Beginner Tips

#21

how do i draw bone messiah

#22

Opp found it :blush:

It always happens after you post :banghead:

#23

When are you going to bring t4D over to Messiah?

Come on man u can do it…

#24

only got into to it this weekso give me alittle time ,… this is very cool software tho :thumbsup:

I’m sure I’ll get around to doing something in it,:smiley:
Cause i know I’ll be speading alot of time with this UI infront of me :buttrock:

#25

When you have a dual monitor setup like me (one 17" and one 19" flatscreens), then make sure the screen used for displaying messiah is made the primary screen.

EDIT: I noticed that some Pulldown/Popup Lists did not function properly when displaying messiah on the secundary screen.

#26

By default, messiah’s configuration file (messiah4.cfg) is in : C:\Documents and Settings\your profile\Local Settings\Temp\messiah\ .

To place your messiah temp files in a more accessible place, you can add a custom path to the System Environment Variables, with “MESSIAH_TEMP_PATH” as Variable name, and any path you like in the value field.

Then in messiah : right click the File tab, press Save Config, and the config file should appear in the path you specified above.
Make a backup of that file (e.g. messiah4BACKUP.cfg), make changes to messiah’s interface if so desired, again save the config file, and now every time messiah starts again, the custom interface will be loaded.

#27

See attachment :
When adding channels to an expression via the “Add pulldown list” (attachment A) in the Channels Block in Command Mode, you might want to check the checkbox (attachment B) all the way to the right of the “Add pulldown list”, that way the value in the pulldown list gets automatically updated when selecting a bone.

When it’s unchecked, then you have to manually update the “Add pulldown list”.

#28

When mirroring a rig or part of a rig that has IK in it, you might wonder why some bones or nulls not only get mirrored, but also get duplicated in the original hierarchy that you mirrored.

It’s a “feature” that also duplicates the IK goal of any IK driven bone/item when you duplicate it or mirror it.
The same actually goes for muscle bone targets.

It can be useful in some cases, but also confusing.

Just delete the duplicated goals if you don’t need them, and possibly reorient the IK driven objects/muscles to the correct goal.

EDIT: Nulls that are IK-goals get mirrored and Bones that are IK-goals get duplicated when those goals are setup to be goals in the Inverse Kinematics block in Animate Mode. This does not happen when the IK is setup via expressions and the Inverse Kinematics block is not used to specify a Goal, in that case you set the Goal-pulldown to “None”.

Maybe this is not a topic for the beginner tips, but since I am a beginner … :wink: )

#29

This isn’t a tip, but a request for information. Right now I’m using the demo of workstation. I have a free download model of a F5 freedom fighter from Factory Mesh. When the model in opened in messiah the model is 5 times larger then the camera, or grid. The question is how do I load the model at the right size for messiah, or how do I increase the work area to see the model at a resonable size?

I’ve searched the doc’s and they are of little help.

thanks in advance for the help.

jack-jack

#30

You use the bracket keys just like in Lightwave. [ and ]

#31

Wegg, sweet, thanks for the tip.

#32

sorry for really silly question.
does its possible to tweak colors of interface ? and how?

#33

Hi Nemoid, yes is possible change the colors of the interface, there are 3 color schemes but i dn´t know if is possible to create your custom colors.

To change this schemes, right click on the customize tab, select GUI Stile and you can see the predefined schemes :twisted:

TIMNHE

#34

That’s great !thanx for your help.

#35

New users to messiah normally run into a brick wall (myself included… though I’m not ‘new’ to messiah) when attempting to understand the ‘Repeat’ and ‘Time’ parameters found in the Compose Mode/Tab in messiah when working with Clip Instances, and unfortunately, the documentation doesn’t provide much clarity to their use.

In either case, the good folks at pmG have been kind enough to explain and clarify their use, and I thought it’d be a good idea to share this information with others whom are likely to be initially confused by these parameters.

Anyways, here we go…

Repeating Clips in Messiah

There are two ways to repeat a clip instance:

  1. If you RMB-drag on the red corner of the clip instance present in a track, this will cause the clip to repeat. You’ll notice that as you do this, the ‘Repeat’ parameter will increase in value. Note, however, that if instead you chose to enter the value directly into the Repeat parameter, nothing’s going to happen (this is where a lot of users run into trouble). Though you’ll see a visual representation of the repeat points on the clip instance itself, no actual repeating will occur. Therefore, DO NOT mess with the ‘Repeat’ parameter directly, instead, you MUST RMB-drag the clip out for repetition to happen. As a result, the clip itself will be longer, and if you need the repetition to occupy the space of the original clip (before you expanded it), simply LMB-drag (again… LMB-drag!) the red corner of the clip instance and adjust as required.

Thus, RMB-dragging adds repetition to the clip instance, while LMB-dragging simply makes the clip longer (plays slower) or shorter (plays faster) – no repetition will be added. Obviously, for a clip to repeat twice, you must RMB-drag out the clip instance until it reaches a size that is twice of the original, and if three times, then RMB-drag until it reaches a size 3 times the original, etc. Thus if you have a 30-frame clip instance, RMB-drag until you reach 60 frames, etc. And if you need the repetition to occur within the original 30-frame span, simply LMB-drag back down from 60 frames to 30 frames, etc.

  1. The second method uses the ‘Time’ parameter, and it allows you to control repetition over time. The documentation mentions a ‘reverse’ option, but there is no ‘reverse’ option… the ‘Time’ parameter itself works as the reverse option. Use of the ‘Time’ function parameter requires that you create keys over the duration of the clip instance. For example, say that you have a clip instance applied to an object. You then create two keys, one at frame 0, and another one at frame 60. On frame 0 (keyframe 1), you set ‘Time’=0.0, and on frame 60 (keyframe 2) you set ‘Time’=1.0. This means that the clip instance will only play once. If you set the ‘Time’ @ frame 0 (keyframe 1) = 0.0 and ‘Time’ @ frame 60 (keyframe 2) = 2.0, then the clip instance will play twice. All you have to do is think of the Mathematical ‘deltas’ between keys, regardless of frame. So, say, if you have 3 keyframes with Time settings of 0.0, 3.0, 2.0, respectively, their respective deltas are 3 - 0 = 3 (play 3 times), and 2 - 3 = -1 (play once backwards). Thus, a ‘delta’ must exist between ‘Time’ parameters among each consecutive adjacent keyframes for repetition to occur in a forward fashion (positive ‘Time’ delta), or backward fashion (negative ‘Time’ delta).

Use of the ‘Repeat’ parameter by RMB-dragging is the straight forward way of repeating a clip instance since only RMB-dragging is required and no keyframes need be created. However, when repeating a clip by this method, each repetition will be equal in frame-span. Thus, if you want to repeat a 20-frame clip instance 3 times, you’ll end up with a 60-frame clip instance (each repetition spanning 20-frames in size).

With the ‘Time’ parameter, you do not have this restriction, and no RMB-dragging is required, and because you can create keys anywhere within the clip instance, each repetition does not have to be equal in frame size.

So if you have, say a 60-frame clip instance, and create a keys at frames 0, 10, 50, and 60, and have their corresponding 'Time’ parameters for each key set at 0.0, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, the clip will repeat 4 times, but this time, at varying speeds. Frames 0-10 and 50-60 will play at equal, yet faster speed, while frame-rage 10-50 will repeat at a slower pace. Thus, use of the ‘Time’ parameter affords you more flexibility because not only you have control of repetitions, but also time – hence, ‘Time’.

Anyways, I hope this helps the newcomers, and the not so newcomers whom have continued to be confused by their use.

Cheers.

#36

Just found this out and I believe it’s not documented:

Most people know that you can zoom in the viewport by drawing a box using Alt + middle mouse button. But the cool thing is when draw the box, it will zoom out or in depending whether you draw the box from left to right or vice versa:

Alt + Middle Mouse: Draw box left to right: Zoom In
Alt + MIddle Mouse: Draw box right to left: Zoom Out

This is a really quick way to frame in or to zoom out quickly.

#37

Just curious… saw this post… You still intend to port your tools to Messiah?

#38

Just curious… saw this post… You still intend to port your tools to Messiah?

well in Lightwave I build workflow that would build rigs FAST that meant writing a plugin
even then seeing i set a standard of NO third party plugin attach the finished rig i could only go so far.

in messiah you can reuses the same rig over and over and just edit to suit in the rig room
SO for my workflow in Messiah I have afew rigs that i uses and just keep reusing
NOW this doesn’t mean they will be no T4D rigging tool for Messiah
It just means it may turn into T4D Rigging Helpers ( or something :slight_smile: )

Basic Idea is having 2 Human Full muscle bone rigs ( with all Muscles and BONES !! )
( using one Daz character High Polygon, one custom character model Nice sub-D model )
and 2 or 3 toon rigs with all the trimmings & quad dog rig
plus heaps of tutorials video files to explain in detail how to use and edit everything to suit what you may need in your characters.

I’m building This in Messiah and XSI at the moment building workflow around what each package has to offer

This is the sub-D character shown. render is in XSI ( just cause that’s what I’m sitting in front of right now )
But I must add I’m having alot more fun setting this up in messiah
and there will be Displacement maps for the Final Muscle texture layer
and aslider to blend the Skin and the muscle image maps

#39

If you are having problems with text being unreadable in messiah I recommed right clicking on the custom tab and selecting the fixed text option.

#40

After once again stumbling over the do’s and don’ts of using MorphBlender and (ahem) in lieu of it being entered into the documentation, I thought I’d post this scene that I put together.
In it, you can see the effect order and settings necessary to get things plying together…

Thanks to everyone who helped me get this working.