 Product Review: CrazyTalk
Animator PRO
"CrazyTalk Animator is the next major leap
after CrazyTalk6. Before, the CrazyTalk product line was initially
focused on talking head animation. In this new generation of
CrazyTalk, you can not only animate a character's face, but also do
full-body animation with enhanced bone-based fitting technology in
the unique puppeteering engine. CrazyTalk Animator is a
revolutionary animation suite with 3D layering mechanics and
drag-n-drop multi-media compatibility that allows you to import
your characters and props directly from photo "
-Reallusion.com product page
Major advances in computer graphics over the last decade have
given the animator tools to create remarkable 2D and 3D films,
commercials and motion graphics. It's also narrowed the gap between
the amateur and professional user. All kinds of people want to
create quality animation, but don't have the time (or the money) to
invest in high-end 2D/3D packages that cost thousands of dollars.
Dozens of companies have sprung up over the last few years with
software that attempts to satisfy this growing amateur/pro market.
But not all of them have been able to deliver on their marketing
promises. One company that has consistently delivered programs that
are not only easy to use, but have pro-level features, is
Reallusion. Their recent December, 2010 release of CrazyTalk Animator (an update from CrazyTalk 6) is a
great example of a full-featured program at a great price.
I've used Reallusion's original CrazyTalk program for several
years now and have always felt it was one of the best photo/image
morphing applications around. Initially, it was a a program that
allowed you to animate heads and faces using a mesh-based approach
to animation, along with very good lipsync capabilities. After 6
versions of that program, which focused on refining the facial
animation process, including adding "real time" puppeteering,
Reallusion has completely re-worked CrazyTalk into a full-scale
animation program rivaling applications like Toon Boom and Anime
Studio Pro. Their release of CrazyTalk Animator is a milestone in
the development of an already excellent program. It's a whole new
ballgame, which is probably why the "Animator" has now been added
to the original CrazyTalk name.
Let's take a look at how Reallusion has re-imagined CrazyTalk,
and then consider how the new version of the program makes it easy
to create a variety of high-quality animation styles. Note that
CrazyTalk Animator comes in two flavors: the Standard and PRO
versions. I'll be reviewing the PRO version here. The Standard version of the program is primarily designed
for the beginner and casual user. The PRO version is for more
serious animators who need more features.
GUI of CrazyTalk Animator Pro
New in CrazyTalk Animator PRO
- Drag-n-drop Super Media & Animation Platform -
The major change is that now you can animate full body characters,
in addition to facial animation and lip sync. Moreover, with the
"super media" approach, CrazyTalk Animator allows you to
drag-n-drop just about any media, including images, videos, flash
and sprite videos right on to the animation stage. The user now has
a complete animation editing environment for actor, scene,
animation and sfx, along with a special library for each element.
Essentially, the program is a complete animation editing
environment for 2D animation.
- Two Editing Engines – There's a Composer Mode
for your character and prop set ups and you have the Stage Mode for
animation editing. You also have an in-screen Object Editing Gizmo
and Navigation toolsets all laid out simply and intuitively.
- Real Z-depth Layering & 3D View Object
Management - All scene elements can be arranged on a Z-depth
layer inside of the preview window. CTA allows you to switch
between perspective and orthographic views, and there is a full
scene manager that lets you track and control every element of your
scene.
- Advanced Timeline & Keyframe Editing (PRO
Version Only) – One of the most impressive improvements in
CrazyTalk Animator is in the new Timeline. Motion layering, 16
tracks of body part animation control, extend/loop/group clips
together using copy/paste/move keys, separate facial motion tracks,
and dockable timeline placement are only a few of the excellent new
additions to the timeline which will make using the program even
easier.
- Real-Time Puppeteering – The real-time
feature has expanded from facial animation to the entire body in
CrazyTalk Animator. You can also control the speed and exaggeration
of the motions and save just about any combination you create.
- Sprite-based Animation System – Sprites,
which are graphic objects that can move independently of the
background/other objects, allow the user to animation different
faces or body parts either in real-time or using keys.
The full list of "what's new" in CrazyTalk Animator PRO is too
large for this review, so I've only covered the highlights here.
For a full list of new features, see this link.
Facial puppeteering in CTA Pro
Performance
Working with CrazyTalk Animator is really a lot of fun. Although
the interface has changed quite a bit to allow for the new
animation system, anyone who has used an earlier version of
CrazyTalk will feel right at home, and beginners will be creating
animation in minutes - it's that simple.
Basically, the user can choose to create two types of animation:
morph-based and sprite-based. The morph-based animation consists of
photos, scanned images (you can easily take a photo of yourself and
bring it into the program as a character) or raster images. You
then take the photo, or drawing, and through a helpful wizard
create bones for the character, which you then shape and distort to
create motion and expressions. Head and facial morphing is a bit
more complex for beginners, but the range of tools you have to
create unique faces and features is really neat.
Sprite-based animation is different (similar to flash animation)
in that you use raster images and replacement animation to create
movement and lip-sync. The addition of the z-buffer and 3D viewer
makes setting up this kind of animation easy. Plus, the 3D camera
can create some amazing imagery/animation with all kinds of depth
to them.
Both types of animation can be either key-framed or real-time,
too. There is a large content library that lets you get started
quickly. And Reallusion has extra content packs that can be
purchased separately, including props, backgrounds, facial
features, etc. In my experience, their content packs are always
well done and relatively inexpensive.
Full-body bone rigging with CTA Pro
Animating with CrazyTalk Animator PRO 1.1 is an enjoyable and
creative experience. I found that once I got the hang of how
workflow is handled, I was importing images and animating very
quickly and the time just flew by. I enjoyed the original CrazyTalk
very much, but this is an entirely new program, one that is far
more powerful and allows for much more creative expression by the
user (either pro or hobbyist). And what's particularly impressive,
is that Reallusion really hasn't made this powerful 2D animation
program any more difficult to use or understand. Considering the
massive amount of coding involved in this new version, that's no
easy task.
The documentation for CrazyTalk Animator PRO (and the Standard
version) is excellent, with a full manual and lots of well-produced tutorials at the Reallusion.com
site. The forums there are also well managed and
attention is paid to advanced, as well as new users.
After having fun all week with this very cool program, I think
that Reallusion has hit a home run with CrazyTalk Animator. I don't know of any other program
in it's price range that has as many features and is as easy to
use. I mean, you can even export your work in 3D!
As part of it's 10-year anniversary, Reallusion has the
Standard version on sale for $37.46 (USD); the PRO version is also
on sale at $134.96 (USD), and upgrades are reasonably priced
(there's an education version available, too).
Advanced timeline in CTA Pro
CrazyTalk Animator Standard is a perfect entry program for those
who want to start learning animation, and the PRO version is very
well suited to more advanced users who want to benefit from the
great price and range of features. Download the trial software and see what's so cool about
this program. You won't regret it.
Notes
Full system requirements are listed here. Unfortunately, there is no Mac or
Linux version of the program at present. Something I hope
Reallusion will consider for future versions of the program. I use
a mid-range quad-core PC running Windows 7 and the program smokes,
so most users should be fine.
I'd like to thank Reallusion, and in particular, Bill
Lessard (personne adroit), for providing CrazyTalk Animator PRO
for review.
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CrazyTalk Animator Pro: New Features
For more information, please visit:
 Ricky
Grove [gToon], Staff Columnist with the Renderosity Front
Page News. Ricky Grove is a bookstore clerk at the best bookstore
in Los Angeles, the Iliad Bookshop. He's also an actor and
machinima filmmaker. He lives with author, Lisa Morton, and three
very individual cats. Ricky is into Hong Kong films, FPS shooters,
experimental anything and reading, reading, reading. You can catch
his blog here. |
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