Mozambique-based FX Animation Studios owner Nildo Essá discusses how his 2-person team’s feature film production pipeline featuring iClone, Character Creator 4, LIVE LINK and CC Control Rig enables seamless transfer of data to and from Unreal Engine, enabling real-time animation editing, character control, and synchronized camera movements.
Nildo Essá – FX Animation Studios
Hello, my name is Nildo Essá and I am the Owner of FX Animation Studios. The studio was founded back in 2004 and up until around the year 2017, our work was mainly focused on TV commercials mostly sub-contracted by local advert agencies. Alongside client work, whenever we could, we would invest our time on our own IP, Os Pestinhas aka, The Troublemakers.
As we complete 20 Years of operations in 2024, we find ourselves in the middle of production of our very first animated feature film, Kibwe, and when it’s complete, it will be the first animated film out of Mozambique.
We now use Blender, Unreal Engine, and Reallusion’s iClone and Character Creator 4 (CC4) tools. As a small team, we can leverage iClone’s LIVE LINK and the CC Control Rig plugin for Unreal Engine to enhance speed, efficiency, and enable real-time animation editing, character control, and synchronized camera movements.
“The ideal scenario is iClone to Unreal Engine, and with the iClone to Unreal LIVE LINK, and Control Rig plugins, making that bridge less painful. The Reallusion team has been very helpful and receptive to ideas to improve their tools, and I’m glad to consider them our partners in this crazy adventure that is to make a full feature film with a team of just 2 people.” — Nildo Essá, CEO, Founder, Writer of FX Animation Studios
Os Pestinhas aka The Troublemakers
Kibwe is the tale of Lili, a spirited 10-year-old girl on a quest to save her poisoned grandmother. Raised by her grandmother due to a curse on her family, Lili is deeply inquisitive, always seeking the "why" of things. Her companions are Stretch, a 12-year-old environmentalist and inventor who turns waste into wonders, and ZeGordo, a chubby yet agile protector who grew up with Lili and is like a brother to her. As they journey through their village's lush greenery, scented with medicinal herbs, they unravel mysteries about Lili's past and their tribe of traditional healers. Lili’s curiosity propels the trio into ancient enigmas, with Stretch's inventive mind offering fresh insights and ZeGordo’s loyalty ensuring their safety. Together, they face trials that test their courage, faith, and the strength of their bond, bringing to life a story rich with adventure and discovery.
Ensuring Animation with the Right Tools
This will be our hardest project yet as we aim really high in terms of quality. Our team is very small… it’s just me and my wife. And because of that we are always looking out for tools that will help us tell our stories without “breaking the bank.” Up until 2020 our main tool was Autodesk 3ds Max. In that year we switched to Blender and seeing how Reallusion was developing their animation tools and plugins that connect with Blender in a seamless manner, it seemed to make perfect sense to add those to our pipeline as well.
Today all our characters are Character Creator 4 (CC4) based and every animation we do we start in iClone 3D software. Our pipeline includes refining work in Blender, then rendering in Unreal Engine. This workflow works very well; and, it is stable. But being a team of 2 (Me and my wife), it’s still time consuming, especially when it comes to export/import times involved between all 3 applications.
The Unreal Live Link plugin allows seamless transfer of data between iClone and Unreal Engine, enabling real-time animation editing, character control, and synchronized camera movements.
Optimizing Transfers with iClone Unreal LIVE LINK
The new iClone Unreal LIVE LINK version provides the functionality we’ve been looking for. Previously, we could only export characters through Live Link and save animations using the Sequence Recorder tool in Unreal Engine. Exporting animations through the standard FBX workflow was not ideal for us.
The improved iClone to Unreal LIVE LINK transfer now supports parallel processing for iClone FBX export and Unreal FBX import, ensuring uninterrupted editing in iClone while transfers are ongoing. You can monitor the transfer progress through the progress bar in Unreal Engine to estimate the completion time.
I appreciate how all characters, props, and cameras transfer seamlessly at once. The cameras animated in iClone and the switcher setup, transition smoothly to Unreal sequencer with correct camera cuts, reflecting the work done in iClone.
With our previous pipeline, we had to export the animations from Blender one by one, and then the cameras as well.
At a certain point we even tried exporting eight characters with all their animations as subdivided meshes, and the plugin with the free Auto Setup tool for Unreal did it in such an effective manner, with all neatly organized in their proper folders inside Unreal Engine.
CC Control Rig for Unreal Engine
The best part was yet to come however, and this was the CC Control Rig for Unreal Engine plugin. With this tool developers we now have the freedom to seamlessly control CC characters using the familiar MetaHuman control rig, enabling precise manipulation and customization of both body and facial animations.
When the Reallusion team said that they were working on an Unreal Control Rig version for CC4 Characters, we immediately jumped on board to beta test it. We are still in the previs stage of the film but have already crafted about 80 minutes of animations in Blender.
After some tests with the Control Rig plugin and the iClone LIVE FACE facial mocap tool, we are moving ahead with the production using mainly iClone and Unreal Engine.
“Combining the powerful capabilities of iClone and Unreal Engine, our production workflow is now streamlined and efficient. The seamless integration of the Unreal Control Rig plugin for CC4 Characters and the iClone LIVE FACE facial mocap tool has truly elevated our project to new heights. With these cutting-edge tools at our disposal, we are confident in delivering a stunning visual experience that will captivate audiences. “ — Nildo Essá, CEO, Founder, Writer of FX Animation Studios
The Control Rig plugin is designed in such a way that you can just pick your transferred character in Unreal and click a button. After a few seconds it is ready to be animated within the engine with rigs for both body AND face. There’s even a Picker to help in selecting the controllers of your Control rig and you can have multiple characters in the scene and the picker will list all of them properly named.
“This is especially helpful in our case because then it means that we can just bake any animations to the Control Rig and tweak/refine them in real-time, considering the final sets and cameras angles. This is a dream come true for any animator!“ — Nildo Essá, CEO, Founder, Writer of FX Animation Studios
Conclusion
Lastly, I would like to thank Reallusion for their unwavering support of this ambitious project. Their dedication to assisting with problem-solving and their innovative, accessible tools have been instrumental in empowering individuals to tell their stories in a cost-effective way. I am grateful for their partnership, which has truly enabled creativity and brought countless narratives to life without breaking the bank.
If you are interested in knowing more about the making process of this film, feel free to see the full-length article for details.
Nildo Essá is owner of FX Animation Studios in Mozambique.
