As far as I’m aware this exports to FBX and should therefore work with Unity (admittedly I don’t know how well).
Pretty much an “awesome” price for what is being made available.
http://projectmessiah.com/x6/shop.html
Messiah animation system is based on vertex animation rather than bones, which is its strength for film/tv, but not really games.
It’s come a long way from the plugin for Lightwave all those years ago.
There have always been bones, but previously there was no weight painting. They added weighted vertices in the 4.0 version, as well as FBX export. All objects in Messiah are polygon objects imported from other packages, so that shouldn’t be an issue.
I’m currently using Messiah Studio on a Unity project. I’m actually just getting into the animation stuff right now. I haven’t done many tests, but it does seem to import into Unity okay. I think it bakes the animation though. I agree that Messiah is better suited for film/tv work, though it can work with Unity.
Either way, that sale is a crazy good deal right now! 
It’s always had bones, but you’re losing a lot of the functionality it offers - vertex/point animation. The MDD format is nice for exporting animation to any renderer, without having to worry about how each application implements bones/weights, etc. It just sucks for games.
It would be my 2nd favourite character animation tool after Motion Builder, for sheer ease of use. 
My question is, Is it worth getting?
Absolutely worth every penny at that price. I can’t wait to try it out with Unity!
Anyone have any experience with this program? The price seems great, but it also seems like hype. What can this program do that Blender can’t for instance?
The rigging tools are far more robust. You can get a good quick preview of how your model will deform, without doing any weight painting, that works substantially better than Blender’s auto weighting from bone heat. It offers a nice system for writing simple expressions for animation/deformation, that you could theoretically done in Blender with Python, but it’s simpler to accomplish in Messiah because it’s better integrated into the interface. It’s also bundled with an “autorigger” that’s pretty top notch if you want to get a biped animating quickly, something Blender doesn’t really have in a concise form, although the riggify scripts in Blender certainly help.
Those are just some of the things that pertain to game development.
In addition, if you envision having to render things out (for making sprite sheets, or for making pre done cut scenes or promotional videos), the rendering engine is fully featured, very fast (based on Arnold), and leaps and bounds ahead of blender in quality, speed, and functionality.
What it does NOT offer that blender has is modeling tools and it has no texture painting abilities (although it does have nodal shaders and can import textures). It’s purely for animation and rendering including dynamics for cloth, rigid bodies, and hair/fur.
I haven’t tried Blender’s animation tools, so I can’t really make a good comparison. I have owned Messiah for about a year and half now though. It would be too long a list to write up all of the nice features it has. Just check out the website for a specific feature list. Suffice it to say, it has a very robust set of deformation/animation tools. It really is designed by animators for animators.
One of the things that sets it apart from other animation packages is the Setup tab. The Setup tab is where you specifically work on the rig. Having rigging separate from animation allows you to make alterations to a rig without destroying any animation already created. So if you’ve started animating and decide the rig isn’t working as good as you’d like, you can go to the Setup tab and add/adjust IK handles, weighting, etc. It won’t destroy your animation (unless you delete a bone that has animation on it I guess).
The rigging is just incredibly powerful IMO, especially combined with expressions. You can create some really amazingly intuitive rigs to work with. Marek Schneider’s TD demo reel shows off some really impressive Messiah rigs.
Messiah does have some quirks. For instance, I hate the default navigation. That can be adjusted to personal taste though. I think some of the interface could be more intuitive as well. It really is a powerful character animation package though. The only real hype is the retail price. I’ve never seen them actually sell it for $499 basic and $1195 pro. It’s always on a perpetual sale for $399 basic and $599 pro. Though the $10 and $40 respectively is still a CRAZY good deal. Even if it only did rendering it would be worth more than the $40.
As mentioned before, the tools are really stronger for film/tv work. For anyone planning on doing stuff like that, they would have to be nuts to miss out on this deal. While it’s not perfectly suited for game development, I personally still think it’s a great deal at this price. Even if only used for creating marketing material for games.
Exports via FBX to Maya/LW to Unity 100% perfect.
this game in the Apple App Store was animated in messiah:studio:
…JUST BUY IT OK??? IT’S 10 BUX!! I want it to reach the goal so I can play with it!! :-p haha
While I already have Maya, I couldn’t pass this deal up.
$40 is a good price even if I never end up using it professionally.
For the price, you might as well just get it…
I ordered the pro version. I am hoping I can get it to work with the kinect to BVH converter and use it with kinect as a motion capture tool
Hey, if you manage to use kinect as a motion capture tool let me know, perfect excuse for me to invest in an xbox! XD
seriously o_o my mail: dogzerx@hotmail.com
I would like to buy a Pro license.
Do you think that I have to buy two licenses if I want to use it under both Windows and Linux?
Linux doesn’t appear on the Downloads Full Versions For Paid Customers page, but the “Dare to Share” page lists a Linux/wine version.
From what I understand, the linux version actually is the windows version. Am I right?
Yes, you would need to buy both a Windows and Linux version if you want to run it on both systems. Both the Mac and Linux versions are just the Windows version using WINE as a wrapper to run on those systems.
Wouldn’t it be possible to buy a Windows license and access it in linux through Wine?
I’m planning to use it on both Linux and Windows on 1 pc only (dual boot).
It’s just that I don’t know wich will be my primary development os yet (sadly Unity is windows/mac only) so I would like to buy one license instead of 2 if I could.
I’ll probably post something in the showcase forum once I get everything ready… I need a bigger workspace for the kinect to work properly.