Reallusion, maker of the iClone animation package, is hosting a Game Character Animation contest, and are hoping to attract newbies and intermediate animators alike. (For more information on the contest, see the sidebar at the bottom of the story.)
The contest video (which shows what can be done with iClone) is impressive, but probably quite intimidating for people new to 3D animation. That being said, iClone is an easy way to get into serious 3D animation without requiring prior experience. iClone lets the beginning animator avoid the typical CGI modeling hassles and get on with the fun part. iClone ships with a massive content library, much of which is further customizable.
If using tools like Maya and 3ds Max are like growing your own food and making your own bread, then using iClone is like walking into your kitchen and making a sandwich from ready-made ingredients.
Setting up scenes and animating characters is a blast, but how do you acquire custom characters, motions, and props for iClone without modeling?
CHARACTERS FOR YOUR PROJECT
The first step of acquiring custom characters for use in iClone is to simply use iClone itself to create them. iClone has character creation tools baked in - from the get-go, you can certainly create almost any kind of human like figure you like. You can map yours or anyones face photos to a characters head and customize the dimensions of the face. This is not modeling, this is fun.
Once you figure out the iClone clothing system (lowers for pants and skirts, uppers for sweaters, trench coats, shirts, and the like), you can very simply customize the clothing textures using any paint/photo software.
But perhaps you need a character that cant be easily modeled within iClone? First off, hit the Reallusion Marketplace and browse through hundreds of characters designed by the Reallusion community. These designers have created lots of new characters for re-use, usually costing only a few dollars apiece. Clothing is also available for most human characters at similarly low prices. And there are hundreds of freebies available.
OK, maybe you still cant find the character you need. Since iClone allows FBX characters to be imported using the 3DXchange program, there are other ways to acquire custom characters while avoiding any serious modeling.
My favorite online character resource is www.Mixamo.com. This site has lots of pre-rigged FBX characters for almost any gaming or animation engine. While the basic price per character is about $20, there are also plenty of free characters on the Mixamo website.
Here is a Mixamo character being converted in 3Dxchange:
Here is the Mixamo character in iClone after conversion:
Another (freemium) option for creating game characters is DAZ Studio, which can be downloaded free on the company website (www.daz3d.com/shop). I used DAZ to create a character that was difficult to model in iClone because of his body proportions. I had never used DAZ before, but it didnt take long to arrive at a reasonable starting point for my character.
Once the character was modeled in DAZ, I imported him into iClone and then made further adjustments to his skin, gave him wings and horns, and attached particle effects to various parts of his body. I even textured his skin with animated video clips of fire and embers.
PROPS AND SCENERY FOR YOUR PROJECT
iClone ships with plenty of props for assembling scenery and environments, but maybe you want to avoid using the built-in stock content. Once again, visit the Reallusion Marketplace to find hundreds of inexpensive or free props made by the community.
If you cant find what you want there, try SketchUp 3D Warehouse. This site hosts thousands upon thousands of free community-made SketchUp models ranging from furniture to weapons to vehicles. Use Reallusions 3Dxchange to convert them to iClone-usable props. Once theyve been brought into iClone, you may have further texture customization options. Using 3D Warehouse enables you to create an enormous library of props for no cost - using 3Dxchange to convert them.
For creating naturalistic geography, you may want to try Bryce Personal Learning Edition (www.bryce3d.co.uk) - also made by DAZ - and its free. I used Bryce to create specific types of geological features, like mountains, cave walls, and islands. These objects can be exported out of Bryce and into your iClone content library using 3Dxchange.
MOTIONS FOR YOUR PROJECT
Lastly, you will probably need motions for your characters. Again, iClone comes with timesaving animation tools for basic walk/run cycles and idling for characters to walk along paths and terrain; the built-in content library contains many pre-programmed motions that you can assign to characters.
For greater precision, iClone also allows you to further keyframe most aspects of your characters motions and reuse them. The motion keyframing tools range from facial animation controls to controls for each individual finger and toe. The different motion tools can be baked together and tweaked. In addition, iClone 5 and later versions of iClone 6 support motion capture using the Microsoft Kinect device.
iClone also features an array of physically based tools and props. The content library includes building construction elements that will break apart when struck, and iClone provides a physics-based simulator so that you can create reasonably accurate cloth effects, and soft and rigid physics effects.
If you need to go outside of iClones tool set to find your motions, once again try the Reallusion Marketplace, where developers are selling packages of particular motions that may save you animation time. For example, you can purchase motions for sword-fighting, combat, martial arts, shooting guns and arrows, and gymnastics. Again, you will find many freebie motions at the Marketplace.
IN SUMMARY
Newbies to animation will fi
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Reallusion, maker of the iClone animation package, is hosting a Game Character Animation contest, and are hoping to attract newbies and intermediate animators alike. (For more information on the contest, see the sidebar at the bottom of the story.) 
