iClone 3.0 - July 2008

Finally more news on iClone 3.0 is out. First the important release date has been given as July 2008. Just three months and this whole new edition of iClone should be upon us.

Now I'm pretty stoked about this and if you head over to iClone.tv you can check out the first details of the new features. Real time character puppeteering, XML based "Dramascripts", Recordable walk and fly cams and In scene motion editing are just a few of the incredible goodies coming our way. Exciting times ahead.

20,000 Members And Growing

Recently the number of members of the Reallusion Forum passed 20,000. To me this an incredible landmark. When I first joined the forum there were about 2,000 members so the growth has been incredible in such a short space of time. Congratulations to all the team at Reallusion for the fantastic job they have done with iClone and Crazytalk. Here's to the continued success and growth of these groundbreaking software titles. Next stop 30,000.

Reallusion Forum

iClone 3.0 Screenshots

Today I have posted some iClone 3.0 screenshots on the Reallusion Forum. These first look shots of the UI are simply incredible. The evolution of iClone continues with this whole new version of iClone coming later this year. More detailed information on the new features coming soon but in the meantime head over to the forum and check out the screenshots. They are amazing.

iClone 3.0 Screenshots

Project Sharing Scripts

With the recent releases of the City Elements and the 100 Years War Theme Packs the situation with the way projects are handled in iClone has got me thinking. These new packs have offered an incredible selection of props that enable complex scenes to be built within iClone that can take a lot of planning and a long time to complete. Some truly impressive urban landscapes or medieval battlefields can be created and it is incredibly satisfying to see it all come together in the finished project. Saving the project for personal use is not a problem and one click and it is yours for use any time you like.

The problem comes if you would like to share your complex masterpiece with others. Say you wanted to put up your project on a website for others to use saving them a lot of time in the creation process. Currently iClone saves all the contents of the project in the project.vns itself so it's an absolute no no to share this project file with anyone else because you would be giving away the content to someone who may not have purchased the packs in the first place.

So at present you simply can't share projects with anyone else and this is a shame because projects are like complete movie sets and having a library of pre-built movie sets that users could download would be a real bonus and time saver. For new iClone users who have yet to grasp the complexities of scene creation this would be a great way for them to see what can be done with iClone.

So is there an answer? Well possibly. If a way could be found to save a project script rather than a file that contains all the physical items etc. Say we could save a text script that contains a complete list of everything and the locations in the scene. This would be a small file that could easily be shared and then if the person who receives the script has the content in their library the scene will be recreated just by clicking a load button. To make it easier the process would just ignore any props or accessories that the user doesn't own and create the scene without them rather than throwing up an error message. Pretty cool yes?

Now lets be clear this is just me as an iClone fanatic dreaming. This isn't, to the best of my knowledge even in the works but I wonder what you think? Would this be useful to any iClone users out there? If you have an opinion why not post a comment and let me know.

Crazytalk 5 Demo Reel

If you haven't seen all the posibilities available in the new Crazytalk 5.0 then check out the great new demo reel that Reallusion has produced to showcase the product. I think it really shows just what an incredible upgrade CT5 was.

Click here to see the demo reel.

Film The World Competition

Reallusion are currently running a fantastic new competition entitled Film The World. From now to the 28th May 2008 you have the chance to win some really impressive prizes by making use of iClone, 3DXchange and Google Earth to put together a video featuring a landmark from around the world.

To make it possible for everyone to enter there is a special free competition version of iClone available which will give you 45 days in which to make your video and present it for review. There is also a trial version of 3DXchange 2.0 available so that you can convert the landmark from Google Earth and use it in iClone.

It really is a great idea so kudos to the team at Reallusion for coming up with such a novel idea. This is a competition that everyone can enter and really let your imagination go wild with it. The prizes are impressive too with an Ipod Touch, Digital Camera, Web Cam as well as full versions of iClone, Crazytalk and 3DXchange 2.0 up for grabs.

To find out more and to get started just click here: