Although G3 actors is not really expansion from the G2 Actors, I do love the fact that you can finally create and animate anything you want with out having have it adhere to a human bone structure.
This alone opens up many possibilities. My only concern with that is something I stated earlier in another thread. The new bone template requires you to rely heavily on keyframe animation. Now if your are an animator, this may be heaven for you. However, I am NO ANIMATOR...not by a long shot. I have begun reading and watching tutorials on how to animate but I have a LONG way to go. With that being said....CTA was build for people who did not know a lot about animation. You could use a lot of pre-made motions with G1 actors, and this feature value increased with the release of CTA2, because now you could use 3D imotions. I know people will upset that they can not use G1 motions with the human bone template. Looking at the G3 to G2 comparison chart, there are several distinctive and critical assets lost with the new version which are Vector, Render Style, and G1 motions. These are critical pieces that a lot of people want and need and rely on.
If you can apply render style to a prop, G1 and G2 characters...why can't you do it for the Bone Template or Free Bone template? If the Bone Template naming convention matches that of G1 character, why can't the G1 motions be applied? Vector images are what a lot of people love, you build all of your previous software versions on primarily vector based images...now it's been lost with the new update. Alpha testers did not have all the features that was provided to the Beta testers so there was a glimmer of hope that these features would be included in the final release.
Although the Bone Template and the Free Bone Template will except vector images...you lose the Flexible/Elastic ability to manipulate characters. I personally don't care for the curvy arm and legs, they are TOO cartoony for me. I prefer a more realistic approach. However I do love the template bone and free bone with the flexible/elastic ability for non-human characters and props. I think the biggest asset to this update is the deform tool for the facial features.....I can now animate and move every facial feature. Having 9 points on the deform tool for facial piece is wonderful. You can now do simple things like make a characters hair bounce when running. However for some reason, the body deform tool still remains with 4 points instead of 9....WHY? Please tell me that will be fix before CTA3 is released.
One of my first feature request will be to ask if you can add the flexible/elastic characteristics to G2 characters, even if it can only be done in png format. Vector is still what I prefer, but I think that will make a lot of people happy. This is not an attempt to bash this release in no form of fashion, this is an honest review and I am sure others will agree with some of these issues as well.
I do have a concern on how much of a strain will having a lot of PNG base characters and props put on people computers will trying to animate a scene and how large will characters have to be drawn in order for them to still appears clear for close up animation?
