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Messiah 5


JulesD
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Hopefully we can talk Javis into doing some 3DC >< Messiah videos covering Posing, Applying Shaders and Rendering. I can see having a Character Sculpt in Voxels , and instead of using the Pose tool in 3DC (which is a bit liimited), exporting dense quads straight to Messiah, applying an AutoRig to it > Pose > Export right back to the Voxel room for further detailing. The great thing about that is, your rig will be already set when you're done in 3DC and ready to animate the model in Messiah.

I think 3DC and Messiah would be a Killer combination. :yahoo:

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I think pmg is being extremely aggressive.

Looking at modo not being competitive in the animation department compared to the top animation packages.

And then look at lightwave which has the weakest animation features.

And then look at core which is atleast half a decade away from being a full animation package.

They can offer a serious workflow improvement to those 3 packages to compete to a level of AD products for only 40 dollars.

The arnold renderer itself is worth more than that.

Just wondering for any messiah users, does messiah do mocap retargetting like motionbuilder or characterstudio?

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I just went in for the $40 version. This is incredible!

I noticed the Goal Bar has moved almost 1 inch just since today!

...The suspense is killing me...lol

Same here, I suspect they update the progress bar manually or at least I hope so because it has'nt moved for quite a while.

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The arnold renderer itself is worth more than that.

Just wondering for any messiah users, does messiah do mocap retargetting like motionbuilder or characterstudio?

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

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I tried the demo, i'm very confused about the interface and the workflow. I can not figure out the simplest things. The video tutorials dont give me much clues. Am i just stuck?

You should check out setuptab.com

There is a chatroom, where people are STANDING BY to help you!

Usually anyway.

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Yes, this is a great offer. As a messiah user I've been experimenting with a 3DC<>messiah pipeline and it seems to be working splendidly.

Although it has its roots as a plugin/pipeline program, and still works great as such (especially with lightwave/modo and to some degree 3ds Max as well) it has become more and more a full featured software package, really only lacking modeling/sculpting, which 3DC fills nicely.

I tried the demo, i'm very confused about the interface and the workflow. I can not figure out the simplest things. The video tutorials dont give me much clues. Am i just stuck?

Like much 3d software, messiah can be a bit daunting on first look and does have a different way of going about things. I've found the best way to learn is the online help http://www.eggswhyzed.com/messiah_docs/index.html which has a great start here/introduction section.

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I tried the demo, i'm very confused about the interface and the workflow. I can not figure out the simplest things. The video tutorials dont give me much clues. Am i just stuck?

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

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Nope.

I think that may be the deal breaker for me. Low cost or not, even Blender has 3DConnexion support, as does 3ds Max, Maya, Softimage, C4D, and Lightwave (Layout). I was going to use it as a backup for CAT in 3ds Max (as it has some critical bugs), but I'll just use Character Studio, then.
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I think that may be the deal breaker for me. Low cost or not, even Blender has 3DConnexion support, as does 3ds Max, Maya, Softimage, C4D, and Lightwave (Layout). I was going to use it as a backup for CAT in 3ds Max (as it has some critical bugs), but I'll just use Character Studio, then.

Really? I like my 3dconnexion device too, but at 40 bucks to buy in, it seems like a no brainer. and who knows, maybe with the glut of new users, enough people will request it that support will get added.

That said, if you have other tools that do what you need, there is no reason to spend more money to buy another tool. Even if it's cheap, it's still going to be a time suck learning a new product.

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I think that may be the deal breaker for me. Low cost or not, even Blender has 3DConnexion support, as does 3ds Max, Maya, Softimage, C4D, and Lightwave (Layout). I was going to use it as a backup for CAT in 3ds Max (as it has some critical bugs), but I'll just use Character Studio, then.

I've been curious about 3Dconnexion devices, as I've heard good things about them. At a gig I had awhile back the studio had them but they weren't used, if I recall it was because of some problems with getting them to work with linux or somesuch, but I'm not sure. I just remember being excited and then told not to use them, it was a bit puzzling :(

It would really be cool if messiah supported them, though. I hope this is the sort of thing that can also come out of this promotion, lots of new users asking for new features that will only make the software stronger and a more effective tool for all.

Just in case you are interested, here's a brief (and admittedly sloppy) vid of messiah working with 3ds Max via the host connection:

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I've been curious about 3Dconnexion devices, as I've heard good things about them. At a gig I had awhile back the studio had them but they weren't used, if I recall it was because of some problems with getting them to work with linux or somesuch, but I'm not sure. I just remember being excited and then told not to use them, it was a bit puzzling :(

It would really be cool if messiah supported them, though. I hope this is the sort of thing that can also come out of this promotion, lots of new users asking for new features that will only make the software stronger and a more effective tool for all.

Just in case you are interested, here's a brief (and admittedly sloppy) vid of messiah working with 3ds Max via the host connection:

They are ridiculously cheap on EBay, now. $49 for what used to cost $400 just 18-24 months ago...and still would if they hadn't come out with a slightly higher end model. It's worth every penny and every time I have to use a 3D app without my SpacePilot, I feel like I'm working with one hand tied behind my back. I'm pretty sure they'll offer a warranty on it for about $10 or so, should that be a concern. But for $50, you can't beat that with a stick.

Space Pilot on Ebay

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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.

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

Joe Cosman has great videos on how to use the motion blending in the Compose tab, very well. Animate 2 and his newest one Smart Movement both cover this, smart movement is really cool in that it shows how to automate full animation based on simple movements of a null/character. Definitely worth a look.

And yes! It is a subset of the Arnold engine, a slightly older version in fact. Fori has been plugging away at it and tweaking it.

I tried the demo, i'm very confused about the interface and the workflow. I can not figure out the simplest things. The video tutorials dont give me much clues. Am i just stuck?

Wegg and a few others have some good videos on how to use the interface. I was a little bewildered at first, but after watching some of their videos (from setuptab) and poking around a bit when I first got it, a week or two in it felt natural and actually pretty intuitive. The only thing I still don't like are the panels at times, but it's not so bad now (I would still love to see the ability to undock any panel).

Hopefully we can talk Javis into doing some 3DC >< Messiah videos covering Posing, Applying Shaders and Rendering. I can see having a Character Sculpt in Voxels , and instead of using the Pose tool in 3DC (which is a bit liimited), exporting dense quads straight to Messiah, applying an AutoRig to it > Pose > Export right back to the Voxel room for further detailing. The great thing about that is, your rig will be already set when you're done in 3DC and ready to animate the model in Messiah.

I think 3DC and Messiah would be a Killer combination. :yahoo:

Let me see what I can do. :) I've got some other things on the table atm, but this is something I would love to do. ;)

IMHO between 3DC, Messiah and Modo (my toolbox for 3D), it's the best combination. Each one compliments the other in so many ways.

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They are ridiculously cheap on EBay, now. $49 for what used to cost $400 just 18-24 months ago...and still would if they hadn't come out with a slightly higher end model. It's worth every penny and every time I have to use a 3D app without my SpacePilot, I feel like I'm working with one hand tied behind my back. I'm pretty sure they'll offer a warranty on it for about $10 or so, should that be a concern. But for $50, you can't beat that with a stick.

Space Pilot on Ebay

I'll be getting mine in a few days.

I went in for the $40 Messiah deal. I'll use it mainly for rigging/posing at first, from sculpts I've made in 3DCOAT.

I was disappointed to hear Messiah currently does not support 3DCONNEXION. BUT...I think they will eventually support it.

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