oh im familiar with it allright. The thing is im not familiar with messiah yet. so i was hoping that autorig will mediate my ignorace somewhat. Now i have to put in some insane hours to use this thing. 
thats why im pissed.
i been eagerly waiting for this program counting down the days over here in the office and now that i got it, its a huge letdown.
Unless your rig needs to be complex, I think you’ll find the whole rigging process easier than you think. I moved over from LW to messiah:Animate for character animation and rapidly got going. Joe Cosman’s CD’s are very helpful, as are the people on this forum so jump in and ask for help when you need it. Regards to it being a letdown…I think with time you’ll grow to really appreciate it…may not think so at the mo 
but I think you will if you give it a good go - Much easier to rig than LW thanks to the seyup mode etc.
Have you tried what Thomas Helzle suggested? I understand your frustration, but everyone here is trying to help you with your problem. Do you have any specific questions about how to set stuff up like you do in whatever program you’re used to? There aren’t a whole lot of tutorials out there but here’s a few: http://www.zoogono.com/tutorials.cfm
im working in lightwave.
setting up a rig for fido (you know the 7 up character)
I need to get a full rig working with IK legs and FK/IK arms with knee/elbow control and be ready to animate by next week.
wish me luck. hah
As a LW user, you should be acquainted with such advertising and non working features :D ;).
The Python Scripting Implementation had a major bug which caused a lot of instability.
In my mind it´s better to leave out AutorigII, which depends on Python, till it works as it should, than grappling with an unstable Messiah.
well im coping with this as best as i can. however, a disclaimer on their site about the broken autorig would be nice. It would have cost them a sale, but it still would be nice.
i dont know if you really need to buy those CD, i did some tutorial, for messiah,
try to look for them on the forum or in the zoogono.com
(i have 2 sources, one was a torrent file that was directed to my computer and some ppl did the HUGE favor to give me space on there server)
if you cant find them, send me a tell =)
I’m glad I started reading through these posts – and discovered the Joe Cosman cds, they look to be an exceptional value in every way and will certainly be a major help and education for me to use just starting out with Messiah.
As for “bugs” and changes in the app – why give up on it? It’s just part of the evolution, all programs must go through these processes. There’s always a solution. A very important factor in using Messiah for me is that this group helps each other out and all are interested in seeing Messiah progress. And it is. I’m very impressed with what Messiah already can do and am happy to be a part of the revolution and where it is headed.
—Maya
Sorry, I’m not familiar with Fido. Is he an anthropomorphic bipedal type character?
Do you have a proxy object or better yet the actual mesh to rig? You could post screen grabs if you want and try asking specific questions for the rig. (ie: I’m trying to rig the rear legs like I do in Maya. I usually…blah blah blah). Then we may have some ideas we can throw at you. Just trying to help…
Whoooa! That’s soon if you’ve no experience in messiah. If the budget allows, you may want to consider getting someone with a lot of experience to create a rig for you. I could name two immediately, maks (you should see his facial rig!) and Thomas Hezel (technical guru)…(Ok there will be lots out there)…Not saying they’re interested or available…but you could try a quick ‘anyone able to rig this character’ type thread. Better to take less home than spoil a client relationship.
Well as Thomas said AutoRig 1 isn’t broken. You can still use it afaik. Just copy the AutoRig.mp in the plugins folder. If you don’t have it anymore just say so and I can send it to you.
thanks for all the help guys, im halfway done haha. Im a quick learner 
and i do love how the setup mode saves my rest pose, great time saver. Still wish i had the autorig, but this program is simple enough to learn i guess.
one question i have is the best way to handle the weight maps, any suggestions on fastest workflow?
There’s no need for weight maps with a character like Fido (Messiah doesn’t use them anyway). Try using hold bones. Open some of the sample character scenes that came with messiah and unhide all the bones. You’ll quickly get an idea of where to put the bones.
hmm. well i ended up going with weight effectors. they seem to do the trick, is there anything wrong with using weight effectors? Are hold bones a better alternative?
ok this program is pissing me off.
it seems that limited range has no effect AT ALL! man this is annoying.
does limited range do anything? seems that regardless of what range i give it, it will still affect adjacent bones ranges.
In setup, make sure your bones are already sligtly bent (eg the knees are slightly forward and legs slightle bent as a result), to indicate the direction they should bend in. I think messiah does some clever background stuff (vets will be able to explain it better!) and IK solves based on this initial bend. I know coming from LW you’re expecting to have to use limits the whole time but messiah does things different (MUCH better IMO). It just takes getting used to.
stooch: Hey, you better cool down a bit.
It was your decision to switch to another software that you seem to know nothing about short before a project. That isn’t something any professional will normally do or recommend if avoidable.
So since you know nothing about the software you will hit obstacles. That is normal. When I started with Lightwave coming from Cinema 4D years ago I got crazy
But if you want help from other users, it will not help you if you constantly repeat how pissed you are, since most of it will be because you don’t know the software and didn’t allow the time to get into it.
If you would start with something like maya with only 4 days time, knowing nothing about it you would be as pissed as you are now.
That is your own fault basically.
So - since the people on this forum aren’t in any way liable to help you, a bit more positive attitude would be much more appropriate.
With that said:
Limited range works fine here. You may want to post your scene so people are able to look at what you’ve done and offer suggestions from that.
I personally think I never used weights for bones - just too much hassle and not needed normally. But there is nothing wrong with using them.
Best regards,
i wouldnt try messiah for a project with a deadline without testing it first…
i mean I come from a 2D animation background and the whole thing of 3D is really tough
it always comes from a place u dont expect it …
ALWAYS make good planning for the workflow…test again and again in a production
ALWAYS things will go wrong …so you better be somewhat prepared …
that’s what i am doing now i test different charcters setups with messiah for three projects that are going to start.But if i had to do something like for the next week
i would use LW without second thought…
you must confront everything with a more ZEN attitude.
these things we use are computers the do what you tell them to do
u just have to know how to ask…
NO weightmaps for Fido Dido … with such a geometry it would be really easy with just a few control bones …just as everyone else said
(but still if u wanna control with weights use them i prefer curve weight tools )
(especially for controling the flow of a displacement with the awesome AON from Thomas Helzle)
Check the examples scenes and read the the pages of the manual that interest you.
What i find great is the ease and speed to create different rigs for different scenes …
…
anyway i wish you luck with the project…
more positive energy is always a good start.
JB.