RichL

Thank you very much, the dragging the blinking bar worked. I tried the Windows-> reset all pages to default, that did not seem to work for me, I'll keep in mind the preferences though. Again thank you very much! Rich

I'm new to 4.5, and while playing around with the interface I hit a button that hid all the sculpting and surface tool icons on the left of the screen. Looking thru the manual is not of any help, and there does not appear to be a way to reset the interface to default... what am I missing? I don't want to reload the program if there is an easier way to do this. thanks rich

I went through the whole registration process just for this . I might end up purchasing one of these just because of the new drivers. Without the ability to use the software in all software it just is not worth the purchase for me. Rich

While you are correct that it would be nice to have the voxel sculpting tools, there are ways to do it with the existing tools. Using the Freeze tool to mark the part of the mesh you do not want to move around, than use the move tool to create the morph on the mesh. This is just assuming you only need to move around the face or other skin parts of the body. That may help you out. Rich

I am curious to see how this licensing works out for them, I do hope it goes well for everyone. I also heard that we may see the patch for V5, I hope that is true, but like I said, it is a rumor, not official information. I am already using V5 so I can wait some for everyone to get their licensing set before I woryy about mine. Rich

Nice job Jim, I remember when you did the original in the GameSpace forums so many years ago Teh only crits I have for you are 1) the should and arm connection, the bottom is molded too much into the armpit torso 2) the crotch area is suffering from the same problem 3) the cut in the abs pecs and the lats all seem to be a bit exergerated (I know because I am always guity of the same) Hope that is of help to you, nice detailing though, fun to see the character evolve into new modeling tools. Rich

I think you are over thinking the situation. Purchase it if you would like to try it, the price should not be an object, I doubt very seriously the prices are going to remain what they are right now. If they change it back later today or tomorrow, will you than be sorry for missing it? If not, move on with life and be content you did not bite for the sale.

http://www.projectmessiah.com/x6/vids/gallery/taron_neckling_change.mov This is a good example of what can be done when you know your way around messiah. One of these days I will finally get some time to work my way through the tutorials on this. Every system is going to have its strong and weak points, messiah is no different. Rich

In the bundle you list, they have MotionBuilder and Mudbox included, they are part of the Entertainment Creative Suite, the one I found this morning they had only listed MotionBuilder. I have no idea what the prices for Maya and all of the other AD tools and apps are, nice to hear your version of their history though Rich

You cannot do rag doll, but you could do something along the same lines with blending motions, not as sophisticated, but is that really a practical way to animate? It is cool though. But than how much does MotionBuilder cost? Messiah is normally priced at 599, for Studio (ignore the suggested retail price, they have not use that in years), MB is 3495, it comes with Maya...

Upfront, I have owned Messiah for over 2 years now, I upgraded to V5 back in November, I do not qualify for the rebate. My interest is not that I got something for a great deal because, I did not, what you purchased for 40.00 dollars cost me 249.00. Ya know what, I think the move was great for them, does it bother me I had to pay a higher price for an upgrade than everyone else paid for the full version... a little. In the long run, this is going to have a better effect on the community and me, so I am completely for the move. Where your theory falls apart is who are your customers, you say you sell something to people who purchase it only because you are giving it away... If you had not offered to do the work for free, would they have even purchased the service. You are not gaining a customer, nor are you gaining clients, you merely found work to do for the time you were doing this. Here in the case of PMG, the situation is different, yes, there are people purchasing software that would not have otherwise, and they are likely not to upgrade. But look at all of the animators, studios, schools, students, hobbyists and professionals you just placed the software in their hands. You went from an industry secret to a recognized product. They just need to make enough of an impression on them that they upgrade when it comes time... A gamble yes, but some company's can afford the risk, from what I have read on the forums over the last couple of years, this maybe the case with PMG In effect, this has the effect of getting the name out to a large part of the 3d, VFX, and animation industry; how much would a marketing campaign like that cost? From what I have gathered from the forums over the years, these guys create wonderful animation software and do work as contractors in the industry. The software has been evolving based on much of the work they need, now they have in effect put the software in the hands of LOTS of animators throughout the world, they are going to get LOTS of opinions, suggestions and ideas on how to grow the software. From what has been said on the forums by the likes of Weg, Ulven and others, the company has been seeing a growing user base of the last few years, they believe the software has never been as popular... so one can conclude, if they can weather the next development cycle and get most of the new users to purchase the next upgrade, they will do fine. If you can afford to do something like this, it is an amazing reward to risk ratio of return. I doubt this marketing strategy will be followed by others, it is far too risky, the return on risk ratio is just too great, in the case of PMG, I think they are going to be fine, the core base is there, it is not going to go away, they were making money before (if I belief Weg and the others) and they will continue to make money. Whether they jump to the next level and beyond is the question, if they do not, it will be interesting to see how all of the new customers respond. PMG has escalated itself into the next level, do they burn out and settle back where they were, or do they start to prosper and grow in leaps and bounds? That is the real question here. Just the opinion of a very curious bystander, in the interest of full disclosure, I did purchase a second license, I own 2 laptops and I am always traveling, this will make it easier for me to use Messiah whether I am on or out of the house), I will probably only upgrade 1` of the licenses each upgrade cycle, the older version will still have plenty of functionality for me As I said, this is just my opinion, but I have seen similiar thoughts around the web the last week, so I am comfortable this is more likely the case. Thanks for letting me have a say Rich

41 videos are in the Beginner section that you have access to as a member, discounts on the intermediate and advanced videos. You also get access to the members only section, there are a few additional perks there also. HTH Rich

As ManFriday mentions, the forums and chat at setuptab are a good resource, also there are videos from both PMG and Setuptab that are free for you to get up to speed, the manual also is pretty good for this. After the basics, it is just a matter of you making the decision to get comfortable with what is there, unfortunately 3D software is pretty darn complicated, some gui work for some people and not for others... the result, some software is a pleasure to work with, others not so... Their gui is different, and does take some time to get comfortable in, but it is time well spent and after getting comfortable, it does start to make sense. HTH Rich

I think it is a special price incentive, they reserve the right to raise the price at any time kinda thing. I think at this point it is obvious that the software moves copies better at the lower price than the full list price. They also have added incentive for Modo, and AD software users, normally this would have been another 100 dollars off the reduced price for each. HTH Rich

I am a new user to MotionBuilder so I do not know to what extent, but yes Messiah does do blending between motion clips, I think it is one of the strengths of the program, worth the time to learn. I am not sure how other packages retarget mocap data, but it does not seem to hard to me, a matter of selecting joints in the rig and on the BVH data. As for the Arnold render comment, I think it is based on an older version that they have been modifying and tweeking over the years. To my untrained eyes, the results seem to be pretty impressive though. HHT Rich