iClone 5???

[TheBadger]

http://www.reallusion.com/iclone/iclone_features.aspx

Does anyone know this software?
I would like to know if this software is a viable pro quality level for rigging and animating. As far as these things go, it is affordable.

From what I could read. It sounds like there is no compatibility issue. Since it imports .obj, and the major file extensions for models like 3dmax and others.

How real can you get facial movements?

The software works with xbox kinect for motion capture too. We have talked about motion capture in these forums before, but I could never find a definitive answer if there was a way to use kinect with a mac. I really hope there is, because I have never heard of a cheeper motion capture device than kinnect. And get good results! If there is a better way please share it.

[TheBadger]

Ok, so I did some looking and I found that "softimage" is what I want here. I can get a free copy through my student account with Autodesk. The problem is that I need to also buy a copy of windows to run softimage  on my mac. Apparently this works very well.

There are two programs for running windows on a mac. 1)bootcamp. Bootcamp comes pre installed. (or so I read)
2)parallel. I only found one comparison between bootcamp & parallel. Apparently parallel is smoother and better. But Parallel is not free.

I could find no posts from someone saying they were running Aoutodesk Softimage on a mac via Parallel.
Is there anyone reading this who uses softimage on a mac. Or who uses windows on a mac.

If I install windows on a my mac. Will I have to worry about windows security threats?

Help!

[Andrew March]

Hold your horses there cowboy, why would you need softimage for riggng and animating?

Max and Lightwave both have excellent rigging and animating tools and to be fair Lightwave's learning curve is far superior to Max.

Perhaps if you went into detail on what you are ultimately trying to acheive we might be able to help a little more and point you in the right direction.

[TheBadger]

Hi Andrew.

I have Maya and Houdini (full versions, but non-com)

Both can do rigging and animating as Im sure you know. When I saw iClone. I thought, Hey that looks simplified.
But than I saw Softimage. Which is a full and pro package like maya. But I feel it has a much more inviting UI.

Also after seeing this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do1kzR6gVYk&feature=channel_video_title I was blown away. Its really very nice and clean and inviting.

I have not completely committed to Houdini or Maya. But maybe I should stop dicking around and just be thankful that I got a full version of maya for free. and go with that. Or Houdini. Or.... I don't know. This is worse than deciding to get married.

Softimage does look good though.

You asked what I'm trying to do.
As much as i can in one package.

[jo]

Hi Badger,

I use Windows on my Mac. I use Boot Camp. I use Boot Camp because for work I need a full Windows environment. I also use it for playing some games, I mainly play old cheap ones which aren't available for the Mac or are still expensive on the Mac. I've never used Parallels or similar so I don't have any views on that. If you find that the software you want to use works well on a VM you should consider that because it would be lot more convenient than rebooting.

I don't think Parallels is likely to be smoother and better than using Boot Camp when it comes to running Windows. When you're booted into Windows your Mac becomes a Windows PC. If you are using something which makes heavy use of the graphics card (like 3D apps) then Parallels might not be the best option as I'm not sure it has what you might call 100% use of the graphics card yet.

The only advantages I think a VM like Parallels has is that it's a lot more convenient than having to boot into Windows and it makes it easier to access your files. When I'm using OS X I only have read access to the files on my Windows NTFS disks. When I'm using Windows I need to use an application called HFSExplorer (http://www.catacombae.org/hfsx.html) to copy the files off my Mac HFS+ drives onto the Windows drives. That's a pain and I think Parallels makes it easier. You can also copy and paste between Mac and Windows apps I think. And I guess you don't have to dedicate a drive or make a new partition on your main drive for Windows.

I've run Vista 64, Win 7 64 preview and Win 8 64 preview on Boot Camp without any particular trouble. With Win 8 I had to sort out some driver problems (audio drivers and graphics drivers) but I think Apple will update the Boot Camp drivers once Win 8 is available and that should smooth things out.

As you're running Windows you will be vulnerable to Windows malware and such. I use Microsoft Security Essentials for anti-virus etc. It's free and I've been very happy with it, it doesn't bog things down at all. I also don't do a wide range of stuff using Windows. My web browsing is mainly work related, I don't do email and I don't install much random software :-). To the best of my knowledge I've never had a virus all the time I've been using Windows on my own computers, 16 years or so.

Regards,

Jo

[TheBadger]

Thanks a lot jo! A good start for me.