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

#101

Cheers Leebert.

#102

If any on you have an image map associated with Translucency, you’ll need to resave the project file again with 2.5. It seems that with 2.4x, image map renders dark gray. But fiddling with the Transluc Depth fixes it or just resaving the file without fiddling works as well. :slight_smile:

#103

The Translu Depth thing was a response to the “bug” reported with shadows and translucency (as reported here on CGTalk). Previously it was set to a maximum of 6 ray depths as a common threshold to not doing too many ray casts if the amount of light that could reach that distance would have typically gone to black by then. Now there’s a control for it and the default has been upped to 8.

Fred

#104

Thanks for all the info Fred. Its great to see you here.

Chikega- I loved your SSS video. That helped me figure out a few things. I’ve always been a shader guru and love building interesting shaders. I can say that Messiah’s node setup is much more pleasant than others I’ve used.

#105

Group A is waiting for the software update with a button called [click here to do what Group B can do]

All too true Fred, very true. I myself sometimes feel like I’m in that trap, especially after seeing some awesome stuff here on CGTalk.

#106

Quote: Group A is waiting for the software update with a button called [click here to do what Group B can do]

So that button is coming then…right?

Thanks for confirming that.

Best,
Rick

#107

Totally, the fact that you have to call a power user like Taron to fix a problem says a lot. I know Fred and Taron have promised on occasions to do some vids to show people how powerful messiah is but they don’t seem to want to really do them. I can only imagine if you took one week to film Taron running through some videos on various features and his workflow how many problems this would fix and how many new users you would probably obtain. I don’t mean to make it sound like everyone wants to be spoonfed but that it appears you aren’t making good use of such an amazing asset as Taron.

#108

I noticed this tendency right from the beginning. Back when the pilot to seaQuest aired, which I think was in 1753, the LW folks were clamoring for the version of LW that we were using, saying they wanted to do “movie quality” stuff and couldn’t wait till they got their hands on LW3 to do it. The thing is, the beta at that time was just LW2 with the addition of lens flares. And anyway for the first stuff I did I faked the lens flares with spheres. All through SQ the LW crowd would post that they could do cool stuff like us if they had the sofwtware we had, but in all three seasons we never used a plug-in that wasn’t part of LW-- in fact, modeler was the only thing that supported plug-ins at the time anyway-- and in only one (could be two possibly) episode did we even use a compositing program. Literally, the tools we had were LW, DPaint (for textures and screen display animations) and one seat of Photoshop (on a Mac, and it was the slowest thing in the world). Oh yeah, and we had one seat of Alias (whatever the version was in '93) though it was really only used to model one thing, and even so, it was just because that was the software that the animator knew.

Fred

#109

I know there have been many times I would try to do something in messiah and be lost because sometimes the solution was so simple that I would totally miss it. I get so used to doing things in Maya and it being so complex I expect the same out of messiah.

And I hate to beat this same point but I honestly think you would help more users (and get more new users) by a few videos of Taron just screwing around, then a few months of upgrading messiah. There is still so much power in messiah that us normal humans have no idea how to properly utilize. I am constantly shocked how underused the amazing Taron is. Why Fred, why? :shrug:

#110

[removed message because i made mistake hitting the button twice]

#111

You mean you guys didn’t get that taron-spotlight you just shine it in the sky and Taron comes. Or you can just summon him…TARON RISE! GIVE MY CREATION LIIIIIIFE!

#112

That would be great for those of us who do not have access to Taron directly. Also, how about a “Wegg Wand”. You just wave it and Billy appears out of nowhere. :smiley:

#113

I’m pretty much always in #Messiah3D on IRC. Along with lots of other people who know their stuff.

#114

Yeah, I could call the dude too…but I’d rather not bother him. He works like crazy and has a wife too…gotta respect his private life and preserve his sanity.

I agree with My Fault that some Taron videos would be a great catalyst for more messiah creations. I know we’re all willing to throw down some cash for some DVDs/ CDs / Quicktime Downloads…whatever!

Oh, and thank you Fred and the rest of the team for the update!

Peace…

#115

“I’m pretty much always in #Messiah3D on IRC.”

Can anyone suggest an IRC client?

Any recommendations for OSX, as well as XP? I tried before, and couldn’t seem to find any #Messiah3D.

Thanks.

-Garin

#116

For free stuff I can recommend Hydrairc on XP and Colloquy on Mac.

Getting on the Messiah channel is pretty easy. Start up the application and connect to a server called “irc.freenode.net”. Then type “/join #messiah3d”. Done.

#117

Quote:
Originally Posted by numberEleven
[i]“I’m pretty much always in #Messiah3D on IRC.”

Can anyone suggest an IRC client?

Any recommendations for OSX, as well as XP? I tried before, and couldn’t seem to find any #Messiah3D.

Thanks.

-Garin[/i]

For free stuff I can recommend Hydrairc on XP and Colloquy on Mac.

Getting on the Messiah channel is pretty easy. Start up the application and connect to a server called “irc.freenode.net”. Then type “/join #messiah3d”. Done.

Both Opera and Firefox also have a built in chat client. Opera’s is the easiest to setup.

#118

Fred: since you addressed me as one who doesn’t like your view on things:

You are right :slight_smile:

For me it is mostly muddying the water in this context. While this tendency you describe has been there in CG from day one, it is only a small part of a bigger picture.

It was said that for the Final Fantasy movie, they used 1/5th of the budget for the females hair. Around that time I bought Shave and a Haircut for 99$
Sure I still didn’t create a similar movie ;-), but advancing technology has massive effects on what an average user can do.

I sure could still model everything I need in Lightwave (whatever version), but after working in XSI for a while, modeling in LW feels like your “1753”. And XSI 5 makes me even more flexible than XSI 4, now I can render huge images sizes and crazy polyamounts in the billions - for someone else it is maya, modo, max, messiah or LW that makes him/her happy.

I am not the best or most typical audience for messiah anyway, since I am doing less CA and more stills and design, which has different needs, and I am a more technical user for sure (therefore doing my “art” partially in C :slight_smile: ), but your argument for me is in the same league as “It’s not the tool, it’s the artist”. While it contains some truth, it doesn’t reach very far and is also quite muddy:

Why would a good artist work with a bad tool in the first place?

A good artist can do more or better work with a better tool - that I am sure of.

So for me it is most important that the tool “feels” good to the user or artist, doesn’t distract him too much from the actual work and doesn’t throw sticks between his legs too often.

Last not least I find your argumentation odd, because to make the full power of messiah accessible, good user education is mandatory. Finding things by trial and error only gets you so far (especially artists). Like everybody is saying for years: take a month or half a year off from development and concentrate on content, docs and videos. Make that power you suggest is there accessible. Otherwise it is cheap to tell the users that they don’t use the power of messiah as it is anyway.

We sure have different opinions on this whole topic (had them from the start, I remember the discussion about a “Save Scene” shortcut in 1.5 :wink: ), but what interests me most is making tools accessible to people. If someone is or isn’t a good artist is outside the reach of software anyway. But enabling people to find out if they are is the most beautiful thing in the world.

“Art” in this context is quicksilvery to grasp.
Some people like my work, others don’t.
Reading the buyers comments on your sasquatch movie on Amazon provided a good laugh to me, but I haven’t seen it so I can’t comment really.
But it makes no difference: being able to do whatever you personally desire to is the thing that counts.
Making the path there as smooth as possible is the job of a software like messiah IMO.

Best regards,

#119

Well some are a bit too harsh, though that’s to be expected, because we’re used to seeing films with significantly bigger budgets, where there’s the time (money) to get things right. However, the film isn’t great and I don’t brag about it. (For some reason, the people who like the film send emails, and the ones who don’t post on Amazon or IMDB.) And it’s on Sci-Fi again in the US on October 27th. :slight_smile:

But it makes no difference: being able to do whatever you personally desire to is the thing that counts.
Making the path there as smooth as possible is the job of a software like messiah IMO.
Yes, I agree. But it will always be a work-in-progress-- just like with all other software 3D or not. Even word processing programs continue to grow. So if you wait for every little feature and workflow improvement you want, you’ll never do anything. The guys at DNA made an entire feature film with messiah back in 2000. Was it 100% smooth-going? No, they encountered some problems and we helped them through it. But a) there would have been problems here or there no matter what software they used, and b) if they waited for every little thing they wanted, they’d have never made the film and never gotten the Oscar nomination.

There has to come a time when you say “I’ll work around that, I want to get this done” or else you’re just waiting… and waiting… and waiting (no matter what the software is).

#120

Shane I was making a joke, bro! Easy. You guys can always email him and ask him things. He’s part of PMG, he’ll help you in anyway he can. It never hurts to ask, he’s part of the community too.

I think PMG needs to get a marketing company and a PR person so they can better learn how to sell their software. It doesn’t matter how good of a product you have if no one knows about or knows how it works. When you look at most companies out there they have money and spend lots of it marketing their software. Those companies know how to sell their software regardless of how much better or worse their software is compared to Messiah.

Its the responsibility of PMG to
a) inform users what’s already under the hood b) create a forum similar to the AREA, Zbrush Central, Luxology forums where users have the freedom to share their creativity c)what’s coming out in future versions.