iClone 8.52 adds new AI-assisted character posing system
Reallusion has released iClone 8.52, the latest update to the real-time animation software.
Despite the version number, it’s a major update, introducing AccuPose, a new AI-assisted character posing system, intended to streamline the process of blocking out animations.
Other changes include support for non-destructive editing of motion clips, the option to display motion trails in the viewport, and three new animation curve filters.
AI-assisted AccuPose system lets you pose characters by pulling on key body parts
The key change in iClone 8.52 is AccuPose, a new AI-assisted character posing system.
Like the AutoPosing system in Cascadeur, it lets users pose 3D characters by manipulating a small number of body parts, with the software using AI to reposition of the rest of the body.
It is intended to speed up the process of blocking out animations by enabling artists to establish natural-looking key poses more quickly, without having to pose each body part individually.
Users can specify which parts of the body should be affected by the AI, or lock the character’s hands and feet in place during posing, and can modify the poses using iClone’s existing tools.
Changes made using AccuPose are stored on a dedicated timeline track within iClone.
Core functionality available free: other poses require a paid subscription
AccuPose is available via a separate plugin, available from the Reallusion Hub.
Users get access to the core AccuPose functionality for free, which includes 41 AI-trained poses, including standing, sitting, squatting, kneeling, lying down, crawling and rolling.
Other types of poses, including those for combat, dance and action moves, require paid AccuPose Infinity subscriptions, which provide access to over 1,000 AI-trained poses.
The AI models are trained on data from ActorCore, Reallusion’s online animation library.
New motion trails system displays the trajectories of body parts in the viewport
There are also some other significant new features in iClone 8.52, including motion trails.
Users can now display the paths traced over time by a character’s joints as continuous trails in the viewport, with the positions of key frames displayed as markers on the trail.
The workflow is shown in the demo video above: it isn’t possible to change the trajectory of the character by manipulating markers directly in the viewport, but clicking on a marker selects the corresponding key in the Curve Editor and Timeline for editing.
Non-destructive clip editing and new Filter types for smoothing animation data
Other important changes include the option to edit motion clips non-destructively.
The new non-destructive method makes it possible to crop a clip, then later recover the portions that were cut out without having to resample the clip to restore the missing keys.
In addition, the Curve Editor gets three new filter types for manipulating animation data: Reinterpolation, Peak Removal and Butterworth Smoothing.
The latter is often used to remove noise from motion-capture data, and is implemented in a range of other 3D applications, including Blender, Houdini, Maya and MotionBuilder.
The update also improves the accuracy of finger motion imported in FBX format from Xsens mocap suits or the Mixamo library, and adds an extra alpha channel when rendering in EXR format.
Price and system requirements
iClone 8.52 is compatible with Windows 7+. The update is free to existing users. New perpetual licenses of iClone have a standard price of $599.
AccuPose Infinity subscriptions have a standard price of $99/year for individuals, and $39/month or $299/year for Workgroups, available via Reallusion Prime subscriptions.
Read an overview of the new features in iClone 8.52 on Reallusion’s forum
Read a full list of new features in iClone 8.52 in the online release notes
Have your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we don’t post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.