Hi...
The first thing you have to decide if you want to work in 2D or 3D.
For example iClone 7 and Character Creator 3 are 3D animation packages while Cartoon Animator 4 and CrazyTalk 8 are 2D animation packages. A good way to think of the difference is to consider 3D like viewing a sculpture, where you can view it from a full 360 degrees, whereas Cartoon Animator 4 and CrazyTalk 8 are like viewing a painting where you view from fixed angles.
Regarding your question about CrazyTalk 8, you can certainly use it to bring photos or drawings to life and is the easiest of our programs to learn and use. However, CrazyTalk 8 only animates heads, not bodies, but includes some very powerful animation features like auto motion and lip-sync for your character which is a massive time saver and means your character can be talking and displaying expressions in seconds.
So by all means let us know more about your requirements. For example, do you need to animate heads only or full bodied characters? Do you need the ability to view the character from 360 degrees or just front and maybe side facing? Do you want to produce lifelike human characters or cartoon type characters? The more information you can provide the easier it will be to find the perfect program for you.
Peter
Forum Administrator
www.reallusion.com