Hi everyone, I have a major problem with CTA 3 (pipeline version). Anytime I have more then 5 little mates in a scene the program simply crashes. For a second the scene will appear with the little mates missing a few sprites and then just crash. How can I mitigate this problem?

I have the latest version of crazytalk pipeline version and using it on a macbook pro.

This is my testing...


You can try to adjust Preference settings to lower.

Hi Kyle,  I also have problems with the little mates collection.  The little mate characters cause serious lags in the software.  I have documented this on my recently YouTube video.  Garry pyes character have a lag associated with them. I haven't found a solution for my problem yet.  The character file size might be part of the problem.  I recently purchased a couple of flat characters from the store. I've had absolutely no trouble with them.  Anyway thanks for sharing your experience. I thought that I was the only person having trouble.
This is my video showing little mates problems.



Hopefully you find a solution for your problem with the characters. I still trying to find a solution for mine.

have a great week
Coolhewitt 23

Hmmm, I'm not running a Mac but Win 7/i7 3.5GHz/16GB Ram/GTX 970 and I dropped 6 Little Mates onto my stage, gave them each animation (moving at the same time) and it ran fine, no crashes.

Jeff



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Hi guys. Garry Pye here. Creator of The Little Mate series of G3 characters for CTA3. I think you'll find the reason that the Little Mates characters can cause a lag issue on some machines when you have multiple characters on screen is because of their file size. The average Little Mate character is 14mb to 20mb in size, whereas the average G3 Elastic Folk character is 4mb in size and the average G2 character is 1.5mb in size. 

The reasons for the file size differences include- 

1) G2 characters are vector files which are smaller than G3 characters which are PNG sprite based. 
2) I tend to put a LOT of additional sprites in my characters to give users the widest possible range and variation. Some of my characters have over 60 mouth mouth sprites whereas the Elastic Folks have 15. THis is because I use sprite swapping to create the range of character expressions as opposed to facial puppeteering. 

The speed at which multiple characters on screen will run can depend on the machine youre running them on. For instance I run CTA3 on 2 desktops and a Surface Pro and get different speeds myself. I havent experience crashing however, and I have had multiple characters on screen. 

One solution would be to edit the characters youre working with by removing the sprites you do not need (eg. hair colours or styles youre not using) and this will reduce the file size and in turn speed up working with the character. My apologies that you are having these issues, and if ever you have any questions regarding my products, never hesitate to email me at garrypye@bigpond.net.au as I am always happy to chat. 


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

Just quickly in response to CoolHewiit who suggested I "copy a lot of my own artwork" and don't change very much between my Little Characters, I'd just like to post this shot here of the current range of Little Mates I have available. Rather than thinking of it as copying my own artwork, I prefer to think that I am offering a series of characters that have a consistent look and feel about them, but with a wide range of individual looks. Much in the same way that Lego characters work, or Smurfs. And given that each character sells for $10US and often come with free bonus content,I think I give a fair amount of value for money in the work I produce. I think it is unreasonable to suggest that by reusing the hand, eye and mouth sprites on this series of characters that i am in some way taking a short cut or taking the easy way out. If I were to create an entire new set for each character, the price would certainly increase from $10US per character and then I'm sure Coolhewitt would be the first to complain that my content is too expensive.  I appreciate that Coolhewiit said "I haven't done a lot of videos with his stuff." I'm okay with this. In fact, if you would prefer to just focus on videos of your own content instead of mine, and leave me to do my own videos, I would appreciate it. If anyone would like to sepak to me directly, I am always available to chat via garrypye@bigpond.net.au 

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

Hi everyone thanks for the feedback. The problem still persists with CTA crashing anytime I add the sixth little mate (different characters). I don't think it's the machine since I am using a pretty new MacBook pro. 

Thanks Garry for the tips on scaling down the size of the little mates, I'll try that to see if it solves the issue.

Also, I wanted to thank you for creating all the great content and always providing help. The little mates are amazing and bring life to CTA. I don't think I would even use CTA without your content.

Cheers.

Thanks for the feedback arsenewenger. Glad you like my content. I assure you there is plenty more on the way. Im not finished yet! Sorry the software crashes continue with larger groups of characters, even though youre using a more powerful computer. Its a weird one. Like I said, i run CTA3 on three machines - 2 PC's and a Surface Pro. The Surface Prop being the most up to date machine definitely runs everything with less load times. 
If ever you have any questions about my work or would just like a chat about CTA3, I am always around at garrypye@bigpond.net.au or you can drop by my CTA3 Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/garrypyeanimations/ and pick yourself up some great free content. If you swing by my page, be sure to drop me a private message to say hi! Have a great day.  



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

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

Hi garrypye,
I'm always tempted to purchase your characters but hold back my intention because CTA is my platform in sharpening my skill on creating my OWN characters.
Your characters might appear 'same' to Daniel but it is the look that makes the cartoon characters unique.
It is a GarryPye's signature!  Every cartoonist should have their own style.






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