Messiah vs MotionBuilder

[gsuttor]

Check out these older MB/messiah threads.

http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=94244

http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=70222&highlight=motion+builder

[capt chuck]

I looked at some of the other threads and there did seem to be a bit of emotion involved, so I will try to add some value and try to stay objective. I have used and like both programs very much... below are some of my impressions to date. Either one will spoil you compared with the native host animation capabilities.

Documentation:

MB: - nicely formatted hardcopy and pdf files
- reference - where this button is where that button is
- not helpful in getting started, doesn't answer questions such as "where do I begin", "what is the basic workflow", etc.
- fortunately some of these answers are available via tutorials and knowledge base on the kadara site

M:A: - HTML online documentation only...no hardcopy and printing it comes out ugly.
- However, the content is more readable and task oriented than with MB


Interactivity:

Both allow you to see your animation in real time without having to render a preview

In both I have changed keyframes via the function curves even as the animation is running.

Stability:

I have found them both to be rock solid. I have read that M:A: does better with Nvidia cards but I have used it with both nvidia and ATI without problems.

Non-linear or animation blending:

Both support it. I find the MB5 story window to be a little more intuitive than M:A compose.

Workflow - host integration

The workflows are radically different, but both are smooth and work well. Below is an example (but not the only possible) workflow for each.

MB - 1. Create, bone and skin character (per MB naming conventions for bones)
2. Export the character in fbx format
3. Characterize the model in MB (automatically completes the rest of the rigging)
4. Animate the character
5. Save in fbx format
6. Merge the animation back into the host application's character

M:A - 1. Create character
2. Assign a M:A deformer (or modifier in max language)
3. Edit that deformer/modifier - M:A launches
4. Rig your character in M:A (has a nice autorig function)
5. Animate you character
6. Hit F12, your animation is now applied to your character in the host.

Company

PMG (M:A) seems much smaller than Kaydara, so they have fewer resources. But they have a real "personal feel" about them. There is humor integrated into their documentation and video tutorials, the developers are active on the forums. While I've seen the studio side get a lot of criticism for slow delivery, I've seen no such problem in animate (since I purchased 3.0 a little over a year ago, there have been several free incremental updates (3.1, 3.2 3.3, 3.3b) which not only fixed some bugs but added some features as well and release 4.0 came out this summer.

Kaydara seems like a larger entity with more resources. They had a nice booth and giveaways and party at SIGGRAPH (thanks). But they too have a nice personal feel about them. It is not unusual to see Kaydara's president responding to posts in the forums.

[grzesiekj]

With MB you will still need to use skin modifier.
And thats where you will see max slow down. (with heavy poly objects)

Messiah does its own skining and performs realtime in Max window.

[hugodog]

Thanks grzesiekj, cwardin and gsuttor,

cwardin, thanks for a very objective review.

They both have good reviews. Seems like either one
would definitely help. I was hoping I don't have
to download each demo and learn both, but looks
like we're going to have to do that with both of them
to see which one fits more with our animators.

There's also another one with very good reviews,
CAT: Character Animation Toolkit.

Again, thank you all, I'll appreciate more info
and I'll let you guys know.

Thx
Best regards,
hugo

[private]

Motionbuilder doesn't do quadrupeds. Messiah looks great from the demo and the video.

[pit]

Originally posted by private
Motionbuilder doesn't do quadrupeds.

Pardon me, but that´s BS - research before posting.

[Chewey]

Originally posted by pit
Pardon me, but that´s BS - research before posting.

http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=100354&highlight=quadraped

messiah provides quite a few other types of tools for animating that MB lacks.

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