Its there a rigging system in EIAS - FK/IK etc

[Vizfizz]

Hello Dan,

EIAS is equipped with both FK & IK capabilities, weight/strength mapping, constraints, IK influenced deformers, IK handles, morph targets, magnet deformers, multiple joint types and joint limits, 3 different IK solvers, pole vectors, twist controllers, Xpressionist (scripting), FBX import, BVH and a few more things I'm probably forgetting.

Despite this array of tools, it should be fully noted that EIAS has not yet arrived as a character animation package. One major shortcoming that comes immediately to mind is the absence of spline IK. The basics are there, but they have yet to be truly refined. EITG is currently working on v7 of EIAS which enhances a number of rendering tool requests, but word on the street is v8 will focus more on enhancing Animator. Its my personal hope that more character animation tools are introduced into the program at that time.

So EIAS would be fine if you're learning character animation, however, my general feeling is if you need refined and ultimate control over the CA process, a package like Maya or XSI would probably serve you better.

[DanRoberts]

hey Viz,

Thanks for the very complete and honest reply :) ... I'm a hobiest and with the current deal on EISA well ya know. Ill read up on spline IK and see what thats all about.

Thanks Again :)

Dan

[Vizfizz]

Well.. I gotta admit. EIAS for $399 is an incredible deal. You should really consider it. The rendering capabilities alone are worth that price.

[Nichod]

Not to pull away from EI. As its an excellent package. But another alternative if you wish to do character animation might be messiah: studio workstation (http://www.projectmessiah.com). Its priced at only $299. Even better on your wallet.

Before you decide. Download all of the applications (demo/trial) you are interested in and try them out. What may work well for one person may not work well for you.

[Nichod]

By the way. If you do get EIAS. Please we'd love to hear what you think. I've been looking at EI for awhile in terms of its renderer alone.

[FelixCat]

Hi, Nichod. Seeing you here, can you tell us about PMessiah in Character animation? do exist a way to communicate P:M to EiAS?, FBX perhaps?... if it where possible, could be a great combo (V.8 it´s a bit far away for me).
BTW is PMessiah under debelopment yet, or is fading as it seems looking its almost static web site?

FelixCat

[manuel]

Ouch, version 8 is a long way off indeed.:sad: And that's just word on the street, it's not an official confirmation.

My guess is that Project Messiah must have suffered greatly because of XSI dropping its price so dramatically a while ago. If I was on a PC, I'd give XSI a good look.

To get back to the original question, EIAS can do character animation, but it's not its strongest point. What you get is a simple program (=easy to learn) that isn't the most flexible to set up and, with few people having done CA in it, a relatively small pool of knowledge.

[AVTPro]

Title says it all :) ... also if so how good is it?

Thanks,

Dan

Hey,

There's a rig on the EIAS character animation tutorial section that is called "ReadyRigs Salesman" by Alonzo Von Threet. I have also publically shared rigs with IK spines.

Character animation has varying levels of complexity, but as a hobbyist, or small profession studio EIAS is a great solution. This rig is a bit complex, I have done less intricate rigs that are just as flexible. However, this rig has some interesting rig technologies and principles in it.

Edit: New Movie (http://homepage.mac.com/avtpro5/.Public/AVTPro_Reading%20the%20Rig.mov.zip)
AVTPro's ReadyRig Here (http://homepage.mac.com/avtpro5/.cv/avtpro5/Sites/.Public/AVTPro%27s%20first%20Rig%20Stuff.sitx-zip.zip)

[gdogfunk]

I don't know Messiah, but I'd go for EI. Not only is it a great renderer (fast and great looking images), you get free render nodes...of which I have added many nodes to a mixed PC/Mac farm - so if you have access to other machines, you can use them to render.

I have been trying a lot of CA tests in EI, and for my needs, the tools work great! I guess since I don't have anything in the EI gallery yet, you might as well see some examples.

Here are some things I've done using EI's IK tools for CA:

http://orangepeelproductions.com/ei/orb_wars_cine.mov (32Mb)

http://orangepeelproductions.com/ei/VGUG_XMAS_web.mov (5.6Mb)

http://orangepeelproductions.com/ei/VGUG_ROBOTS_new.mov (5.5)

http://orangepeelproductions.com/preview/eaton/synflex_FINAL.mpg (50mb) - this was a collaboration with fellow EI user, Richard Morley - who does have CA examples in the EI gallery.

While it may not have everything character-toolset-wise yet, I'm having a great time with it! Most recently, I've been using EI morph targets combined with some IK for this early WIP (heads made in Wings3D):

http://orangepeelproductions.com/ei/head_morph3.mov (14Mb)

There may not be a huge pool of CA EI users (yet), there are many good resources available for learning. In addition to the forums, I highly recommend the EI Platter - as it's basically real-time tech support from a highly-experienced userbase.

Good luck in making your choice! :)

Ryan

[MagicEgger]

Hey,

I will deliver more CA films in a month.. hope you like it

Tomas Egger

[Nichod]

Hi, Nichod. Seeing you here, can you tell us about PMessiah in Character animation? do exist a way to communicate P:M to EiAS?, FBX perhaps?... if it where possible, could be a great combo (V.8 it´s a bit far away for me).
BTW is PMessiah under debelopment yet, or is fading as it seems looking its almost static web site?

FelixCat

Its under development. They released an update 2 months ago. And a bunch of free updates last year with some great improvements. Including a new volumetric particle system.

Rigging in messiah is flexible and easy. Especially compared with other software I've used. The expression system is nice because its pretty much idiot proof. Messiah has a huge list of expressions and each includes a detailed description, the user then just plugs and plays.

I could go on and on praising it, but really its a matter of user preference. Try the demos. Thats one nice thing about messiah. You can try it out without any time limit. No saving and limited render size. But you can use it for as long as you'd like.

[FelixCat]

Thanks, and about communication between messiah and EiAS?
FelixCat

[Nichod]

Thanks, and about communication between messiah and EiAS?
FelixCat

Not sure. Messiah doesn't support FBX. It does support .mdd and .bvh. I'm sure some suggestions to pmG could get direct support.

[AVTPro]

MotionBuilder and Maya work well with EIAS's FBX.

Here's a movie about that older rig.

Edit my redraw was slow so I redid the video.

Here. (http://homepage.mac.com/avtpro5/.Public/AVTPro_ReadyRig2.zip)


Also who has a link to this Converter. I would like to try it. Thanks.

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