CTA 3 learning curve so far.

Author	Message
alexch2441	alexch2441 Posted 6 Years Ago
Veteran Member Group: Forum Members Last Active: 6 Years Ago Posts: 10, Visits: 66	I purchased CTA 3 Pipeline a week ago and learned from several tutorial videos: (and many others that I don't list here): 1. CrazyTalk Animator 3 Tutorial - Getting Started: My First Animated Project (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkbLq87EitQ&t=1204s) 2. CrazyTalk Animator 2 Tutorial - Creating a Character from a 2D Image (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntUy_3AMsTs&t=1647s) 3. CrazyTalk Animator 2 Tutorial - Create Talking Characters from Photos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTn-yLIdLR4&t=81s) I want to say that I have totally no previous experience in cartoon creation at all. I only played a little with Adobe Lightroom (not even Photoshop) on photos and Apple's Final Cut Pro in video film creation. So the environment of CTA 3 Pipeline is very new to me. The lessons that I learned during this week are: 1. From video 1, I notice that the movement that applied to character in G3 is very easy. The transform is also not too difficult to learn. The 3D depth of the scene takes some time to figure out the layering issues among the action of props and characters. The timeline manipulation is complex, but not too extremely challenging. The camera movement is hard in the beginning. 2. From my experience of practice, the character creation (like those shown in videos 2 & 3) is the hardest part. My final goal is to create several avatars from pictures and drawings into a G2 character with different clothing. In this week, I used one photo of mine to create a G2 character, but I realized that I may have to take a much longer time to make body part PNG files (say, rounded corner, simple color clothes, upper body and hip (the upper pant part)) good enough to make smooth movements without terrible glitches. 3. The online user manual of CTA 3 is really just a manual, not a tutorial guide at all. After purchase, I had no idea where to start (which is slightly disappointed). CTA3 newbies have to follow videos above to learn it themselves step by step. There are many tricks that those video produces remind the viewers, but they are not mentioned much in the user manual. I know it might be too much to create for Reallusion, but maybe Reallusion could compile a list of videos for 'beginner's training' specifying the purpose of each tutorial video. (Well, after I posted, I found this page kind of doing this job, but the newbies have to choose what they will learn first, https://www.reallusion.com/crazytalk-animator/tutorial.html) 4. The users on this forum are very helpful. Many of them are very knowledgeable and point out the key flaws of my work immediately. However, The speed of the forum is very slow. My final goal of playing with CTA 3 is to create a short film of a story (maybe 20 minutes) with several characters. I estimate that it will be accomplished in several years. I will slowly to create characters, props and scenes for the story. I think the props and scenes might not be too difficult (maybe I am wrong). At this moment, I see more problems in perfecting actors' actions, expressions and movements (because they are the focuses of how this story evolves). I bet I will probably spend 50% of the time in perfecting actors' bodies, facial expression, and movements. Have other users have gone through their learning curves? What are your tips and what have you learned? Or do you find some experts having their experience shared online? Can you share them here? Alex. Edited 6 Years Ago by alexch2441

heartsong	heartsong Posted 6 Years Ago
New Member Group: Forum Members Last Active: 5 Years Ago Posts: 2, Visits: 11	Thanks for sharing, I too am a newbie and love the potential of the software but find it difficult understanding some of the terminology and processes. It would be nice if they had simple projects with short tutorials, like how to use the animations to help you learn the foundational concepts of the software. I will check out those tutorials, although I probably already watched them beginner frustrated how do they do how do you newbie

Save the spaceman	Save the spaceman Posted 6 Years Ago
Distinguished Member Group: Forum Members Last Active: 4 Years Ago Posts: 53, Visits: 4.1K	Hello Alex From my limited experience of animation and experience using crazytalk. Start with G3 characters. G2 multi angle characters are very difficult to create ( Respect to all the G2 creators) G3 characters are relatively easy to make and you can get front 3-4 and side angles. What I have learned is get the characters perfect from the start. All the pivot points and joints work properly or you will spend most of your time correcting the character instead of concentrating on animating.

alexch2441	alexch2441 Posted 6 Years Ago
Veteran Member Group: Forum Members Last Active: 6 Years Ago Posts: 10, Visits: 66	Thank you for both replies. Save the spaceman, thank you for the tips. I will play with G3 character later and see how it goes. I heard from another video comparing G3 & G2 characters, and knew some pros and cons. I started with G2 because I feel I want to add more variations on character's face and clothes. One thing I learn in creating G2 character is to replace sprite parts instead of creating a new one, which save a lot of time in adjusting body parts. I also leaned to create body parts from an free iOS cartoon character app called " SuperMe", which the character can be saved as PNG. Then I also found to use Adobe to change character's face into other 8 angles by changing the face's character. I still have to find out how I can replace faces that are not 0-degree angle. One G2's advantage is to have a back angle. I will try to play with G3 character as you suggest and see its potentials and limitations. Alex

CTA 3 learning curve so far.

CTA 3 learning curve so far.

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