic texturing with slider controls which is just added into the newest iClone.

Exporting character from DAZ to iClone

DAZ 3D Character

iClone 3D Character

But, actually there are some points that can be taken from the DAZ 3D to improve the iClone 3D tools. Such as, better quality renders and more define character models like DAZ 3D has rather than exporting the character first from the DAZ 3D than to 3DXchange for file format conversion and than at last importing it to the iClone software, as they claimed themselves on their website that it is a powerful 3D composition and rendering software with photorealistic results. Where from the superiority of DAZ 3D will benefits the iClone to wider their target market in industry and also to define the previsualization output itself when you need more detailed looks output.

References :

Clinel, G. 2014, 'PREVISUALIZATION Part ONE: What is Previs?', viewed 10 September, 2017,<https://library.creativecow.net/article.php?author_folder=cline_gare&article_folder=Previs_intro&page=1>.

Lovell, J. 2014, 'An Overview of Previsualization (Previz) Software and Methods', viewed 10 September, 2017,<http://wolfcrow.com/blog/an-overview-of-previsualization-previz-software-and-methods/>.

Dremer, M.T. 2016, 'A Beginner's Guide to 3D Art and DAZ Studio', viewed 15 August, 2017,

<https://turbofuture.com/graphic-design-video/Create-3D-Art-For-Free-with-DAZ-Studio/>.

'The Ultimate Pipeline from DAZ 3D to iClone', viewed 10 September, 2017,

< https://www.reallusion.com/creative/creative_daz3d.aspx/>.