I just bought this program a few days ago and while I've worked extensively in 3D (Max) for over 10 years and done some fairly good work in the industry I am amazingly impressed by this little program. The time it takes for me to do lipsync with CT is less than the time it takes for me to even *think* about the workflow for doing said lipsync in my production software.

That said, there are three things I'd really love to see added to make this delightful piece of software something I could really use in my work (and, yes, it is already something I can fit into my workflow, albeit with some post production processing).

1) Custom Eyes and Teeth. I'm not familiar with the .PAK format (except for games, and it apparently isn't the same format here) but if CT allowed the use of .JPG or .TGA or some other such image it would be easy for us to include custom eyes and teeth.

I realize that custom eyes and teeth might be a problem for those who are using CT and the CT player for such apps as phone messaging, but perhaps there could be a default set in that case.

2) Ability to accomodate larger/more unusual faces. CT works absolutely great when the face structure is relatively "normal". But with large chins (think Mr. Incredible or Superman) or wide or high foreheads (even women with a lot of hair) CT distorts both the mouth and the eyes. I'd really love it to be able to accept these very odd faces.

Along those same lines, it would be nice if the mouth had more edit points along the top and bottom. The lip points work just fine, but with only one top and one bottom edit point it's sometimes very difficult to accomodate mouths that are open at a cockeyed angle.

3) Timeline improvements. The timeline is actually fairly sophisticated for such a low-priced application, but I'd love to see the ability to "stretch out" emotions as well as include a blink track (having to do it manually is a PITA). By "stretch out" I mean being able to indicate the start of an emotion and have the effect show up on the timeline "stretched" the length of its application. At the same time it would be *extremely* useful to be able to name this effect on the line itself, so I could see at a glance on the timeline where the character was "angry". Does that make sense?

I've already done some impressive animations combining CT characters (so I have multiple ones talking to each other) as well as interacting with my 3D models in a believable way. I have a feeling my collegues will be bugging me for my secret weapon -- forgive me if I hide it for a little while <g>.

Dear mkelley

Thanks for the wonderful suggestions.

1) Custom Eyes and Teeth.
It will be the feature in the future release.

2) Ability to accomodate larger/more unusual faces.
You can try to click "open mouth point" to split the lips so far. We hope that there will be numerous face type for fitting.

3) Timeline improvements.
As I know, there will be great enhancement in timeline, but thet are still discussing.

Best Regards
Visocnti

I agree with mkelleys request for the ability to add unusually shaped faces, for instance an animal with large ears. its not possible to divide the outline round the ears,

you just have to go completely round the head which causes movement of part of the background as well as head.

I would like to have more controls for motion.

For example, I would have loved to be able to tell CT where the sweat starts and ends as i was trying to use the lovely sweat drops as tears.

Of course I must remember that CT is a very small price compared to my NLE! Truth be known I could possibly do most of what I wanted in my NLE, post CT production.

Very nice programme. Thanks

Give it a try

I have just remembered. I would have loved a simple Windows "Save" button.

I never really cracked the issue of saving and coming back the next day.

The other thing that I now remember, is that i could not import more than 30 seconds of wav dialogue. Is that right or did I miss something?

Give it a try

Run CrazyTalk, press F1, open "Creating a CrazyTalk Model", click on "Saving a Model".

Basically, the Save button you suggested is named "Add" in CrazyTalk.

Works the same with CrazyTalk Script.

i am also another vote in favor of having custom eyes and teeth! i have been working in crazytalk with characters that are in sort of a flat vector style and its hard to get the teeth and eyes to match that style.

my real request here is hotkeys. i'm finding crazytalk's automatic lipsyncing fairly lacking. i am basically going in and entering every lip shape by hand to get the quality of accuracy i desire. this would be made a thousand times easier if each phenome had a corresponding hotkey. i realize that this might cause problems with any other hotkeys you may've had in mind for the program, but if you could enter a 'manual lipsync mode' or something and just start typing in your keyboard and having those keys automatically enter the corresponding mouth shapes - it would be a beautiful thing!
a = ah
b = b_m_p
c = ch_j
e = ee
f = f_m
etc etc etc