Hi everyone,

Newbie here with CTA and Animation software in general. I am little confused on which one out of CTA 3 and CTA 2 to get. I have tried the demo for both and CTA 2 seems a lot easier to use with with way more content or I am missing something? For example, I couldn't find the button to switch the angle of the characters on the 3 (demo) but it's there on 2 (demo). Is CTA 3 an unfinished product? Why the lack of content and tutorials?

I am looking for a recommendation on which one to get. I would assume CTA 3 is better since it's the new version but what my experience have got me a little confused. Would love some clarification on what the difference is between the 2 versions.

Thanks for taking the time to help,

Lily

Hey lilysantos.
CtA3 essentially comes with all the functionality of CTA2, plus a whole lot more. So all the content currently available for CTA2 can be used in CTA3. The reason there is not a lot of content available right now for CTA3 is not because it is an unfinished product as you enquired, but because it is a brand new product. Reallusion themselves will no doubt bring out a lot of CTA3 content, but in addition, independant developers like myself will have new CTA3 content out in the future. Its just that we have only had the software ourselves for a short time.

With regards to which version you should buy, in my opinion, this is what you should base your decision on-

1) "Do you want to develop your own characters for animation?". If the answer is yes, then CTA3 is the way to go. G3 Character creation is much easier for CTA3 than G2 character creation is for CTA2. But you can still make G2 characters in CTA3 should you wish. So long as you buy the Pipeline version.
2) "Do you like the new flexible bones for character and props". If the answer is yes, then CTA3 is the way to go, because this feature is not in CTA2.
3) "Price". If you only want to start experimenting with animation, youre not sure if its a long term thing for you and you can buy buy CTA2 WAY cheaper, then go CTA2. 

Also, if you wanna know anything else or I can help in any way, just email me at garrypye@bigpond.net.au and Im happy to help.
Have a great day and good luck with your decision making process.
Garry


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

Hi

Stay away from CTA2, buy CTA3
CTA1 and CTA3 are good, but not CTA2.
CTA2 is sort of a 2D Iclone, it's less good then Iclone and less good then CTA1 or 3
I own both. CTA2 pipreline and CTA3 pipeline and I never had CTA1. After I bought CTA2 I was very upset that they removed the "body photo fitting" which was in CTA1. "body photo fitting" is the ability to take any 2D picture and implement a skeleton into it so you can animate it. 
In CTA2 Reallusion decided to make it Multi-dimensional Characters, so the images could be rotated 360 degrees in 45 degree every step. If you want to take your own picture in CTA2 and animate it, you have to strip it in photoshop part by part (legs, hand, head etc.)
an example in their tutorial to see how complicated it is in CTA2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gSl4_-tLTU
but much easier in CTA1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vsZ4Uv0gi8
and best in CTA3 which uses bone animation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5sQpAxQeGE&index=1&list=PLNV5zSFadPdnfZpP0ZDPjNOgOmEQmOmPJ

So just for for CTA3

hope it helped 
Tal Shachar (from Israel)

I am having trouble getting the head to move with the body. I've replaced the head with a real face picture.  Is this because i only have CTA3 standard? I'm also using windows.   In CTA2 pro i was able to do it, but i was using mac for that.  

Just be aware that there are some bugs with CTA-3. I haven't run a full comparison with 2 but on some of the items I did test 2 doesn't have the same problem. The render style editor for instance, in CTA-3 you can only adjust one slider. If you try to adjust one, like the brightness for instance, and then try to adjust another, like saturation, all changes you made by the brightness slider revert back to the original state, even though the numerical values on the slider don't. This problem doesn't exist in 2. I've notified Reallusion and they've told me it will be fixed in the future. And like I said there are several other issues, notably problems with the 3-d animation aspect and how it interferes with any animation you try to do with the face afterwards. I can put a list up here when I have time. No offense to Reallusion, they make great products but on this matter I got tired sending them letters on this matter only to be sent back the same pat response, we've tried to recreate your problem and can't ( which can't be true ) so please send this problem to the troubleshooting thread. Sorry but to me it looks like they don't have the staff to pursue the testing on this at the moment. I found a work around so I haven't pushed this issue at the moment. All this being said though, I would still go for 2 as it also gives you the G-3 character. And also, all this being said, despite some of my frustration, I still love the product.

rosen... what problem are you encountering with the head and body movements because it sounds like the same problem I have/had as I too have been using a photo fitted head. If you let me know and it is the same problem I can fix it for you. It doesn't solve the initial bug problem but it is a work around.

Peter, I hope you are reading these messages, as I planned on bringing this to your attention anyway.