New Updates Available!!! (2.5 & 5.5 + Demo)

#1

We’ve just posted messiah:studio pro & workstation 2.5 and messiah:animate 5.5! They’re on the downloads page (of course) just waiting for you (well, if you’re a registered user of messiah:studio 2 or messiah:animate 5). The demo has also been updated. This is mostly a work flow enhancement upgrade but there are some important fixes too, so we hope you like it.

Here’s What’s New. (This is also in the ReadMe.txt that comes with the update.)

 Cheers,
 Fred
#2

Cool Downloading Now :applause:

Edit -> Copied From read me as i installed 2.5

->>

What’s New For messiah:Studio Workstation 2.5:
(NOTE: This document is located in your messiah folder.)

  1. Image sequences:
    a) setup has been revamped. Instead of the offset that was there
    before, you may now specify what frame you want your image sequence
    to start playing back from. This will probably cause old scenes to
    behave strangely if the offset was used, but it’s easy enough to
    use the new start frame method. Even if your sequence is numbered
    starting at 200, for example, you can tell the program to have it
    start playing at any frame you want. Frames prior to the first
    frame will display/render the first frame of the sequence. Frames
    after the last frame will display/render the last frame of the
    sequence.
    b) When you select the ‘sequence’ button in the image manager it
    will automatically set the number of frames in the sequence.
    c) Enabled the ‘loop’ feature for sequences. This was never hooked
    up before and works properly now.
    d) Drastically reduced the amount of ram used for image sequences.
    Before the entire frame range of the image sequence would be cached
    in ram. This was the primary reason people were having renders die
    after as few as a 50-100 frames or so. Now only the current frame’s
    image is cached for sequences.
    e) Made a change which should fix any other strange sequence stuff
    that was going on. Apparently some items were not taking into
    account that an image may be a part of a sequence. Now any image
    that is flagged as being a sequence should render appropriately.
    f) Fixed the problem with spotlights which were projecting an image
    sequence. Before only a single static frame would be rendered. Now,
    the image sequence will be properly rendered.
  2. Added background image scaling. There is a new control, ‘Background
    Image Scale Percent’ which will allow the user to interactively scale the
    background image in the viewport on both the x and y dimensions, by a
    percentage between 1-100. 100 is the default. This is handy if you want
    to use a sequence of very large image files as a background sequence and
    don’t need to have the full res image in the viewport. Values from 25-50
    look pretty good, depending on image size.
    Scaled images will only be displayed in the viewport as a background
    image, but the full res image will be utilized when rendering.
  3. Fixed a potential crash when trying select items in the dope sheet.
  4. Inserting text into text controls of lists by double clicking on the
    list item, is fixed. It had been broken in a recent version.
  5. Antialiasing now clips values above 1.0 to guarantee correct colors
    within 8bit per channel image formats.
  6. Particle distances are clamped to avoid particles with huge
    accelerations from going beyond the limit of space.
  7. Softbody collision with two effects using the same collision object
    fixed.
  8. Added a Selection List text gadget next to the current object popup.
    a) Allows you to enter an object name and will select that object
    when you hit return or the E (Execute) button next to the string
    gadget.
    Example: Camera This will deselect all selected items
    and select the Camera as the current object.
    b) Allows you to enter a channel name and it will select that
    channel in the main item list.
    Example: Camera:heading This will
    deselect all selected items and select the heading channel of the
    Camera object as the current channel.
    c) Allow the user to enter multiple objects or object:channels for
    selection
    Example: Camera,Null:heading This will deselect all
    selected items and select both the Camera object and the heading
    channel of ‘Null’. This first item entered will become the current
    object
    d) Allow the user to add objects to the current selection by
    placing a comma prior to the first object or object:channel name.
    Example: Camera,Null:heading This will retain the previous
    selection, while adding the Camera object and the heading channel
    of ‘Null’ to the current selection
  9. Added a Selection List History gadget. This is next to the E (Execute)
    gadget of the Selection List control. This will record any object or
    object:channel selections the user makes through the Selection List text
    entry control. This is handy if you need to quickly switch between a few
    objects while animating for example.
    a) Click the Selection List History gadget and the list will popup.
    Single click on the list item to copy that selection to the
    Selection List string gadget without executing the selection.
    b) Double click the list item to copy that selection to the
    Selection List as well as immediately execute that selection.
  10. Added a Command String History List gadget. This is next to the
    E (Execute) gadget of the Command String control. This will record any
    expression or other command the user executes from the Command String
    entry control. Functionally it operate identically to the Selection
    List History gadget.
  11. Added a Copy to Clipboard feature, if you want to copy the contents
    of the Command String History List to the Windows clipboard. Hit the
    C (Clipboard) button next to the Command String History List button.
  12. Added the ability to restore the last string entered in the Command
    String control. Hit the R (Restore) button next the the C (Clipboard)
    button.
  13. Added auto-complete to some string gadgets. Right now auto-complete
    is active for the following controls:
    a) Command String control on main interface (objects, effects,
    function,expressions,shaders)
    b) Selection List String control (objects)
    c) Exp control on the Command->Expressions tab (objects, effects,
    functions, expressions, shaders) When you type in a name, the string
    will present you with the first best match for what it thinks you
    might want to select. Keep typing enough of the name until it
    appears. If the correct name is presented just hit the ‘End’ key
    to go to the end of the selection and continue typing (or just hit
    Return if you’re done). If you want to remove the auto-complete
    selected text just hit ‘Delete’ and it will be removed.
    Sometimes you might have a bunch of objects with number suffixes.
    Example: Null_01, Null_02…Null_10 Suppose you type in ‘Null’ so
    auto-complete will think you may want to select ‘Null_01’. So, in
    this case you really want Null_05. Hit the Up or Down arrow keys to
    move up and down through the possible selection list. When you find
    the item you want just hit the ‘End’ key to accept that item and
    continue typing (or just hit Return if you’re done.)
  14. Fixed the Lightwave connection plugin to work properly with LW9.
    a) Start lightwave either 8.x or 9. (you might want to rename the
    old lwmasters8.cfg or lwmasters9.cfg before you do this.)
    b) Go to the Utilities tab and click “Master Plugins” and from
    the drop down menu select the messiah_master.
    c) Quit LW and restart LW and the lwmastersX.cfg will be written
    out properly with the messiah_master information.
    d) Of you want to turn off the messiah_master then just remove it
    from the Master Plugins list.
  15. Fixed a problem with the shader menus, where they didn’t scroll if
    they were bigger than the screen height. Now it generates a branch
    that says “more >>” after every 20 shaders, so that they fit on the
    screen.
  16. Added an Replace Image option in the image combo.
  17. You are now able to use ctrl + number key to add the channel to a
    multi-selection or remove it.
  18. New edit sphere options:
    a) New controls were added to the edit sphere block in edit
    key/frame editing.
  19. Edit Sphere Manipulator - The ability to change the edit
    sphere from it’s current combined rotation and translation
    manipulators to separate manipulators.
    In the key command manager under the interface section, there
    are some Edit Sphere functions that can be assigned to keys
    that let the user change the edit sphere to the Translation,
    Rotation, or Scale manipulator, or to toggle back and forth
    between Translation and Rotation manipulators.
    b) Mouse Button Channels - When on and used with separate
    manipulator mode, mouse button presses are mapped to the edit sphere
    channel of the mode.
    Example: In Translation mode, left mouse will move on X, middle
    mouse will move on Y, Right mouse will move on Z.
    As a quick option:
    While in separate manipulator mode, the user can use the control key
    to switch the manipulator (ex. translation to rotation), while the
    key is being held down. As soon as the key is released, it returns
    to the original manipulator. This option gives the abilty to use
    the edit sphere like people are used to, but takes care of
    accidentally moving or being unable to select the ring or line when
    both translation and rotation manipulators are shown together.
    This should give everyone a wide array of options, for both
    funtionality and personal tastes, to get around any problems with
    selecting the wrong channel with the edit sphere, or optional methods
    for the edit sphere to work similar to other programs with mouse
    button channels. Mouse button channels can only respond if the the
    mouse is clicked inside of the edit sphere area. This is because a
    right mouse button in the world normally brings up the menu.
  20. All parameters should now be copied over when copying/pasting a
    material.
  21. Fixed a crash with some image sequences which occurred when the width
    of the image wasn’t aligned to a 32bit boundry.
  22. Added the maya 8.0 connection plugin
  23. Added a new menu to the messiahmayaXX.mll plugins. There is a new MEL
    script in the main messiah directory named messiah.mel.
    Either copy this over to a search path maya looks for your scripts,
    typically “C:\Documents and Settings(user name)\My Documents\maya\scripts”,
    or add the path to the messiah executable to your maya script PATH.
    Now, when the messiahmaya plugin is initialized, a new ‘messiah’ menu will
    automatically be added to the main maya menu allowing you at add the xformer,
    deformer or bring up the messiah interface. You can also change the scale
    or query the current scale.
#3

Wooah, out of the blue. Thanks guys!:thumbsup::bounce:

#4

Very sweet!! Many thanks. :applause:

#5

Thanks pmg :slight_smile:

#6

Thanks PMG! But:

  1. When using separate manipulation mode, how can we transform on size?

  2. Rigid Collision in Soft Body has not been fixed yet. :frowning:

  3. Connection FROM LW to Messiah works…but connection from Messiah to LW doesn’t (pressing F11 or F12 still crashes LW). And I think that’s what we need more.

#7

WOW. thats some cool stuff! i see they added the input selection with autocomplete! wow, thats cool ahh yeah. No more hunting around for items… man thats such a time saver, no other app has this!

The CTRL + number is added! cool!

Maya connection! great! #$%#$@#$%%$ Hard to express my happiness for that one! I even setup messiah to navigate like maya, somebody slap me.

IS it me or is that force scroll bug gone too? If it really is, then NIIIIIIIICE (not that it matters anymore with the list select tool!)

I have to say, thanks alot pmg for making a connection plugin for maya! Lets see if i can add cloth and hair in there. I am very excited about this release.

There are still little nagging thigns about not being able to operate my camera view like a worldview, but overall this is a huge step in the right direction.

#8

One question, i am messing around with controlling the camera through edit sphere and i found that the camera behaves very nicely when i click the center M/R button. Is there a way to assign a key to that control without having to click on the edit sphere and then the corresponding translation/rotation channels? I see that the current toggle rotation/translation edit sphere button doesnt affect the actual navigation button in the middle…

edit oh wait it does! its just that the middle button doesnt get updated until i start dragging… not a big deal though! this makes positioning the camera sooo much better! (it would be cool if i didnt have to click on the edit sphere to actually initialize the combined rotation/translation mode)

also, i dont know if this is possible but i would love to turn off the visibility of the edit sphere when im looking through an item and manipulating that item. I would love to have a custom set of armatures popup that would allow me to dolly, zoom and pan the view. Currently there is really no benefit from using the constrained move,rotate etc - edit sphere controls because they all seem to work with respect to the world coordinates… making them useless if the item you are looking through is not perfectly aligned with the world… this is really the reason why i had so much trouble trying to position items while looking through them. (although with this update this became a lot easier!)

i found a possible bug: highlight edit sphere channels no longer works if i turn off the combined edit sphere and with mouse channels set to anything other then off.

#9

Go to the customize tab I think there is an option (or try right clicking on the tabs). But I don’t know where exactly and I don’t have Messiah in front of me right now.

#10

Thanks guys! A lot of great fixes. The edit sphere tweaks should please a lot of people.

#11

quick tip:

Set the z button to swap translation manipulator from rotate to translate.
Set the Z button to swap from combined to separate edit sphere (those keys are unassigned by default)

Enable the mouse channels to Left/Right

Now if you look through a camera, you can tap the z button to swap from move to rotate and then you can drag anywhere off the screen to look around in rotate mode and to pan around in translate mode! one problem though is that you have to click inside the edit sphere if you want to initialize the mode before you can drag anywhere in the viewport. Also it seems that the mouse ends up offset from its original position when you finish the rotations. Still this is a much better way to interact with items while looking through them.

Ideally i would love to disable the sphere when looking through item and put up camera control armatures such as dolly, pan, rotate, zoom, etc, maybe this could be done through scripting? (An alternative is having identical interaction as world view manipulations)

#12

Man, that manipulator is even more broken than before. :rolleyes:
I switched to the custom setup where each mouse button controls an axis using separate handles for each manipulation.
I then tried to navigate the camera, but it seems to randomly mix rotation and translation for the mouse buttons?
Also, if I switch between Move and Rotate in the animate Tab, only the center point of the edit sphere switches, the outer handles stay in rotation mode?

Well, maybe next year.

Back to XSI it is for me…

[Shudder]

#13

Wow good job !!

If only Pmg could do a Newsletter about future Messiah upgrade in the forum :wink:

Thanks

Phil

#14

another possible bug, i have a key bound to swap between translate/rotate.

the CTRL key is meant to temporarly jump between these modes too, however if i click my bound key to swap to say rotate and then immediatelly hold CTRL without dragging my mouse first, the navigation style does not change to translate! It seems that i have to initialize it first by dragging on the edit sphere and then my CTRL will resume working as expected…

#15

Also, if I switch between Move and Rotate in the animate Tab, only the center point of the edit sphere switches, the outer handles stay in rotation mode?

hmm. I didn’t see this. But I only briefly look at it, maybe someone can confirm this?

#16

Thanks for yet another free update! (You guys will ruin yourself)

One crash bug found…
-> Start Messiah[2.5]
-> Click on the “Selection List History gadget” (it should be empty)
-> Write Light_1 in the “Selection List text gadget”
-> Now, click again on the “Selection List History gadget” (Crash)

This is also true for the new “Command String History List gadget”, so there is actually two crash bugs here, but obviously with the same little pointer mistake.

/ Svante

#17

hehe. fix things and break others. always happens. I’m sure we’ll see a 2.5b release to fix these little quirks.

has anyone tried the image sequence improvements?

#18

I don’t have any pb with selection list it works perfectly here

Phil

#19

It works good for me to, but if you follow the steps in my list you will get a crash.

/ Svante

#20

Sorry but I have tried 3 times the steps in your list and it works very well without any crash.

Phil