CrazyTalk 6

The main thing you need to know about the Reallusion-developed application CrazyTalk is what it can do for you. If you have a static image for example, you can use CrazyTalk to turn it into a 3D talking character. You might be tempted to say something along the lines “man, this is going to be a big pain in the unmentionables; I don’t want to spend a lot of time learning how to do this.”

You would be wrong in thinking so. The developers behind CrazyTalk have taken ease of use into consideration – consequently the application comes with wizard-like menus which are great of beginners. This doesn’t mean pro users have been cast aside, quite the contrary. CrazyTalk comes with in-depth power editors that the pro user can take advantage of.

To get a better idea of what CrazyTalk has to offer from a functionality point of view, here are some of the more interesting features:
- Easily transform an image to animation
- Natural life-like head movement
- Editable mouth, lips, eyes
- Automatic audio lip-syncing
- Mouse puppeteering
- Multi-actor dialogue
- Export as MPEG, NTSC, FLV
- YouTube video direct publishing

Before you get CrazyTalk, there are a few more things you need to know about. You definitely need to know that the download weighs in at more than 80MB – so it may take a while to get CrazyTalk off the web and onto your computer, especially if you’re on a less than spectacular internet connection. Once the download completes, you need to install CrazyTalk – the application is compatible with Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. To use CrazyTalk you need to have a 2GHz or better processor, at least 512MB of RAM, at least 1GB of disk space, and a graphics card with at least 128MB of RAM.

You can use CrazyTalk free of charge only during the trial period – 2 days unregistered, 14 days if you register. Please note that the trial version is limited.

CrazyTalk is a powerful application that will guide you through the process of turning a static image into a 3D talking animation to use in a movie or to put on the web.

Pros

• Wizard-like menus for beginners
• In-depth power editors
• Natural life-like head movement
• YouTube video direct publishing
• Works with Windows 7

Cons

• Free to use only during the trial period
• Trial version is limited

About Reallusion
Reallusion is a company that specializes in the development of 3D cinematic animation tools for consumers, students and professionals – avatar animation, facial morphing and voice lip-sync solutions for real-time 3D filmmaking and previsualization for professional post-production. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, this company is known as an industry pioneer, as one of the biggest names in the industry.

Additional information on Reallusion is available on the developer’s official site here.

CrazyTalk has been reviewed by George Norman on 26 May 2010. Based on the user interface, features and complexity, Findmysoft has rated CrazyTalk 4 out of 5 stars, naming it Excellent