New 2D Animation Software to be released

[gamester]

I dont know but kids today are getting smarter and smarter ass at earlier ages. I know lots friends of mines kids of all ages.

Im going to guess either 10 years old. Or someone who just has the "Pay me attention cuz I dont get enough in real life" type.

I know people my own age that do this type of crap. But I'll have to agree with the guy who said it should be spam and deleted. No room in these forums grade school babble.

[madrobot]

Infocentral, my advice - and feel free to take this with a grain of salt - is to cut your losses and give it a rest. I doubt Reallusion would thank you for the negative publicity they are getting on here.

[Víctor Paredes]

Come on, guys!
Nothing terrible have happened here. If you don't like riddles just ignore this thread. There is no reason to offend and, of course, no reason to ban anybody. Please stop this ridiculous inquisition.

[InfoCentral]

Doesn't seem to have any drawing facilities though.

This would be very true.

Not having the creation tools can also be a plus. AS has some very good creation tools but are also limited in ways too as it is not a dedicated drawing program. The problem with AS having its own tools is that it relies on them heavily for its animation aspect. Importing is not without its troubles.

OTOH, not having any creation tools means that the import abilities are superb. Everything has to be created in another program, probably most with use a dedicated drawing program like Xara, Corel Draw, or Adobe Illustrator, and imported into the program for animation.

The advantage of having creation tools contained within the program itself is that it becomes a one stop shop. Everything you probably need can be done within a single program. This is AS's strength.

The advantage of using dedicated programs for creation and animation split is that you get the best drawing tools around as well as the animation. I think most ToonBoom Studio users import their work from Xara or Illustrator rather then using the tools inside of TBS. Of course this adds a degree of added cost as you will need to support two programs instead of just one.

[Rudiger]

I'm afraid ASPro has spoiled me for all other animation programs. I just can't imagine using CrazyTalk Animator seriously unless it let you can write your own tools like you can with AS .

However, I am very intrigued by their approach of fitting a 2D figure to a 3D template. I wonder if that would let you do simple foreshortening effects. It's a bit disappointing that it is mainly designed for animating bitmap and not vector characters, though.

In any case, another player in the casual animation market can only be a good thing. I really hope it pushes AS up and not out by forcing Smith Micro to really add some polish to some of the better existing features.

[Dodgy]

As a long time user of Lightwave, a long time criticism of that package is that you can't edit meshes on the fly. I still love LW, but find this can be very true and limits certain things I might do with it. Having used AS, I have to say I prefer being freed of this limitation, and moving to something else would feel like a step back for me. However, there are lots of ways AS could be improved, and a competitor can only encourage AS to improve in areas the competitor shines.

[crsP]

I agree with Selgin - his delivery might be a bit stale but it was just a tease. Maybe those who are really annoyed are so because they are looking for a viable alternative to Anime Studio? heh

If they are, they should look elsewhere - this isn't it! This is like Poser or Daz3d for 2d. Which doesn't make as much sense in the 2d world. At least with Poser et al you can reuse the character a lot more, depending on how you animate them and choice of camera moves. In 2d apps this stuff makes zero sense. You have a character in front view, then that's what you have. You can zoom in, zoom out, but it's the same damned thing.

Having said that, this might be useful to those who make 5 minutes of two characters running through random bundled mouth-shapes due to auto lip-syncing, with an occasional raising of the arm, and a blink, if you're lucky. I.e Debut users. hehe. jokes

[InfoCentral]

This is where I stop. My purpose here was only to mention that there is another product coming out, not to promote its purchase. It will be released very soon and we will all be able to judge its capabilities.

CTA a tool just like any other tool. I view animation like art. Lots of different styles and looks. The final outcome is in the hands of the artist and the viewer. Some animators want more powerful software, some like to draw every frame. What one person says is a piece of crap, another calls it a brilliant work of art. I hear a lot of needing more of this or that needs to be added for me to achieve...

OTOH, I've seen what someone can do with only a piece of charcoal and a piece of paper...and I call their output exquisite.

[Patmals]

Shouldn't this be in "Other software"?

[InfoCentral]

Coming from a 3D background I don't see all the either this or that mentality that I see here. In the 3D software world we use more than one program and view other similar software as complementary rather then competitive. I don't know of anyone that is confined to use just one 3D software program. All programs have their strengths and weaknesses and you may find your workflow takes you through three different programs to get the final result you are after.

So what am I saying? That Crazy Talk Animator shouldn't be looked at as being a replacement for Anime Studio but complementary to it. AS is vector based and CTA is raster based. They are both tools to arrive at the same final product. You should think about how they can be used together. How working together they might solve problems that have arisen in the past. What you would be able to do now with both tools at your disposal and what new workflows this may open up that were not viable before. This can be very exciting for AS artists.

OK, here we go. The first demo videos are out now.

Creating movement in CrazyTalk Animator is so simple! This teaser will show you how to animate a character walking off into the distance and behind other objects in a matter of minutes. It’s that easy!

Simple Character Motion Video

And video two is about turing photos into animated chracters.

This quick teaser will give you a glimpse at how you can take your own full-body photos and turn them into comical animated characters. Learn how to take an actor photo, fit it with joints, mask out unwanted parts, and change proportions.

Full-body Actor Fitting

Happy animating...

[patricia3d]

That Walk video is not so bad, but another one is not so good
In the walk video character just changed the direction.

[foundmarble]

This software got me thinking...

Wouldn't it be cool if you could build your character once (probably in 3d), then be able to maneuver (with a camera) around your character (different angles) then split the character a part (head, body, arms, etc) and take a picture of that character. The software could then either take the "pictured"parts and put it on separate image layers (probably pngs would be best for the alpha channel) or try to create vector copies of the "pictured" parts and put them on a layer or separate layers. From this point you could rig the character or use layer animation.

I could see this speeding up the process A LOT. Characters, backgrounds, props...etc. Building once and letting the puter do the work.

I know this is a pipe dream, however, this may be a start to speeding up the whole drawing process.

[dm]

This software got me thinking...

Wouldn't it be cool if you could build your character once (probably in 3d), then be able to maneuver (with a camera) around your character (different angles) then split the character a part (head, body, arms, etc) and take a picture of that character. The software could then either take the "pictured"parts and put it on separate image layers (probably pngs would be best for the alpha channel) or try to create vector copies of the "pictured" parts and put them on a layer or separate layers. From this point you could rig the character or use layer animation..

You can. Most 3D animation or modeling software will do that with ease. For all it matters, if you want to do that, you may as well do the whole animation in the 3D software and not bother with exporting pngs and all anyway.

sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M36vVD7DR2I

[foundmarble]

I get what your saying. I worked in Maya for over 10 yrs, however, there is no software that automates the process of drawing a character from a 3d model. (I guess Swift does this somewhat)
If I wanted to get the 3D look for animation, I agree with you 100%. Obviously, I would use Blender or Maya. However, if I wanted that 2D vector look, it would be great if a 3d app could create vector points from a projected camera angle on a character, then translate to vector form and put it in layers. It seems this CrazyTalk app is getting closer

[InfoCentral]

It's getting pretty close to the end of the month and the promised release date so either it is going to be released soon or it will be officially delayed.

At this point it appears to be grossly deficient in its ability to "bone" items. Apparently the only thing CTA will be allowing to you to rig will be the standard human biped. This is very limiting. Anyways, its another tool in the tool chest if you want it.