I am responding to your comment, “that it should be clear and easy to find breakdown of some of the key features readily available rather than a bunch of isolated morsels of wisdom scattered all over the place. I often feel like I am trying to read between the lines browsing through manuals and tutorials over and over again, which more often than not are scratching the surface or giving you bits and pieces leaving you pretty much on your own to figure it all out.” I so agree with this and although many tutorials are titled ‘beginner’ or ‘basics’ – they don’t deliver. I have been struggling with this software (CTA) for over 3 years and still don’t feel I have a handle on how to create characters. I would like to think that CTA4 pipeline would be my salvation – but my more practical and rationale side knows this is just self-delusion. These are some of my unanswered basic questions:
· If you don’t have photoshop (for all the tutorials refer to photoshop) can you really do anything in CTA? (I can’t afford photoshop, can barely afford CTA) I now realize from this post I can use AD - thank you for that.
· Can you only get the templates if you have the Pipeline edition? If so, why even offer a Pro edition, let alone a standard.
· And then, when you go to the manual, they talk about Flash! What is Flash? It seems it is critical to the process. So, should you import into CTA in .swg, .psd or .png? Someone needs to explain when you do which – I’ve seen tutorials where they tell you to export in .png to CTA – or do you export into CTA with .psd. So confusing! And what about Flash??
· And how do you make sprites for your characters? All the tutorials have them ready-made – but they are not the parts I would need for my characters. Where can you get(buy) sprites?
· And the templates – if you can get them – do you have to go to your outside editor to use? – or can you use them in CTA to make a character? What’s the difference between these psd templates and the templates they have under G3 characters in CTA, or the G2 ‘Simon’ Template? Also, what’s the difference between the ‘motion bone’ templates and the ‘dummy’ – what’s the dummy used for?
Believe me, the questions I’ve listed here are only the tip of the iceberg - reflecting only my most recent struggles. And I’m sure some of these questions are naïve or, in fact, stupid. But I don’t have an animation background and I had hoped I would be able to learn how to do it with CTA. Well, 3 years later and I still can’t create my own character and animate it without the head falling off. However, I can attach props on G3 characters, but not on G2 – does G2 use a different process? You see my dilemma – I would need tutorials that explained what would appear obvious to more experienced animators. CTA for Dummies.