34,79 €
Reallusion’s iClone is an animated movie making application that allows hobbyists, machinimators, home-based animators, and professionals to visualize their story or an idea by seeing it in action. Years ago, creating animations and single images would require a team of trained artists to accomplish. Now, iClone real time rending engine empowers its users to instantly view what is loaded into the 3D workspace or preview it as an animation, if you have the precise instructions.The iClone 3D Animation Beginner’s Guide will walk you through the building and animating of a complete scene and several one-off projects. First we create a scene with sky, terrain , water, props and other assets. Then add two characters and manipulate their features and animate their movement. We will also use particles to create the effect of a realistic torch and animate cameras to give different views to the scene. Finally we will see how to quickly import images to enhance the scene with a mountain, barn, and water tank. It will cover some fun stuff such as playing with props, characters, and other scene assets. It will also demonstrate some advanced topics such as screen resolution, formats and codecs but mostly it will deal with doing hands on animation with precise instructions.Starting with a blank project using stock and downloadable assets you will learn to lay out and animate a scene and export that scene to both a single image and a movie. The main project will demonstrate many common and undocumented techniques, while each project introduces and examines tools and techniques for successful and fun animation of ideas or scripts.Each project of the book including the main project is designed to cover the aspects of 3D animation in a manner which anyone with basic computer skills can follow. You will discover the importance of lighting a scene including daytime scenes. The concept of the timeline and key frames will be covered in detail and other topics such as rendering (exporting), character modification and prop placement all have their own sections with step by step instructions followed by an explanation of what just happened. Good animation habits and project basics are stressed throughout the book interspersed with time saving tips and techniques gained from years of experience with iClone.When you have finished The iClone 3D Animation Beginner’s Guide you will have a solid foundation in the basics of iClone by having animated a scene with multiple characters and props that involves dialog and interaction with other characters. You will have the knowledge to create new animation projects to hone your skills, tell your story, educate students or sell your product.
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Seitenzahl: 599
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011
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First published: October 2011
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ISBN 978-1-84969-178-9
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Cover Image by Rakesh Shejwal (<[email protected]>)
Author
M.D. McCallum
Reviewer(s)
Guy Langlois
Susanne and Joe Pass
Acquisition Editor
Chaitanya Apte
Development Editor
Reshma Sundaresan
Technical Editor
Pramila Balan
Project Coordinator
Shubhanjan Chatterjee
Proofreader(s)
Kevin McGowan
Linda Morris
Aaron Nash
Indexer
Rekha Nair
Production Coordinator
Arvindkumar Gupta
Cover Work
Arvindkumar Gupta
First and foremost, I would like to thank Mike (M.D. McCallum) for the idea and inspiration that has taken to create such an endeavor. This is truly a noble cause that will undoubtedly inspire many throughout the years.
This all started a while back when Mike contacted me about his idea of writing a book about iClone. From the get-go, we were completely ecstatic that iClone would finally get the personal treatment direct from the mind and hands of a true production industry veteran.
From its inception, iClone has been an untamed breed of 3D software designed especially for creative users without prior 3D backgrounds. A software that, even though was jam-packed with the latest features and technology, was always missing something. Apart from its heavy feature-based manuals and tutorial videos, iClone always lacked a proper guide to personally lead and inspire users to nurture an entire project from scratch.
I am deeply grateful that M.D. McCallum, the author who has contributed so much of his enthusiasm to the iClone community, has now volunteered to make this book. M.D. McCallum is the first featured iClone professional who is honored with several iClone movie awards, along with being one of the first users to set up the iClone Wikipedia page. His kindness and generosity has always permitted him to share his knowledge through the iClone Revolution website, which he started as a need to address so many iClone inquiries. Being a senior iClone Content Developer has also allowed him to push the limits of creativity not just of himself, but also of the entire animation community.
As most of you know already, iClone is not just a collection of years of heartbeats and oceans of fervor from the Reallusion team, but it is also a chest of dreams and collaborated efforts from dozens of worldwide content contributors who over time have made the world of 3D production so much more accessible and inspiring to all of us.
Thanks to Mike's gamut of iClone animation knowledge, readers can now get a comprehensive view of what an iClone production platform is, including, how to master tools, access fast growing content libraries from talented developers, and how to make the most of being a community member. His work not only holds the hands of beginners who yearn to explore iClone in a structural way, but it also lends itself as an enjoyable must-read for any iClone veteran.
This galvanized book has been long overdue and awaited by many users who have spent hundreds of thousands of man-hours figuring out how to get the most out of their iClone, not to mention those who have hungered to enter the world of independent film making with a great self-taught companion.
This piece of work is also a great reward and humbling reminder to the iClone development team that has witnessed their software being used across every continent and industry on the planet. There is so much that our words cannot express… Thank you.
Charles Chen CEO and Founding Partner of Reallusion, Inc.
M D. McCallum, aka WarLord in the iClone community, is an international award winning Commercial Graphics Artist, 3D Animator, Project Director, and Webmaster with a freelance career that spans over 20 years and includes over one hundred individual and team-based awards. M.D. has worked as a freelancer for animation companies, 3D application companies, game development studios, indie film and animation studios. His experience with computers dates back to home-built kits in the late 1970s.
M.D. is the author of eleven whitepapers for the Reallusion iClone Developers Center and has been selected two times as a Reallusion Featured Developer. M.D. has been a loyal user of iClone since version one and is a Certified Content Developer and Reallusion Director. M.D. was previously published as an outdoor writer in national magazines before turning his attention to full time digital freelancing.
M.D. operates a freelance production studio in partnership with other highly skilled freelancers across the world to provide web and television-based commercials, product presentations and visualization. He also creates and provides quality iClone props including his innovative Destructible line of props and iClone freebies and tips at www.iclonerevolution.com.
I would like to thank Charles Chen and Jason Lin at Reallusion for their unwavering support of the book project. I would also like to thank Shirley Martin who helped me work out the kinks early on and the technical reviewers for their time and generosity. I particularly want to thank Guy Langlois (BigBoss) for taking the time out of a very busy schedule to help. And of course, I want to thank the incredibly patient team at Packt Publishing for guiding me through the writing and shaping this book in a way that no words could adequately describe. And last, but certainly not least, my wife Rosemary and stepson Zac. Two people that go out of their way every day to make sure I have the time to complete my various projects, meet my deadlines, and otherwise get to have fun doing what I love all day and long into the night.
Guy Langlois is a Computer Engineer with a Master's degree in Business and Administration (MBA). He works as an Executive in an engineering firm specialized in the development of high-end audio/video and 3D equipment and authoring tools for the Film and Broadcasting industry. Aside from work, Guy plays in a rock band and is a recognized Reallusion Certified Content Developer, Director, and Trainer who excels in the creation of specialized iClone characters and other derived iClone products.
Guy is known in the iClone industry as "Bigboss". He also manages the "Bigboss's Treasures" Theme Store in Reallusion City, which features his personal work as well as the work of other excellent Certified Content Developers, each with their own special aptitude for creation and design; http://city.reallusion.com/store/BigbossTreasures
I would like to thank the iClone community who so gracefully support my work! Cheers!
Susanne and Joe Pass discovered their passion for animation, 3D modelling, and image editing. Susanne and Joe Pass worked in different jobs, she came from the social sector and he was a workman.
Joe concerned himself more and more with graphic art. His work has been presented in several exhibitions. Susanne was interested in photography.
The couple began to learn how to work with image editing programs like Photoshop and made their first flash animations. In 2006, they completely switched and offered, under the name digiMagic, services in the field of Animation and Web Design, shortly after they bought the first Reallusion products: CrazyTalk5 and iClone3.
They were directly thrilled by the new possibilities that opened. They expanded their service by content development and training courses for iClone or CrazyTalk Animator in Germany.
Susanne and Joe are Reallusion Certified Content Developers, Trainers, and Directors. You can find their content packs in Reallusion Content Store and Marketplace.
They count themselves lucky that they found a job they enjoy and can work together.
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Reallusion's iClone is an animated movie making application that allows hobbyists, machinimators, home-based animators, and professionals to visualize their story or an idea by seeing it in action. Years ago, creating animations and single images would require a team of trained artists to accomplish. Now, iClone real time rending engine empowers its users to instantly view what is loaded into the 3D workspace or preview it as an animation, if you have the precise instructions.
The iClone 3D Animation Beginner's Guide will walk you through the building and animating of a complete scene and several one-off projects. First we create a scene with sky, terrain, water, props, and other assets. Then add two characters and manipulate their features and animate their movement. We will also use particles to create the effect of a realistic torch and animate cameras to give different views to the scene. Finally, we will see how to quickly import images to enhance the scene with a mountain, barn, and water tank. It will cover some fun stuff such as playing with props, characters, and other scene assets. It will also demonstrate some advanced topics such as screen resolution, formats and codecs but mostly, it will deal with doing hands on animation with precise instructions.
Chapter 1, Installing and Configuring iClone, goes through the installation and configuration process for iClone and discusses the Reallusion iClone community, where to get more assets, how to use the Content Store and City Marketplace, bringing outside content into iClone with import and drag-and-drop features, and exploring the iClone interface.
Chapter 2, Creating Your First Scene, we will explore the 3D workspace, create a basic scene with sky, terrain, water, and props, use Live Plants to create vegetation, work with standard, animated, and interactive props. We will build a gazebo prop from 3D building blocks and texture it, then we'll light the scene to get the mood right.
Chapter 3, Adding and Customizing Characters, we will add characters to the scene and customize these characters by altering their clothing and type of hair. While doing this, we will learn how iClone works with external image editors to modify the characters' clothing.
Chapter 4, Animating the Characters, this is a very important chapter in which the timeline will be discussed using key frames to animate our characters. We will work with interactive props, load and time the dialog between the characters, how to use paths, point-and-click and director mode for movement, and finally blending and editing motions on the timeline, which can create custom motions from existing motions.
Chapter 5, Enhancing Animation with Particles, this chapter is devoted to fun and eye candy. We will explore iClone's particle system. We will learn how to deploy the particles, attach or link them, and modify their settings. Each particle effect such as fire, rain, and dust have their own control panel with settings that can be modified for a variety of uses.
Chapter 6, Working with Cameras, a critical chapter in the iClone learning curve. This chapter devotes itself to the iClone camera system. We'll create cameras, name them, and deploy them as both animated and static to suit our needs. We will discuss clipping, depth of field, and the important camera switch that allows us to setup a long running shot between cameras of our choice as the scene plays out.
Chapter 7, Enhancing Scenes with Images and Videos, this is another fun and exciting chapter in which we will discover how we can use two dimensional planes, billboards, and objects with channel maps to create low poly backdrops and props for our scenes. We will learn to drag-and-drop video onto objects and why some objects don't want to work properly when dropping video or an image on them. We'll learn to enhance our scenes with imagery using opacity maps and other channels.
Chapter 8, Rendering our Work, an often overlooked but extremely important aspect of our journey in animation. We will discuss various types of renders for both still images and video. We will cover what video works best for our needs. We will learn what a codec is in comparison to a container file like AVI, WMV, or MP4, and what container files might fit our needs.
Chapter 9, Animating Outer Space, this exciting space scene challenges our skills and puts to use what we have covered in previous chapters. We will learn to plot a path for our spaceship that explodes as it crosses the screen, but not before we learn to animate a shuttle craft escaping from the exploding debris. We also learn to setup two dimensional planes to create a scene that is alive compared to flat background only starfields.
Appendix A, Using Personas, iProps, and Helpers, takes a close look at the Actionscript driven personas, AML templates and helpers. The section starts with a basic overview of AML after which we explore character Personas, AML driven templates, such as Sit Here and Grab It, along with helper objects like cars and planes.
Appendix B, Animating with iClone Physics, covers the basics of iClone physics, discusses rigid and soft body objects, their parameters and how to use them. Knock down, over or drop objects. Set up impact between objects. Impart energy to start a simulation and discusses physics as a simulation tool that enhances and helps our animation.
Appendix C, Exploring New Features, explores and discusses new visual enhancements, such as ambient occlusion and toon rendering. Looks at new performance improving features. Explores the new range of Post Effects such as Blur and Color Adjust. Also, takes a look at time saving features, such as the Multi-Duplicate dialog box.
Appendix D, Discovering New Animation Tools, discusses the MixMoves animation library along with the Motion Puppet and Direct Puppet features introduced in version 5. We will install and use the new Mocap Plug-in that allows us to use the Kinect sensor to pass simple motion data directly into iClone for animation. We will also be cleaning up that data for use, discuss and use the new Prop Puppet and Prop Look-At features, explore the newly licensed Human IK technology and its impact on animation with its bone control system.
For this book, you will need the following:
This book is aimed at film makers, video producers/compositors, vxf artists or 3D artists/designers that have no previous experience with iClone. If you have that drive inside you to entertain people via the internet on sites like YouTube or Vimeo, create a superb presentation video, showcase a product or create a movie, or get a fast start on the iClone program, this Beginner's guide was written with you in mind.
In this book, you will find several headings appearing frequently.
To give clear instructions of how to complete a procedure or task, we use:
Instructions often need some extra explanation so that they make sense, so they are followed with:
This heading explains the working of tasks or instructions that you have just completed.
You will also find some other learning aids in the book, including:
These are short multiple choice questions intended to help you test your own understanding.
These set practical challenges and give you ideas for experimenting with what you have learned.
You will also find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text are shown as follows: "For Windows XP, it is C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Reallusion\Custom\iClone 4 Custom\".
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "Click on the OK button to exit the Preference window".
Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.
Tips and tricks appear like this.
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You always knew it and reading this somewhat proves it. You want to be an animator but have no experience with animating. Maybe like a lot of us you can't draw a straight line with a ruler or perhaps you have no clue what 3D animation is, but you know what you want to do. Maybe you are an experienced 3D artist wanting to get a quick grasp of the program. You are not only reading the right book, you are also among friends here. As long as you have the desire and know your mouse from a monitor, then you have as good a chance as anyone at creating fun animated videos of family, friends, stories, ideas, concepts, or whatever it is that you have a desire to share while having fun in the process.
The concept of this beginner's guide focuses on often used tools and features in an on-going project as well as several one-off projects for a hands-on learning experience with step-by-step instructions. Upon completion you will have animated an outdoor scene and space scene that covers the basics of the software. Plus you get to work with custom props including a "destructible" spaceship prop with built-in explosion animation. That's right… we're going to blow something up! With special effects too!
Before we can start creating any masterpieces or blowing anything up, we have to install the software and the extras that come with it.
In this chapter we shall do the following:
So let's get on with it...
Installation of the software is a simple task as iClone is packaged in a professional installer.
Start the installation and follow the onscreen instructions:
We installed iClone and set the location for where the iClone content will be installed. Now we need to install the Bonus Resource pack.
The bonus content is also packaged in a professional installer:
When complete you should get the message shown in the following screenshot:
Examine the resource page for other downloadable content that may be available.
We installed the extra bonus content that comes with iClone so we can have all the stock assets such as props, characters, and other items available for use.
This section allows you to configure your working environment and preferred auxiliary tools. Setting the proper preferences will go a long way in helping you get the most out of iClone and your computer:
The following is a screenshot of the preferences as set up on the author's computer:
We opened the preferences window to configure iClone to work better with our system and select external editors. The following sections will cover the more pertinent features of the available settings.
This section sets up the 3D grid for use in the viewport if so desired. The grid can help in getting acquainted with the 3D workspace in iClone and speed up scene building.
Show Grid, Grid Color, Grid Spacing, and Grid size are self-explanatory; they control the look, color, and spacing of the grid in the 3D workspace.
Snap to Grid is one of the most important features of the grid system when creating large scenes such as cities or villages. The props will snap to the grid allowing the easy creation of house and shop lined streets and complicated interior scenes.
Snap is something that most users either love or hate. If snap annoys you with its function then return to the preference panel and toggle it off until you need it again. Some users never turn the Snap to Grid off while others use it sparingly and some don't use it at all. Having the grid onscreen may help with your visualization of the workspace even if you never toggle on the Snap to Grid feature.
Grid shortcut
Use the Ctrl + G key combination to toggle the grid on and off.
Angle Snap is another great grid feature that can be set to numbers such as 45 or 90 degrees which will snap-turn the object selected by the set amount with each turn of the mouse. This is another feature that may need to be toggled on and off from the preference panel depending on how you use it.
This section allows control over what information is displayed in the iClone workspace:
Downloading the color images of this book
We also provide you a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots used in this book. The color images will help you better understand the changes in the output. You can download this file from https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/1789EXP.pdf.
Quality: In most cases this is set to Custom due to the choices made within this section. The render options are some of the most confusing and technical parts a 3D animator has to deal with.
It's all about your video card and its capabilities. If your video card doesn't support shadows or pixel shading then you will not be able to use those features. Most users turn on what is available to see how that works with iClone . If the feature is not supported then it is not available for use in the user interface and its option will be greyed out.
Some shaders are better than others. The Pixel Shader gives the best overall result in terms of reproducing the lighting and other aspects of the scene. This is followed closely by the Vertex Shader, which does a good job but not up to the pixel shader standard. Lighting is weaker in the Vertex shader.
Finally, there is the Quick Shader which turns off a lot of bells and whistles in terms of render quality. The lighting is basic and shadows may be non-existent or very poor. It is usually desirable to do your final render in Pixel Shader, if available. There are two other shader modes available in the workspace: Smooth Shading and Wireframe. These are draft-only shaders and should be used when the workspace slows down due to the load on the 3D iClone engine.
The iClone workspace typically uses assets with 30,000 or less faces. This doesn't mean you can't use more complex assets with more faces but it will slow iClone down, sometimes to a crawl, and the render shader you have set while working can spell the difference between slogging along or working at a faster clip. When the workspace slows down, go to the QUICK SHADER or WIRE FRAME to reduce the load on the iClone engine and you will find the workspace responds much faster. Set the shader back to Pixel Render for your final render or to preview items that can only be seen with a higher level shader.
Anti-alias: While turned off in this image, anti-alias is a very important feature of iClone that eliminates those ragged edges or artifacts on characters or props. Artifacts appear when a higher resolution asset is used in lower resolution engines.
Mip Maps and Anisotropic Filtering: According to Wikipedia, Mip Maps are a group of images combined with the main texture that speed up rendering. Check this selection to take advantage of any content that uses Mip Mapping.
Anisotropic Filtering improves the quality of textures on surfaces that are at oblique viewing angles. This is a bandwidth intensive setting. While an 8X setting will make oblique surfaces render better there will a trade-off in system performance. I usually leave this setting at 4X.
Enable Spring/Flex Effect: Check this to turn on this feature as it allows for props built with spring technology to work properly. Content such as flags and capes use the flex feature to give those props an animated effect.
Max Real-time Map Size: This determines the maximum size of texture map iClone can use. It ranges from 256X256 to 8192X8192. The larger the map allowed, the better the texture will look, but it will also use more resources from the iClone engine. I keep my settings at the maximum range of 8192X8192.
Transform Gizmo: This handles manipulation of characters, props, and other 3D assets. You can drag or rotate assets without the transform gizmo but the gizmo will give greater control over precise movement of assets.
To use a gizmo, you set your mouse cursor on one of the colors, hold down the left button and move, scale, or rotate the object. This can also be done without gizmos via direct manipulation with the mouse and the proper menu choice.
There are advantages to both direct and gizmo manipulation. Use Ctrl + Q to toggle back and forth between the modes.
Drag and Drop Automatic External Files: This is a real time saver. If you have iClone assets scattered around your computer you can open an explorer window showing those assets and simply drag-and-drop props and other assets into the iClone workspace with your mouse.
You can also drag-and-drop image textures and video! If you have a television in a scene that has a separate surface for the screen, then you can drag-and-drop a video onto that screen surface to emulate a broadcasting television.
Content (props, accessories, scenes, and characters) that you create, download, or modify can be stored in the Custom Content folder, which makes the props available to the iClone content menu for viewing and selection.
In most cases, for Microsoft Windows® the default location of the custom folder is as follows:
Since the custom content folder will hold a lot of custom made content that you can reuse in other productions and project files, it is suggested that you routinely back up this folder to a safe place.
New content comes in many sizes, shapes, and flavors. They can be in a self-extracting installer, zipped files, or native format, even drag-and-drop.
Let's take a look at the easiest method to get new content into iClone that is not packaged with an installer.
The following method is for general drag-and-drop usage of assets into the workspace:
Asset management
The new folder option is located on the content management toolbar. You can create subfolders, if desired. After you use iClone for an extended time period, taking time to create a good file structure for your content will help to save time and frustration when looking for props and other assets. Use common sense folder names like transportation, weapons, aircraft, and so forth to define your file structure.
iClone provides an asset import feature for new content. This content must be in an acceptable iClone format before it can be imported. Click on the Import button under the Modify menu on the upper-right side of the screen for various tabs such as Set, Actor, or Animation.
The following table shows the asset type followed by the asset file extension:
Prop
iProp
Face
iFace
Accessory
iAcc
Particle
iParticle
Hand
iHand
Scene
iScene
Atmosphere
iAtm
Camera
iCam
Avatar
iAvatar
Grass
iGrass
Hair
iHair
Animation
iAnim
ImageLayer
iImgLayer
Light
iLight
Material
iMtl
Motion
iMotion
Path
iPath
Teeth
iOral
Shoe
iShoe
Skin
iSkin
Terrain
iTerrain
Tree
iTree
Water
iWater
Upper
iUpper
Lower
iLower
Legacy
vns
Most third-party assets, free and commercial, come in the form of a zip file. Double-click on the file to open the unzip dialog. Follow the steps for the pertinent zip application and save the contents to the custom content folder that was discussed earlier.
There are many zip file applications including the native Windows® zip file, WinZip, WinRAR, 7Zip, and others that share the same basic functionality. You can also unzip the file contents to a folder of your choice then copy and paste the files into the custom content folder.
iClone is as simple or complicated as you want it to be and the interface design places lots of choices right in front of you where you won't miss anything or forget what features are available, and you don't have to use all of them either.
You add a character, a couple of props, apply drag-and-drop, or double-click on prepackaged animations for your character. What's this? There are dancing motions mixed in with other animations! You find your favorite song and add it to the project, apply the dance animations to the character, and sit back for a preview.
