The One Where the iClone 4 Preview Knocks Our Socks Off

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Where to even begin on this week's show?

Wolf & I had the pleasure (vast understatement!) of joining the Reallusion group at Siggraph in New Orleans this week. The 3 hour demo of iClone4 left us with our jaws on the floor. Immediately after the demo, Wolf & I hurried to get on the air and share what we saw with you. Joining us from the beginning of the show were fellow iCloners Rainman (of www.coolclones.com) and Lizard (of www.tmunderground.com) who also sat in on the demo. The preview that we saw will be available soon through the Reallusion site - keep checking the page here for that.

I wish I had Rainman, Lizard, and Wolf sitting here right now as I type this, as trying to recap what we discussed in our 2.5 hour show is nearly impossible! We review the extremely exciting features iClone4 will incorporate - among them, massive changes to lighting options (can anyone say HDR and IBL?), the incorporation of video into iClone projects (believe me, this will BLOW YOUR MIND when you find out these details), facial pupeteering (similiar to CrazyTalk features but used directly within iClone - and your characters don't have to be talking to show expressions!), motion paths (including automatic terrain navigation!!), Drag & Drop (drag an image directly from a folder into an iClone project and viola - instant results!), facial feature updates (deformation and randomization), exciting updates to Director mode (no need to memorize those hot keys anymore), updates to particle effects options (think smoothing and more realism) - I know I'm not remembering everything as I sit here frantically typing, but that's why this is the show you don't want to miss.

We also had the pleasure of discussing iClone 4 live on the air with members of the Reallusion team - John Martin, James Martin, and CloneBot Zack. I can't say enough about the graciousness, enthusiasm, and warmth of the entire Reallusion group - they made us feel welcome and that we are part of the iClone family. I don't know who is more excited about using iClone - those of us who buy it or the people behind the scenes designing it! Charles Chen was an outstanding host and I sincerely feel that with him behind the wheel, we're going to continue to see amazing advancements with iClone.

I don't think it's any secret that I've enjoyed creating with iClone 3. iClone 4 though - woah. I can't imagine leaving my computer for at least a month after it's available and I have it installed. I cannot wait to see what people achieve once they have this software in their hands. The ease of use, the simplification of some already existing features, the very minimal learning curve of incorporating the new features - all combine to make this one of the most exciting updates to the machinima community. The video incorporation alone is going to make this an easy tool to use to combine various engines together.

I could ramble on for pages and pages, but just hit play or download the show above, and be sure to keep checking with Reallusion for the upload of the demo!

A huge thank you to the man behind the scenes, Kuroken (www.tmoaradio.com), for taking the time out of his schedule to get us on the air on Wednesday. And our chatroom listeners - so many of our regulars joined us and it was a pleasure to see some newcomers to the chatroom!

A special thanks to GoofParade and Vesobe for providing Wolf & Dulci Hour theme songs - we'll definitely be using those again!

Be sure to tune in again live this Monday at 9PM CST, as I suspect iClone4 will again be our top topic.