Anyone who has animated in both XSI and Messiah?

[biliousfrog]

I've not used XSI, I just wondered what experience you have with 3d packages in general. It might be useful to know what you've used in the past when making comparisons, also compatability with your modelling app might be an issue.

[MLMckenzie]

Here is a list of the apps I have used and some of which I still use.
Electricimage 2.9
Pixels 3D V
3D Studio Max R4
Cinema 4D R8.5
Realsoft 3D V5
Softimage 3D
XSI 4.2
Silo

I'm new to Character Animation, not 3D.

Thanks!

[grzesiekj]

Hello
I have been using both applications. Messiah and XSI Foundation.

I like the graph editor feel way better in Messiah, but dopesheet seems better in XSI.

Overall, the process of skinning seems faster for me in Messiah, you can easily swap models, readjust your rig in setup mode, and you are ready to go (Messiah)

on the other hand, the control of weight painting in XSI rocks.(very accurate results)

The power of metaeffectors (weight equivalent in Messiah) is great, and is something that I really miss in XSI (the fact that you can easily animate weights in Messiah is very usefull)

I like to build, draw and manipulate bone chains more in Messiah.

Constraints in XSI are just awesome and easy to use (in Messiah you have to write expressions for more complicated constraints... well, actually for not complicated as well)

what you really get with XSI, is the fact, that you have the modeler combined with rigging system in one. You can easily create corrective morphs, tie them to bone rotations, ecc.


Cloth system in XSI Fnd is slower then Messiah but FAR more accurate.

the Nonlinear animation system in XSI kicks ass.

those are some of my opinions about animation side.
I like those applications a lot, seems both have their advantages, and really it will be up to you to decide. thanks to Point Oven, you can use and mix for example messiah animation with XSI cloth simulation and so on.

[AlexK]

Constraints in XSI are just awesome and easy to use (in Messiah you have to write expressions for more complicated constraints... well, actually for not complicated as well)

Well, that one is only partially true. You can have point and click constraints like in XSI with Messiah and the "buildExpression"-Plugin by Borhan Berthet (http://www.zoogono.com/plugindetail.cfm?pid=18) as well. Works great! :thumbsup:

[MLMckenzie]

Thanks for the breakdown Grzesiekj. It is much appreciated.

[lmilton]

Also keep in mind that both programs have a number of other animation features that affect overall workflow. For example, messiah's DopeSheet has compared very favorably to other apps. And AnimateImmediate is one of our features that really speeds the direct animation worflow. No doubt XSI sports some unique animation features, as well.

You will likely find a lot of training material for XSI, while messiah's training offerings are much smaller but still growing. I do know of a few big, upcoming training efforts, as well as our own. However, for now you can check out www.zoogono.com (http://www.zoogono.com) for some free messiah tutorials.

Good luck with your choice:)

-lyle milton
-pmG worldwide,llc
www.projectmessiah.com (http://www.projectmessiah.com)

[DMack]

Hi Lyle,

I take it you can't say what the training thingies are?

David

Hmmmm Maybe Dan Ablans Inside Messiah?

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