I thought I would post a message in the development section of the forum to see if I get a good response from developers.  I've been sitting back and watching the Crazytalk Animator market place.  I'm curious as to why developers aren't uploading to the Crazytalk animator market place.  I have a few ideas which I would like to share and hopefully a couple developers can get back to me.  My ideas are as follows:

 1. Developing content pay less than the minimum wage in most developed countries.
2. Its Almost a requirement to have third party software to create good quality content.
3.Very little support oftered by Reallusion development section in Taiwan. Its important to help new developers overcom challeges related to content creation.
4..Time investiment from content development to upload.
5. Loss of exclusivity of aritwork
6. Currency fees
7. Copyright protection



Character creation is the biggest headach for me. I struggle with it a lot. A video from youtube shows one of the struggles. I still haven't solved my dress problem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7uXMTcBfJA

Hopefully Characater creation is a lot more simple in CTA 3..

Thank you everyone for reading my post. Please comment.

As this is your stock comment, I'll give you mine: Why is this not a problem for iClone? There is always an intial investment, but then the costs of multiplication are minimal. So perhaps there is insufficient market. You continue to put the blame on Reallusion, which is not very productive.

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CoolHewitt, Im not sure I understand all your questions, but I have responded where possible. I would appreciate it if you can clarify anything I have misunderstood or replied to incorrectly.

 1. "Developing content pay less than the minimum wage in most developed countries." The amount of money you make from your content will depend on the quality, popularity and volume of the work you produce. And don't forget, Reallusion does all the advertising and promotion for your content in the Marketplace.
2. "Its Almost a requirement to have third party software to create good quality content." Not 'almost'. It IS a requirement to have third party software to create good quality content. CTA is designed to do the animation. You also need good third party software to edit your finished animations. But there is nothing wrong with having more software in your stable if you plan on producing 'good quality'.
3. "Very little support oftered by Reallusion development section in Taiwan." This is your experience. My experience is totally different. I have felt since day one when I started as a developer three years ago, the staff at Reallusion have bent over backwards to accommodate me, support me and promote my work. It would not be fair to generalise the quality of support based on a single opinion. "Its important to help new developers overcom challeges related to content creation." Absolutely. That's why Youtube is littered with great video tutorials that help every step of the way, and a forum has been set up where users can help, teach and guide each other.
4.."Time investiment from content development to upload." Again, if you are looking to create "good quality content" of any type with any software, I would think this would be expected. The more time you invest, the better the output. And it also depends on what type of content you're referring to. If it is G2 character creation, then no one could argue that the learning curve is steep. But if you stick with it, the results are very rewarding. And CTA3 seems to be addressing the character creation process to simplify it in certain ways. If it props and scene content that you are talking about, then I think any skilled artist with knowledge of Photoshop or vector based graphics creation can produce great quality content in very little time.
5. "Loss of exclusivity of aritwork" Do you mean you want to keep the rights to your artwork? Then you would need to sell your content through your own website instead of uploading to the Marketplace. But you need to weigh that up against whether your work would reach the same audience size.
6. "Currency fees". Im not sure I understand the issue with this one.
7. "Copyright protection". Would this be the same as #5?

In the end, if you feel that your content is worth a higher value, consider increasing the price of it in the Marketplace so you get the amount you feel you deserve from the commission you are offered. To me, the secret to the CTA Marketplace is 'volume'. The more content you have out there, the bigger the sales at the end of the month.

Also, releasing a certain amount of free content in to the Marketplace is a great way to encourage new users to try your content and if they like it then you have to imagine they will follow your work and start to purchase. Like any business, you have to start small and grow.

"The market for Crazy Animator continues to grow steady because the software is awesome." I couldn't agree more. You know I'm a big fan. 

"I was reading a post by Garry Pye on the forum. It takes about three month to create a G2 character from scratch." Yes, I did say that. And it's true. For me. But that's not to say that other developers aren't producing characters much quicker (I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed). And again, I think CTA3 will address this issue. 

"I believe that more content in the marketplace would increase their software sales " 100% agree. So sharpen your pencil Mr CoolHewitt and start drawing!

Thanks for the chat.

Thanks for your feedback. I hope other people will join.

Garry Pye
www.facebook.com/garrypyeanimations?ref=bookmarks

Hi Garry, I'm a new user and interested in creating G2 characters. Could share how you learned to build characters for CTA2 and what method you settled on to create content for the Marketplace? Thanks for any insights you can share.



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https://www.youtube.com/user/NeetersGuy

Hey Neeters_guy. Sorry, only just saw your post. You say you're a new user interested in creating G2 characters. Now, the easiest way to do this is to look in to the Flash templates combined with the use of Puppet Producer, the awesome application for character building by Ibis Fernandez. Having said that, I have not personally used it (but Ibis has assembled characters for me, including Wendy) as I am not a Flash user. If I was, I would have Puppet Producer straight away.

Sadly, I do it the slowest way possibly known to man. Sprite replacement. I take an original character and piece by piece, sprite by sprite, I replace all the parts. The method I use is slow. Its frustrating. Its tedious and time consuming. It is also ridiculously rewarding when the character is complete and you see them walking around in 3D. But this is the only way I know how to do it.

However.....................

Now that CTA3 is out, I would STRONGLY suggest learning how to make G3 characters. The process is WAY easier and frankly (in my opinion), the elastic bones makes the movement appear much more like hand drawn cell animation, which is awesome. There are the those in the forum that will tell you that there are better programs out there for animation (which always makes me wonder why they are in THIS particular forum then), and hey, maybe there are. But in the many years I've been drawing and animating, I've used most of them at one time or another, and CTA is the only one I've ever stuck with. The software continues to grow and expand and new features are being added. And its hard to go past the imotions which speed up the animation process massively. 

  You also asked what method I settled on to create content for the Marketplace? If you mean what file format I prefer, the answer is .png. I love vector art and vector animation and I think it has its place and purpose. But I prefer .png format characters, props and backgrounds because of the additional detail you can add to your art, in addition to the translucency of props which you cannot get with vector graphics. So you can imagine how happy I was when CTA3 came out and the new G3 characters use .png format for their parts.

If I can be of any more assistance and answer any other questions, drop me a line at garrypye@bigpond.net.au and have a chat. Love to hear from you. Thanks for the message.



Garry Pye
www.facebook.com/garrypyeanimations?ref=bookmarks