Creation News: iClone 5 combines with Kinect for exciting possibilities

I've seen videos of the fine folks over at Reallusion experimenting with adding Kinect support to their new version of iClone, but until today I didn't actually catch that they were, indeed, officially adding the ability to work with Kinect for motion capture for the new version coming out in September 2011 (iClone 5).  It'll be via plug-in, so it'll have an extra cost, but this is still an exciting prospect for those of us who dabble a bit in 3d art. 

Now, we have to keep our expectations realistic...Kinect works from a single angle, so it probably won't be able to capture just anything flawlessly.  This isn't going to be the magic bullet that solves all our mocap woes and takes all the work out of it.  But the fact remains that for the first time I can recall, there is a motion capture solution for people on a budget.

When I first saw Kinect I had hopes that something like this would eventually come from it, and I'm very excited to see what this combination can do.  iClone has always been that wonderful piece of software that I was this close to using for various projects, and this could be what finally pushes me over the edge.

Whether you're interested in the new mocap option or not, if you have an interest in 3d art and animation, you should take a look at iClone.  It's a very handy program that's pretty easy to use and can serve a variety of purposes.  You can find information on the current version at Reallusion.