KenCoon
|
KenCoon
Posted 10 Years Ago
|
Group: Forum Members
Last Active: 5 Years Ago
Posts: 687,
Visits: 18.4K
|
Way back a few months ago when I started wanting to make movies I tried out CTA2 for a few days and then cancelled it and changes to iClone 5.51. I am now waiting for iClone 6 to come out soon. I have been looking for a simple program to make 2D cartoons to have something to do and could not find anything that costs under $100. I am looking at maybe going back to CTA2 but I think i would need at least the Pro edition which is a little over the budget but doable. I am just wondering if anyone has both CTA2 and iClone at the same time. i also am wondering if I can later upgrade to the Pipeline from the Pro edition to get the iClone motions in CTA2. Ken
|
animagic
|
animagic
Posted 10 Years Ago
|
Group: Forum Members
Last Active: 57 minutes ago
Posts: 15.6K,
Visits: 30.3K
|
I have both CTA2 and iClone, but found that 2D animation isn't really my thing so I haven't used it much. And I agree, it would be best to get the Pro version. But don't dismiss iClone 5 yet! IC5 projects are expected to import into iClone 6 for the most part, so your work will not be wasted.
|
KenCoon
|
KenCoon
Posted 10 Years Ago
|
Group: Forum Members
Last Active: 5 Years Ago
Posts: 687,
Visits: 18.4K
|
Maybe I just need to explore the toon section of iNcline more.
|
AverageJoe
|
AverageJoe
Posted 10 Years Ago
|
Group: Forum Members
Last Active: Last Month
Posts: 2.4K,
Visits: 10.1K
|
I have both, and have had both versions of CTA 1 & 2, but quite frankly I find it just too limiting. Don't get me wrong, it has some great features but it's also lacking a great number of features if you want to dig deep into 2D animation, and create custom character. It's not impossible to do so, but RL certainly doesn't make it easy. There's a Flash plugin here by Ibis that helps, but it still is a chore to create your own characters.
|
pfontaine2
|
pfontaine2
Posted 10 Years Ago
|
Group: Forum Members
Last Active: 4 Weeks Ago
Posts: 78,
Visits: 790
|
Hi Ken,
As much as I want to like CTA2, I find it frustrating and limiting. In the short time I used it over the past couple of weeks, I discovered two bugs that I brought to Reallusion's attention. It surprises me that these bugs weren't discovered by this point and that they didn't come up during a beta testing but thankfully they were both addressed in the last update.
As long as you're happy sticking to the built-in characters (and are willing to pay for additional packs to increase your design options) CTA2 and CTA2Pro work quite nicely. Upgrading to the Pipeline version should be easy enough though it certainly is expensive. There are less expensive alternatives out there but 2D animation is difficult and I've yet to find a piece of software that makes it as easy as iClone has made 3D animation.
Having the Pipeline version sounds like it opens a lot of doors but swapping out sprites is surprisingly time consuming and difficult and the results still seem unnatural. In the time it takes me to create a custom character and work out the resulting layer issues and popping that occurs when animating those characters, I could have just drawn the entire animation sequence myself.
If you really want 2D animation software where you can design your own characters without all the restrictions that Reallusion place sprite size, color etc, I would consider looking into other alternatives. Just remember, there's no easy ticket to creating hand-drawn animation. CTA2 offers a lot but its shortcomings become very apparent quickly.
Personally, I'm very happy with iClone, the ToonMaker packs and using toon shading to approximate the 2D look I like so much. Of all the animation software I've ever purchased (and I've probably purchased nearly all of them), iClone remains the most versatile and easiest to use.
I hope this helps a bit! Pierre
|
KenCoon
|
KenCoon
Posted 10 Years Ago
|
Group: Forum Members
Last Active: 5 Years Ago
Posts: 687,
Visits: 18.4K
|
I will probably stay with iClone and Toon Maker and the packs. I usually end up using the regular things anyway. I was just toying with the idea. Now that iClone 6 will probably be out in a few days I guess I will be busy again. Ken
|