State-of-The-Artwork Animation Studio adopts iClone Character Creator


Patrik Forsberg – Stiller Studios
Stiller Studios stands as an internationally acclaimed “tech marvel” manufacturing firm, boasting a world community of inventive expertise. Their major goal is to craft high-end characteristic movies and sequence characterised by relatable characters and fascinating narratives, leveraging their revolutionary proprietary know-how. With a steadfast dedication to pushing inventive boundaries by innovation, Stiller Studios focuses on creating tailor-made options for digital manufacturing, 3D animation, inexperienced display workflows, and real-time filmmaking strategies.
Positioned in central Stockholm, their state-of-the-art studio facility is absolutely outfitted to undertake groundbreaking tasks using cutting-edge instruments resembling VR, deep knowledge, and movement seize. By shut collaborations with prime expertise worldwide, the studio goals to determine itself as a frontrunner in digitally-driven storytelling.
At Stiller Studios, filmmakers are supplied with the mandatory sources to understand even their most bold visions. Their manufacturing mannequin revolves round ideas of high quality, flexibility, and fostering an empowering work atmosphere conducive to inventive exploration. With a core perception within the transformative energy of storytelling, Stiller Studios seeks to supply recent views to international audiences. Lately, for his or her mission REDMASK: Hand E-book for Superheroes, crew has launched into utilizing Character Creator, and iClone with Unreal Engine.
With a continuing stream of thrilling tasks in growth, the studio actively seeks alternatives to problem typical norms surrounding visible storytelling. Along with their companions, Stiller Studios is devoted to shaping the way forward for the filmmaking medium.
“Stiller Studios loves know-how that makes storytelling quicker, extra inventive, extra participating and extra enjoyable to mess around with. And I believe that’s what iClone and Character Creator are doing.”
Patrik Forsberg – Proprietor at Stiller Studios
Q: Greeting Patrik, and welcome to our Function Tales. Kindly share with us your journey from utilizing conventional animation instruments like Maya, to real-time purposes like Character Creator, iClone and Unreal Engine.
Hello! Thanks for having us. We began with superior movement management and inexperienced display workflows again in 2009 the place we actually discovered our place inside the CGI and VFX world. After we’d labored with that for just a few years we naturally ventured into movement seize as nicely to mix our CG environments with CG characters. Over time we’ve experimented with virtually each 3D and Digital Content material Creation (DCC) software program on the market, even main new workflows and know-how analysis in a few of them, resembling Unreal Engine – and tied good relationships with corporations like Epic Video games to engineer new instruments and applied sciences with them.
We’ve got been going a bit forwards and backwards in DCC softwares, however in some way all the time discovered our approach again to Unreal Engine as that resolution has all the time confirmed to ship what we’d like for our tasks and purchasers.




As for Character Creator 4 and iClone 8 – we had tried earlier variations of iClone just a few years prior and located the toolset fascinating, however it didn’t meet our wants for the tasks we did again then. We then revisited the Reallusion suite for our new tasks the place we realized about all the brand new options Reallusion has created for Character Creator and iClone 8.4. The crew was kind of blown away by how completely it match our workflow pipeline and was tremendous comfortable to combine CC4 and iClone 8 into our pipeline.
“We revisited the Reallusion suite for our new tasks the place we realized about all the brand new options Reallusion has created for Character Creator and iClone 8.4. The crew was kind of blown away by how completely it match our workflow pipeline and was tremendous comfortable to combine them into our pipeline.”
Patrik Forsberg – Proprietor at Stiller Studios

Q: You point out that your movie mission REDMASK, whereas be distinctive in its model and workflow. For top-end movie studios like Stiller, what would you say are some great benefits of working with software program like iClone, and Character Creator with Unreal Engine? How a lot pace are you able to save with the iterative energy?
Rather a lot! Coming from conventional stay motion filmmaking I choose to work intently with my actors to see their efficiency to have the ability to actually get the fabric I need to inform the absolute best story. As I can with iClone 8.4 and AccuFACE see their efficiency in actual time, in engine, I can tweak the efficiency and seize the feelings and actions I would like with direct suggestions as an alternative of getting to attend for animation dailies that may typically time take a number of days for even expert animators.




To have the ability to use movement seize and have a DoP set cameras immediately after the movement seize shoot saves me an unimaginable period of time and I can get going with the primary draft of the edit virtually immediately after the shoot – a workflow inconceivable in conventional hand animation.


Q: Working with Character Creator and the GoZ workflow to ZBrush, how is it potential to go from a sketch to a totally animatable character in lower than a day?
Utilizing the facility of the slider workflow in Character Creator, our character artists can shortly begin out with the CC3+ base meshes after which utilizing the morph sliders get a tough concept of what the sketch appears like, then they’ll soar into ZBrush to seize the extra stylized particulars from the sketch, such because the brows, cheekbones, and many others.



However as we’re utilizing an already completed tremendous top quality base for our fashions, our character artists don’t need to go in and do retopo, UV map and all that. They’ll as an alternative deal with the inventive aspect of character creation as an alternative of the technical. That’s what makes it potential with Character Creator to go from sketch to animatable character in a day. That character we are able to then use in our movement seize classes and hold constructing on it while recording motions down within the studio. Iterating and saving time!
“That’s what makes it potential with Character Creator to go from sketch to animatable character in a day. That character we are able to then use in our movement seize classes and hold constructing on it while recording motions down within the studio. Iterating and saving time!”
Patrik Forsberg – Proprietor at Stiller Studios


Q: Primarily based in your huge expertise with skilled animation instruments what are the good animation options present in iClone? How would you evaluate these to conventional handkey animations?
iClone presents numerous instruments present in different DCC packages, belongings you’d anticipate in an animation software program resembling IK/FK rig animation, a timeline for key poses, curve editor with splines, animation layers, retargeting of bones, and many others. What makes iClone immediately stand out from the remaining is the massive library of premade animations, poses, expressions and movement seize information in-built iClone and extra you possibly can obtain and use with ActorCore to get you going ahead extra shortly together with your mission.
This places iClone . Nevertheless what makes iClone not solely stand out, however exceed the competitors and take a large big leap vs. the standard packages is the unimaginable workflows present in its synthetic intelligence powered AccuLIPS and AccuFACE. I received’t go into element about what they do and the way we use each characteristic in them right here, however let me simply say that these two instruments have gotten to be the largest time saver instruments for animation in a very long time.
“What makes iClone not solely stand out, however exceed the competitors and take a large big leap vs. the standard packages is the unimaginable workflows present in its synthetic intelligence powered AccuLIPS and AccuFACE. I received’t go into element about what they do and the way we use each characteristic in them right here, however let me simply say that these two instruments have gotten to be the largest time saver instruments for animation in a very long time.”
Patrik Forsberg – Proprietor at Stiller Studios



The outcomes we’ve gotten with iClone in literary minutes actually goes above and past. Animating a 4 minute lengthy sequence with fascinating facial animation perforce and lip syncing would’ve taken even a talented animator days and even weeks in a standard DCC software program. We will obtain the identical consequence virtually instantaneously after setup in iClone 8 – it’s that fast.
“The outcomes we’ve gotten with iClone in literary minutes actually goes above and past. Animating a 4 minute lengthy sequence with fascinating facial animation perforce and lip syncing would’ve taken even a talented animator days and even weeks in a standard DCC software program. We will obtain the identical consequence virtually instantaneously after setup in iClone 8 – it’s that fast.”
Patrik Forsberg – Proprietor at Stiller Studios



Some cleanup and tweaks will all the time be wanted after all, however it does 90% of the job and time in actual time. We will even have somebody doing the movement modifying in the identical mission concurrently while we’re recording within the studio and also have a DoP set cameras in actual time too. All working collectively in the identical Unreal Engine mission. Time is cash, so you possibly can most likely work out why we adore it a lot.



Comply with Stiller Studios
LinkedIn:
https://se.linkedin.com/company/stiller-studios
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/stillerstudios/
Fb:
https://www.facebook.com/stillerstudios
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=stiller+studios
Associated Posts
