[Paschal Rutagwerela]

Thanks Steve,

It looks like iClone can import cameras so I am going to try that route. How do you access the animation data from the FBX file to copy from? In the beginning I assumed the problem was somewhere within C4D that’s why I ran here first for help but I am going to contact iClone support to see what they suggest. The more I dig this problem, the more I start thinking it could be a bug within iClone because even the FBX files they generate are bigger than usual or maybe I am overlooking one simple thing somewhere.

[Paschal Rutagwerela]

As far as exporting just a mesh then rig within C4D, it gives me about 36 MB for a 4 minute animation. Also iClone only records at 60 fps. So for a 4 minute animation, it comes to about 16,000 frames. When I import to C4D on a project that uses 24 fps, it comes to about 6336 frames.

I can export from within iClone or by using 3DXchange but I still get the same results. I also tried your suggestion by using 3Ds Max but 3Ds format does not seem to be able to carry animation data unless I am missing something (my guess is, it is similar to something like OBJ file, it only carry mesh and texture information?).

[Paschal Rutagwerela]

Thanks a lot Steve Bentley, you have been extremely helpful on this. Sometimes I don’t mind struggling like this because it helps me uncover new things but sometimes it can be frustrating.

I could render out in iClone in image sequence with alpha and then compose the character with the 2D footage or CG environment but I will be stuck with the original iClone camera angle(s) and also any camera movement in iClone will be impossible to track later.

The workflow that I am seeking is to animate a character in iClone (the model created within iClone CC or imported from ZBrush, DAZ or C4D) and then export the model with the animation to C4D. Then add other 3D elements to the scene then finally render everything together within C4D.

I am also interested in integrating a CG character to a live shot, in this case after importing an animated character, C4D will enable me to do motion tracking of the live shot, add any other 3D elements and work on IBL before doing compositing work. iClone gives you the ability to do IBL but it doesn’t have motion tracking feature, that’s why I NEED to be able to export just an animated model and do the rest of the work elsewhere.

[Paschal Rutagwerela]

I tried that method of bringing in the mesh and animation separately into C4D very early when this problem first occurred but it did not affect the C4D file size.

[Paschal Rutagwerela]

Steve Bentley, I looked into PolyTrans, it looks like a very useful program but iClone is not one of the supported source applications.

You mentioned earlier about animation on each vertex, I think that might be where the problem is. I tried the FBX converter to convert the file from IC to an earlier FBX version (FBX 2013). It reduced the size from 126 MB to 83 MB but interestingly, the C4D file remain the same size if I use either version. Is this issue of animation on each vertex something I can check and possibly change within C4D?

I noticed that if I select all the character objects, the poly count comes to what I mentioned before, about 30,000 for one character. But when I add a Null object and then put all the character objects under it, when I MMB click the Null object to select it and all the children, the poly count shoot to 1,022,000. What could this mean?

I believe moving an animated character from IC to another 3D program should be fairly simple and straight forward.

Still crying for help!

[Paschal Rutagwerela]

Thanks to Justin Thomson, Steve Bentley and Brian Jones for your help. Can someone offer me a solution that will enable me to import the IClone models and animation data inside C4D without having this problem? I am desperate!

[Paschal Rutagwerela]

That’s true . I am so lost and frustrated, I really don’t know how to fix this.

[Paschal Rutagwerela]

I exported the two characters without animation. The C4D file comes to only about 145 MB. With the animation, the file is over 6 GB!

[Paschal Rutagwerela]

I do not see any information that tells me whether the IC exporter put the animation on each vertex or not. I attached the image of the FBX Export window below.

Also, with the workflow I explained above, the animation is baked. I can choose to export the character and the animation from iClone separately but that only increase the import process time in C4D without reducing the file size.

[Paschal Rutagwerela]

I am really trying to complete the character animation task within iClone. So far it seems to be the best workflow for me. One character has a total of 30,000 polygons and another about 40,000 polygons.