Reallusion CrazyTalk Media Studio Edition 4.6

'CrazyTalk' is a interesting software meant to help you 'morph your photos into talking 3D animated characters for video, web, mobile or messaging projects', according to the producer's statement.

I recommend you to read the help file before starting to use or test this program. When you first open the program it will not seem very intuitive. After you become familiar with its features it will be very easy to use it. You can use virtually any picture and you can even have fun by messing with the features.

You have to be very careful when you set the hot points ,because, if you want to edit a mouth from a portrait, the program will cut the picture. Forcing ithe cut between the lips can be a tricky procedure. Another problem appeared if you use a picture of a person wearing a hat or having long hair: you have to select as a face more that the actual face or else the hat and the hair will not move and it will look odd. I you select a bigger area you have to pay attention to not pass close to other objects or they will interfere with the moving part of the photo and might change shape. If you want to use 'Text to speech' option be aware because unfortunately, the only available voice to read the text is the old 'Microsoft Sam'. The easy way to change use a custom audio file is to record one. You can record your voice for example.

The user interface can be more intuitive in the next release to increase the usability of this program.

Pluses: Interesting effects and results.

Drawbacks / flaws: It needs more attention to the features which are morphing the face.

In conclusion: This program was definitely worth being tested. If you don't want to use it in a professional way, at least you can have fun.

version reviewed: 4.6