TA Facial Animation v1.0 Now Shipping!

[Mac Reiter]

The domain transfer for ta-animation.com is currently (March 18, 2005) in fairly active flux. Some requests are being routed to the old host, and some are routing to the new host. This should settle out within a few days. The old host contains redirects to the temporary domain at ta-animation.macreitercreations.com. All information and files can be accessed this way.

Our reseller, 2CheckOut.com, performs security checks on the referring web site. While sales have been proceding smoothly so far, these security checks may be confused by the current semi-random state of the worldwide DNS system regarding where exactly ta-animation.com is. Until the DNS system stabilizes, we cannot effectively resolve this issue. If you encounter any difficulties ordering within the next few days, please try again after the weekend. That should provide sufficient time for the DNS servers to update.

If you encounter any difficulties after March 21, please contact me at mac@macreitercreations.com or post here. I will resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

Thank you,
Mac

[hrgiger]

$400 seems a bit steep. $500 even more so.

It looks like a great program, just too bad it's too expensive.

[Amadhi]

Using a pre-Alpha version of TAFA, I did the facial performance (including dialogue) for the 1320 frame (24fps) Prologue to "Kaze, Ghost Warrior" in about two hours.

Using Morph Sliders, I'd have needed at least a week.

Figure how much your time is worth, multiply that value by how many hours of work a tool saves.

Were I to be working for $14/hr, TAFA would have paid for itself in the KGW Prologue alone.

- Amadhi

[what_happened]

I think this thing is well worth it. I'm still pretty new to a lot of LW, and to do any facial animation without this tool would be a long way off for me. This makes it too easy really. I was taking all kinds of voice clips from video games (all I had to work with) and had Mr. cool talking up a storm in literally minutes.

The only thing I am curious about is the render sequence and synching this all up in something like after effects... or something to that effect. I cannot experiment as I only have toyed with the demo this far, but if I play my cards right, I plan on taking advantage of the intro offer. I missed out on the fprime offer and have learned my lesson once.

[coffeefery]

$400 may not be cheap, but if the work could pay for it, it would definitely be worth it. Plus, you get to keep the program. Most importantly, it's a great program to begin with, and it's so much fun to work with. So it's really a win-win situation.

[Amadhi]

It's the program I always wished existed, as both a Traiditional and 3D animator. And to be honest, Mac is the finest programmer I've ever worked with, (this includes my time working with Disney Interactive and working for Activision and Walt Disney Feature Animation). He took my fake screenshots I created when we first started talking, and pushed my initial ideas beyond what I'd ever dared hope, (118 fps updates while animating the film resolution version of Kaze's head!?!? D-d-d-Daaang!) The dude's an artist with code, pure and simple!

Feature Quality animation _shouldn't_ be hard.

It is fantastic to read so many people who've never done facial before, just ecstatic that they've done work that they feel rival's PIXAR's in under half-an-hour of opening the program for the first time! This is so much what I've been hoping and working for through the books and the studio!

Speaking of which... the demo videos hopefully give a pretty good idea as far as integration and workflow of working with TAFA, but "CGI Filmmaking, The Creation of Ghost Warrior" shows the workflow of the entire filmmaking process, from ideation to distribution.

It's my goal to make the telling of stories, as beautifully and as professionally as the Dreamer would dare to hope, to become _choice_ not chance.

Teaming up with Mac and Marcus has lead to a creative partnership of equals the likes of which I've rarely experienced.

What's really exciting... is that this is only the beginning! :)

- Amadhi

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