SkinRays

Experiments with iClone

Added 2021-07-26 03:11:43 +0000 UTC

My software of choice is Daz Studio but not because it is good at animation. It was designed for still images. Asked around and turns out it was invented to make romance novel covers! But it's where I started and after lots of trial and error and practice since 2013 or so, I can finally make my characters look great using it. Especially when they don't move!

Animating using Daz Studio is basically torture. Everyone knows it. But I have been using it long enough that I know what is safe to do, and what will make it crash or hang. But lots and lots of things, everyday basic important things, make it crash or hang. It is maddening. Also it has none of the basics-- like being able to keep her feet solidly on the ground while she moves. Movements are often jerky and glitchy it doesn't help at all, you need to keep track of every detail yourself.

Meanwhile am always looking into alternatives and staying on top of the technology. That means spending weeks trying to get something working in Blender, Unity, and Unreal. Latest is iClone which is a joy for animating but visually it is tough to get the results I want.

Here's some of my latest attempts. The two kinds of renders are 1) fast render mode which can render hundreds of frames per hour ("PBR" in the titles below) and 2) slower ray-traced render, the exact same renderer as Daz Studio ("IRAY" below) but getting the character, lighting and materials to look as good as Daz Studio is still a struggle.

She moves much more fluidly in iClone and am gradually getting her skin looking better and hair & breast physics to work. She still looks more like a game character or too shiny or too blurry but am learning.

It is thanks to your support that I can do these experiments at all. Am very appreciative that I have any patrons at all to help make this possible. Comments welcome.