Maya Animator discovers iClone 8 for Mocap Cleanup and Movement Enhancing

Dom Fred

Dom started his profession within the tv promoting trade, directing commercials utilizing new manufacturing’s digital and 3D instruments. Over the previous 20 years, he has additionally labored on music movies and documentaries, catering to a world clientele.

Since his childhood, Dom has been a martial artist, mastering varied disciplines resembling Taekwondo, Aikido, and Kung-Fu. His distinctive abilities in Taekwondo, notably on the Olympic and spectacular ranges, have highlighted his expertise for stunt work and acrobatics from a younger age.

In 2007, Dom established his personal firm, DOM ANIMATION STUDIO, specializing in product and post-production. With a novel contact, he incorporates 3D characters into actual environments, integrates particular results (SFX), and creates martial arts and acrobatics motion sequences for commercials.

In 2010, Dom directed a brief motion movie using digicam monitoring, movement seize, and 3D compositing methods. Two years later, he produced and directed his first impartial brief movies, which obtained a number of awards in Los Angeles, Texas, Las Vegas, and New York for Finest Motion Sequences, Finest Motion Director, and Finest Quick Movie.

Throughout the lockdown in 2020, Dom collaborated with screenwriter Alick Macaire to co-produce and direct his first worldwide animated film, “SPACE AGENTS: The Mysterious Ax.” This Sci-Fi movie revolves across the theme of hope for a greater tomorrow, serving as an allegory for Dom’s emotions throughout the darkish interval of the worldwide pandemic.

In SPACE AGENTS, Dom used a number of animation instruments together with MAYA, Unreal Engine, ActorCore motions. Alongside the best way, Dom found utilizing iClone 8 as an alternative to MAYA for mocap cleanup and movement modifying which allowed him to realize professional-grade animations at a fraction of the price, time, and energy spent with conventional 3D animation software program.

“iClone 8 simplified the method of cleansing movement captures, making changes, and including different actions to the characters inside our timeline. That is usually a difficult and time-consuming process on Maya, requiring good mastery of the instruments. Nonetheless, with iClone, we have been in a position to accomplish these duties extra simply, saving hours of labor.”

Dom Fred – Director / Producer / Editor / 3D Animator

Q: Greetings Dom, and welcome to our Reallusion Characteristic Tales. Kindly introduce your self and the work you might be doing with Alick Macaire for SPACE AGENTS.

Hello! To begin with, thanks to the Reallusion staff for offering us with an area the place we creators can share our inventive work. I’m Dom Fred, a 3D animator and motion director for actual battle scenes and particular results, with over 20 years of expertise at the moment. I started my ardour in 2D/3D promoting and documentary movies for manufacturers around the globe and TV channels. My love for martial arts led me to create brief motion movies and take part in lots of festivals worldwide, notably in America, the place I received a number of prizes.

In 2020, throughout the Covid-19 interval, I had the thought of making a science fiction universe known as “SPACE AGENTS.” In full confinement, I animated and produced a 5-minute 3D animation brief movie that I shared on social media. The optimistic reactions from the followers impressed me to create a characteristic movie model. As we speak, it could seem to be a easy story, however the journey took me 3 years of laborious work with a small, motivated staff, and I wish to say THANK YOU as soon as once more.

My expertise and data of 3D manufacturing instruments resembling Maya, iClone, Character Creator, ActorCore, and Unreal Engine allowed me to reassure my screenwriter and co-producer, Alick Macaire, that it was attainable to create a sci-fi movie in 3D on their own. The prolonged universe of SPACE AGENTS contains “The Soldier,” which is a discovery model, and “The Mysterious Ax,” a characteristic movie model that might be launched quickly.

Q: For The Soldier, an prolonged universe of SPACE AGENTS, you used Maya animation software program, ActorCore and Unreal Engine? How did incorporating iClone 8 into your workflow prevent effort and time compared to simply doing all animation modifying in Maya? May you elaborate on the time and value financial savings of utilizing iClone as an alternative of Maya for mocap cleanup and movement modifying?

For an impartial manufacturing like mine, the query of working money and time is at all times essential all through the manufacturing of an animated movie. Happily, iClone 8 proved to be the answer we would have liked in our manufacturing pipeline. Some of the important benefits was the seamless and fast import of animations from ActorCore to iClone 8 software program, for all of the animations we bought from {the marketplace}. This direct bridge considerably boosted our effectivity and allowed us to have full management over the stream of animations required for advanced battle scenes.

iClone simplified the method of cleansing movement captures, making changes, and including different actions to the characters inside our timeline. That is usually a difficult and time-consuming process on Maya, requiring good mastery of the instruments. Nonetheless, with iClone, we have been in a position to accomplish these duties extra simply, saving hours of labor.

In consequence we managed to finish “The Soldier” on time, because of the extra managed workflow it supplied. This has been a game-changer for our impartial manufacturing, each when it comes to time administration and funds concerns. General, iClone 8 has been a useful instrument that has streamlined our animation manufacturing course of, making it extra environment friendly and cost-effective.

Q:What are the benefits of utilizing ActorCore motions versus motions present in Mixamo or different platforms? May you describe any important distinction in content material, selection and high quality present in ActorCore libraries?

The benefits we skilled with ActorCore in comparison with different platforms are quite a few and have been instrumental within the success of our manufacturing. One of many key advantages is the well-organized classification of movement captures by class and theme. This made it extremely handy to search out the particular actions we would have liked for varied scenes in “The Soldier.”

For battle scenes, ActorCore supplied a a lot wider choice and a better number of mixtures in comparison with different platforms. This variety allowed us to create extra dynamic and fascinating battle sequences, including depth and pleasure to the movie.

The standard of the movement captures supplied by ActorCore is phenomenal, with a stage of realism that has clearly been honed by professionals from the cinema sector. This consideration to element and authenticity considerably enhanced the general high quality of our animated movie and made our work throughout manufacturing a lot smoother.

As impartial producers, gaining access to such a helpful useful resource as ActorCore has been a invaluable. It has empowered us to create a high-quality animated movie that meets our inventive imaginative and prescient and has undoubtedly contributed to our total satisfaction with the tip end result.

Q: Your remaining render was accomplished in Unreal Engine. How straightforward was it to attach and use Unreal with iClone 8? Did you employ the Unreal LIVE LINK plugin for this? Or simply manually imported all scenes and motions?

In “The Soldier,” we made intensive use of iClone’s Unreal LIVE LINK plugin, which proved to be highly effective for our manufacturing course of. This plugin enabled us to seamlessly switch all our animations from iClone to our characters in Unreal scenes, streamlining the workflow and saving us helpful time.

The true-time synchronization between iClone and Unreal by way of the LIVE LINK plugin allowed us to make changes and modifications to sure scenes of the Unreal challenge immediately from the iClone software program. This stage of integration and adaptability was essential in making certain a clean and environment friendly manufacturing course of, giving us extra management over our animated sequences in Unreal Engine.

“The true-time synchronization between iClone and Unreal by way of the LIVE LINK plugin allowed us to make changes and modifications to sure scenes of the Unreal challenge immediately from the iClone software program. This stage of integration and adaptability was essential in making certain a clean and environment friendly manufacturing course of, giving us extra management over our animated sequences in Unreal Engine.”

Dom Fred – Director / Producer / Editor / 3D Animator

The convenience of use of the iClone Unreal LIVE LINK plugin was a major benefit. As animators, we discovered the instrument to be intuitive and user-friendly, making our work much more fulfilling throughout the manufacturing of “The Soldier.” This seamless connection between iClone and Unreal Engine contributed to the general success of our challenge and helped us obtain our inventive imaginative and prescient.

Q: Please inform us when The Soldier might be launched, and when followers can stay up for seeing extra of your manufacturing with the SPACE AGENTS universe?

The prolonged universe of House Brokers is quickly to be obtainable for audiences to discover. Our first 94-minute characteristic movie, “SPACE AGENTS: THE MYSTERIOUS AX,” is a self-produced challenge by Naissandre Productions, with Alick Macaire because the co-producer and screenwriter. We’re thrilled to announce that the movie will quickly hit theaters and VOD platforms, bringing the thrilling sci-fi expertise to viewers worldwide.

As we proceed to develop “The Soldier,” we’re actively looking for funding and partnerships to help the manufacturing. We’re proud to work with the complete vary of Reallusion software program, together with Character Creator, iClone , and extra – which is able to undoubtedly improve the inventive course of and convey our imaginative and prescient to life.

A heartfelt thanks goes out to our gifted actors, devoted collaborators, and supportive producers, who’ve been with us because the starting of this journey. Collectively, we have now embraced the spirit of unity, as mirrored in our guiding motto: “Alone we go sooner, collectively we go additional.”

Because the director, Dom Fred, I’m excited concerning the upcoming launch of “SPACE AGENTS: THE MYSTERIOUS AX” and the event of “The Soldier.” These tasks symbolize our ardour for storytelling, animation, and the sci-fi style, and we will’t wait to share them with the world.

Keep tuned for extra updates and be a part of us on this thrilling journey into the House Brokers universe!

Director: Dom Fred