iClone is a

real-time Real-time or real time describes various operations in computing or other processes that must guarantee response times within a specified time (deadline), usually a relatively short time. A real-time process is generally one that happens in defined ...

animation Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...

and rendering software program. Real-time playback is enabled by using a 3D videogame engine for instant on-screen rendering. Other functionality includes: full facial and

skeletal animation Skeletal animation or rigging is a technique in computer animation in which a character (or other articulated object) is represented in two parts: a surface representation used to draw the character (called the ''mesh'' or ''skin'') and a hierarc ...

of human and animal figures; lip-syncing; import of standard 3D file types including

FBX FBX (''Filmbox'') is a proprietary file format () developed by Kaydara and owned by Autodesk since 2006. It is used to provide interoperability between digital content creation applications. FBX is also part of Autodesk Gameware, a series of vid ...

; a timeline for editing and merging motions; a

Python Python may refer to: Snakes * Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia ** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia * Python (mythology), a mythical serpent Computing * Python (pro ...

API and a scripting language (

Lua Lua or LUA may refer to: Science and technology * Lua (programming language) * Latvia University of Agriculture * Last universal ancestor, in evolution Ethnicity and language * Lua people, of Laos * Lawa people, of Thailand sometimes referred t ...

) for character interaction; application of standard motion-capture files; the ability to control an animated scene in the same manner as playing a videogame; and the import of models from Google

3D Warehouse SketchUp is a suite of subscription products that include SketchUp Pro Desktop, a 3D modeling Computer-Aided Design (CAD) program for a broad range of drawing and design applications — including architectural, interior design, industrial and ...

, among many other features. iClone is also notable for offering users royalty-free usage of all content that they create with the software, even when using Reallusion's own assets library. iClone is developed and marketed by

Reallusion Reallusion is a 2D and 3D character creation and animation software developer with tools from cartoon characters to digital humans and animation pipelines for films, real-time engines, video games, virtual production, archvis. The character ...

History

Reallusion launched iClone v1.0 in December, 2005 as a tool to create 3D animation and render animated videos. It supported real-time 3D animation and creation of avatars from photographs. Reallusion’s facial mapping and lip-synch animation technology derived from the 2001 release of CrazyTalk 2D animation software. The face mapping tools and real-time 3D animation environment made iClone popular with the community of Machinima, which is a video game based filmmaking technique that transformed gamers into filmmakers by capturing live video action from within video games and virtual worlds, like Quake and

Second Life ''Second Life'' is an online multimedia platform that allows people to create an avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user created content within a multi player online virtual world. Developed and owned by the San Fra ...

. The ability of gamers to sell or broadcast their films was challenged by game makers. iClone v1.0 was adopted by many Machinima filmmakers and was showcased at the 2005 Machinima Film Festival held at the

Museum of the Moving Image The Museum of the Moving Image is a media museum located in a former building of the historic Astoria Studios (now Kaufman Astoria Studios), in the Astoria neighborhood in Queens, New York City. The museum originally opened in 1988 as the Amer ...

in Queens, New York. Reallusion's Vice President John C Martin II presented the Machinima Festival attendees with a demo of iClone and news that Reallusion would provide a full commercial license for all movies produced with v1.0 and beyond as a counter-strike to game development companies’ policy. Machinima Festival 2005 wiki iClone v2.0 was released in March 2007 with an emphasis on new G2 character styles and the introduction of Clone Cloth, for creating custom clothing for actors through editing materials and applying them to pre-designed 3D avatar models; it became one of the first ways iClone users could create and sell their own content for iClone. V2.0 also brought particle effects, fog and HD video output. iClone v3.0 was launched in August 2008, adding a revised UI featuring scene manager for organizing projects and enabling the viewport for live direct object picking and interaction. G3 characters enhanced Clone Cloth options and made character faces more refined with facial Normal Maps. The Editor Mode and Director Mode were introduced to enable a scene editing mode and a live real-time director control mode where users could pilot characters and vehicles with videogame-like keyboard controls W, A, S, D. Animation created in Director Mode built a series of live motion data on the iClone timeline and was able to be tweaked in Editor Mode. Multi cameras were added in iClone v3.0 with camera switcher for filming scenes in multiple real-time angles. Character animation was made possible with motion editing for inverse and forward kinematics. Material editing became possible from within iClone so enhancing any prop or actor was capable by exporting and editing material textures and reapplying them to iClone. The stage was enhanced with Terrain, Sky, Water and the first appearance of SpeedTree natural tree and foliage designer. Multiple shader modes in Preview, Wireframe and Pixel shading became options for users to balance the screen output with their machine performance. The Certified Content creators program opened allowing iClone users to upload and market their custom content to a Reallusion hosted portal for content sales. iClone v4.0 – October 2009 – Drag and drop manipulation and a gizmo for transforming objects within the 3D viewport was added in iClone v4.0. Importing any image or video as a 3D object for real-time playback enabled direct compositing of real-time 3D and video in iClone. Videos were able to be imported as alpha transparent with iClone’s PopVideo companion. Visual effects in iClone were further enhanced with the introduction of real-time HDR (High Dynamic Range) and IBL (Image based lighting). Characters were enhanced with G4 options for enhanced character body styles, improved body mesh and ability to import Poser and Second Life generated texture maps. Jimmy-toon G4 character was introduced as a customizable cartoon bodystyle avatar for iClone. iClone 4.2 released in May 2010 added Stereo 3D support for rendering images and video in anaglyph, side by side and top down formats. iClone 5.0 and 5.5 released over 2011 and 2012 adding functions for motion capture, Human IK and a pipeline for importing and exporting FBX characters and props for use in game engines and other 3D production tools. Reallusion put emphasis on cross-compatibility with Unity, UDK, Autodesk 3D Studio Max, Maya, Z-brush, Allegorithmic, DAZ and Poser. The iClone Animation Pipeline became a trio of products: iClone PRO, 3DXchange for import, export and rigging, and the Mocap Device Plugin enabling real-time motion capture with the Microsoft Kinect for Windows and OpenNI sensor supported devices. The addition of HumanIK from Autodesk gave natural human motion to iClone and provided animation editing enhancement to generate better motions, foot & hand locking and reach targets for prop interaction. Animation generated with 5.0 and 5.5 could be exported for use external programs. Video game developers benefited from the iClone Animation Pipeline as a way to prepare custom actors for games with face and body animation ready to import into game projects. The iClone Animation Pipeline opened a portal for artists to access the Reallusion marketplace to acquire models, characters and motions for use in games and 3D development. iClone 6.0 released in December 2014, offered a large amount of visual and performance improvements like improved soft cloth physics simulation, object-oriented constraints, a new lighting system with the possibility for infinite lights instead of the previous 8 light system, light props, support for Allegorithmic's

procedurally generated In computing, procedural generation is a method of creating data algorithmically as opposed to manually, typically through a combination of human-generated assets and algorithms coupled with computer-generated randomness and processing power. In ...

materials, and ultra realistic rendering with iClone's

Indigo Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...

plug-in allowing users to raytrace their projects in Indigo RT for photo realistic results. This new iClone iteration was designed to allow for easy, future plug-in compatibility with other programs and applications. iClone 6.0 came updated for

DirectX Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with "Direct", ...

11 bringing with it

tessellation A tessellation or tiling is the covering of a surface, often a plane (mathematics), plane, using one or more geometric shapes, called ''tiles'', with no overlaps and no gaps. In mathematics, tessellation can be generalized to high-dimensional ...

effects to add real-time geometric details to models, real-time surface smoothing to improve the appearance of objects and characters with more details and higher quality. Later iClone 6.02 was offered in a DirectX 9 version for legacy users that could not immediately upgrade to DirectX 11. iClone 7 released in 2017, bringing with it a completely new, visual posture. Compared to previous versions, iClone 7 included the latest visual technologies such as PBR (Physically-based Rendering), GI (Global Illumination), IBL (Image-based lighting), and a Real Camera System to help users produce photorealistic animations. Reallusion also upgraded iClone's data-exchange module - 3DXchange 7, making it smoother and more powerful as well. Compared to previous versions, the 3DXchange 7 can import and export more types of items like cameras, PBR content, and character morphs.

Applications

Besides being used as a 3D moviemaking tool, iClone is also a platform for

video game development Video game development (or gamedev) is the process of developing a video game. The effort is undertaken by a developer, ranging from a single person to an international team dispersed across the globe. Development of traditional commercial PC a ...

and

previsualization Previsualization (also known as previsualisation, previs, previz, pre-rendering, preview or wireframe windows) is the visualizing of scenes or sequences in a movie, prior to filming. It is also a concept in various creative practices, including an ...

allowing users to import and export content such as characters, props and animation data with external 3D tools like

Unreal Engine Unreal Engine (UE) is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter game ''Unreal''. Initially developed for PC first-person shooters, it has since been used in a variety of genres ...

Unity Unity may refer to: Buildings * Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building * Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper * Unity Buildings, Liverpool, UK; two buildings in England * Unity Chapel, Wyoming, Wisconsin, US; a h ...

Autodesk Maya Autodesk Maya, commonly shortened to just Maya ( ), is a 3D computer graphics application that runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, originally developed by Alias and currently owned and developed by Autodesk. It is used to create assets for interact ...

3ds Max Autodesk 3ds Max, formerly 3D Studio and 3D Studio Max, is a professional 3D computer graphics program for making 3D animations, models, games and images. It is developed and produced by Autodesk Media and Entertainment. It has modeling capabil ...

Blender A blender (sometimes called a mixer or liquidiser in British English) is a kitchen appliance, kitchen and laboratory appliance used to mix, crush, purée or emulsion, emulsify food and other substances. A stationary blender consists of a blender ...

, ZBrush,

Poser Poser or ''variant'', may refer to: *a hard problem, a poser *a hard question, a poser People *Poseur, a person who inauthentically adopts a certain subculture *a person playing a role, a role-play, a fake, an imposter * Bob Poser (1910–2002) ...

and many others through popular industry file formats like

, OBJ and BVH. Other applications include using iClone as a 3D simulator for education, industry and business since iClone's real-time capabilities allow for direct "WASD" controls through keyboards or other input devices.

Motion capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mo-cap or mocap, for short) is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robo ...

known as Mocap, is another iClone feature that allows users to connect multiple motion capturing hardware, from popular industry sources, and combine them into one or more subjects in real-time. This is done through iClone's universal mocap platform Motion LIVE. With iClone Motion LIVE users are able to acquire profiles (plug-ins) for their necessary hardware (gear) to seamlessly stream, capture and later edit animation data inside iClone's buil-in motion editing suite. These motions can then be exported by using iClone's 3DXchange Pipeline software using FBX and BVH. iClone also includes an

Unreal Engine 4 Unreal Engine (UE) is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter game ''Unreal''. Initially developed for PC first-person shooters, it has since been used in a variety of genre ...

LIVE LINK plug-in which live streams full-body, hand and facial animation directly from iClone to UE4 for realtime animation production. A similar plug-in is currently being developed for use with iClone and

's Mecanim system. Since its 6.5 update, iClone allows for quick 360-Video output, allowing users to turn animation projects into 360 panorama videos. Another update is the

Alembic An alembic (from ar, الإنبيق, al-inbīq, originating from grc, ἄμβιξ, ambix, 'cup, beaker') is an alchemical still consisting of two vessels connected by a tube, used for distillation of liquids. Description The complete disti ...

export capability, an interchange point cache format used by visual effects and animation professionals, that allows iClone animation detail export to other game engines, or 3D tools. Version 7.0 introduced a reworked architecture that would finally grant iClone customization options for users who wished to create their own

based plug-ins for use with a wide range of motion capture suits, facial mocap profiles, hardware devices and others.

Features

* Production – Preset Layouts for Directing, In-screen Editing, Drag-n-Drop Creation, Play-to-Create Controls, Animation Path & Transition. * Actor – Character Base & Templates, Custom 3D Head from Photo, Facial & Body Deformation, Custom Clothing Design. * Animation – MixMoves Motion Graph System,

Motion Capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mo-cap or mocap, for short) is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robo ...

with Depth Cam, Face and Body Puppeteering, Face and Body Motion Key Editing, Audio Lipsyncing, Character Embedded Performances. * Prop – Interactive Props with iScript, Soft and Rigid Body Physics Animation, FLEX & Spring simulation, Multi-channel Material Textures, Animated UV Props, Prop Puppet. * Stage – Modular Scene Construction, Flexible environment System (Atmosphere, HDR, IBL),

Ambient Occlusion In 3D computer graphics, modeling, and animation, ambient occlusion is a shading and rendering technique used to calculate how exposed each point in a scene is to ambient lighting. For example, the interior of a tube is typically more occluded ...

Toon Shader Toon may refer to: Places * Tōon, Ehime, a Japanese city in Ehime Prefecture * Toon, the former name of Ferdows, a city in South Khorasan Province, Iran * Toon, Somaliland, a town in the Garoodi region People * Toon (name), a list of peop ...

, Fog. * Camera – Camera Gizmo & Camera Studio ( PIP), Animatable Lenses, Link-to & Look-at, Lighting Systems,

Depth of Field The depth of field (DOF) is the distance between the nearest and the furthest objects that are in acceptably sharp focus in an image captured with a camera. Factors affecting depth of field For cameras that can only focus on one object dist ...

, Shadow. * Video Effects – Real-time Particle FX, Material FX, Media Compositing, Post FX. * Render & Output – Real-time Render, Image Sequence for Post Editing, Popular Image & Video Format Output, 3D Stereo Output.

Content

Users can purchase content from the Reallusion Content Store for iClone, CrazyTalk, CrazyTalk Animator, FaceFilter and 3DXChange. The store also hosts content packs from

third-party developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

s such as

Daz 3D Daz Productions, Inc. (commonly known as Daz 3D, stylized Daz3D or DAZ 3D in some logos) is a 3D-content and software company specializing in providing rigged 3D human models, associated accessory content, and software to the hobbyist as well ...

, 3D Total Materials, 3D Universe, Dexsoft, Quantum Theory Ent. and others. The Reallusion Marketplace provides a trading platform for independent content developers.

References

External links