This is the first of a series of articles over the next 12 weeks that will chart my personal learning process with the 2D animation program Cartoon Animator 5 created by Reallusion. I will share my research and work process including any problems or issues that occur with the program. My end goal is to help you understand what you can do with Cartoon Animator 5 and perhaps try it out yourself.

What is Cartoon Animator?

Cartoon Animator is a 2D program created by Reallusion, a software and services company founded in 2000. The original version of Cartoon Animator was called CrazyTalk. This unique program allowed users to animate (especially lip-sync) and photos or 2D images. It was a big success for Reallusion and started them on the road to the successful company that it is today. The company has a wide range of products including iClone, Character Creator, and ActorCore. All of these programs are centered around the idea of character creation and animation. You can find out more about Reallusion here.

The most recent release of Cartoon Animator is version 5 which was released in November 2022. This is the version I will be learning for this series. You can download the trial version of CTA 5 here and follow along with this series. The price of the full version of CTA 5 is $149.00

The Series Outline

We’ll start out by learning the interface and the workflow of CTA 5 then move on to specific parts like animation, scene setup, and character creation. My final project will be to create and animate a vector-based character created in Inkscape (a free, open-source 2D creation program like  Adobe Illustrator). Along the way, we’ll learn the rigging process, use the timeline and find assets for scenes we are working on.

I have to confess this isn’t my first time working with Cartoon Animator, but I’m certainly not an expert with the program so there will still be a learning curve for me.

Getting Started with Cartoon Animator 5

If you head over to the CTA 5 website at Reallusion, you’ll see a download link for a trial version of the program which will last for 30 days. Unfortunately, it’s a Windows—64-bit-only program which is a change from previous versions of CTA 5 which came in a Mac version as well. I hope to find out why this change was made and will share anything I discover in a future article.

Note that you do have to register at Reallusion in order to download the trial version of CTA 5, but I’ve been a member for many years and never had an issue.

Once you’ve downloaded the program, go through the normal process of installation and then restart your computer. Reallusion offers a lot of free content even for the trial version. You can view a comparison of the trail and the full versions here.    We will be using some of that free content in future articles, so download the assets if you want to follow along with the series.    Note that Reallusion uses a “Hub” application to keep your Reallusion products organized and updated, but you won’t need it for this series. But feel free to download it if you want. I use it and have had zero issues with my Windows 11 system.

System requirements are fairly low. A good mid-range computer with an I-5 processor and 8G of Ram. You can read more details here. Of course, a beefier system will render faster, especially with an NVIDIA graphics card

What’s New in Cartoon Animator 5?

The three main updates include Vector Animation, Spring Dynamics and Free Form Deformation, and Smart Content Management.    A complete list of updates can be found here.    At the time of writing, version 5.1 is out which is basically bug fixes. I’ve found that Reallusion does not release programs before they are ready.    I've had zero crashes or issues using CTA 5 over the last month.

There is an excellent video of the new updates in CTA 5. You can view the video here

Next Week: Learning the Interface and Animating Our First Character.