iClone 4.31 3D Animation Beginner's Guide
eBook - ePub

iClone 4.31 3D Animation Beginner's Guide

  1. 508 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

iClone 4.31 3D Animation Beginner's Guide

About this book

In Detail

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.

Approach

This book is a part of the Beginner's guide series, wherein you will quickly start doing tasks with precise instructions. Then the tasks will be followed by explanation and then a challenging task or a multiple choice question about the topic just covered.

Who this book is for

Do you have a story to tell or an idea to illustrate? This book is aimed at film makers, video producers/compositors, vxf artists or 3D artists/designers like you who have no previous experience with iClone. If you have that drive inside you to entertain people via the internet on sites like YouTube or Vimeo, create a superb presentation video, showcase a product or create a movie, or get a fast start on the iClone program, this Beginner's guide was written with you in mind.

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iClone 4.31 3D Animation Beginner's Guide


Table of Contents

iClone 4.31 3D Animation
Credits
Foreword
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Support files, eBooks, discount offers and more
Why Subscribe?
Free Access for Packt account holders
Preface
What this book covers
What you need for this book
Who this book is for
Conventions
Time for action - heading
What just happened?
Pop quiz - heading
Have a go hero - heading
Reader feedback
Customer support
Downloading the example code
Downloading the color images of this book
Errata
Piracy
Questions
1. Installing and Configuring iClone
Installing the program
Time for action - installing iClone 4 pro
What just happened
Time for action - installing related iClone content
What just happened?
Time for action - exploring iClone options
What just happened?
Configuring work environment
Setting up the 3D grid
Controlling display information
Exploring real-time render options
Choosing the shader
Manipulating objects
Locating Custom Content folder
Installing new content
Using drag-and-drop
Importing new content
Working with zipped files
Welcome to iClone
Interacting with the iClone community
Free iClone assets
Exploring the Reallusion Content Store
Discovering the Reallusion Marketplace
Downloading your trial and purchased items
Time for action - download and installation steps
What just happened?
Exploring the iClone user interface
Exploring the workspace
Selecting objects in the workspace
Pop quiz
Summary
2. Creating Your First Scene
Let the animation begin!
Exploring your virtual studio
Exploring the 3D workspace
Time for action - creating the outdoors
What just happened?
Working with Live Plants
Time for action - creating virtual foliage
What just happened?
Have a go hero - clear the meadow
Adding props to the scene
Placing props
Time for action - house building
What just happened?
Have a go hero - modifying the scene
Manipulating props
Selecting the tools
Manipulating objects directly
Manipulating with precision using gizmos
Handling direct input
Working with iProps (interactive props)
Time for action - placing the iProp
What just happened?
What just happened?
Animated props
Time for action - importing animated props
What just happened?
Creating props from building blocks
What do you see in a primitive?
Time for action - building a gazebo without hand tools!
What just happened?
Diffusing opacity and other maps.
Exploring the mapping channels
Time for action - painting the gazebo
What just happened?
Time for action - correcting the texture mapping
What just happened?
Painting option
Time for action - adding fire effects to the grill
What just happened?
Creating see through material
Turning nothing into something
Lighting in 3D animation
Light types and shadows
Understanding ambient light
Manipulating the lights in the 3D workspace
Setting the mood with lighting and atmosphere
Time for action - setting the ambient light
What just happened?
Time for action - working with shadows
What just happened?
Time for action - manipulating the atmosphere
What just happened?
Time for action - lighting up the grill
What just happened?
Summary
Pop quiz - face-off
3. Adding and Customizing Characters
Developing unique characters
Time for action - loading characters
What just happened?
Customizing character features
Time for action - loading a face image
What just happened?
Time for action - correct the lighting
What just happened
Time for action - customizing our character
What just happened?
Time for action - customizing the head of the avatar
What just happened?
Have a go hero - customizing the avatar's face
Experimenting with model detail
Time for action - giving your character a new do!
What just happened?
Time for action - customizing the eyes and mouth
What just happened?
Skin
Have a go hero - loading and customizing a female character
Positioning the characters
Using character accessories and attaching props
Time for action - can't be cool without shades!
What just happened?
Time for action - shading the glasses
What just happened?
Time for action - attaching the fork prop
What just happened?
Interacting with the iProps
Time for action - grabbing a beer
What just happened?
Altering the characters' clothing
Time for action - altering female avatar clothing
What just happened?
Altering clothing using color
Time for action - altering the male avatar's clothing
What just happened?
Time for action - modifying the avatar's pants
What just happened?
Basics of character dialog
Lip-sync
Adding dialog
Creating dialog using the interface
Recording dialog using a microphone
Inserting audio files ...

Table of contents

  1. iClone 4.31 3D Animation Beginner's Guide

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Yes, you can access iClone 4.31 3D Animation Beginner's Guide by M.D. McCallum in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Computer Science & Computer Graphics. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.