Book Image

iClone 4.31 3D Animation Beginner's Guide

By : Mike D McCallum
Book Image

iClone 4.31 3D Animation Beginner's Guide

By: Mike D McCallum

Overview of this book

Reallusion’s iClone is an animated movie making application that allows hobbyists, machinimators, home-based animators, and professionals to visualize their story or an idea by seeing it in action. Years ago, creating animations and single images would require a team of trained artists to accomplish. Now, iClone real time rending engine empowers its users to instantly view what is loaded into the 3D workspace or preview it as an animation, if you have the precise instructions.The iClone 3D Animation Beginner’s Guide will walk you through the building and animating of a complete scene and several one-off projects. First we create a scene with sky, terrain , water, props and other assets. Then add two characters and manipulate their features and animate their movement. We will also use particles to create the effect of a realistic torch and animate cameras to give different views to the scene. Finally we will see how to quickly import images to enhance the scene with a mountain, barn, and water tank. It will cover some fun stuff such as playing with props, characters, and other scene assets. It will also demonstrate some advanced topics such as screen resolution, formats and codecs but mostly it will deal with doing hands on animation with precise instructions.Starting with a blank project using stock and downloadable assets you will learn to lay out and animate a scene and export that scene to both a single image and a movie. The main project will demonstrate many common and undocumented techniques, while each project introduces and examines tools and techniques for successful and fun animation of ideas or scripts.Each project of the book including the main project is designed to cover the aspects of 3D animation in a manner which anyone with basic computer skills can follow. You will discover the importance of lighting a scene including daytime scenes. The concept of the timeline and key frames will be covered in detail and other topics such as rendering (exporting), character modification and prop placement all have their own sections with step by step instructions followed by an explanation of what just happened. Good animation habits and project basics are stressed throughout the book interspersed with time saving tips and techniques gained from years of experience with iClone.When you have finished The iClone 3D Animation Beginner’s Guide you will have a solid foundation in the basics of iClone by having animated a scene with multiple characters and props that involves dialog and interaction with other characters. You will have the knowledge to create new animation projects to hone your skills, tell your story, educate students or sell your product.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)
iClone 4.31 3D Animation
Credits
Foreword
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface

Foreword

First and foremost, I would like to thank Mike (M.D. McCallum) for the idea and inspiration that has taken to create such an endeavor. This is truly a noble cause that will undoubtedly inspire many throughout the years.

This all started a while back when Mike contacted me about his idea of writing a book about iClone. From the get-go, we were completely ecstatic that iClone would finally get the personal treatment direct from the mind and hands of a true production industry veteran.

From its inception, iClone has been an untamed breed of 3D software designed especially for creative users without prior 3D backgrounds. A software that, even though was jam-packed with the latest features and technology, was always missing something. Apart from its heavy feature-based manuals and tutorial videos, iClone always lacked a proper guide to personally lead and inspire users to nurture an entire project from scratch.

I am deeply grateful that M.D. McCallum, the author who has contributed so much of his enthusiasm to the iClone community, has now volunteered to make this book. M.D. McCallum is the first featured iClone professional who is honored with several iClone movie awards, along with being one of the first users to set up the iClone Wikipedia page. His kindness and generosity has always permitted him to share his knowledge through the iClone Revolution website, which he started as a need to address so many iClone inquiries. Being a senior iClone Content Developer has also allowed him to push the limits of creativity not just of himself, but also of the entire animation community.

As most of you know already, iClone is not just a collection of years of heartbeats and oceans of fervor from the Reallusion team, but it is also a chest of dreams and collaborated efforts from dozens of worldwide content contributors who over time have made the world of 3D production so much more accessible and inspiring to all of us.

Thanks to Mike's gamut of iClone animation knowledge, readers can now get a comprehensive view of what an iClone production platform is, including, how to master tools, access fast growing content libraries from talented developers, and how to make the most of being a community member. His work not only holds the hands of beginners who yearn to explore iClone in a structural way, but it also lends itself as an enjoyable must-read for any iClone veteran.

This galvanized book has been long overdue and awaited by many users who have spent hundreds of thousands of man-hours figuring out how to get the most out of their iClone, not to mention those who have hungered to enter the world of independent film making with a great self-taught companion.

This piece of work is also a great reward and humbling reminder to the iClone development team that has witnessed their software being used across every continent and industry on the planet. There is so much that our words cannot express… Thank you.

Charles Chen CEO and Founding Partner of Reallusion, Inc.