auto rigger messiah

#1

hi
i used motion builder fo character animation but now i found much limitation in character animate in that ( stretch and squash , curve , smoth move , …) and at this time i think the messiah is good choice for solve our problem,

my first question is that true and help me to solve my problem?

2- mesiah animte had pose to pose animate metod in his motion mixer ?

3- i want auto rig system in messiah can help me in this way ?

4 if i use only chacter animation power of xsi is that beter than messiah ?

thank for your attention.

#2

Hi Reza

“mesiah animte had pose to pose animate metod in his motion mixer ?”

  • Yes you can do pose to pose aniamtion, it is quite easy to do actually, messiah lets you play your animation with flat keys

“i want auto rig system in messiah can help me in this way ?”

  • I personally have not used it, but from the videos i had seen it seemed sufficient for simple setups

“if i use only chacter animation power of xsi is that beter than messiah”

  • Comparision of softwares is a diffucult one, it really depends on your needs and budget. Raw comparison of these softwares may lead you to buy xsi because it has a good modeler also in it. I also know that xsi is a good aniamtion tool. But again messiah is not about awesome feature set, its power relies mainly on simplicity and flexibility. Plus you can send your animated meshes to xsi via .mdd files.
#3

There is currently no auto-rigger.
The past versions had one and it was very powerful / flexible.

#4

So, pMG has basically removed functionality by taking out an auto-rigging function? Seems like that’s a pretty valuable option if you just want to get something up and running. I’m on the fence about XSI and Messiah (until about March) and that’s not the kind of thing I like to hear when I’m about to make a purchase.

JJ

#5

If you’d like I can puff smoke up your ass, but - no, there is no aut-rigger, JohnJ.
From my encounters with both packages, rigging in messiah is loads more forgiving and flexible than xsi - though ultimately tighter in scope. So its a give and take - things like intiutive rigging, bone-weights and expressions favor messiah, while corrective morphs, self-coded extras, etc. favor xsi.

I recommend you try the demo. Feel free to post questions…

#6

Thanks for the reply.
I agree…at this point I don’t want to learn a new package (I currently am using LW9) and a forgiving, flexible solution is what I am looking for. I did try the demo and liked it very much. You hit the nail on the head for me with your comparison so it is much appreciated.

JJ

#7

Hehe… “smoke” ;-]
Thanks in turn for the level-headed reply. My reply was a bit thin-skinned.
messiah isn’t grande about communication and an auto-rigger has been announced - that’s why I wanted to clarify. Are you skilled in rigging?
The best tutorial materials for messiah are currently Joe Cosman’s.
There are also great scenes to reverse engineer. Just check the threads.

And let us know how you progress.

#8

One thing to note about XSI. If you are looking at XSI6 fnd, then you can only install it on one computer at a time. I think ESS and ADV are fine since you can get a dongle.

Read up on it here: http://www.xsibase.com/forum/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=28305

#9

I am interested in Messiah because I find rigging in Lightwave frustrating (I can rig a character but it seems to take me forever and it’s not very satisfactory–just functional). It seems more like black art than technique (at least for me). When you are the writer, director, producer, modeler, etc., whether its for a ten second short or a feature, its hard to find time to master it all. But enough complaining!
After trying the Messiah demo, I was pleased with how fast I could get the rig together, tweak and start posing (even without a manual!!!). I’m still an amateur at animating (I was using LW mainly for still pictures).
I shouldn’t have mentioned that “other app.” I guess that’s frustration coming out over my attempts with LW. I love LW and just need to put more time in to get these things down. Of course, time is hardest thing to find. :frowning:

Dobermunk, thanks for the reply and the info on tutorials. I value the communities I’ve encountered at this and other forums and I expect to have some more questions once I’ve gotten more into messiah.

#10

rigging in messiah is not frustrating and actually it is artist friendly in my opinion. Just try to get over with messiah`s interface, once you are done with it, you should be able to start rigging right away.

#11

speaking about puffing smoke up peoples asses, i bought messiah just because of the autorigger functionality that was advertised on their site… it was a nice surprise to discover that there was no sign of it in the software i received… would that qualify as crack smoke or pot smoke?

#12

Both.
Which is why I wished to clarify this point.

Its also history (of very poor communication) that I hope will not be continued.

#13

Messiah seems to still offer the fastest feedback in figuring out how to create and work with skeleton rigs.

I was also looking forward to an autorigger from Messiah. Its not THAT difficult to create a biped rig from scratch though, and once you have built one, it seems to open lots of doors for other types of rigging you might try, the way messiah allows you to work and check your work enables for fast and easy development.

Once you have built a skeleton that you are happy with, you likely wont want an auto rigger as much, as you can reuse the skeleton pretty easily. So, you sort of almost have an autorig in a way.

#14

haha oh how many times we had this particular debate.

the beauty of autoriggers is getting results FAST. MUCH faster even with the best rigging skills in messiah. Very rarely have I personally have gotten the luxury to spend much time on rigging. Id rather use that time for things like modeling, scene setup and actual animation. Also, a basic animation could be done with an auto rig and then copy the keys to a quality rig…The possibilities are endless. Its certainly not a deal breaker for me as id rather see things like hair :wink: Hell, If hair ever appears in messiah, i wouldnt even care about autorigging…

#15

I hope in the next upgrade, that its a pay upgrade that comes with an quick and easy auto-rigger!

#16

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