Crazytalk software review

Posted by Mark Bremmer on May 31, 0 comments. Microfilmmakers come in all flavors and interests. Like we add special effects in post production, we can also add animation.

It really depends on what the story requires. CrazyTalk Animator3 is a 2D animation package from the very capable company, Reallusion. Known for their outstanding iClone and Character Creator software for the 3D environs, also useful for 3D storyboarding or outright rendering to video , Reallusion has upgraded their 2D animation offering with Animator3.

As I get started, there are a couple things to note. That means their software comes loaded with presets and has significant ready-to-use content already available for it. The reason I bring that up is because while CrazyTalk Animator3 is a very solid 2D animation offering, it may not be right for your work flow for your story telling needs.

Lastly, a very important awareness is that CrazyTalk Animator3 CTA3 is a content manipulation program, rather than a content creation program. Prebuilt Characters: CrazyTalk Animator 3 has a range of pre-existing characters that may suit your needs, right out of the box. What makes these characters easy to work with is the fact that the hard work has been done and users can adjust the animation with simple tools.

As I mentioned before, the version I am using for the review is the full Pipeline version which has all the bells, whistles and basic extra content they offer. Full backgrounds, multiple stock characters, object and character motions have been included. If you are satisfied or able to work with preexisting stock content, there is plenty to choose from. For users wanting to explore doing some custom character work, getting the full Pipeline edition is required.

The pipeline edition enables creation of non-stock characters and other little animation customization and import. Reallusion has done a very good job of hiding that complexity by providing point and click modifiers for motion and animation. Want to have a stock character look left and turn their head a little? Just use the face puppet and animate that. Remember when Adobe rolled out the puppet tool for After Effects around CS2 or CS3 where you could put pins for joints and then distort the rest of the image?

Similar idea. Want a falling object to bounce a little when it hits the floor? Just select the motion tweener that looks the best.

No additional tweaking required. Simply drag and drop the preset onto the object or double-click it. There are plenty of preprogrammed options designed to work with the stock content. In that sense there are plenty of options.

It is easy to quickly begin doing some complex animation with stock content, using simple widgets and drag-and-drop authoring. But, that is where we begin hitting the limits of what the program will do for you if you are planning to work with original content. If you are wanting to work with a character or elements you create yourself, limitations to efficiently animating become apparent rather quickly. For example, you cannot directly edit vector content or pixel based content.

If a user wants to animate a face to include multiple, morphing expressions without having to use something called switching, where static shapes are rapidly switched to create the illusion of motion such as talking then, you are out of luck. This lack is especially interesting because morphing is the way the animation in their initial Crazy Talk line is created.

For those not fluid in frame rates, this means that timelines can now be 30 minutes long, rather than 15 minutes long, which was a huge gripe I had with CT7. Ironically, this appears to be a late improvement, as the website still claims that 15 minutes is the maximum length for a project in CT8.

We had hoped this option might be included in the new version of CrazyTalk, especially since CrazyTalk Animator 3 provides a transparent background option, but, unfortunately, not. You also are still limited to just a single character in an animation, so CrazyTalk continues to require an actual editing solution to create multiple character animations.

As mentioned before, 3D is where the bulk of innovation for the Depth of Options was put and, honestly, for a lot of folks interested in doing talking-head style animation, this could be a game changer, because the 3D morphs look a lot more convincing than the pseudo-3D 2D morphs found in the main version. In my testing, I could see how this could be very helpful for someone wanting to rediscover a Max-Headroom-style mascot for a brand or to create a new smart aleck film critic ala Jeremy Jahns from Collider, who, defying all rational explanation, is somehow not actually 3D animated.

The recommended way to create a 3D character is by using both a front image and a side profile for more accurate skinning is really cool and results in a much more believable composite in the end.

While no fog or dust is available, you can animate your light and wind, and these effect your model and any accessories or hair in a lot of cool ways. Because your character will usually have either a default male or female body with no real customization to those bodies, the clothes tend fit quite well, as a rule. You can get expansions with more heads and bodies, but fortunately the customization options will let you enlarge and reposition clothes and accessories as needed, which is nice.

Check out the following video of some different clothes on my avatar and some different environments he finds himself in.

While there are no options for directly importing new 3D objects from other 3D programs, there is a large library of converted objects, items, bodies, and clothes that are being created at the Reallusion Marketplace for you to import into CT8. As with CT7, for projects 10 minutes or less, the overall performance for CrazyTalk8 was very good and it was fairly stable on my PC. Once we got into projects that were longer, especially those with a lot of sub-animation or with more auto-animation movement, we had more sluggishness creep in and had more stability issues although CT8 does seem to be generally more stable as a whole than CT7.

The similarity between CT7 and CT8 when it came to actual lag and delay was where I became extremely confused because one of the big performance improvements in CT8 is that it is now bit, so it can address all the ram and resources that a modern computer has access to unlike CT7 which is bit and could address a fraction of the resources in most computers.

Shell upgrading is repackaging a program so that it is registered as a faster program by the computer, even though it runs at the same speed as before, while a kernel upgrade is reworking the engine entirely so that a program functions faster. When it came to actually creating original 3D character faces, the software performed nicely.

It was pretty easy to set everything up and then layout the points of reference markers to create the 3D model. In true 3D space, these twisting Splines transformed planes of the 3D model and often resulted in strange deformities to the skull.

Fortunately, I could hide my deformed head with a garish wig and make the model useable, but it was challenging. The garish wig helps hide a Klingon-style deformity in forehead. These issues were less likely to occur when you did NOT use a side profile photo. True bit processing, so that the software can take advantage of all of the RAM available. Improvements on spline adjustments when creating 3D characters. The pipeline addition has the ability to create 3D. Hopefully this will be addressed in the future.

The value for CT8 is largely based on what type of user you are. New users who want to be able to step into morphing 2D animation and basic 3D work will find the Pro version a great value and a great place to step in.

CrazyTalk continues to be an impressive animation option and CrazyTalk 8 opens some new doors for true 3D animation that have been lacking in past releases. For new and sporadic previous users, this is a great time to jump in.