Cartoon Animator 4.3 Review

I used the 30-day trial of Cartoon Animator 4. I spent several hours in the program. This is my review that took me several days to write. I use the program to make explainer videos for my social media. I am comparing my experiences with the program based on other programs I have used such as Vyond, Adobe Character Creator, Animaker, After Effects, and Powtoon.

Plugins

Motion Capture - The trial lets you use the Pipeline version. I was able to test out the plugin for face motion capture. I am not really an actor. It was fun to use. I can't give a professional opinion because I don't need it for the videos I make.

After Effects - I don't have a review for this feature. I will update once I buy and I can test out the feature more. I also didn't test the plugin with Premiere or other editing programs such as Filmora or Camtasia. Honestly, if I wanted to use After Effects, I would just bypass Cartoon Animator all together. I can create Explainer Video animations in After Effects with a variety of templates. I could also use a combination of Character Animator and After Effects.

Photoshop Plugin - I used the Plugin with Photoshop, Krita, and Photopea.

Photoshop - It worked the best with Photoshop. I had no issues importing objects.
Krita - With Krita, some objects I imported were missing details. For example, I created a house with multiple layers. When I imported into Cartoon Animator, part of the windows were cut off although the appeared perfectly fine in Krita. I am not sure if this is an error with Krita or Cartoon Animator. Most of the props I imported were fine.
Photopea - I tried to use the plugin. The UI for the Photopea was too small on my computer so I couldn't use it. I had contacted customer service about the issue. They told me to leave feedback about the plugin because the plugin doesn't support 4k monitors. I did. I think this is not a smart business move when one of the main features of the program is that it can export in 4k.

75% of original size (was 671x19) - Click to enlarge

Image showing the import from Krita.

Overall, I give the plugin 3 out of 5. The idea of the plugin is excellent but I give it 3 out of 5 stars for the following reasons:

Pros

In theory, this is a great feature to quickly make updates to a scene. I think I would have used it more if it wasn't for the watermark.

Cons

The After Effects plugin was difficult to use.
The plugins are based on Adobe products but they can't compete with the cross-compatibility Adobe has with its own products. Character Creator integrates with Animate, Premiere, Photoshop, Illustrator, and After Effects. If someone is going to use Photoshop and After Effects, better for them to just use Character Animator because these products work together 1000xs better. I find it weird Reallusion is trying to be a Character Creator replacement in the Adobe Suite. If Reallusion wants to compete with Character Creator, they will need plugins for Illustrator, Premiere, and Animate. According to Adobe, 50% of their bases uses Illustrator. I am surprised there is no plugin for Illustrator. I am also surprised there isn't a plugin for Animate because the G2 characters rely on Flash. I would honestly like to see the product work with more other products besides Adobe.
I stopped using the Photoshop plugin because of the watermark. Whenever I imported something I edited back into Cartoon Animator, even if I created it, it had a watermark. For example, if I wanted to do a quick color change on one version of a prop while leaving the other the same, there would be a watermark on the second object. Going back and replacing the objects manually so there was not a watermark took a lot of time after editing in the image editor. I ended up ditching the use of the Photoshop plugin and I started manually editing and importing everything.

Render Styles

This feature gave me a headache. The manual on this feature does not indicate you need Adobe Animate to use it. Also, the manual isn't very clear on how this feature works. I contacted customer service for help but they kept giving me generic answers. Also, I didn't receive the help I needed on the forums. I ended up using the feature once but the time it took to use it wasn't worth it. The feature sounds cool from the website but in practice, it is just too limiting because of the file types it requires. It is just easier for me to edit props in an image editor too keep the number of programs I use simple. I am already using Illustrator/Inkscape to import my images into Photoshop/Krita for editing so they can be exported into Cartoon Animator. Animate would be just another program I need to add to my workflow.

I give this feature 2/5 for the following reasons:

Pros

The filters and the lines are okay to easily change to different cartoon art styles.

Cons

The support for this feature is poor. The documentation is confusing. Support really doesn't have an answer to many of the questions that I asked about the feature. For example, I asked where I could get the original fla files for the props/characters already in the program to edit them in Animate but I was just sent a template file. If I edit them in Photoshop, they turned into image-based objects. The forums were not that much more helpful than support. I left feedback on the issues I had with the manual.
The feature uses swf files. There are very few programs that export from fla to swf files. The only one I know works well is Adobe Animate.
Doesn't work the the G3 characters. In order to modify these characters, I still have to use an image editor.
I don't like the color wheel. It is very difficult to get the colors I want. It doesn't line up with the HSB of the colors I want. It only goes up to a hue of 180. The bar for the hue is too small to pick the correct color.
There isn't a video on how to make objects with render styles or a video on how to use this feature under the pipeline section.
It is easier to update the style of objects in the image editor than using the render styles. This is because most scenes use a combination of objects with render styles and without render styles.

Enter and Exit Elastic Motions
Another Pipeline feature are the enter and exit elastic motions. These features work perfectly for someone creating animations for explainer videos because you can quickly change the direction of an animation. I actually love this feature. I give this feature a 5/5.

Pros

Makes switching the enter/exit animations easy. It is easy to enter left using an animation and exit right using the same animation.
The feature is actually documented well.
Not a lot of clicking

Manual & Tutorials

I didn't find the videos and tutorials helpful. I would have liked if there was a tutorial broken down into parts on how to create a video project so the entire workflow was shown. Going from Photoshop to Cartoon Animator to After Effects. There also seem to be a few gaps in how things are covered in the manual and the videos. Also, the sections are not organized well. I left feedback on how things are organized. The way everything is laid it is that it assumes you used a previous version of the software. It doesn't assume you are a brand new user. I give this a 2/5.

Pros

There is a lot of documentation.
There are a lot of hours of first-party video tutorials.

Cons

It is very confusing on how it doesn't explain the differences between the G2/G3 characters and props very well.
Some videos say there are additional videos that explain more. These additional videos are missing in the sequence.
Some of the terminology should be adjusted. There are several words used to mean different things.
There is no glossary of terminology in the manual so I can quickly understand what the manual means.
The videos have not been updated for Cartoon Animator 4. Some things work the same while other things don't.
There are features and settings not explained in the manual or videos such as FFD animation clips.
Videos need to be created on the following:

Creating G2 Characters
Animating G2 Characters
Explain what FFD clips are and the difference between FFD clips and elastic motions
Entire project workflow showing the steps from Photoshop to Cartoon Animator to After Effects using a video with more than one scene
Show how to use Cartoon Animator with Premiere
Show how to use Cartoon Animator with Animator
Explain how the SFX feature works, how to create a custom SFX, and the difference between SFX and props
Intro to Cartoon Animator 4 Character Types Video

There needs to be sprite sheets of all the mouth, eye, and hand sprites that are needed for a character in the manual

I mentioned the UI in another post on here. I give the UI a 2/5. I will just recap a few issues I had with the UI:

Pros

I like the ability to have a dark mode

Cons

I hate that I can't dock every window. I don't have another monitor. It is a pain to have the windows cover up what part of the scene I am working on. I also dislike how things can be docked and where they can be docked.
There were a few bugs with the UI I reported.
The UI looks outdated. The icons are too big.
There are too many icons. All icons display no matter what is selected. They are not grouped by the type of objects they affect.
A few icons that are in the menu like the icon to add music or sound effects are missing from the dashboard.
You can't create a custom workspace

Projects and Project Settings
The settings are more expansive than other programs. There are just a few things that need to change. I give the projects a 2/3. This is based on making explainer videos.

Pros

I like the way project templates can be saved for future use but there is only scene that can be saved.
I like the large background you can add and the 3d view.
The manual explaining the project is satisfactory.

Cons

Stuck at 30 frames per second. There is no way to change this.
No option to change from frames to seconds in the timeline.
Setting the safe area too low breaks the camera frame. I didn't report this. I actually forgot to report it. I will report it when I get the full version.
There is no way to have multiple scenes in a project. There is only one scene per project. When making explainer videos, it is great if things can continuously flow.
There is no way to load multiple project files in tabs. Only one project can be loaded at a time.
A video editor has to be used to compose the project. This is due to having only a single scene per project.

Camera

I like the camera. Although it is basic, it is a lot more advanced than the camera in online animation software like Powtown, Animaker, etc. I actually think it is more advanced than Character Animator. The only suggestion would be to set the camera size in the project settings rather than the export settings. The rest of the camera settings are there. To mean, it would make more sense to have them there. I give the camera a 5/5.

Pros

I like the ease of use of the character.
The ability to create a parallax effect .
How objects are resized when moving objects on the z-axis
The camera can be rotated
It is easy to focus on what the object you want with the camera
It is easy to edit the camera animations.

Sounds & Music
The sounds of the program are very basic. There are only 3 sound tracks. Two are SFX and one is Music. Actually, 4 if you include the voice track. This is better that what is offered by most of the online editors. They usually have one or two sound tracks. I give this section 1/5 because recording narration for explainer videos is important.

Pros

It is easy to change the character's expressions to go with the sounds.
I like how you can easily save voice tracks and apply them to different characters.

Cons

The sound of the voice track can't be edited.
You can only record character voices.

You can't create a narration track in the program.
You can't record your own sound effects in the program.

There isn't a difference between the Sound FX tracks and the Music tracks even though they are labeled as being different. This is a little confusing.
There is not really a library to store music that will auto-populate the music track. I can only be stored under SFX.
You cannot upload m4a audio files.
The text-to-speech is terrible on this program like it is on every program on the market.

Text Tool
The text tools let you add subtitles to the program. It is not a regular text tool even though it is labeled as one. It should be labeled as a subtitle tool. If you want text, you need to create it on your scene in the image editing program and import it as prop. I give this a 1/5. Having a text tool is important for explainer videos. These are the issues I have with the text tool:

Cons

Clicking on the text tool only gives one type of option. The default text box that appears is in a white box. There is no way to set the default. You cannot change the style of this box. It is better to bring in text from the SFX panel to get the text you want.
You cannot apply saved animations to text.
The subtitles are not auto-generated. They have to be manually entered. Some of the other animation programs auto-generate subtitles.
The documentation needs to be clearer that this is a subtitle tool rather than a normal text tool.

Exporting/Rendering

I already covered the After Effects Plugin so I am not going to cover that again. The exporting is basic. I would give it about 4/5. It is good but it's not great. It does better than most of the online animation programs because it offers 4k. The reasons are as follows:

Pros

I like the 4k exporting.
I like the number of exporting options.

Cons

No social exporting to websites like YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, etc.
No presets for social sizes such as 1:1 and 9:16
I dislike the only way to get a video with a transparent background is to export a a popVideo. This isn't a dealbreaker but since I have to use an external editor to create a full video, it makes the process a little harder.

Content Manager/Library
The amount of content you get in the trial version is good but it's not great. A lot of the content has different art styles so it is hard to create a project with the given assets. The content is there to basically show what you can create. I give the library a 3/5. It is good but it can be way better. The organization of the library is better on many of the online animation programs.

Pros

I like the ability to have a custom library with the assets I want.
I like how you can create custom thumbnails for each object.

Cons

The library has too many sub-folders in the default template section. In order to get to the content I sometimes have to go through 2-3 folders. There should only be one top level folder in each section. This causes too much clicking. The folders should be sorted by theme such as Elastic, Fashion, Templates etc.. Maybe the folder icon can indicate if it is a G2/G3/etc.
It shows the navigation pane by default. There is no way to set a hidden navigation pane to the default. If it change this, each time the program is opened, you have to change it again.
There is no search. You have to scroll for what you are looking for.
There is no way to sort the objects.
The cartoon styles don't really go together.
I don't like the naming conventions of the folders and the objects. The icons on the objects already tell you what the objects are.
There is no preview of what is in the folder by mousing over it.
There should be a character limit on the names of the objects. Some objects have such long names, it gets cut off or the name of the object overlaps the name of the next object.
There should be a way to turn off the object names and just show the pictures.
Custom assets I create should appear next to the default ones so I don't have to switch back and forth.
There should be a preview of each animation when you scroll over it with a dummy character or prop.
You can't create custom folder icons
You can't tag objects

Characters/Actors

I was unable to create a character using the software. Character creation is way harder than with Character Creator. Although creating a character is hard I do like the way it functions. I give this feature a 4/5 because there is are a lot of character packs that can be purchased.

Pros

I love that you can create custom characters from a few parts.
I like the original characters and the ones that can be purchased from the store.
I like the variety of characters you can have.
I like how you can easily add accessories to the characters. Although, it doesn't explain head accessories don't work well with 360 heads. It took me a while to figure out not to put accessories on the 360 heads.
I like how you can link characters to props, other characters, and accessories.
I like how easy it is to rig a character. The bone structure in Character Animator is more rigid. There really isn't a bone structure when rigging characters for animation in After Effects.

Cons

The instructions on how to create a character, especially the videos are hard to follow. There is no much conflicting information.

The manuals and videos also are missing how to setup the mouths and hands correctly. They say you need different sprites but they don't give a list of the different sprites you need.
There isn't a good explanation between G1, G2, G2+, G3 Elastic, G3 Fashion, G360 Characters, G3 Bone hand Characters, etc. The manual and videos also don't explain this well.
There isn't a video on how to create a character from 14 parts when from the animations it seems the most common characters are 10 part and 14 parts.
There isn't a video describing the main character parts and exactly what you need in each folder. Basically, there isn't a video explaining the different folders and how they work for G3 characters and G360 characters for the different character types.
There isn't a video on creating and animating the G2 characters and props.
All the videos for characters should be located in the correct sections. The way some of the videos are categorized is confusing. I left feedback about this.

The folder structure for creating a character is less straightforward than the folder structure in Character Animator.
G3/G360 characters require multiple characters to be created for each angle.

Animation & Timeline
Animations are very easy in Cartoon Animator. The motion clips and elastic motions libraries make it very easy to animate any character or prop. The timeline for animations is more difficult to use than other programs animation programs. Although, it is easier to use than the After Effects timeline. Since animation is quick and easy, I give it a 4/5.

Pros

You can animate quickly with motion clips and elastic motions.
You can easily create custom animations, motion clips, and elastic motions with key frames and easing.
It is easy to animate the camera.
You can apply action menus to characters and props.
You can create custom action menus that can be applied to a variety of characters and props.
You can easily animate a character's hands without sprites so if you use a typing animation it doesn't look weird.
There is auto lip syncing.

Cons

The changes between sprites can be jumpy. It doesn't allow you to ease between sprite changes.
The different characters and how they animate can be confusing.
The number of windows for animating an object makes animating a little confusing (puppet tool, motion key editor, elastic motion editor, etc).
The flags placed are hard to move and remove based on their position on the time. I left feedback about this.
You can only access the elastic motion editor by dragging an elastic motion onto the prop.
It is sometimes difficult to select from the action menu if there are a lot of actions. The action menu should be its own separate menu that is dockable. I left feedback on this.
It is difficult to understand the different settings on the timeline. There is a main opacity setting plus there is one under motion. I don't know if these are different but they seem redundant.

Scene & Scene Manager
Using an image editor, it is easy to create a scene with a similar style and color pallet that is ready to be animated. Although most tutorials used a prop for the background, I found it easier to use the background feature in the project manager. That way, I had more control of where I wanted my camera. I give this feature 4/5.

Pros

Easy to create in an image editor.
I like being able to save scene templates.
I like how I can apply an image layer to give a scene different types of lighting.

Cons

When I import the scenes, they always import below the camera frame. Even when I import on a brand new project.
If you have a lot of objects on in the scene, the scene manage gets quite long.
The scenes that come with the trial version are just okay.
I dislike there is no depth of field.

Special Effects
There isn't too much documentation that discusses the difference between the special effects clips and props. With props, you can use one of the supported video file types and achieve the same thing. Special effects are the flv files. These files can only be created in a flash editor such as Animate. I give this feature a 1/5.

Cons

There is no benefit to using special effects over props.
Special effects are flash files.

Props
One of my favorite features of the program is the props system. Props are very important for explainer videos. It is very easy to create custom props with custom animations. The prop system blows all other animation programs prop systems away. I give this feature a 5/5.

Pros

It is easy to create and edit props in an image editor with a simple file structure
Animations for props can be resued for other props
You can animate a prop in any way you want. You don't have to rely on basic enter and exit motions.
Props can be linked to other characters and other props
Easily compound props to create new props
Video clips can be used as props
There is a huge content library with props.
Props are clearly marked if they are animated.

Cons

The number of default types of props is limited compared to what you would see in online animation software.

There are no props for basic shapes such as square, rectangle, triangle, circle, star, etc.
There is only one transition prop to start
No social media logos
No emojis

There are mask props (called overlays in other animation software) but the information using them is not documented well. I left feedback about this.

Customer Service

The only customer service available is through email. The response time is about 24 hours. The prompt for customer service doesn't tell you to upload a video showing the issue and a dxdiag file. So when you first contact them, if you don't do this, you will get a response stating you need to upload those files. Then you will have to wait another 24 hours for another response. If the issue you are having with Cartoon Animator cannot be captured on video, they are unable to help you.

If you need help with a certain feature in the program or you want to leave a suggestion for a new feature to be added, they will direct you to the forums. Reallusion has their own staff that monitors the forums and answers questions. It may take them 2-3 days to answer your questions. You can mark a post as an answer to a question or you can rate the answer you received on a post. The forums are not very active. I usually see myself as the only member logged in several times during the day. I see the forums as a place where a lot of the users come to promote their YouTube channels. On about half the questions I posted, I received answers that were YouTube videos that had nothing to do with my initial question.

If your issue is not a bug but due to poor program design, such as the Photopea plugin not working with 4k monitors or errors in the manual, they will ask you to leave feedback. When you leave feedback, others have to vote on if they want the change with the features in the program. If you want to suggest a new feature, the staff will ask you to make a forum post about it. The feedback section isn't very active so I don't see the purpose of the voting system. The staff does look at feedback. If it is something they want to implement, they will change the status.

Overall, I give their customer service a 4/5.

Pros

They responds in 24 hours which is pretty quick for a message system.

Cons

There is no chat option.
They are not clear on what is needed for a support request.

Final Verdict

After reviewing everything Cartoon Animator has to offer, I give it a 3/5. It has many features that will give you an edge when creating explainer videos and save you time. It is also missing many features that will make the process of creating an explainer video more time consuming like proper text tools, shape props, narration recording, multiple scenes per project, search in content manager, and importing m4a files. There are also a few features that will make using the program a nightmare such as the endless clicking through the default content manager folders, the training materials not being updated or consistent, the over-reliance on Adobe's products, having almost every window float, the ton of clicking and dragging to manage the order of objects in the scene manager or layer manager, and the endless amount of clicking needed in the timeline. I will buy the Cartoon Animation because right now there is a sale on the Pipeline version for $99. A this price point, the program is a good value.

Comparisons
I decided to compare Cartoon Animator to a few of the popular ways people make explainer videos.

Character Animator

I did a comprehensive comparison. You can find it on the forums.

After Effects

It is better than After Effects for explainer videos because:

you can rig characters easier
lip syncing is easier
you don't have to rely on a bunch of different sprites for body movements and facial expressions
you don't need different plugins and scripts to modify characters from different packs
the and the timeline works better
it has an easier to use library

After Effects is better because:

you can have multiple scenes
you can upload m4a files
the text tools are better
you don't need another app to compose a video
you can dock windows better
you can access the content store within the app

Video Editor

you can rig characters easier, there isn't a reliance on a bunch of different sprites for body movement and facial expressions
you don't have to rely on a limited set of premade animated characters
the lip syncing is easier
you can create custom characters

A video editor is better because:

you can have multiple scenes
you can upload m4a files
you can record narration
there are better text tools
it has an easier to use timeline
it has collaboration features
you can export to video and social media websites
you don't need multiple apps to compose a video
they generate auto-subtitles
you can dock windows better
you can access the content store within the app

Slide Editor

It is better than a slide editor such as PowerPoint or Google Slides because:

you have more choices besides basic enter and exit animations for objects
you can animate characters and props anyway you like
there is a roubost timeline
you can have multiple music tracks
exports to a video file (although some presentation apps do)
it has lipsyning
you can create custom characters
can control the camera

A slide app is better because:

you can have multiple scenes
you can upload m4a files
you can record narration
there are better text tools
it has collaboration features
you can import videos, images, and music from the web
easiest to use

Online Animation Apps

no costly monthly subscriptions
you own your videos
you can export in 4k
you are not limited to 3-4 styles of animation designs
you can animate any image
you can create scenes with a parallax view using the z-axis
there is a better camera tools
there are better timeline controls
you can create custom enter, emphasis, and exit effects
there are more detailed character customization options
you can change the speed of an animation
there are no limits on the number of videos you can create
you can create more unique videos
you can create unlimited videos
you only have to pay for what you need
it loads way faster

A online animation are better because:

they have a more intuitive UI
you can have multiple scenes a project
you can easily share your video on social media websites
no additional software is required to create a completed video
has a separate library for music
can easily add shapes
library is pre-loaded with a lot of different types of assets that have matching themes
better text tools
you can record a voice narration
it has collaboration tools
you can easily change the color of objects with a color picker, wheel, or using exact color values
can create color themes
there are plenty of templates to get you started
you can easily insert charts and graphs
you can view the timeline in seconds
you can search the content library
when you mouse over an animation, you get a preview

Animate
I really don't like animate so this might be a little biased.

animating is quicker
you can reuse animations
it is easier to create a character using the library
it is easier to use easing
it comes it templates to get you started creating custom characters
it is easier to rig an object
you aren't relying on a bunch of sketches or sprites
you can easily lipsync what the character is saying

Animate is better because:

you don't have to rely on additional software to create a video
you can have multiple scenes
you can search the library
you can publish to social networks
you can publish to html canvas

review

Author	Message
deborah_293014	deborah_293014 Posted 5 Years Ago
Veteran Member Group: Forum Members Last Active: 5 Years Ago Posts: 23, Visits: 172	I used the 30-day trial of Cartoon Animator 4. I spent several hours in the program. This is my review that took me several days to write. I use the program to make explainer videos for my social media. I am comparing my experiences with the program based on other programs I have used such as Vyond, Adobe Character Creator, Animaker, After Effects, and Powtoon. Plugins Motion Capture - The trial lets you use the Pipeline version. I was able to test out the plugin for face motion capture. I am not really an actor. It was fun to use. I can't give a professional opinion because I don't need it for the videos I make. After Effects - I don't have a review for this feature. I will update once I buy and I can test out the feature more. I also didn't test the plugin with Premiere or other editing programs such as Filmora or Camtasia. Honestly, if I wanted to use After Effects, I would just bypass Cartoon Animator all together. I can create Explainer Video animations in After Effects with a variety of templates. I could also use a combination of Character Animator and After Effects. Photoshop Plugin - I used the Plugin with Photoshop, Krita, and Photopea. Photoshop - It worked the best with Photoshop. I had no issues importing objects. Krita - With Krita, some objects I imported were missing details. For example, I created a house with multiple layers. When I imported into Cartoon Animator, part of the windows were cut off although the appeared perfectly fine in Krita. I am not sure if this is an error with Krita or Cartoon Animator. Most of the props I imported were fine. Photopea - I tried to use the plugin. The UI for the Photopea was too small on my computer so I couldn't use it. I had contacted customer service about the issue. They told me to leave feedback about the plugin because the plugin doesn't support 4k monitors. I did. I think this is not a smart business move when one of the main features of the program is that it can export in 4k. 75% of original size (was 671x19) - Click to enlarge Image showing the import from Krita. Overall, I give the plugin 3 out of 5. The idea of the plugin is excellent but I give it 3 out of 5 stars for the following reasons: Pros In theory, this is a great feature to quickly make updates to a scene. I think I would have used it more if it wasn't for the watermark. Cons The After Effects plugin was difficult to use. The plugins are based on Adobe products but they can't compete with the cross-compatibility Adobe has with its own products. Character Creator integrates with Animate, Premiere, Photoshop, Illustrator, and After Effects. If someone is going to use Photoshop and After Effects, better for them to just use Character Animator because these products work together 1000xs better. I find it weird Reallusion is trying to be a Character Creator replacement in the Adobe Suite. If Reallusion wants to compete with Character Creator, they will need plugins for Illustrator, Premiere, and Animate. According to Adobe, 50% of their bases uses Illustrator. I am surprised there is no plugin for Illustrator. I am also surprised there isn't a plugin for Animate because the G2 characters rely on Flash. I would honestly like to see the product work with more other products besides Adobe. I stopped using the Photoshop plugin because of the watermark. Whenever I imported something I edited back into Cartoon Animator, even if I created it, it had a watermark. For example, if I wanted to do a quick color change on one version of a prop while leaving the other the same, there would be a watermark on the second object. Going back and replacing the objects manually so there was not a watermark took a lot of time after editing in the image editor. I ended up ditching the use of the Photoshop plugin and I started manually editing and importing everything. Render Styles This feature gave me a headache. The manual on this feature does not indicate you need Adobe Animate to use it. Also, the manual isn't very clear on how this feature works. I contacted customer service for help but they kept giving me generic answers. Also, I didn't receive the help I needed on the forums. I ended up using the feature once but the time it took to use it wasn't worth it. The feature sounds cool from the website but in practice, it is just too limiting because of the file types it requires. It is just easier for me to edit props in an image editor too keep the number of programs I use simple. I am already using Illustrator/Inkscape to import my images into Photoshop/Krita for editing so they can be exported into Cartoon Animator. Animate would be just another program I need to add to my workflow. I give this feature 2/5 for the following reasons: Pros The filters and the lines are okay to easily change to different cartoon art styles. Cons The support for this feature is poor. The documentation is confusing. Support really doesn't have an answer to many of the questions that I asked about the feature. For example, I asked where I could get the original fla files for the props/characters already in the program to edit them in Animate but I was just sent a template file. If I edit them in Photoshop, they turned into image-based objects. The forums were not that much more helpful than support. I left feedback on the issues I had with the manual. The feature uses swf files. There are very few programs that export from fla to swf files. The only one I know works well is Adobe Animate. Doesn't work the the G3 characters. In order to modify these characters, I still have to use an image editor. I don't like the color wheel. It is very difficult to get the colors I want. It doesn't line up with the HSB of the colors I want. It only goes up to a hue of 180. The bar for the hue is too small to pick the correct color. There isn't a video on how to make objects with render styles or a video on how to use this feature under the pipeline section. It is easier to update the style of objects in the image editor than using the render styles. This is because most scenes use a combination of objects with render styles and without render styles. Enter and Exit Elastic Motions Another Pipeline feature are the enter and exit elastic motions. These features work perfectly for someone creating animations for explainer videos because you can quickly change the direction of an animation. I actually love this feature. I give this feature a 5/5. Pros Makes switching the enter/exit animations easy. It is easy to enter left using an animation and exit right using the same animation. The feature is actually documented well. Not a lot of clicking Manual & Tutorials I didn't find the videos and tutorials helpful. I would have liked if there was a tutorial broken down into parts on how to create a video project so the entire workflow was shown. Going from Photoshop to Cartoon Animator to After Effects. There also seem to be a few gaps in how things are covered in the manual and the videos. Also, the sections are not organized well. I left feedback on how things are organized. The way everything is laid it is that it assumes you used a previous version of the software. It doesn't assume you are a brand new user. I give this a 2/5. Pros There is a lot of documentation. There are a lot of hours of first-party video tutorials. Cons It is very confusing on how it doesn't explain the differences between the G2/G3 characters and props very well. Some videos say there are additional videos that explain more. These additional videos are missing in the sequence. Some of the terminology should be adjusted. There are several words used to mean different things. There is no glossary of terminology in the manual so I can quickly understand what the manual means. The videos have not been updated for Cartoon Animator 4. Some things work the same while other things don't. There are features and settings not explained in the manual or videos such as FFD animation clips. Videos need to be created on the following: Creating G2 Characters Animating G2 Characters Explain what FFD clips are and the difference between FFD clips and elastic motions Entire project workflow showing the steps from Photoshop to Cartoon Animator to After Effects using a video with more than one scene Show how to use Cartoon Animator with Premiere Show how to use Cartoon Animator with Animator Explain how the SFX feature works, how to create a custom SFX, and the difference between SFX and props Intro to Cartoon Animator 4 Character Types Video There needs to be sprite sheets of all the mouth, eye, and hand sprites that are needed for a character in the manual UI I mentioned the UI in another post on here. I give the UI a 2/5. I will just recap a few issues I had with the UI: Pros I like the ability to have a dark mode Cons I hate that I can't dock every window. I don't have another monitor. It is a pain to have the windows cover up what part of the scene I am working on. I also dislike how things can be docked and where they can be docked. There were a few bugs with the UI I reported. The UI looks outdated. The icons are too big. There are too many icons. All icons display no matter what is selected. They are not grouped by the type of objects they affect. A few icons that are in the menu like the icon to add music or sound effects are missing from the dashboard. You can't create a custom workspace Projects and Project Settings The settings are more expansive than other programs. There are just a few things that need to change. I give the projects a 2/3. This is based on making explainer videos. Pros I like the way project templates can be saved for future use but there is only scene that can be saved. I like the large background you can add and the 3d view. The manual explaining the project is satisfactory. Cons Stuck at 30 frames per second. There is no way to change this. No option to change from frames to seconds in the timeline. Setting the safe area too low breaks the camera frame. I didn't report this. I actually forgot to report it. I will report it when I get the full version. There is no way to have multiple scenes in a project. There is only one scene per project. When making explainer videos, it is great if things can continuously flow. There is no way to load multiple project files in tabs. Only one project can be loaded at a time. A video editor has to be used to compose the project. This is due to having only a single scene per project. Camera I like the camera. Although it is basic, it is a lot more advanced than the camera in online animation software like Powtown, Animaker, etc. I actually think it is more advanced than Character Animator. The only suggestion would be to set the camera size in the project settings rather than the export settings. The rest of the camera settings are there. To mean, it would make more sense to have them there. I give the camera a 5/5. Pros I like the ease of use of the character. The ability to create a parallax effect . How objects are resized when moving objects on the z-axis The camera can be rotated It is easy to focus on what the object you want with the camera It is easy to edit the camera animations. Sounds & Music The sounds of the program are very basic. There are only 3 sound tracks. Two are SFX and one is Music. Actually, 4 if you include the voice track. This is better that what is offered by most of the online editors. They usually have one or two sound tracks. I give this section 1/5 because recording narration for explainer videos is important. Pros It is easy to change the character's expressions to go with the sounds. I like how you can easily save voice tracks and apply them to different characters. Cons The sound of the voice track can't be edited. You can only record character voices. You can't create a narration track in the program. You can't record your own sound effects in the program. There isn't a difference between the Sound FX tracks and the Music tracks even though they are labeled as being different. This is a little confusing. There is not really a library to store music that will auto-populate the music track. I can only be stored under SFX. You cannot upload m4a audio files. The text-to-speech is terrible on this program like it is on every program on the market. Text Tool The text tools let you add subtitles to the program. It is not a regular text tool even though it is labeled as one. It should be labeled as a subtitle tool. If you want text, you need to create it on your scene in the image editing program and import it as prop. I give this a 1/5. Having a text tool is important for explainer videos. These are the issues I have with the text tool: Cons Clicking on the text tool only gives one type of option. The default text box that appears is in a white box. There is no way to set the default. You cannot change the style of this box. It is better to bring in text from the SFX panel to get the text you want. You cannot apply saved animations to text. The subtitles are not auto-generated. They have to be manually entered. Some of the other animation programs auto-generate subtitles. The documentation needs to be clearer that this is a subtitle tool rather than a normal text tool. Exporting/Rendering I already covered the After Effects Plugin so I am not going to cover that again. The exporting is basic. I would give it about 4/5. It is good but it's not great. It does better than most of the online animation programs because it offers 4k. The reasons are as follows: Pros I like the 4k exporting. I like the number of exporting options. Cons No social exporting to websites like YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, etc. No presets for social sizes such as 1:1 and 9:16 I dislike the only way to get a video with a transparent background is to export a a popVideo. This isn't a dealbreaker but since I have to use an external editor to create a full video, it makes the process a little harder. Content Manager/Library The amount of content you get in the trial version is good but it's not great. A lot of the content has different art styles so it is hard to create a project with the given assets. The content is there to basically show what you can create. I give the library a 3/5. It is good but it can be way better. The organization of the library is better on many of the online animation programs. Pros I like the ability to have a custom library with the assets I want. I like how you can create custom thumbnails for each object. Cons The library has too many sub-folders in the default template section. In order to get to the content I sometimes have to go through 2-3 folders. There should only be one top level folder in each section. This causes too much clicking. The folders should be sorted by theme such as Elastic, Fashion, Templates etc.. Maybe the folder icon can indicate if it is a G2/G3/etc. It shows the navigation pane by default. There is no way to set a hidden navigation pane to the default. If it change this, each time the program is opened, you have to change it again. There is no search. You have to scroll for what you are looking for. There is no way to sort the objects. The cartoon styles don't really go together. I don't like the naming conventions of the folders and the objects. The icons on the objects already tell you what the objects are. There is no preview of what is in the folder by mousing over it. There should be a character limit on the names of the objects. Some objects have such long names, it gets cut off or the name of the object overlaps the name of the next object. There should be a way to turn off the object names and just show the pictures. Custom assets I create should appear next to the default ones so I don't have to switch back and forth. There should be a preview of each animation when you scroll over it with a dummy character or prop. You can't create custom folder icons You can't tag objects Characters/Actors I was unable to create a character using the software. Character creation is way harder than with Character Creator. Although creating a character is hard I do like the way it functions. I give this feature a 4/5 because there is are a lot of character packs that can be purchased. Pros I love that you can create custom characters from a few parts. I like the original characters and the ones that can be purchased from the store. I like the variety of characters you can have. I like how you can easily add accessories to the characters. Although, it doesn't explain head accessories don't work well with 360 heads. It took me a while to figure out not to put accessories on the 360 heads. I like how you can link characters to props, other characters, and accessories. I like how easy it is to rig a character. The bone structure in Character Animator is more rigid. There really isn't a bone structure when rigging characters for animation in After Effects. Cons The instructions on how to create a character, especially the videos are hard to follow. There is no much conflicting information. The manuals and videos also are missing how to setup the mouths and hands correctly. They say you need different sprites but they don't give a list of the different sprites you need. There isn't a good explanation between G1, G2, G2+, G3 Elastic, G3 Fashion, G360 Characters, G3 Bone hand Characters, etc. The manual and videos also don't explain this well. There isn't a video on how to create a character from 14 parts when from the animations it seems the most common characters are 10 part and 14 parts. There isn't a video describing the main character parts and exactly what you need in each folder. Basically, there isn't a video explaining the different folders and how they work for G3 characters and G360 characters for the different character types. There isn't a video on creating and animating the G2 characters and props. All the videos for characters should be located in the correct sections. The way some of the videos are categorized is confusing. I left feedback about this. The folder structure for creating a character is less straightforward than the folder structure in Character Animator. G3/G360 characters require multiple characters to be created for each angle. Animation & Timeline Animations are very easy in Cartoon Animator. The motion clips and elastic motions libraries make it very easy to animate any character or prop. The timeline for animations is more difficult to use than other programs animation programs. Although, it is easier to use than the After Effects timeline. Since animation is quick and easy, I give it a 4/5. Pros You can animate quickly with motion clips and elastic motions. You can easily create custom animations, motion clips, and elastic motions with key frames and easing. It is easy to animate the camera. You can apply action menus to characters and props. You can create custom action menus that can be applied to a variety of characters and props. You can easily animate a character's hands without sprites so if you use a typing animation it doesn't look weird. There is auto lip syncing. Cons The changes between sprites can be jumpy. It doesn't allow you to ease between sprite changes. The different characters and how they animate can be confusing. The number of windows for animating an object makes animating a little confusing (puppet tool, motion key editor, elastic motion editor, etc). The flags placed are hard to move and remove based on their position on the time. I left feedback about this. You can only access the elastic motion editor by dragging an elastic motion onto the prop. It is sometimes difficult to select from the action menu if there are a lot of actions. The action menu should be its own separate menu that is dockable. I left feedback on this. It is difficult to understand the different settings on the timeline. There is a main opacity setting plus there is one under motion. I don't know if these are different but they seem redundant. Scene & Scene Manager Using an image editor, it is easy to create a scene with a similar style and color pallet that is ready to be animated. Although most tutorials used a prop for the background, I found it easier to use the background feature in the project manager. That way, I had more control of where I wanted my camera. I give this feature 4/5. Pros Easy to create in an image editor. I like being able to save scene templates. I like how I can apply an image layer to give a scene different types of lighting. Cons When I import the scenes, they always import below the camera frame. Even when I import on a brand new project. If you have a lot of objects on in the scene, the scene manage gets quite long. The scenes that come with the trial version are just okay. I dislike there is no depth of field. Special Effects There isn't too much documentation that discusses the difference between the special effects clips and props. With props, you can use one of the supported video file types and achieve the same thing. Special effects are the flv files. These files can only be created in a flash editor such as Animate. I give this feature a 1/5. Cons There is no benefit to using special effects over props. Special effects are flash files. Props One of my favorite features of the program is the props system. Props are very important for explainer videos. It is very easy to create custom props with custom animations. The prop system blows all other animation programs prop systems away. I give this feature a 5/5. Pros It is easy to create and edit props in an image editor with a simple file structure Animations for props can be resued for other props You can animate a prop in any way you want. You don't have to rely on basic enter and exit motions. Props can be linked to other characters and other props Easily compound props to create new props Video clips can be used as props There is a huge content library with props. Props are clearly marked if they are animated. Cons The number of default types of props is limited compared to what you would see in online animation software. There are no props for basic shapes such as square, rectangle, triangle, circle, star, etc. There is only one transition prop to start No social media logos No emojis There are mask props (called overlays in other animation software) but the information using them is not documented well. I left feedback about this. Customer Service The only customer service available is through email. The response time is about 24 hours. The prompt for customer service doesn't tell you to upload a video showing the issue and a dxdiag file. So when you first contact them, if you don't do this, you will get a response stating you need to upload those files. Then you will have to wait another 24 hours for another response. If the issue you are having with Cartoon Animator cannot be captured on video, they are unable to help you. If you need help with a certain feature in the program or you want to leave a suggestion for a new feature to be added, they will direct you to the forums. Reallusion has their own staff that monitors the forums and answers questions. It may take them 2-3 days to answer your questions. You can mark a post as an answer to a question or you can rate the answer you received on a post. The forums are not very active. I usually see myself as the only member logged in several times during the day. I see the forums as a place where a lot of the users come to promote their YouTube channels. On about half the questions I posted, I received answers that were YouTube videos that had nothing to do with my initial question. If your issue is not a bug but due to poor program design, such as the Photopea plugin not working with 4k monitors or errors in the manual, they will ask you to leave feedback. When you leave feedback, others have to vote on if they want the change with the features in the program. If you want to suggest a new feature, the staff will ask you to make a forum post about it. The feedback section isn't very active so I don't see the purpose of the voting system. The staff does look at feedback. If it is something they want to implement, they will change the status. Overall, I give their customer service a 4/5. Pros They responds in 24 hours which is pretty quick for a message system. Cons There is no chat option. They are not clear on what is needed for a support request. Final Verdict After reviewing everything Cartoon Animator has to offer, I give it a 3/5. It has many features that will give you an edge when creating explainer videos and save you time. It is also missing many features that will make the process of creating an explainer video more time consuming like proper text tools, shape props, narration recording, multiple scenes per project, search in content manager, and importing m4a files. There are also a few features that will make using the program a nightmare such as the endless clicking through the default content manager folders, the training materials not being updated or consistent, the over-reliance on Adobe's products, having almost every window float, the ton of clicking and dragging to manage the order of objects in the scene manager or layer manager, and the endless amount of clicking needed in the timeline. I will buy the Cartoon Animation because right now there is a sale on the Pipeline version for $99. A this price point, the program is a good value. Comparisons I decided to compare Cartoon Animator to a few of the popular ways people make explainer videos. Character Animator I did a comprehensive comparison. You can find it on the forums. After Effects It is better than After Effects for explainer videos because: you can rig characters easier lip syncing is easier you don't have to rely on a bunch of different sprites for body movements and facial expressions you don't need different plugins and scripts to modify characters from different packs the and the timeline works better it has an easier to use library After Effects is better because: you can have multiple scenes you can upload m4a files the text tools are better you don't need another app to compose a video you can dock windows better you can access the content store within the app Video Editor you can rig characters easier, there isn't a reliance on a bunch of different sprites for body movement and facial expressions you don't have to rely on a limited set of premade animated characters the lip syncing is easier you can create custom characters A video editor is better because: you can have multiple scenes you can upload m4a files you can record narration there are better text tools it has an easier to use timeline it has collaboration features you can export to video and social media websites you don't need multiple apps to compose a video they generate auto-subtitles you can dock windows better you can access the content store within the app Slide Editor It is better than a slide editor such as PowerPoint or Google Slides because: you have more choices besides basic enter and exit animations for objects you can animate characters and props anyway you like there is a roubost timeline you can have multiple music tracks exports to a video file (although some presentation apps do) it has lipsyning you can create custom characters can control the camera A slide app is better because: you can have multiple scenes you can upload m4a files you can record narration there are better text tools it has collaboration features you can import videos, images, and music from the web easiest to use Online Animation Apps no costly monthly subscriptions you own your videos you can export in 4k you are not limited to 3-4 styles of animation designs you can animate any image you can create scenes with a parallax view using the z-axis there is a better camera tools there are better timeline controls you can create custom enter, emphasis, and exit effects there are more detailed character customization options you can change the speed of an animation there are no limits on the number of videos you can create you can create more unique videos you can create unlimited videos you only have to pay for what you need it loads way faster A online animation are better because: they have a more intuitive UI you can have multiple scenes a project you can easily share your video on social media websites no additional software is required to create a completed video has a separate library for music can easily add shapes library is pre-loaded with a lot of different types of assets that have matching themes better text tools you can record a voice narration it has collaboration tools you can easily change the color of objects with a color picker, wheel, or using exact color values can create color themes there are plenty of templates to get you started you can easily insert charts and graphs you can view the timeline in seconds you can search the content library when you mouse over an animation, you get a preview Animate I really don't like animate so this might be a little biased. animating is quicker you can reuse animations it is easier to create a character using the library it is easier to use easing it comes it templates to get you started creating custom characters it is easier to rig an object you aren't relying on a bunch of sketches or sprites you can easily lipsync what the character is saying Animate is better because: you don't have to rely on additional software to create a video you can have multiple scenes you can search the library you can publish to social networks you can publish to html canvas review

rogdodge	rogdodge Posted 5 Years Ago
Veteran Member Group: Forum Members Last Active: Last Month Posts: 66, Visits: 2.3K	Thank you for the comparisons. I am still at the VERY basic level but want to learn so I read your views with interest. One thing I did pick up on and that was the Tutorials. As someone with no previous experience in animating I rely on the Tutorials but found there seemed to be at times an assumption that the reader already knew the basics. The Tutorials run through very quickly and trying to see which selections are made and making notes at the same time gets confusing. How to use Templates works great in a Tutorial, until I try it and fail, and then I give up. I cannot afford After Effects so I depend on what CA4 offers. I am able to make simple clips and enjoy doing so. But I feel there may be aspects of CA4 that are within my limited scope but I may be missing out on them. Rog

deborah_293014	deborah_293014 Posted 5 Years Ago
Veteran Member Group: Forum Members Last Active: 5 Years Ago Posts: 23, Visits: 172	rogdodge (11/18/2020) Thank you for the comparisons. I am still at the VERY basic level but want to learn so I read your views with interest. One thing I did pick up on and that was the Tutorials. As someone with no previous experience in animating I rely on the Tutorials but found there seemed to be at times an assumption that the reader already knew the basics. The Tutorials run through very quickly and trying to see which selections are made and making notes at the same time gets confusing. How to use Templates works great in a Tutorial, until I try it and fail, and then I give up. I cannot afford After Effects so I depend on what CA4 offers. I am able to make simple clips and enjoy doing so. But I feel there may be aspects of CA4 that are within my limited scope but I may be missing out on them. Rog Not really. After Effects and Animate are the only additional programs you need. Well, you also need a video editor if you want a video with more than one scene. Those can be found online for free. The Photopea plugin is free so you don't need to buy Photoshop. After Effects is only needed if you want to do serious video compositing. Most video editors have basic compositing and VFX and SFX built in. Animate is only needed if you want to work with G2 characters.

robert_madrid	robert_madrid Posted 4 Years Ago
Veteran Member Group: Forum Members Last Active: 4 Years Ago Posts: 21, Visits: 180	The best and more complete review about Carton Animator. Thanks a lot for your huge job. (And only 50 views, 2 replys!) I think that anyone that is thinking in using Carton Animator, or is trying to use it now, might read your review. I am not a good example, because I'm still using Crazy Talk Animator 2, as really I do not need more to create my simple videos. A point that always appears as a problem since the first version of Crazy Talk Animator, and that from your review, I see that it remains in the new Cartoon Animator is the problem of multiple scenes. For the type of narrations I usually do, based on a song, sung by an actor who moves through various scenes, (see https://youtu.be/2iUYbm06Cxs), it is enough for me to define the scenes as sprites of a prop, and in this way I can include all the "scenes" in a single project, in a simple way and above all, very fast. (see "how to" in: https://youtu.be/VAHdLg73Gbo) I believe that this simple technique is applicable both for people who are starting to create a narration or for developing a draft of a story very quickly, whithout using an external application to edit the different scenes. Another thing that makes very dificult the use of one external editor to put the scenes together, it´s if your use a continous melody along the scenes as the Sound1 in CTA, which I think would be very difficult to get synchronized with an external editor.

ArtisticCat	ArtisticCat Posted 4 Years Ago
New Member Group: Forum Members Last Active: 4 Years Ago Posts: 6, Visits: 8	Thank you for this review! You have helped me alot on my decision to purchase the CA4 program. You are right that the tutorials are lacking for a beginner. I have been struggling with how to do what should be simple things. I was excited when I first downloaded the trial version, but sadly I cannot wrap my head around how this all works. I will be moving on to try to find something more simple. Maybe once I become more experienced with animation I will come back to it. Cheers!

Cartoon Animator 4.3 Review - Trial Version

Cartoon Animator 4.3 Review - Trial Version

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