CrazyTalk Animator Pro - Anyone used it?

Brooke · Post by **Brooke** » Mon Jun 13, 2011 4:57 pm

Has anybody here ever used CrazyTalk Animator Pro? I'm new to ASP having just migrated from Flash/After Effects. I have started to use ASP and am loving it, but I have also just found out about CrazyTalk Animator Pro. And it appears to offer a lof of similar features, and perhaps with less hassle. For example it has cameras, the bones, and automatic lip sync. In fact the bones seem very similar to the MorphDial technique that I have been looking at. On first impressions it seems to be more for the puppetry/cut out style type of animation. But if used differently it does appear to have a lot of potential - and seems quite time saving. I know it all depends on what you want to achieve, and when I first thought of using it I thought it it really couldnt be termed as animating - seeing as the computer does near enough all the work. Sometimes it would be nice to knock out some quick animations as well as working on more serious stylised stuff. I have just downloaded a trial - so just wondered if anybody else has used it and what they thought of it?

Heres the demo I saw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_WLdBCns-s

But the one that showed the potential and showed some similarities to ASP is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MFaoaCUcpo

It seems just when you learn or get comfortable with one software, another one comes along to tantalize. Compared to Flash ASP is phenomenal - I really wish I had known about ASP years ago - I feel like I could have created previous animations to a much greater quality, in less time and with less software swapping ie, exporting flash to after effects etc. I cant believe that ASP doesnt get half as much recognition as Adobe Flash - Oh well I'm using it now and in learning this software I have also found this great site. The ASP community are so helpful

I look forward to creating brilliant animations on this brilliant software

jaakay · Post by **jaakay** » Mon Jun 13, 2011 5:40 pm

Hi Brooke

I bought Crazytalk Animator Pro about 2 months ago and played around with it. At that time, it was very new, infact I think it had only just been released, so there was not a lot of tutorials available to help. A few more have been produced since then. However, I stumbled across ASP when I got frustrated with not being able to create my own cartoon characters within the program itself as it has no drawing tools of its own.

It is very good for Photo cut out animation and photo facial morphing.

I released a new single on iTunes recently and decided to try and create a visual so I could upload the track on YouTube. It was my third ever animation. The first 2 were just a few seconds long. Anyhow, if you are interested in having a look, click the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLI2nnYqaSA

This animation was done with Crazytalk Animator Pro, Anime Studio Pro 7 and After Effects.

I bought ASP a few weeks ago with the intention of making content for Crazytalk Animator Pro, but it has a whole lot more potential than that, so I just want to learn as much as I can about ASP. Animation is very new to me - I am a complete beginner.

jahnocli · Post by **jahnocli** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 1:30 am

Out of curiosity I bought Crazy Talk Animator (not the Pro version) when it came out as an introductory offer with Crazy Talk 6 two or three months back. I quickly came to the conclusion that it is just a toy. It's great for producing "moving postcard" type animations, in my opinion, but at no time was I tempted to upgrade. Compared with AS, you have to put in an enormous amount of effort for about one tenth of the result. Made me appreciate AS even more...

pihms · Post by **pihms** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 6:45 am

I have both CTA Pro and ASP 8. ASP 8 is by far a pro tool that will easily get results that CTA is not able to do.

CTA Pro, compared to the CTA basic, does allow more abilities to customize what you do with the animations. Here is the comparison from basic to pro: http://www.reallusion.com/crazytalk/ani ... atrix.aspx
CTA Pro is another tool for me. I wouldn't say the Pro version is a toy (the basic version I would), but not really a full professional animation tool either.

Anime Studio comparisons: http://anime.smithmicro.com/comparison.html

The interface and look of CTA is something that I can see in ASP. It has an up-to-date look, easy to create facial morphs, and the ease of moving a figure in the layers is very intuitive. It still has limitations that don't allow for custom animation that you get with ASP

With ASP 8, that you don't get with CTA, you get drawing tools, particles, import of 3d models and Poser figures, physics, import from Photoshop in layers, various scripts to apply actions and effects, and it appears that you can actually achieve the animation faster, with less clicks in ASP 8. Even though ASP doesn't look as flashy as CTA, I believe that you'll get better results, faster creation time, and satisfaction with ASP 8.

Brooke · Post by **Brooke** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 3:15 pm

Hey Guys thanks for the insight.
I think I'm just going to stick with ASP 7. Funny enough the crazytalk trial I downloaded didnt install - you have to register and sign up with them or something - I dont want to start all that kind of hassle and sharing of information just to test a software out. I might look into it more in the future.

I seem to have a tendancy to think the grass may be greener on the other side - which sometimes slows my progress because I'll start using one software and instead of pushing it to it's limits have my head turned by another. In all honesty once you become comfortable with any software I'm sure you can achieve what you want to achieve, thats the whole point in being creative - in one sense the computer is only acting as a tool to help transition our vision into a digital format. I've been blown away by animations and art that has been made on some of the most basic types of software, or software that was never intended to be manipulated in the way that it has.

Sometimes there is just too much out there trying to tantalise me:) I'm just going to focus on my animation in ASP 7

Otherwise I'll never get it done

InfoCentral · Post by **InfoCentral** » Thu Jun 16, 2011 10:40 pm

I have Crazy Talk 6 but never upgraded to CTA and glad I didn't after reading the forums. Reallusion originally would only let you install it on one computer so that send a flurry of dissatisfaction in the forums. Eventually making Reallusion back down to 2 computers. The character creator for CTA is very limited and time consuming. Not the easy task it was tooted to be.

In the end this is version 1.0 and if enough improvements occur in the next version I may look at jumping in.

digitalartguru · Post by **digitalartguru** » Thu Jun 16, 2011 11:47 pm

One of the major problems with CTA is that its not cross-platform compatible.
It doesn't even work with Parallels desktop on the Mac.

Anime Studio beats it hands down.

InfoCentral · Post by **InfoCentral** » Sat Jun 18, 2011 8:52 pm

I'm strictly a PC and Android user so the Mac is a no issue for me.

digitalartguru · Post by **digitalartguru** » Sat Jun 18, 2011 10:24 pm

InfoCentral wrote:I'm strictly a PC and Android user so the Mac is a no issue for me.

I use both, PC and MAC, so the Mac is very crucial.
The ability to cross test and develop for multiple platforms if very important to me.

InfoCentral · Post by **InfoCentral** » Sun Jun 19, 2011 9:33 am

digitalartguru wrote:The ability to cross test and develop for multiple platforms if very important to me.

I don't know what cross platform movie your making with ASP but I always thought once rendered it was cross platform.

As far as programming goes that a different story. I use LiveCode and RealStudio and while both are cross platform I still only develop for Android and PCs.

digitalartguru · Post by **digitalartguru** » Sun Jun 19, 2011 10:27 am

InfoCentral wrote:
I don't know what cross platform movie your making with ASP but I always thought once rendered it was cross platform.

The topic here is "CrazyTalk Animator Pro - Anyone used it?". Not ASP.

Regarding cross-platform, there are many projects that we work on that require cross-platform testing. Anything from programming to multimedia production. When we invest in software, it its not cross-platform, we think twice about it. We like the flexibility of being able to use our software on a PC or Mac if needed.

By the way, your comment "I'm strictly a PC and Android user so the Mac is a no issue for me." is unnecessary on this thread. It has nothing to do with the topic "CrazyTalk Animator Pro - Anyone used it?" It almost feels that you are just naively badmouthing the Mac platform for no reason other than ignorance.

I use both platforms and they both have there merits, pro's and con's. But it would be naive for me to badmouth one or the other. i know how powerful and useful these two platforms can be for a business.

InfoCentral · Post by **InfoCentral** » Sun Jun 19, 2011 1:49 pm

digitalartguru wrote:One of the major problems with CTA is that its not cross-platform compatible.

Well its not cross-platform so quit whining. You knew that most software isn't written for the Mac when you bought it. Whining about software not being available is just ridiculous. You don't hear me whining, "oh, Final Cut Pro isn't cross-platform." I just move on to what is...

digitalartguru · Post by **digitalartguru** » Sun Jun 19, 2011 5:17 pm

InfoCentral wrote:
digitalartguru wrote:One of the major problems with CTA is that its not cross-platform compatible.
Well its not cross-platform so quit whining. You knew that most software isn't written for the Mac when you bought it. Whining about software not being available is just ridiculous. You don't hear me whining, "oh, Final Cut Pro isn't cross-platform." I just move on to what is...

LOL That is too funny.

I am done with you. I have better things to do with my time.

Let's get back to the subject at hand. "CrazyTalk Animator Pro - Anyone used it?"

CrazyTalk Animator Pro - Anyone used it?

CrazyTalk Animator Pro - Anyone used it?

Thanks