S.C.O.T.: Progress, and the magnificence of iClone Animation Pipeline.
Entry posted by ChrisV ·
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Hello everyone,
Why make the lives of artists/animators difficult, while it can be sooo much easier? Well, that's a question I can't answer. But...I can answer this...there IS an easy way to animate 3D characters, AND get them inside your game(s)! 
A few months ago, I bought the Reallusion iCLone Animation Pipeline package, and since then, I haven't regreted it for one moment. Although, I must admit, at first I was rather skeptical and not convinced whether or not to buy the program, but I'm glad I did. This is one of those rare programs that actually does what it says.
I will not give an in-depth blog about iClone yet (will come later in another blog, I might even do a videoblog 
), but rather tell my experience with the iClone package and talk about how I got some animated 3D characters inside S.C.O.T. (Sevent Crystal Of Theia), the adventure/puzzle game that Roland and I are developing.
Speaking of which, S.C.O.T. has gone through some changes, and we're very pleased how it has evolved. One of these changes is the 'look'. We've gone for a more cartoony/comic kinda look, thanks to Dadonik's Dirty Cartoon Shader. Thanks, man!
Another change has been that the 'Backyard' level (where the player had the option to change/save game settings) is no more, and is been replaced with an Options-screen that can be accessed during the game. Roland is working on that at the moment, amongst many other nice things, and will soon work on more gameplay features, which will be soo much more fun to do. He's really doing an excellent job at it, and I would like to thank him once more for being such a great person and coder! You are the King, man!
The game is now working entirely (or most part of it anyways) with SQL, which simplifies many things for the game.
The splashscreens have been redone, work has been done for the inventory (code and art), new models have been added to the desert level (which has also a newly created sky), some pickups have also been added to the game (for health and such), and...the first 'monster' has been created/animated, and added to the game.
Which reminds me, soon I'll upload some new skyboxes in the asset store.
Ok, time for some recent screens.
Here's a new cool 'model' (one of my animated spritesheets) added to the level:
Another new model:
New sky:
And finally, the new 'monster' :
Wanted to show more ingame screens, but I'd better leave some for another blog, aye? Hehhehe!
To finish this blog, I would like to talk a bit more about iClone. I'm sure some of you would love that. And, I will probably make a more detailed (video)blog soon, but for now, let's just keep it basic.
To begin with, iClone 3DXChange (Animation Pipeline) isn't a modeling program, but you can however create new characters by modifying the basic models (male/female), and import them back into iClone to get them animated, and the process is really simple! Just select the part which you want to modify (in 3DXChange), export as .obj, import in your modeling program, and re-import back into iClone after altering the mesh.
Also, iClone doesn't have the same rigging tools a regular 3D modeling program has. So, you should do the rigging yourself, and then when imported into 3DXChange, convert the rig to a rig that iCLone can work with. There are already a few standard rig setups available (Maya Human IK, 3ds max biped, 3ds max biped-type 2, DAZ4 Genesis) or create a custom one.
If you're not an expert on rigging, I'd suggest you get your 3D character rigged (free for models up to 10 K) with Mixamo's Auto Rigger. Very easy to do, and the result is excellent.
Then, just import this rigged character in iClone 3DXChange, and convert it to a non-standard rig, and apply the Maya rig, which works perfectly for Mixamo's rig. After that, it's just a matter of applying animations to your character, and export your model (including animation) as an .fbx file, and convert to .gmf.
IClone has many cool features for character animation setup, such as facial animation, lip sync, foot- and handcontact on your models, kinect device recording (for creating your very own moves), and so much more.
Well, that's it for now. I could talk more about this great program, but then you might think I'm just promoting. Hehhehe! 
Anyways, hope you enjoyed this blog, and 'till the next one. Thanks for your comments.
Cheers
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