AutoRigger and first rigging tutorial.

[Ulven]

Once you get all that work out of the way, what do you think about creating some type of utility to use with the autorigger that could retarget mocap (bvh etc) files to your autorigger bone structure? Seems that would be a pretty popular addon if you were able to cook one up.

Yeah that shouldn’t be too hard in principle. The problem is always finding the time to do everything isn’t it

Woot, finally something to help with walk cycles. Even though walk cycles can easily be done in messiah itself, I am looking forward to the features like blending walk animations which would really save time. I will be waiting for the release, I am animating a 40 minute cartoon and im sure walker would save at least 50+ hours

Definately. It is very much so based on the experience from andy’s airplanes and a couple of other projects, which is that even though a basic walkcycle is easy enough to do, having multiple characters perform different walkcycles, blending between them and changing their paths depending on direction, can be quite time consuming indeed.
To put the numbers on the table, I had to do a simple character test for a client recently where they just wanted to have him rigged and moving to show a client of theirs. They had an extremely tight deadline to get something together, so I used autorigger and walker together and after about 30 minutes of work and about the same amount of rendering it was all done. The character was walking along quite naturally and waving at the investors.
As far as professional work is concerned, Walker will pay for itself in a single job that has to do with walkcycles, or I will eat my bowler hat.

have you heard any indication as to when the next messiah patch is coming?

Not really, but I expect it to be relatively soonish. Fori has done some good work and I am sure that he is eager to share that with you. As am I with regards to the autorigger.

[Zimtower]

Very nice and just in time for production for my project to start. I hope it is still scheduled to be released around the end of this month. In the mean time ill have my wallet open

[Zimtower]

Soo, its the end of july and the end of the beginning of august. Any updates on the status please? Thanks.
~Zimtower

[Ulven]

Sorry, I discovered some problems in the final hour that I haven’t had time to address yet. I’ll try to get on it asap.

[Julez4001]

new in messiah v3.1

Hey PMG (sure you are in the thread) can one of the new features be a updated Whats New page and Docs?

[Zimtower]

Any word yet? I just started production.
http://www.mmorpgforum.com/showthread.php?t=6535

[Zimtower]

So when does messiah 3.1 come out?

[Julez4001]

3.1 or Walker

come on pmg

[Zimtower]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO1_dPCjgyg

[Nichod]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO1_dPCjgyg

Looks nice. Some step through on the steps. Seems the character steps too close in some points to the next step.

[Bugpoo]

Was the ribbon spine update included in the Walker purchase? Not seeing it in the viewport…

Thanks

[Bugpoo]

Uh, nevermind…loaded wrong base rig…

[Julez4001]

I’m very happy that you’re enjoying the rig Julez! We did in fact check off things that were requested and also I brought a lot of the things learned on Andy’s Airplanes into the rig so a lot if it was already production proven. With the latest version, even more of the things we’ve use in our productions are available to you guys and now I even use it myself a lot of the time (I used to keep to my other custom rigs most of the time).

As owners of AutoRig will have been told via email:
I am happy to announce that the latest version of AutoRig (AutoRig v2.0) is now scheduled for inclusion in the next patch of Messiah after an agreement between useful slug and pmG Worldwide. Current owners of AutoRig will in addition to the free upgrade to v2 recieve a 50% discount for our upcoming product, Walker which is due for release at the end of july/early august as a thank you for the support for development you’ve shown by buying our product.
We have tried to address most, if not all of the issues that have been put to us by our customers. Also, we have added some new features that we wanted ourselves in our animation projects.

The new features include:

• Ribbon spine setup.
  The ribbon spine, also known as an IK on FK spine setup, is a combination of the regular
  FK spine that you are used to from the old version of autorig with the additional ability
  to move the hip, middle and top parts of the character’s spine independantly.
  |-Left mouse button will drag them independantly in screen space.
  |-Right mouse button will rotate the top and bottom on heading and pitch in parent
  coordinates, while the middle control will adjust the zscale, the “tension” of the curve.
  |-Double middle mouse button will reset the item to it’s original position and rotation.

You can see a small demo here: http://www.usefulslug.com/files/AutoRigv2_RibbonSpine.mov

• Selection and Display additions.
  Selection of the feet’s IK goals are now made easier by having them routed out to an
  armature on the screen. LMB selects the heel, MMB selects the toeball, RMB selects the toe.
  All the bones can be switched on and off for display using the bones armature. If you add
  new bones to the rig you should add them to the Character_VisGrp_Bones group if you want them
  to take the new functionality.

You can see a small demo here: http://www.usefulslug.com/files/AutoRigv2_SelectionAndDisplay.mov

• SoftIK
  SoftIK is new in messiah v3.1 and is a softened IK chain to prevent IK pops. The amount of
  softening is animatable and will depend somewhat on the speed of movement as well as the size
  of the chain. It is off by default but you can enable it by dragging the softIK values in
  the Character_Rig_Behaviour slider. The soft IK is automatically stretchable so there is no
  need to add an IKTel if you use it in your own custom rigs.

You can see a small demo here: http://www.usefulslug.com/files/AutoRigv2_SoftIK.mov

• Uniform scale rig
  UniformScaleRig.msa is a new script that allows you to scale a rig in messiah uniformly with a
  master null and, when run, it will go through the rig and adjust it so that bone lengths and
  position keys are correctly adjusted. When you run autorig it is run once on the master null
  of the rig, but if you want to for instance scale the upper body using a master null, you can
  do so and then run UniformScaleRig from the F5 shelf.

You can see a small demo here: http://www.usefulslug.com/files/AutoRigv2_UniformScale.mov

Bumping up for good content, here.

[Julez4001]

even more of a bump— as I am jumping back in after 6 months hiatus

[Tanketh]

even more of a bump— as I am jumping back in after 6 months hiatus

At least you get to animate!!

I’m stuck doing boring corporatey vids etc! Bought Messiah two and a half years back and haven’t really had a chance to try it properly yet.
DANG!.

[Ulven]

At least you get to animate!!

I’m stuck doing boring corporatey vids etc! Bought Messiah two and a half years back and haven’t really had a chance to try it properly yet.
DANG!.

Spare time improvements dude.
If you’re any good at messiah / animation and in the UK I’d recommend applying to Darkside. dsanim.com Doing a feature film at the moment and always in use of more messiah staff!

[Tanketh]

Spare time improvements dude.
If you’re any good at messiah / animation and in the UK I’d recommend applying to Darkside. dsanim.com Doing a feature film at the moment and always in use of more messiah staff!

Yeah, hope to get there, been a crazy few years and really haven’t managed to do anywhere near as much 3D as I wanted to. Been very much on and off.

Know of darkside, know enough to respect them highly - not familiar enough to know their projects.

We just finished a wee bit of animation for part of a commercial for West Midland Safari Park, but not exactly character animation, and therefore not something I could use to apply for a job for a feature film, I don’t think!

Where are you based? Where are Darkside? (London?) Do you work freelance for them?

[Tanketh]

Spare time improvements dude.
If you’re any good at messiah / animation and in the UK I’d recommend applying to Darkside. dsanim.com Doing a feature film at the moment and always in use of more messiah staff!

Just noticed your usefulslug site appears to be down.
If you need some good reliable hosting, gimmea shout dude.

[Ulven]

Where are you based? Where are Darkside? (London?) Do you work freelance for them?

I work freelance but on site for them and have done so for a good while so it’s very much like a full time job except I have my own office at home as well some days. It’s in Holborn, Central London. Nice place really. Both TV and feature film jobs going so worth applying if/when you’ve got your showreel sorted. Great place to work, very friendly and sympathetic to different situations!

Character animation and rigging skills are most important at the moment.

[Tanketh]

I work freelance but on site for them and have done so for a good while so it’s very much like a full time job except I have my own office at home as well some days. It’s in Holborn, Central London. Nice place really. Both TV and feature film jobs going so worth applying if/when you’ve got your showreel sorted. Great place to work, very friendly and sympathetic to different situations!

Character animation and rigging skills are most important at the moment.

Sounds awesome!

Currently I’m here - www.eesb.tv - showreel’s pretty old now, better to check the actual posts and Creative Samples!
Got some animation work to post up actually - bit behind on that but maybe later this week.

So much to do at the moment