3D software developer Reallusion has announced the launch of iClone 3.0, the latest release of their popular and critically acclaimed animated filmmaking software, which promises to transform any PC into a robust 3D real-time filmmaking studio.
With the battle cry of "Play-to-Create," Reallusion is set to enable a new army of filmmakers with the announcement of their freeware version, iClone 3.0 EX, the iClone Experience. iClone 3.0 EX offers the full-features of iClone PRO and Standard versions bringing interactive filmmaking to every PC. A hybrid of game-based filmmaking and traditional animation software, the application blends the best of both worlds, providing a feature-rich personal movie studio with revolutionary interactivity that turns users into virtual movie directors, complete with 3D avatar actors and scenes like real-life on-location shoots.
iClone 3.0 EX is the portal for any aspiring storyteller to climb into the world of 3D creativity. As a society of animation consumers, watching Pixar, Disney and playing Wii, Xbox or PlayStation, animation is a common part of our lives, but creating it has long since been out of reach of the majority. To open animation to the masses, the iClone 3.0 EX toolset is designed with the mantra, "Create, Play, Edit and Share," making it possible for anyone to build a world, film their imagination, and share their stories in YouTube style without the need for huge budgets, pushy actors or bad catering.
With iClone 3.0, you play the role of the star with iClone's exclusive avatar actor generator that converts any digital photo into an animated talking 3D actor. You give your actors a voice with automatic lip-sync and easy facial animation tools. You build your stage and set with a variety of 3D models or add iClone's 3DXchange utility to search and import models from more than 200,000 free 3D models inside Google's 3D Warehouse. You direct your actors with videogame-like interaction in iClone's Director Mode and edit their performance with fine-tune precision inside Editor Mode using the powerful Timeline Tracks that are similar to video editing. iClone 3 EX puts a totally virtual cast and crew at your fingertips ready to realize your stories, simulations, virtual training and e-learning in a simple and free animation tool.
iCLONE 3.0 FEATURES:
-- New Production Modes: iClone 3.0 simplifies the animation process to two production modes: Editor Mode and Director Mode. Editor Mode allows you to create and refine your scene and actors, and Director Mode to command how your actors behave with the ease of moving around in your favorite videogame.
-- New Camera System: iClone's camera system is revised to allow you to add as many cameras to a scene as you require and actively switch the live camera view throughout your animation enabling you to record an animated scene much like real-world filmmaking.
-- Improved User-Interface (UI): Designed to make iClone 3.0 more accessible and customizable to the way you work, the new interface guides you through every step of the moviemaking process at your own pace, fast or slow, difficult or easy, thanks to collapsible menus and full-screen for maximizing the production space of your desktop movie studio.
-- Easy Sharing: With output options ranging from HD-sized video to YouTube-sized video and the new Flash video option with a variety of quality settings, iClone users can share their productions in the full-screen, DV video format for DVD projects and as streaming videos for websites. Videos can also be produced for mobile handsets and emails.
-- Third-Party Content: Users who want to go beyond the characters, scenes and other content that comes pre-loaded with iClone 3.0, there's the iClone Content Store (
http://www.reallusion.com/contentstore ), where you can select from thousands of props, scenes, historical and fictional themes.
What iClone can be used for:
1. IP-Free Machinima: Machinima is 3D realtime filmmaking where avatars become actors and storytelling is vividly brought to life in a videogame-like environment. With iClone 3.0, you can do everything your friend who plays HALO 3 does, only you own the finished product.
2. TV Commercials & Beyond: iClone allows you to create short films such as a drama, music video, commercial, or a product demonstration. You can choose or import a character face, body style, and scene environment to build the stage for your production.
3. Previz: iClone is a great previsualization tool that film schools such as the London Film Academy use alongside visual effects giants 3D Studio MAX and Maya. With iClone 3.0, you can choose characters, motions, scenes, and props from iClone's rich library and incorporate models from Google SketchUp or the Google 3D Warehouse to transform real-world 3D models into virtual on-location shots for your films.
4. Blogs/Social Networking: A talking character is a great way to promote your blog and ditch that WebCam (especially if you're having a bad-hair day). With iClone, you create a virtual You that delivers updates and news to your audience as a 3D broadcaster.
To accommodate the application needs and budget requirements of a broad range of users, Reallusion offers three editions of iClone 3.0 -- all are Windows XP and Vista compatible:
+ iClone 3.0 Experience (EX) is the free edition of iClone, which includes the full PRO features for 30 days and unlimited features of iClone Standard with no expiration. iClone 3.0 EX contains everything necessary to learn the rich features of the PRO edition, but output is watermarked with the iClone logo and limited to 320x240 size ratio.
+ iClone 3.0 Standard is your tool for creating simple, fun and entertaining 3D animations, complete with such features as, multi-actor editing which allows you to drag and drop your actor right into a scene, simplified sequence editing, enhanced motion editing, 3D object manipulation, multi-camera manipulation, enhanced lighting, multiple production modes, and more, all complete with HD-sized video and Flash video output to multiple platforms.
+ iClone 3.0 PRO is the ultimate edition of iClone, intended for those who are serious about productivity and quality output. Its exclusive features include advanced timeline editors to fine tune all movie elements with precise timing, speed, parameter change and loop control. iClone 3.0 actors can converse with the multiple actor facial animation and lip-synch tracks for sophisticated dialog management. The actor motion-building system layers poses with motion clips, and provides smooth blending results for fluid actor animation. The more advanced DramaScript capability combines export animation segments with a set of directions to build custom interactive 3D content.
Download versions and box editions of iClone 3.0 will be available from the Reallusion Online Store at
www.reallusion.com in August and September, respectively, with prices starting at $79.95 for the Standard edition. Availability at leading retailers worldwide will follow. Business site licenses, with prices based on volume requirements, and educational discounts are available directly from
www.reallusion.com . Free trials and upgrades are also available at the Reallusion website. To sample some of the work created using iClone, visit:
www.reallusion.tv .
