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By m1ke - 17 Years Ago
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This has to be one of the most frustrating, poorly designed sites on the 'net. I've just spent half an hour literally going round in circles trying to download some of the Crazy Talk tutorials - click on the 'Download' button, (rather than the pdf or play video options) and I wind up, after logging in (repeatedly) at the same screen again.
Also, whoever thought that tiny dark blue text against a black background was readable? Someone here needs to learn a few facts about colours and readability.
The 'Quick Guide' for Crazy Talk pdf is equally poorly designed ... what on earth possessed the designers to create it so that, printed out to fit standard A4 paper, it appears reduced by nearly 50% ... i.e., microtype, and unreadable?
Some of this poor design is reflected in the manual for Crazy Talk - which refers for example to clicking a certain button - with no mention of where that button could be found (on one of the sub-screens, in one instance, and hence not on display).
The product is excellent. The manuals and website, abysmal.
Sorry. But right now I am very frustrated at being unable to download the tutorial videos to make it all work.
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By Popeye - 17 Years Ago
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A simple search on Youtube for "CrazyTalk" brought this up Mike. Most of RL's tutorials are hosted on Youtube. Here is the link that came up with a simple search. Hope this may help you :)
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=crazy+talk+tutorial&search_type=
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By m1ke - 17 Years Ago
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Thanks for the fast response Popeye - much appreciated, but it doesn't really solve the problems - I can see the videos on line at the Crazy Talk site without having to go 'off-site' - but I want to download them to view later. Clicking the 'Download button simply takes me on a tortuous route that eventually arrives back at the original screen screen again. This is simply silly.
I will have a look at the forum you refer to - but frankly, when a publisher says there are tutorials to download on his site - and offers a link button, in my old-fashioned way, I expect that button to link with the download.
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By Popeye - 17 Years Ago
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Know what you mean Mike. Have you tried Videoget. It is a free software and you can download Youtube videos so you can watch them at your leisure. I do this sometimes if I am teaching myself something whether it's Crazytalk, Iclone, 3D studio max etc.
just a thought :)
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By RKD - 17 Years Ago
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Hello Mike, very sad that you're having problems with the Reallusion website.
The text on the tutorial appears white on a darkgrey background for me, exactly as on the forums here. Maybe a customized color setting in your browser or Javascript/CSS cannot be run properly for some reason making the site look different as intended.
I agree, the quick reference card printed on DinA4 is barely readably.
You can download the video tutorials as one ZIP file from the bonus section of your premium membership account.
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By m1ke - 17 Years Ago
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Thanks for the reply.
I do have a Premium account, but when I log-in and go to the Crazy Talk pages (I have CTPro 5.1), I see no downloads at all, let alone a zip with them all! All I can see are add on packs being sold.
I've allowed 'pop-ups' and marked the site as a 'safe site'. No difference...
But good to hear it should be available!
Mike
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By RKD - 17 Years Ago
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mike (5/29/2008)
I do have a Premium account, but when I log-in and go to the Crazy Talk pages (I have CTPro 5.1), I see no downloads at all, let alone a zip with them all! All I can see are add on packs being sold.
Sent the link also via PM to you.
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By m1ke - 17 Years Ago
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nks - downloading that file now. I had seen it before - but dismissed it as being a 'What's New' list of, ummm, what is new, rather than the combined range of tutorials.
I appreciate your help in getting me there - but it doesn't do much, I'm afraid, for the way this site is organised!!
I see the forum UI as a black backgriound (not the posts) - and the thread headings in dark blue on that black. I've examined my settings and they're all pretty 'default', so not sure what is going wrong there.
Oh well. Thanks for your help -much appreciated.
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By Peter (RL) - 17 Years Ago
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Hi Mike, I'm sorry to hear you have found the website and forum badly organized. As Popeye and RKD have pointed you in the right direction for the tutorial downloads I won't go over that again. Most downloads from the website are accessed from your Premium Members page. This includes patches, bonus content and the downloadable tutorials you required. Once you get used to it it is easy to find these things but your points are taken and I can understand how it can be confusing for newcomers. With regards to the forum colors there are some thins you can do to improve them. Again as RKD has already said most people see the forum posts as white text on a dark gray background so there is obviously something different with your color scheme through your browser. It is possible to change the color of the forum to a brighter layout if you would prefer that. You just need to click on Control Panel and then under options choose Forum Layout. The example image below is the Classic layout. Reallusion values the opinions of its customers so thanks for taking the time to share your views. 
mike (5/29/2008)
This has to be one of the most frustrating, poorly designed sites on the 'net. I've just spent half an hour literally going round in circles trying to download some of the Crazy Talk tutorials - click on the 'Download' button, (rather than the pdf or play video options) and I wind up, after logging in (repeatedly) at the same screen again.
Also, whoever thought that tiny dark blue text against a black background was readable? Someone here needs to learn a few facts about colours and readability.
The 'Quick Guide' for Crazy Talk pdf is equally poorly designed ... what on earth possessed the designers to create it so that, printed out to fit standard A4 paper, it appears reduced by nearly 50% ... i.e., microtype, and unreadable?
Some of this poor design is reflected in the manual for Crazy Talk - which refers for example to clicking a certain button - with no mention of where that button could be found (on one of the sub-screens, in one instance, and hence not on display).
The product is excellent. The manuals and website, abysmal.
Sorry. But right now I am very frustrated at being unable to download the tutorial videos to make it all work.
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By m1ke - 17 Years Ago
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Thanks for the reply Peter.
I am seeing the posts in the threads as white on black - albeit small. However, the thread names, thread headers, and for example list of IPCode shortcuts in the left colum of your post and so on are in dark blue. I went as you suggested to the Control Panel > Options. However, for some reason I do not see a 'Forum Layout, as you suggest (I'm using IE7 btw). Under Options all I can see are - Forum Settings (which covers settings for language and editor options), Privacy, Private Messaging, Topic Display (which sounds promising - but covers only whether an avatar should be displayed, images within posts emoticons, signatures, topics per forum, forum display (flat, threaded or ascending), Topic cut-off, and Posts per page). The other options cover email settings, edit attachments, but no 'Layout' option with a 'Classic' choice I'm afraid.
Similarly, going to the 'Download' page does not bring up the tutorials. Apart from the patch, the only other download - which was said to be all the tutorials combined in a zip file - is marked as a 'What's New'. I downloaded that, and it is, as it says, a What's New - not quite the suite of tutorials I was looking for from another page on your site (that page has, for most tuitorials, a pdf, a playbale video - which plays - and a download, which doesn't - following the links ultimately goes straight back to that page, with the need to log-in again on each trip round the loop..
The buttons on this Forum at the end of each post, are light blue with captions in a darker blue which, uinbelievably, is then cased in white, making them totally impossible to read at the default size.
In order to try to see whether I am properly registered as a Premium User I have tried the process again - but it makes no difference. I'm simply not seeing the options or downloads features that are mentioned in this thread.
I'd put screen dumps in, so you can see what I am seeing, but it seems they have to be uploaded to a website first (?) - a URL is asked for.
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By RKD - 17 Years Ago
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I can confirm that I do not see a forum layout option in the control panel.
Furthermore it seems the possibility to upload images to the Reallusion forum server has been removed. This option was only available in Internet Explorer and not in Firefox anyway, now I can't get it to work at all.
Attaching files to a post or PM would be a workaround, although images can not be embedded in posts that way.
The download video is not identical to the online tutorials. It provides a quick overview of the changes since the last version for users of the previous version, but it does not offer step-by-step instructions as the online tutorials. The heading "video tutorials" on the premium member page is indeed a bit misleading.
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By m1ke - 17 Years Ago
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Thanks for the confirmations! At least now I know I'm not totally bereft!
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By Peter (RL) - 17 Years Ago
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Hi Mike, Firstly let me apologize for unintentionally misleading you about changing the forum layout. This is indeed a feature of the forum, as my enclosed image showed but sadly due to security issues a number of forum features are currently turned off so you will be unable to change the layout at present I'm afraid. From your description it would seem you are seeing the forum as it is meant to be seen. Maybe your monitor resolution is different but I haven't personally found the layout too hard on the eyes but of course everyone has different opinions and yours is a valid one. I will let your views be known for sure. Now onto the videos. Hmmm again there seems to be a problem with the downloadable videos currently being unavailable from the Premium Members page. It is wrong for the video to show a link to a download that isn't there and this will need to be corrected as soon as possible. I will find out about this straight away and let you know as soon as I find out anything. Again please accept my apologies for this series of miscommunications. It was certainly not my intention to mislead you in any way.
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By m1ke - 17 Years Ago
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Apologies accepted of course.
I look forward to being able to download the tutorials at some point. In the meantime, CT5 is unquestionably a brilliant outstanding program. I just need to learn to use it properly!
(BTW - the white on black is quite readable, even though small - it's the blue text on black that isn't - I'd suggest - on any resolution. A more 'visible' colour with greater readability against a black background would be yellow. )
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By Visconti - 17 Years Ago
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Dear CrazyTalk users
I am afraid that the downlodable tutorials were not updated so it caused this inconvenient matter. Really sorry about that.
Now, we have updated them in the premium page (under the registered product CrazyTalk).
Please go check them and let me know if there's any further issue.
Thanks
Visconti
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By m1ke - 17 Years Ago
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Thanks Visconti! That's much appreciated. All now downloaded and I shall enjoy watching them - while working through with CT.
I've been editing an animation - starting by working on the lip syncing. It took a bit of a while to get used to the lip sync 'templates' for the various sounds - insofar as it never seemed that the 'sound' I wanted was there! However, I'm gradually getting the hang of it - obviously the necessary shapes for each sound are well covered - I just need to get totally au fait with it. Must say, so far it is looking pretty good.
Next I shall be 'puppeteering' ... that's where the real control skills will be needed I think, to get humorous expressions and so on. Great fun - and this really is a very very clever - and very enjoyable - program.
Again, many thanks indeed for making these tutorials available 'off-line' - I'm sure others will be equally delighted.
Mike
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By kankh - 17 Years Ago
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Hey, I'm a newbie to iclone and was wondering can anyone tell me where I can find a tutorial on establishing a walk path for characters in Iclone. I clicked on the online tutorial by Steve Draun but a different tutorial poped up about creating a coin (pretty cool), but the walk path is what I was looking for. Thanks a bunch.
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By animagic - 17 Years Ago
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Peter Edwards (5/29/2008)
Hi Mike,
Firstly let me apologize for unintentionally misleading you about changing the forum layout. This is indeed a feature of the forum, as my enclosed image showed but sadly due to security issues a number of forum features are currently turned off so you will be unable to change the layout at present I'm afraid.
From your description it would seem you are seeing the forum as it is meant to be seen. Maybe your monitor resolution is different but I haven't personally found the layout too hard on the eyes but of course everyone has different opinions and yours is a valid one. I will let your views be known for sure.
It would be nice to have the default be dark text on a light background, just like the Reallusion website. I know it's "artsy" to do the opposite, but I never found it communication-friendly if you actual want to read a forum or any text of some substance for that matter. I'm getting a bit older now and it hurts my eyes..
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By m1ke - 17 Years Ago
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I fully agree.
I find the (small) blue text on a black background, used for headings and linking/'selectable' text, virtually unreadable - I have to 'highlighht' it to make it clearer - which is a pain when you're looking for something. Size - well, for this site I always set the page magnification up to 150%, that helps.
White on black is readable - though it could be a bit larger/bolder.
Yellow on black is recognised as being one of the most visible readable combinations where dark background colours are used.
And why a cased text is used on the tiny buttons for responding to or starting a new thread mystifies me: thankfully, the design of this forum is not reflected in Crazy Talk's design!! (Although I have to say, the timeline structure could be improved slightly - and I speak as one who now uses video editors 28 hours a day...)
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By 0oseven - 17 Years Ago
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mike (5/29/2008)
This has to be one of the most frustrating, poorly designed sites on the 'net. I've just spent half an hour literally going round in circles trying to download some of the Crazy Talk tutorials - click on the 'Download' button, (rather than the pdf or play video options) and I wind up, after logging in (repeatedly) at the same screen again.
Also, whoever thought that tiny dark blue text against a black background was readable? Someone here needs to learn a few facts about colours and readability.
Sorry. But right now I am very frustrated at being unable to download the tutorial videos to make it all work.
I "Strongly " second mikes comments. Ever since I decided to persue Iclone3 The website has irritated me no end - going round in circles - is the exact feeling Ive had trying to get some bonus content.
The Blue thread text is terrible and when I read about the "layout option" I whooped for joy BUT then went the Iclone merry go round because I couldnt find it where it was said to be. I of course should have read on to the next few postings where it was explained this option is actually turned off. My suggestion --- TURN IT BACK ON.
The problem with websites these days is they are too clever :crazy:and designers have forgotten that simple is usually better.
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