I was pleasantly surprised to see this come through one of my Google Reader feeds yesterday. Sounds like Leo is pretty excited about the possibilities of the Reallusion toolkit.
Leo’s animation skill set is remarkable, to put it lightly; by comparison, I’m the skinny scarecrow to his Lou Ferrigno. Easily, he’s the machinima director I most look forward to meeting in person one day, after having talked and collaborated so many times across the Web. It’s really great to see him given this kind of recognition in this nicely put together little documentary / interview, filmed by John Martin of Reallusion.
When I did a voiceover role for Leo for this film (I’m the guy on the phone at the beginning who sounds more than a little bit “J. Jonah Jameson“), I had no idea what he was using to make it… I had no idea it was being made with iClone. The guys at iClone wisely tapped Leo to do a short film which showed off their new City Elements add-on pack, and iClone in general.
Most impressive to me was Leo’s command of such a variety of dialects, both British and American. A couple of the voices had a noticeable similarity in timbre, but for the most part there was excellent distinction in that regard as well. It’s not easy to be on screen with one’s self… but then Leo already has extensive experience doing that, and doing it well.
This demo shows just some of the possibilities for bringing outside models into the world of iClone, using their extremely powerful tool 3DXchange2. While Sketchup isn’t the sole input path, it’s one of the more appealing ones for quick results because of the mind boggling volume of freely available models in Google’s 3D Warehouse.
What’s most impressive to me about this isn’t just the ability to import while preserving textures, but the features like auto smoothing and specularity adjustment - extremely difficult feats for beginners to do via other methods.
Keep an eye out for more 3DXchange videos on Reallusion’s YouTube channel, which is already loaded with fantastic iClone2 tutorials by James Martin.
If you’ve been looking for a good machinima demonstration of what iClone can do, look no further than Paul Louis‘ latest film, “The Opera-tives.”
Performed in the style of classic-era comedy (Groucho Marx, Stan & Laurel, a bit of Abbott and Costello), this piece is a phenomenal representation of the variety of animations possible in iClone 2.5. Additionally, it’s a very nice showcase of some of the different character looks which are possible in the platform. Paul is a prolific character designer in iClone, both commercially as well as via the unbelievable number of freebies he gives away on his blog. And, he’s the author of what I think are the best video tutorials on the subject.
Even if the style of the piece isn’t your typical fare, if you’re interested in evaluating iClone for your toolkit I encourage you to take a look.
By way of the 3DXchange add-on, there are a great number of paths by which one can get 3D content into iClone. For a large number of source formats, these can be brought into iClone without owning any large commercial 3D modeling program like Max or Maya.
Check out the following map I put together using Bubbl.us, it illustrates just some of the pathways by which 3d material and animations can make their way into iClone via 3DXchange.
Consider this a work in progress. I made this for myself as a guide when I’m looking at places like TurboSquid or other content stores, if I see a piece of work I’d like to use in one of the machinima programs, I want to see what would be involved in bringing it over. The process underlying any one of those connecting lines is not always easy; eventually, I’d like to turn this map into something interactive, with clickable links to definitions, how-tos, etc.
I focused on intermediary tools that I have in my own possession; you probably have a different set. If you’d like me to share this “mind map” with you via Bubbl.us so you can adapt it to your own setup, feel free to befriend me there (I’m zsoverman), there are some nice collaboration features.
This kind of map does not yet exist for Moviestorm; the paths are still being forged even now. I’m fortunate enough to be working closely with some of the minds taking on this task, so as soon as those paths are paved, I’ll present something similar to this for Moviestorm. As time permits, I plan to do the same for Antics, and for several game platforms like the Source engine, Unreal, and so on.
Text, Drugs & Rock ‘n’ Roll - An insightful analysis of interactive storytelling, how it is most in tune with who we are as beings and what we expect from life.
mPATHx - I’ve been following development on this piece of hardware for a few years; I’m told it is now very close to hitting market. Could be tremendously valuable for anyone who deals with a lot of onboard gear for either music or even machinima and home entertainment setups.
FILM: A GMan Story (Take 2) - It’s rough. It’s downright amateurish. And it’s a JOY to watch. (particularly for fans of the Half-Life series of games, like me)
