learning curve and skelegons

#1

I’m doing my first steps in CA with LW. Now i find Messiah, but I have a few questions.

I’m really new in messiah. I make a few test. Now I don’t seek really hard but I wonder: could I use a LW models with skelegons, and use those LW skelegons setup? I read somewere about the pros of skelogons: “if I need to make a change in the model I could doit and adjust the skelegons and it is reflected in LW layout”. But This couldn’t be done in messiah If there is a change in the model I have to go back and reset the bones to match the new change.
Other think I noted about messiah is the learning curve. Wow is huge…I fell i need to learn a whole new aplication. beside LW.
Just to make a walk cycle i found some problems.

#2

Changing bones in messiah is much easier than in LW.
You just go into the Setup Mode, change the bones as you desire or as your changed model demands and when going back to the Animate Mode, everything just works.

If you are serious about using messiah, forget about skelegons. Do all rigging in messiah then.

Rigging in messiah is much easier and more intuitive than in LW. Sure you have to learn it also, but if your main interest is CA, messiah is a clear winner over LW.

Cheers,

#3

Completely agree with Thomas - Skelegons are really NOT the best way. Once you become familiar with messiah, you will not even consider using LW for CA.

#4

well I will try again. Maybe this time I feel more comfortably in my effort.
If I have problems I hope i could come back here.

#5

I noted many face animation tutorial about messiah use bones instead morph.
Why?

#6

You can use morphs in messiah as well, but I guess many people use facial muscles because of the more realistic deformations.

#7

Morphs give you more control over the exact shape but bones/curves are way more flexible. You can also position your bones/curve points at specific positions and link them to sliders, effectively giving you ‘morphs’.

#8

ANother differentiation:
bones can rotate, morphs are linear. bones can also be laid out to mimic the facial muscle groups. messiah’s muscle bones are particularly good for this.
Generally - bones are a great basis, and morphs can be used for wrinkles and for oddly deforming expressions like the classic “cheek-puff”.

When a job is rushed I also tend to go with all-morph solutions because I model more quickly than I rig. So, its also a matter of personal ability.

#9

Morphs excell with smiles and frowns etc, “BONES!” are fantastic for jaws and lip roll
(Morphs for creasing, bones for arc movements and rolls.)

all morph rigs are a sculpting task where the challenge is getting them to play nicely together, all bone rigs are a rigging challenge where the skill is in getting the exact shape you want.

Personally depending on what I need I’ll micx and match.

Current speed setup favourite is boned jaw, morphed smile/sad/narrow and flex eyebrows. Lips if I want a more polished result being a tossup between bones and morph.

If i go with bones that’ll be deforming another base head and then applied downstream as a morph so that they can blend with the smiles/narrows etc whilst still moving in nice arcs with teh bone movement.

#10

Besides the above, I think the number one reason more bone rigs are being used, especially in messiah, is that once you have them they can be put to other characters, and simply resized to fit…as opposed to starting a new rig from scratch every time.

With morphs, its the whole process of making all the targets everytime. And if the character is updated, the morphs need remade.

That doesn’t mean a combo approach is out of the question; just that the bone rig would probably be my choice for the main def, and perhaps morph targets for special problems.

Best,
Rick

#11

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