Hopefully Reallusion officially adopts this as they Did the Blender and Autodesk Max Pipeline in tools
Thanks for sharing^^ I was also thinking about creating a general CC4 → C4D topic somewhere on this forum (if possible). As there is not yet a ‘C4D’ subcategory under pipeline. To have a general ‘goto place’ for questions, suggestions and issues regarding all things C4D (and CC4D Tools) related
You could just start a thread under General /3D animation
and title it something like “The official Iclone/CC4 to C4D Discussion thread”
I would second @AutoDidact on this. Just create a specific thread for the CC4 to C4D workflow under Pipeline—CC4D Tools is supposed to help with the CC4 to C4D pipeline after all (as I did here).
As you mentioned, there is no subsection specifically for C4D in the Pipeline category, and I don’t expect there to be one any time soon. C4D does not get the same kind of love other third-party DCCs receive (either from Reallusion or from individual developers—maybe that’ll change).
Just be sure to add the “cinema-4D” tag to the thread.
Is anybody using this CC4D tool? It looks pretty powerful, tho, it seems like it would mean animating in C4D instead of making use of iClone’s set of animation tools(?)
Hi Tim
actually it means you would import your characters one time setup redshift materials and retarget/replace new animations from Iclone to the CC4 control rig repeatedly
and when you need any adjustments (Minor or major) you have proper viewport rig controls instead of Drilling down into the object manager hierarchy looking for a forearm bone etc. Like how he imports a reallusion motion here 4:30
of this video
Hello everyone,
I use this tool. It works exactly as shown in the video. I have not yet tested the new material import.
Best regards
Peter
I have the tool, but I haven’t really used or updated it yet (I’m not doing any character work at the moment).
Okay, thanks, all! @AutoDidact, I watched the video, and I can see some of the advantages, but I might need to look a little closer to see if it would work for me. At first viewing, it still looks like a bit of messing around, but for the price, I could just give it a try, I suppose. The only thing that gives me pause is the idea of changing my workflow for a third-party plugin that could go away or not get updated quickly. I used to use Interposer Pro and a number of other plugins over the years that disappeared, and it makes it hard to go back to older files if the plugin no longer works, so I’ll have to think about it.
Indeed we both know that all too well.
The hope is that we can nudge Reallusion into
officially “adopting” the CC4D tools as part of their
pipeline tool sets in the way they have done with our Blender and Autodesk Max pipeline tools.
Like CC4D, both of those were originally
personal projects from single individuals
and now get official support & updates from Reallusion
The question is therefore - how can Reallusion be motivated to support the project?
In my opinion, Iclone needs to develop significantly in order to be able to compete with other animation programmes. The deficits are already clearly recognisable today. Iclone can still be used for scenes with few polygons. But if there are more, it won’t work at all.
The quality of the rendering engine is also well below the possibilities offered by other programmes.
So where are the strengths of Iclone and CC4? In my opinion, in animation. Compared to other programmes, it is simple. That’s why I think you can earn significantly more and better money there in future than in animation. If I am right about this, CC4, CC5… can be developed further.
Incidentally, you can also take a look at Reallusion’s share price. In May 2023, it was still around 60Taiwan dollars. It is currently at 16 TWD.
Despite the uncertainties on the stock markets, that doesn’t sound like a success story to me.
Here are a few more figures I found online (source: Simply Wall Street):
full year 2024 results:
EPS: NT$0.35 (down from NT$1.23 in FY 2023).
Revenue: NT$293.4m (down 11% from FY 2023).
Net income: NT$8.04m (down 72% from FY 2023).
Profit margin: 2.7% (down from 8.6% in FY 2023).
The decrease in margin was driven by lower revenue.
Over the last 3 years on average, earnings per share has fallen by 45% per year but the company’s share price has only fallen by 32% per year, which means it has not declined as severely as earnings.
In my opinion, Reallusion now needs to focus on one product. But as I said, it’s just my opinion. I could be completely wrong.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
The question is therefore - how can Reallusion be motivated to support the project?
By the same “motivations” that led them to support the Blender pipeline, tool the Max pipeline tool the UE5 live link, the Unity auto setup and apparently we are finally getting
a proper Pipeline tool with Arnold material support in Maya.
They are trying to grow their user base.
In my opinion, Iclone needs to develop significantly in order to be able to compete with other animation programmes. The deficits are already clearly recognisable today. Iclone can still be used for scenes with few polygons. But if there are more, it won’t work at all.
The quality of the rendering engine is also well below the possibilities offered by other programmes.
So where are the strengths of Iclone and CC4? In my opinion, in animation. Compared to other programmes, it is simple.
Looking at the new and ,much need time code feature. I would speculate that Reallusion is trying to position itself as an affordable alternative to Autodesk Motionbuilder.
This is going to be a difficult task not only because of the entrenched habits and eco system comfort bubble of Autodesk users.
But the complete lack of support for non biped creatures
and the lack of a truly accessible SDK for external programmers to add their own custom profile themselves to motion capture horses or Dogs etc.
Reallusion has given Iclone users no less than four
pipeline exporters option to FREE higher quality render engines omniverse ,UE5, Unity and Blender cycles.
it seems obvious they they are NOT going to
undertake the insanely expensive task of developing an internal render engine on the quality level of
Omniverse ,UE5,Unity and Blender cycles.
so Iclone users unhappy with the internal engine need to pick one of those four FREE options and learn to use it.
The demise of RL has been predicted many times over the years, “unless they do this or that”. Until now they have survived. As long as they can pay their staff and don’t have unsustainable debts, they should be fine.
I always thought they were actually privately owned and got a cash infusion to get them started.
I can work with the renderer with suitable post-processing and soon their will be really good AI options to render in any style you want, so that will be great. I’m not interested in hyper-realism myself.
There certainly is room for improvement, but at least they innovate, other than Poser, which still looks the same after many years.
I’m not interested in hyper-realism myself.
Nor am I and for those who are demanding “photo realism”
I would ask why they are using CC4/Iclone characters at all considering the unrealistic joint deformations and lack of realistic soft body jiggle physics/cloth and hair, simulation etc.
And you do not miraculously get those features added to CC4 characters even when you export to omniverse or UE5 ,Blender etc so amore “realistic” internal render engine, in Iclone, will not really solve the overall perceived problem of “realism”.
other than Poser, which still looks the same after many years.
Poser has no need to innovate long as it’s owners (Bondware/Renderosity) can keep the website up and running
from ads and Daz genesis content sales in that flea market of a store that subsidizes Posers continued existence.
We have already reached out to the creator of the CC4D Tools and discussions are ongoing. If there’s more news to share I’ll pass it on.
Good to hear!!!
That is good news.
Best regards
Peter
Hello everyone,
Here is a link that I find interesting.
Best regards
Peter
https://www.instagram.com/p/DJIJmypMa7F/?igsh=MTJoZXU5MjNxMmh4YQ==