Depth of Options
As I mentioned before, Reallusion has tried to throw in a lot of “bang-for-your-buck” improvements into iClone 2.0. Some of these improvements really increase the flexibility of the package, while others are little more than CPU-intensive flash and sizzle. While they offer nice options, the fact that some important issues were overlooked makes iClone 2.0 a bit imbalanced.
Arguably, from a “practical use” side, one of the biggest new improvements is the inclusion of iClone’s new 3DXchange program, which allows you to import .OBJ and .3DS models and then export them into iClone, with textures intact. It is a very nice addition with the facility to import everything from scenery and props (created in 3D Studio Max, Cinema 4D, or Lightwave ) to rigged human models, (from Poser or Carrara, and provides a massive amount of new content to be worked with in iClone.
iClone 2.0's Clone Cloth feature allows you to create new garments for your G2 characters pretty easily.
Because this is the first release of 3DXchange, there is an improvement I would love to see in the future. Currently, if you import a model with a .PSD texture, 3DXchange won’t read it and will report broken texture links. (It will currently only import four types of files: JPG, BMP, PNG, or TGA.) Unfortunately, you can’t create a new version of the texture and re-link it in 3DXchange, because 3DXchange doesn’t support this ability. (Although, oddly enough, you can alter other material properties; such as specularity, glossiness, and color.) The only way to get the scene to work is to go back to your original model in 3D Studio Max, Lightwave, or whatever program you used, and change all your textures to ones that 3DXchange will accept. From here, you can then re-import it into 3DXchange. These issues could be removed by adding the ability to auto-convert .PSDs and/or the ability to re-link or re-texture items in 3DXchange.
Another of the new improvements are the new G2 models. Although it is the exact same naming model that E-Frontier uses for its new line of models, the two are completely unrelated. However, just like Poser’s improved line of models, iClone’s G2 models sport higher resolution textures and increased joints. This results in more realistic models that can move more subtly than those in iClone 1.5. Additionally, the new G2 models support a new type of clothing that Reallusion rolled out called “Clone Cloth.” This clothing can be retextured in Photoshop and “cut” up the way you want it. While they include two basic outfits in the normal package, users who want to make their own creations can buy the Clone Cloth Character pack; which includes a number of different styles, all ready to be dressed up any way you want. Think of it like high tech paper dolls with 3D options and you’ll grasp the possibilities. This is a nice, new option; since creating clothes for things (like Poser and other 3D packages) is much more difficult and costly,.
iClone 2.0's new particle effects are now available on a few of the props, like this cigar which trails smoke as it moves through space.
Perhaps the most advertised, new feature of iClone 2.0, is the addition of a particle physics engine, which is used to create things like smoking cigars and blood splatters. It also has environment-wide capabilities to create things like rain, fog, and snow; which is quite helpful. There are a pretty large number of style options to customize the type of particles generated: with the ability for users to also customize “diffuse” and “opacity” maps, particle emitter strength, size, velocity, color, quota, life cycle, gravity position and more. However, the limitation I found with this was a difficulty to place particle effects, except in the most general way. For example, you can have a particle emitter originate from an accessory on your character, or from your character’s body in general, but you can’t have it easily emit from a specific place on your character’s body. This makes positioning blood spatters a tedious procedure of moving vector coordinates. Hopefully, the future version of iClone will include the ability to graphically target an area of the body and link the emission to that location for its duration. This would also be a nice way to allow the addition of particle effects to guns and other weapons simply, because then you could target a gun’s barrel and create a muzzle blast. Suffice it to say that iClone still has not added common animations to things like weapons, so there’s no Off/On muzzle blast switch, like the one in Innoventive’s FrameForge 3DStudio.
