Picking things up in Messiah

[dobermunk]

I'd recommend Christopher Lutz (http://www.animationsnippets.com/plugins/index.html)'s plug-in "dynamic parent". Check out the docs and the sample scene. Very easy to get going...

[pequod]

Cheers, (I assume you're referring to his Multiparent plug-in)

[dobermunk]

oops. yeah. sorry.

[pequod]

Hi,
I've just read the description, (can't seem to load the included project file). It appears to me I still need to make a slider and there is no offset ability?
I was using nulls with the standard dynamic parent, so the multi parent doesn't seem offer a whole lot more. or perhaps I'm just being dense.
I guess I'm looking for something straight forward like Maya's 'parent constraint'.

[DMack]

Hmmmm, this sounds a lot like a another request for Dynamic Parenting in Place, aka DynaPIP.

If you search on Dynapip, you'll find a long history of requests for that exact feature. As I understand it though, due to the architecture, it's not a quick or easy thing to programme. That all said, a new versioon is coming out soon-ish (Wegg has more details) - it might just make it into that?

[Wegg]

That plugin seems to do everything I need it too. . . I can animate what an object is parented too. <shrug> What more do you need?

[pequod]

Yes, now I've got to grips with it (yucky expressions) it works quite well.
One thing though, the object that's being picked up starts to drift away from it's parent over a few frames..... what's that about?
I suppose I should point out I'm still a novice with Messiah.

[Panikos]

I can do this with plain messiah, no need for plugins. Native dynamic parent works well and you can easily handle alignment with a simple null.

[dobermunk]

Do a search at the yahoo group...
If I recall correctly, there's a scene file there with a staff that a character passes from hand to hand.

[DMack]

That plugin seems to do everything I need it too. . . I can animate what an object is parented too. <shrug> What more do you need?

What more do I need? Real DYNAMIC parenting in place. We've been here before Wegg. :shrug: There's a whole thread on it - Go take a look if you need a memory jogger.

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=92&t=230486&highlight=dynapip

I'm hopeful that it mght be included in the upcoming update/upgrade.

[Wegg]

Pretty sure its not. . . but I did talk to Christopher Lutz about it just yesterday about this. I don't understand how it could be that hard to implement and I'd love to see it happen. The problem with work-arounds like the ones we have is that they DO work. Which makes it hard to re-invent something that works better. :sad:

[DMack]

When it was first raised, someone from PMG said that due to the architecture, is is harder to implement than people assume. Several people (Leebert was one) had a go.

I'm not using dynamic parenting at present. I did though look into it when I first started testing a rig that I've made (for a long term project I am working on). When I hit the issue then, I remember looking into the plugins and work arounds and the brick wall scenario occurred when you had both parents moving and the child object aswell - for example if you had two people runing around throwing a ball to eachother. You could probably do a work around for this situation BUT in a series type pipeline, you just don't have time - Imagine doing it manually for a game of catch? (It's a kids type programme). It's just one of those things that you come across regularly and it would therefore be a real time saver. I remember, when i first raised it, Marek said he'd been wanting that feature for ages - if HE needs it, then someone less techie like me, REALLY needs it!!! :)

PS Where has Marek gone? I've not seena post from him for ages!!! I hope we haven't lost him.........Marek?

With regards:
"The problem with work-arounds like the ones we have is that they DO work. Which makes it hard to re-invent something that works better"

......Well stop using the work around, bang your hands on the table and start grumbling! :scream:

[Wegg]

......Well stop using the work around, bang your hands on the table and start grumbling! :scream:

Ahh yes. Great plan there.


<Grumble grumble. . . moan moan. . . >

IS IT FIXED YET!?! No!?!


<Gripe Gripe. . . Bang Head. . . >


NOW!?! No!?!

<Sigh>

[maks]

Hey, I'm here ;) Well, kinda, but I don't come around very often anymore these times to be true... Life has pretty much changed since I moved to Montreal, and I have a fulltime job now, working with Maya. So I don't get the chance to play with messiah much anymore ATM... Kind of a bummer on one hand, but on the other hand my life situation is much better now than it has ever been before - unfortunately no big studio here works with messiah :shrug: But hey, I appreciate your concern man :)

Concerning the DynaPIP issue, I just can't hold back what I know when I'm reading this here again:
I had the chance to test an early beta version of ljilekor's DynaPIP plugin... Actually, we needed this functionality during a production last year, so I kinda hassled him privatly until he sent me this early beta. It definately works, but it is not really production ready yet, it still needs some work to be done until it may be ready for public release. He doesn't have much time though, and he doesn't work with messiah anymore neither. He said that he needed some additional API functionalities to finish the plugin, but his communication with pmG didn't seem very good at that time. So I proposed to establish the connection again between him and pmG, having a good communication history with them for my part. So I wrote to Dan Milling, explaning the situation to him, and he said that he would look into it if ljilekor would send him a list of what he needs. Unfortunately I never got any more response from ljilekor since then... :shrug: Please don't ask me to give away the version I have, I wouldn't do that without his agreement, and as I said, it isn't finished yet.
I may try to send him another mail, but I am not very confident in getting a response. You could try to contact him, maybe with some community pressure... But even then I wouldn't hope too much :rolleyes: Anyway, thought I'd have to give you that information.

Otherwise take care everyone! I'll try to drop by from time to time - who knows, maybe my messiah activity will increase again one day ;)

Cheers! :beer:



When it was first raised, someone from PMG said that due to the architecture, is is harder to implement than people assume. Several people (Leebert was one) had a go.

I'm not using dynamic parenting at present. I did though look into it when I first started testing a rig that I've made (for a long term project I am working on). When I hit the issue then, I remember looking into the plugins and work arounds and the brick wall scenario occurred when you had both parents moving and the child object aswell - for example if you had two people runing around throwing a ball to eachother. You could probably do a work around for this situation BUT in a series type pipeline, you just don't have time - Imagine doing it manually for a game of catch? (It's a kids type programme). It's just one of those things that you come across regularly and it would therefore be a real time saver. I remember, when i first raised it, Marek said he'd been wanting that feature for ages - if HE needs it, then someone less techie like me, REALLY needs it!!! :)

PS Where has Marek gone? I've not seena post from him for ages!!! I hope we haven't lost him.........Marek?

With regards:
"The problem with work-arounds like the ones we have is that they DO work. Which makes it hard to re-invent something that works better"

......Well stop using the work around, bang your hands on the table and start grumbling! :scream:

[Ulven]

Hey look at that. The man who's footsteps I've been trying to follow. Hello Marek.

[maks]

Hey, what an honor - thanks Ulven!
I had a quick look at your rigs. Nicely done :)

Hey look at that. The man who's footsteps I've been trying to follow. Hello Marek.

[DMack]

Good to hear from you Marek. Shame you've left the messiah scene. :sad: I was inspired by your messiah rig reel.



Wegg,

You got that I'm joking right?

[ljilekor]

Originally Posted by DMack
Concerning the DynaPIP issue, I just can't hold back what I know when I'm reading this here again:
I had the chance to test an early beta version of ljilekor's DynaPIP plugin... Actually, we needed this functionality during a production last year, so I kinda hassled him privatly until he sent me this early beta. It definately works, but it is not really production ready yet, it still needs some work to be done until it may be ready for public release. He doesn't have much time though, and he doesn't work with messiah anymore neither. He said that he needed some additional API functionalities to finish the plugin, but his communication with pmG didn't seem very good at that time. So I proposed to establish the connection again between him and pmG, having a good communication history with them for my part. So I wrote to Dan Milling, explaning the situation to him, and he said that he would look into it if ljilekor would send him a list of what he needs. Unfortunately I never got any more response from ljilekor since then... :shrug: Please don't ask me to give away the version I have, I wouldn't do that without his agreement, and as I said, it isn't finished yet.
I may try to send him another mail, but I am not very confident in getting a response. You could try to contact him, maybe with some community pressure... But even then I wouldn't hope too much :rolleyes: Anyway, thought I'd have to give you that information.

Don't worry, I'm still alive Marek.
Guess you also had your reasons to move away from Messiah... Though Messiah is very good, it lacks a few basic animation features. For some reason they do not continue to improve the animation part. I tried to do something about it. Just needed a good animation tool, not a renderer. After lots of frustrations I switched to Maya... (btw had to write a DynaPIP for this one too. Parent Constraints suck more than a chinese whore :rolleyes: )

No problem for me if you release the lowlifescum_DynamicParentInPlace plug in the open wide. Could help out some people. When I find the time, I'll dig into my Messiah plugs an post the 'useable' ones on the forum. I might have a newer version of the dynaPIP. I'm sorry to say that I won't continue developping them. Have a lot of half finished messiah plugs on my backup disc. LWO_Weight_Import, PhysX implementation, DynaPIP, ... to name but a few. Was very motivated back then but... yeah... :cry: If somebody is interested I'm prepared to release the code too.

May the force be with you int Montreal. Peace :beer:

[Ulven]

Thanks Marek. I've watched your reel one too many times going "Hang on, what?..how?" and with some help on here (thanks dobermunk) I have gradually worked out what you were up to with all this squashy bendyness now. Good stuff. :thumbsup:

ljilekor: Would be great if you release these plugins to us even if they're not all 'production ready'. A few coders are still around and I'm sure someone could pick up the mantle.

[Suricate]

If somebody is interested I'm prepared to release the code too.

ljilekor, I would be glad if I could finish your plugins and would be VERY interested to have a look at your code ... :)

[cgswami]

Please Chistoper .. please do :)

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