Anime Character Designer for iClone

Q: How did you start to use iClone? What do you like about iClone?

I found iClone in late 2010. To simply put it, iClone brings my vision to life in the most fastest, easy, and fun way possible!
It all started when I wanted to make a quick 3D animation film just for fun. I start downloading trial version of any 3D application I can get my hands on. Other software was time consuming and had quite a huge learning curve. It wasn’t worth my time for a short quick non-profit 3D film. Especially for someone who never work with 3D before. Then I found out about iClone and it had just about what I needed. And it was so easy to use, I can get into it right away. What I like most about iClone is how easy it is and the fast real time rendering while animating the scene. I can see the whole scene acted out as how I wanted in real time. And that is the awesome thing about iClone. It’s also quite a fun software to start 3D animation.

Q: How do you come up with the ideas about creating iClone characters? Can you tell us more about your anime characters?

I grew up watching anime and had been heavily influenced by the Japanese Culture including music, art, animation, video games and fashion. I try to come up with characters and style that hasn’t been done before or very rare. That’s the base for my ideas. I knew I was able to make some great contents for the iClone community from my creative skills, and so I did. Japanese Anime is something grew up with. I use to draw and design anime characters when I was little. I was wondering why hasn’t anybody make more anime characters for iClone, so I decided to bring more anime content to the iClone world. There are a few different methods I am experimenting with anime character design for iClone. And I hope in the future I can create better anime characters.

Q: What’s your favorite iClone content or video creation so far? And why?

I don’t really have a favorite. I am still new to the iClone world. I haven’t look much into other iClone video/movies yet…but I love all the CloneCloth contents because it gave me a way to design infinite creative style for iClone characters. Style/Fashion and Character designing is something I was always interested in. I like all content I create as much as I enjoy making them. Other content that has impressed me are stuff from Bigboss’s treasures store in the marketplace. Stuff like the photo realistic series by Vit3D, clonecloth by Bigboss and 3D props/sets by Arteria3D are very amazing and very detailed. All these great contents from other iClone users and developers are quite inspirational. And it just makes me want to learn more.

Q: What other tools do you usually use to design content? Besides iClone, do you develop content for other 3D community or marketplace? Photoshop is my main application for design and texturing. And argile2 for reshaping mesh if needed. Those are the only two tools I use to create iClone content. I am planning to purchase 3DXchange and 3DsMax later this year to create original mesh and props. At the moment I only develop content for iClone. This is pretty much my first step into the 3D world. I am hoping I can develop content for a wider variety of 3D applications. I am new to the 3D world and still learning.

Q: How do you think about the toon feature in iClone5? How do you create suitable character for toon rendering?

I love the toon feature in iClone5. It's actually one of my favorite addiction. For characters, I brush away textures in Photoshop to get a toon/anime look and then using the toon shader in iClone5 to compliment the style or art direction. As far as lighting goes, I just play around with various lights to get the looks I want. There are many technique to get the same results, so I'd advise users to just play around until they get a method that would work best for them. Everybody got their own style of drawing, painting or even lighting. Find one that best suits your taste instead of trying to imitate. You know, be creative and just have fun. To add on for anime/toon character texturing, I would remove as many textures away in Photoshop(or other photo editing software). Or just smooth them out and fill it up with a single color and some outlines. I find this works best with the Toon shader.

Q: We are all excited about your coming design of artwork, what’s your next step?

I’m hoping to bring in more of my style, my characters, faces and more anime content! In the future I hope I can learn how to create original character clonecloth from the ground up and new hair for iClone. I am planning to make a short animation film using iClone in the near future as well. iClone offers me what I need, the only thing missing are voice actors and music composer.

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Cypher Wolf's Website: www.iclonestyle.com/blog/cypher-wolf/, www.iclonestyle.com/store/
Cypher Wolf's creations in Marketplace