Messiah (software)

Messiah

Developer(s)	pmG Worldwide, LLC
Stable release	4.0 / 16 April 2009
Operating system	Windows (2000, XP 32bit/64bit or Vista 32bit/64bit)
Type	3D computer graphics
License	Proprietary
Website	www.projectmessiah.com

Messiah (also known as messiah:studio) is an award-winning 3D animation and rendering application developed by pmG Worldwide. It runs on the Win32 and Win64 platforms. Messiah is in its fourth version, as messiah:studio (as of April 2009) and version 5.5b as messiah:animate (as of November 2006).

Early history and releases

Messiah was developed as a commercial plugin for Lightwave 5.5 to 7.5, by principal programmers Fori Owurowa, Dan Milling and Lyle Milton. It was marketed as offering a superior toolset for creating animations than was provided natively by Lightwave. In 2000, pmG released messiah:animate; a stand-alone application that provided animators with an advanced rigging and animation toolset geared towards the animation of complex organic characters and shapes. This new package offered an Animation Host Connection which allowed users to transfer animation data into a variety of packages including Cinema4D, Lightwave, 3D Studio Max and Maya.

In 2001, pmG announced messiah:studio, a stand-alone package comprising messiah:animate and messiah:render, boasting numerous animation enhancements coupled with an all new render engine. Previously, messiah:studio stored license information on a HASP hardware dongle, but now stores license information on a USB stick.

Core features

Interface

• Speed - Messiah has openGL playback and real-time previewing of fully subdivided models, particle systems and dynamics objects.^[1][2]
• Flexibility - Messiah offers modular interoperability with many major packages, allowing users to make animation modifications in either messiah:studio or a host program and see instant feedback and updates in the other package.^[3]

Animation

Messiah:studio offers a realtime full motion and deformation-based character animation toolset. Features include:

Setup

Messiah's setup mode allows for non-destructive animated character modifications. This means a character's rigging setup can be edited even after it has been fully animated.

Skeleton and deformation

Creating bones is a "point and click" operation and the bones can be modified interactively. Weighting eliminating the need for direct weighting.^[4] Muscle Bones are possible in Messiah with a single click, providing squash and stretch on arms, legs, bodies, tails and tentacles.

Hierarchical expressions

Messiah offers a mathematical expression system.^[5] Messiah's expressions system allow automation of existing animation, control over morphs, dynamic parenting and more.

Armatures

Messiah's Armature system provides a visual method for creating character and program control. Armatures can be used for anything from stick figure animation and facial animation controls, to character selection sheets and command interfaces.

Animate immediate

Messiah's Animate Immediate mode allows feedback and manipulation during object selection and transformation by combining individual mouse clicks for selection and then movement into one fluid motion.

Rendering

Messiah:studio includes messiah:render, a hybrid scanline/raytracing render engine. Messiah also allows for the output of .rib files for use with RenderMan and offers network rendering via the ButterflyNetRender(BNR). Features of messiah render include:

• Nodal-based shader editor system for applying shaders and texture maps to models. Animation control of parameters is available through messiah's expression system.
• Multithreaded 64 bit rendering, supporting multiple core processors.
• Subpoly displacement, allowing for high detail displacement mapping of models using data from programs such as Zbrush. With field weighting tools, displacement effects can be animated.
• Particle rendering
• Subsurface scattering, for skin and fluid effects.
• Global illumination, using Monte Carlo, Photon and hybrid systems.
• HDRI lighting
• Translucency
• Per-surface light exclusion
• Light materials, making it possible for models to be used for diffusion and emission of light
• Soft shadows, with full control of samples.
• Area lights
• Volumetric lighting
• Shadow mapping
• Caustics

Import and export

Whilst messiah:studio offers no native modelling tools it is capable of exporting and importing many common 3d filetypes, such as .3ds, .lwo, and .obj. Messiah can import and export motion capture, via .bvh files, and can transfer datasets using the host API suite. It also provides native support for .mdd files, for use with the Point Oven program.

On 17 April 2008, pmG released the source code and SDK for the Host Connections plugins, so that users could update and adapt the connections software and plugin files for external programs.^[6]

Awards

• Seal of Excellence - Animation Magazine
• Innovation Award - Computer Graphics World
• Golden Pixie Award - Animation Magazine
• Front Line Award (Finalist) - Game Developer Magazine
• Technology Top 15 - Animation Magazine
• Best of Siggraph - Animation Magazine
• Wired for 3D Editor's Choice

Awards for others using Messiah software

• The Jury Honors Award at Siggraph - Fallen Art
• Best Short Film at International Festival - Fallen Art
• Academy Award Nomination - The Triplets of Belleville
• Academy Award Nomination - Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
• Best Animation Gold - Axis Animation and Disney (Toy Story promo package)
• The Jury Honors Award at Siggraph - F8 (Jason Wren short film)

Uses

Films

Messiah has been used for character animation and the creation of VFX shots in feature films and shorts, including the following:

• Ghost Rider
• Harry Potter
• Hellboy
• Into the Deep
• Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
• Syriana
• The Triplets of Belleville
• X-Men
• Zambezia

Television

Messiah has been used in television productions, including The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Robbie the Reindeer, Andy's Airplanes and the upcoming Plankton Invasion, as well as commercials.

References

1. ^ "...astonished by its speed, simplicity and possibilities", 2007-06-04
2. ^ "The program features the world's fastest inverse kinematics (IK), bones and expressions, easy character setup, real-time interactive animation", 2001-02-01
3. ^ "With both packages open at the same time, the user will be able to change parameters in both messiah and Maya utilizing the strengths of both packages at the same time. A novel and modular approach.", 2001-02-01
4. ^ "In some 3D programs, a time-consuming aspect of rigging a character is adjusting influence envelopes so each bone affects only the mesh vertices you want it to. But with m:a, it's pretty much automatic.", retrieved 2008-20-09
5. ^ "Among the features of messiah:animate are simplified character animation, soft-body dynamics to create soft objects, cloth simulation, object collision and mathematical expressions", 2001-02-01
6. ^ "These sources are provided so that people who know how to compile for the various plugin SDKs, and have the latest versions, can maintain or even improve current connection DLLs for others, or plug messiah into an in-house proprietary system." 2008-17-04

External links

• Official pmG Messiah website
• Setuptab Official messiah:studio forums
• CG Society messiah:studio forum
• Zoogono Messiah news resource
• Useful Slug, plug-ins, tutorials and free downloads.