I'm curious if RL has any plans on loosening up of the symmetrical requirements for importing new characters. As it stands, everything has to be so straight, so evenly matched, and so symmetrical. If I'm creating a character, I may want a stooped over character, or a hunchback character, or even something like a pirate with a peg leg (and no foot) that the current methodology frowns upon.

i think the symmetrical requirements mostly really apply toward the formation of the skeletal structure. You should still be able to draw your characters any way you like, you just have to exercise extra creativity in setting them up. for example using the back hair or even the neck for the hunch in your hunch back. or placing the pivot point in body part regions that you would not expect the pivot point to be at.

Also once the character is rigged, it seems you can adjust the size of bones and bodyparts from within CTA itself. Though, I wouldn't expect a prefab walk cycle to work perfectly with a pirate whose leg might be longer than his pegleg... you'd have to create custom animation to make that walk look more believable.


Ibis Fernandez   |   (available for hire)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Professional Animator, Filmmaker | Creator of the highest quality (modular) G2 rigs for cartoon animator and developer of Toon Titan and Puppet Producer 
Author of Flash Animation and Cartooning: A Creative Guide
>>> be sure to check out http://toontitan.com for professional grade assets, templates, and custom tools for Cartoon Animator and more.

I too am waiting on the video tutorial of the process of taking a character created in the template into CTA2. Please tell me there is an automated process and that I do not have to break it apart and import all the sprites, for all the body parts, at all the angles...

Sorry, to inform you my friend but you will have draw, create and import each and every part to your character. I've working on my character and it's taking forever to complete, Ibis aka Toontitan created several great video tutorials using his "Puppet Producer" CTA2 plugin that's very helpful.

Search the forum for it and good luck!

_____________________________________________________________

CreativeSoulTV.com • Video Maker • Cartoonist • Geek • Flawed Genius • Blogger • Tech Enthusiast • Apple Fan • Youtuber • Podcaster • Movie Lover! Social: The Creative Journal • CreativeSoulTV • Twitter

Ive been learning CTA2 since day one or should I say flash ...lol....and am still a fair way from finishing one character...granted I just put a couple of hours in most days of the week and I make a lot of mistakes..... but I believe in it and will stick it out till the end....I know I'll get quicker and better ...its good to know I'm not on my own at having still not completed a character.

Terribly disappointed with CTA2. I cannot seem to create a transparent head although the jpg AND png images used are all transparent.
Also it is not possible to import CTA1 characters and move them normally.
for people who need continuity in their work this is a disaster.

jpg images do not support transparency. PNG images you must define the transparent regions in an external image editor before importing them into CTA2. CTA2 no longer has the masking features of CTA1 to create transparent regions in imported images. All that must be done in external image editors.

I've had no trouble importing CTA1 characters and animating them the same way as in CTA1. Simply stick to the tools and motions designed for G1 characters (such as 2D motions and the 2D motion editor) and you should be right at home - the process is virtually identical to CTA1.

- TET
Animation and Video Life
The Lazy Animator - Tutorials for Cartoon Animator

Any Idea when the training videos will be out, I have started creating a couple of Characters but the going is slow I am using the DrawPlus6 template but the going is slow, partly because I am not a cartoonist by trade and partly because creating a Character is Like writing COBOL 20 pages of code for 1 line of output. I love CTA2 Pipeline provides allot of options and it produces a very professional finished product. I hope to be able to list some of my Characters in the future but I am working on an animation project that needs to be finished by Aug so time is of the essence. Thanks in advance

We don't have a CTA2 Training DVD as yet but do keep a check on our CTA2 video tutorials page. The number of tutorials is growing constantly and now numbers 15, including a two part tutorial on creating characters from 2D images. Please click the link below to find them.

CrazyTalk Animator 2 Video Tutorials

                                                                

Peter
Forum Administrator

www.reallusion.com

I think the pipeline Template tutorial for creating your own vector character is well overdue and everyone knows it... if I hadn't turned to the Puppet producer and Ibis's tutorials id be pretty annoyed with CTA2 about now...by the time it does come out it will feel pretty out of date ..John