I brought iClone 8 into my character animation workflow – here’s what happened

Facial animation has come on a long way in recent years. I remember in 2017 being commissioned to create a set of animations to educate offshore workers on their health and safety responsibilities. Yep, I know, gripping stuff.

Every character was hand-rigged and every movement manually positioned. It was tedious and time-consuming, with movements lacking fluidity and realism. And don't get me started on the facial animations. They were rigid, inaccurate, and ineffective. It's a little bit embarrassing to look back at it, to be honest.

At the time I would have given my right arm for a character animation tool like iClone 8. With its dedicated body and facial animation tools, it's now possible for creatives like me to focus almost exclusively on a character's performance rather than on the technical processes of rigging and skinning. That's a game changer for me.

I had actually heard of iClone a few years ago but never had the opportunity to give it a whirl. That all changed recently when I was given premium access to iClone 8 and all its associated plugins. After installing the software and downloading a range of Character Creation characters, I was ready to have some fun.

Channelling my inner Gollum

The release of iClone 8 sees Reallusion upgrading its motion capture capabilities with AccuFace, a separately sold plugin that translates facial motion from a webcam, phone, or video onto a 3D character.

I first witnessed this type of technology when I watched Lord of the Rings. In that blockbuster trilogy, Weta Digital transferred the real-life performance of Andy Serkis onto the character of Gollum/Smeagol. At the time, 3D artists like me could only have dreamt of gaining access to such advanced mocap technology.

So, with as much excitement as an eight-year-old child in a sweet shop, I launched AccuFace, linked my webcam into the plugin, and proceeded to channel my inner Andy Serkis. What followed was a tonne of Gollum impressions and facial expressions that tested the very limits of my skin.

The fact that from point of install to capturing a few minutes of film-quality facial animation took little more than 15 minutes absolutely blew my mind. There were no teething issues, complicated setups, and no manual rig in sight. The software was able to accurately detect my facial features and perfectly apply them onto my chosen 3D character.

I discovered that AccuFace is able to capture even the most subtle of facial movements and replicate them without compromise. Lip-sync is second to none, and animation recording is smooth and seamless. I'm no character animation expert, but thanks to this tool, I didn't need to be. If you're starting out, I'd recommend this iClone 8 video tutorial for a walkthrough of the process.

I didn't make use of this feature, but it's also possible to use a pre-recorded video as the input source for facial animation. This means you can commission trained actors to record a performance – something that will elevate the overall output, especially if paired with their voice.

As well as AccuFACE, iClone 8 continues to feature Face Puppet, which provides manual controls for all facial features, including the eyes, brows, nose, and mouth. These tools are straightforward to use and are easily applied onto your 3D character.

A complete character animation package

As impressive as its facial animation tools are, iClone 8 offers so much more. With time to spare, I jumped into its advanced set of tools for posing and movement. I had heard about AccuPOSE CORE when I was researching the software, so I opened that plugin and had a look around.

I couldn't believe how quickly I could apply preset poses to my character. The steps were as simple as 1. Insert character to iClone, 2. Open AccuPOSE, 3. Double-click a pose, and magic, it's instantly applied to the character.

Having created thousands of architectural visualisations featuring countless 3D characters, I know that iClone will now completely transform my workflow. I can quickly make a character that is sitting down, standing up or lying down, not to mention the dozens of other preset poses. This will significantly speed up the process of 'set dressing' and increase my options for where I can place characters.

Posing in iClone 8 goes well beyond stationary positions, though. Thanks to Motion Puppet, you can effortlessly apply motion to characters. You can think of this tool as AccuPOSE but with motion applied, and the workflow is almost identical. The only difference is that iClone provides a set of parameters which can be dialled in for extensive customisation.

Personally, I'd like to see AccuPOSE and Motion Puppet combined into one tool, but for now it's not too much hassle to use them independently. I was also left wanting more AI within AccuPOSE, which would enable me to describe a pose and have the plugin interpret that for me.

iClone 8 also features crowd simulations, game-like control over animated movements, cinematic RTX rendering, Image to Cloth, realistic Joint Corrective Morphs and so much more. I'm looking forward to delving deeper into all these elements in the coming months.