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CrazyTalk 8 Pro Review

CrazyTalk Pro version 8 is out now and showcases a number of facial animation tools, and more – Rob Redman gets animated...

CrazyTalk Pro version 8 is out now and showcases a number of facial animation tools, and more – Rob Redman gets animated...

Product: CrazyTalk 8 Pro

Company: Reallusion

Website: www.reallusion.com

CrazyTalk has been around for a while now, but version 8, the latest upgrade, introduces tools to make this a more serious proposition for CG artists, including full 3D heads, pipeline options and more.

First off it's important to understand where a tool like this might fit in your workflow. CrazyTalk sits in a slightly awkward area for artists, as it is certainly far more than a cheap fun tool to mess around with, yet it isn't going to replace the high end tools that some studios will demand. If you work as a freelancer, or as part of a team that only infrequently uses fascial animation then it might be just the ticket. For a number of reasons…

The Workspace

Absolutely the best part of CrazyTalk is the interface and methodology. Whether you work on a MAC or a PC the GUI is clean, slick and enables you to work fast, rather than baffling you with menu after menu. You'll never be lost as to what you need to do, or how to access the tools you need for any given task.

Although CrazyTalk has a wealth of options, for anything from layering animations to applying guides to imported photos, they are sensibly and neatly organised into appropriate categories. Many sets of tools are there but it never feels overwhelming, with easily collapsible menus and editing areas. Hover over any icon and you get a tooltip telling you what it is. This keeps things very clean and works well, as it's a very quick job of learning where everything lives.

Although I won't talk much about them here, there are also libraries full of extra content to help mix up your characters, from teeth and eyes to hairstyles and accessories. These are fun and help to add an extra element of depth, along with backdrops and preset animations (great for times between dialogue).

It's clear that CrazyTalk does something special when you see how it can make this result from the photos on the left

It's clear that CrazyTalk does something special when you see how it can make this result from the photos on the left

2D or 3D

This is a bit of a false header, as in truth, even if you only work from one reference photo you can get pretty decent results. When using a front and a side head shot the results are very good indeed, at least for tracking points and applying the photos as textures. That said, this is the one area where I encountered some technical troubles. Using two photos I did get the odd crash but not regularly enough to cause too many problems, and it's difficult to know if this was a fault with CT or my computer.

As fun as it may be to get a 3D avatar from a photo or two, you need to do so easily and with predictable results and CT8 really shines here. Of course the results are a little dependant on the photos you provide but even with less than ideal shots you can get great results. You start by importing your front and side photos and follow a very logical process of laying out markers and choosing shapes to build the avatar. These settings can be adjusted later on but you get great feedback as you work.

As you can see from the screen-shots you can mask out elements such as unwanted beard hair, and then replace with 3D assets from the library for a better animation, or simply trim away the excess leaving a smart avatar that retains all the features of the person.

What's most obvious after even a short time with CT8 is that a lot of thought has been put into making what could have been a real chore a pleasure. The workflow is simple, logical and easy to grasp, belying the deeper abilities of the software to create a 3D mesh which works and actually looks like it should. The fact that it does this from just two provided photos shows how clever the development team have been.

Adding the 3D head to a clothed body and seating in an environment is a task that remains as intuitive as the rest of the processes in CT8.

Another of CrazyTalk's main strengths lies in its ability to animate that head, especially to audio tracks. CrazyTalk ships with a number of preset assets in an easy to navigate browser (if you register with them you get more free content too) but the software comes into its own when you record your own vocals.

The recording is easy, and placing the audio onto the timeline is almost foolproof with great automation. Initially you may be underwhelmed by the results but this is where the true genius of the app shows up. You can open a palette of phonemes and simply drag them onto the timeline, replacing the software's estimation with a more accurate result. As an example maybe you recorded an 'ooh' sound as part of your sentence but CrazyTalk animates your head with an ‘ee'. Simply drag from the library onto the audio track and it will replace it. There are controls for smoothness of transitions, as well as how extreme the motions are. You can have a lot of fun with these, especially when you push the face shapes, which come from flat, square headed to dog's snout shaped.

Power vs fun

While I rave on about the fun and intuitive nature on show, it's easy to forget that this is labelled as a pro application, although there is a standard version and a pipeline version (which eases the transition from CT to iClone). As such you would expect it to garner results that you could charge clients for. As a standalone tool this might be true but in limited cases. If your job involves producing lip-synced facial animations that don't need to look like photo-real renders then this is a true winner. For light hearted fun animations, motion comics and the like you really can't go wrong. If you need something a little more realistic, adaptable and capable of more nuanced results then you will need to look elsewhere, preferably with a much increased budget.

Play nice

The biggest limitation, for people working in teams or as part of a pipeline, is the lack of export options. You can of course finish up with an end result including background music, sets and accessories, all within CrazyTalk. You can export this as either video or imagery but there it ends. If you want to get any 3D data out of it you will need the pipeline version. This is actually worth the extra money as iClone (the best way to work with CT files elsewhere) is very good at what it does. It's a shame there is no FBX exporter though, as that would make this an invaluable tool for many character artists. I hope future versions will add this. That said Reallusion do offer a way round the problem. If you use iClone there is another app they make called 3Dxchange that allows export and asset management for use in many other formats, from FBX, OBJ and far more, so getting your creation into Maya is possible, just not as elegantly as CT works on its own.

CrazyTalk is difficult to sum up. The results are great, if you understand the level it sits in the market, doing exactly what you ask of it and the slick interface and workflow make it great fun. The conversion from two simple photos into a full 3D head is impressive in both method and results. The price is good too but it's tricky to work out where you might use it. For the task it was intended for CT8 is a great tool – easy to grasp and produces great results.

Score (out of 5): 4

Price: $49 for standard, $149 for Pro and $199 for pipeline

Related links

Learn more over on Reallusion's official site
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