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~ iClone Motion Editor Custom Animation Example ~

~ Friday 2 March 2007 ~

"iClone" is an evolving animation-creation software program that generally caters well for self-taught have-a-go-hero-home-hobbyists who probably can't afford the time, money and daisy-chains of PCs that may be required to render output from exclusive high-end professional packages.

It ships with a small starter selection of pre-set character movements that, due to this universality of provision, have a ubiquitousness and instant-recognisability that has tended to distractingly de-value them through their being, necessarily,

<<DONE TO DEATH>>.

Fortunately, the option to expand, deviate and "Create-Your-Own" has always been available to purchasers of the top version of the product. Prior to iClone 3, unique sequences could be choreographed by posing and re-posing an undecorated artist's model-like "doll", along a timeline, in a 3D applet called "Motion Editor".

Here you can take a peep at playback from about forty seconds of dancing that I strung together, without the benefits of audio-scrub or a figure that could be relied upon to precisely match the idiosyncratic physical form of its clothed recipient :

[youtube=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=P_jZshuLNe0]

The audio-visual synchronisation drops off after about 16 seconds. I don't think Motion Editor was designed to be used for lengthy pieces.... I therefore, always, MIS-used it by trying to create COMPLETE character animations for full-length songs. My results also tended to be rather jerky. I think this was due to a combination of harsh keyframing and the general difficulty of trying to create BELIEVABLE, natural, springy activity by hand.

To assist with this manual task, provision is made for film to be placed, for reference, behind the model so that you could attempt to match the movements of real actors. It's an innovative idea but one that fewer people would need to explore if Reallusion provided a wide range of individually-downloadable, fully-editable motion captures.

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Lastly (!) you may view the final (ghastly ?) (not) resting p(l)ace of the above custom motion :

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE0yj3nuHGM]

Subtitled version :

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZ7GUTpJwJ0]

Yes, the presentation, a composite of output from Crazy Talk 4 and iClone 1.52, is a MESS with all kinds of everything happening at entirely the WRONG speeds - but, it flows 'n' shows O'Beady-Eyed obedience to the BEAT.