Can Messiah Studio still be bought (and is it still worth it) ?

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TheLexx

Well-known member
The Messiah website has been back up for some months now - strange since it previously seemed like the end so comprehensively. I read elsewhere that user accounts are apparently still active. Can anyone confirm that ?

Does anyone know if Messiah can still be bought ? What does it consist of - a dongle to use with downloaded software, or is some other process like activation involved ? Finally, are any of you 'Wavers still using it and is it still as awesome as it was supposed to be "back in the day" ?

:)
 
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3dbr

3dbr

Member
This is the last film https://youtu.be/yRjs52uReN0 that I've done in Messiah + LW. Next will be only in LW. Hard without support...
Although still believe the Messiah is the best program for animation.

Activation of the arrival of е-mail.
When the Forum was, attempts to buy, but were unsuccessful. Refund was.
Now about attempts by unknown.
*sorry my english
 
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Shloime

Shloime

Intermediate User
Hi,
Activation was by some key file, which had to be on a flashdrive, which served as a dongle. At some point they switched to a yearly payment model, but for some time they didn't charge any money any more.
I do have it installed and functional, but honestly never really used it, although it looks promising for character anims.
 
raymondtrace

raymondtrace

Founding member
Messiah is still a great tool.

From what I understand from the complete lack of development in recent years, the subscription method is only a sales gimmick. There has probably been no change to how licensing operates within the program. So you could buy a subscription to get the software & license, and then immediately cancel the subscription. I would encourage maintaining a subscription only if pmG demonstrated any real interest in maintaining this tool (hint: it does not).

The software licenses to the volume serial (volume ID) of the drive it is installed to. Recognizing that the web site & support may vanish and you may not be able to update the license with a future hard drive upgrade, your best bet is to install it to a USB portable drive. While the portable USB drive is still healthy, copy the serial number (volume ID) and store it with your Messiah program backups. When you need to move to a new portable USB drive, there are utilities that can assign the old serial number (volume ID) to the new drive.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/volumeid

(you could still update an internal hard drive's serial number but it might conflict with other software that relies on this unique identifier.)

EDIT: If you're a Mac/Linux user, don't bother. Messiah is a Windows app that only runs elsewhere (poorly) via Wine.
 
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Shloime

Shloime

Intermediate User
Update: They just charged me again 40.- $, so they are still alive enough to spend my money.
 
T

TheLexx

Well-known member
raymondtrace said:
What updates have you received as a subscriber? If none, why do you keep giving money?
Click to expand...
In your opinion, would Messiah automatically issue a license after one subscription payment ? For example, the tutorial site Cmivfx still allows the purchase of tutorials yet gives out no products in return, simply swallowing the money.
 
hrgiger

hrgiger

I'm my Clone
the subscription you buy with the $40 is auto renewed. So unless you turn it off, it will keep charging you every year. They got me once. Once.
 
raymondtrace

raymondtrace

Founding member
TheLexx said:
In your opinion, would Messiah automatically issue a license after one subscription payment ? For example, the tutorial site Cmivfx still allows the purchase of tutorials yet gives out no products in return, simply swallowing the money.
Click to expand...

hrgiger & fishhead can affirm the process. The software should still work for them, even though they stopped paying.

Even though the developer was never communicative and appears to have given up maintenance, Messiah is still a good value for $65. The only caution I offer is to back up the hard drive's volume ID so that you can ensure perpetual licensing after drive replacements. I would not trust projectmessiah.com to persist to offer license updates after hard drive upgrades.

Even if you attempt to purchase a license now...only to discover their web site is abandoned and they fail to deliver a license, you can still get a refund from Paypal. If I didn't already have a license, I would certainly try it now.
 
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T

TheLexx

Well-known member
3dbr said:
This is the last film https://youtu.be/yRjs52uReN0 that I've done in Messiah + LW. Next will be only in LW. Hard without support...
Although still believe the Messiah is the best program for animation.

Activation of the arrival of е-mail.
When the Forum was, attempts to buy, but were unsuccessful. Refund was.
Now about attempts by unknown.
*sorry my english
Click to expand...

A very good effort 3dbr, well done, and thank you for trying hard to explain everything to me when English is not your first language. Greetings to Donbass ! :)
 
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T

TheLexx

Well-known member
I can now confirm Messiah is indeed still available to buy - or at least I managed to get one anyway. It seemed a bit of a process compared to my usual experiences, but I now have the 32-bit Messiah Studio 6 Pro all licensed and working on a USB stick. I am really happy and tomorrow will try to get the 64-bit version up to speed. Thank you raymondtrace and everyone else here who posted. :)
 
calilifestyle

calilifestyle

Active member
TheLexx said:
I can now confirm Messiah is indeed still available to buy - or at least I managed to get one anyway. It seemed a bit of a process compared to my usual experiences, but I now have the 32-bit Messiah Studio 6 Pro all licensed and working on a USB stick. I am really happy and tomorrow will try to get the 64-bit version up to speed. Thank you raymondtrace and everyone else here who posted. :)
Click to expand...

you where able to get a key . Man i can't get them to reset mine for over 2 months
 
T

TheLexx

Well-known member
calilifestyle said:
you where able to get a key . Man i can't get them to reset mine for over 2 months
Click to expand...
As you can guess from this thread I am no expert at all, but when you say "reset" it implies they gave you a license in the first place, in which case you are a legitimate user, so would not the trick suggested by raymondtrace about volume IDs work for you ? :)
 
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raymondtrace

raymondtrace

Founding member
TheLexx said:
I can now confirm Messiah is indeed still available to buy - or at least I managed to get one anyway...
Click to expand...

Like LW, there are plugins for Messiah. And just like LW, you may need to go to archive.org to recover them from shuttered websites.

https://web.archive.org/web/20131207234537/http://zoogono.com/plugins.cfm

Setuptab.com was a good resource and you can still see forum discussion through archive.org. However, the video training on setuptab.com was not archived.

You can still find some video training on the YouTubes.
 
Qexit

Qexit

Well-known member
My copy of Project Messiah Pro6 is installed on a USB Flash Drive...which appears to still be working fine. However, if all else fails I do have a fallback option :D

Project Messiah Backup 01.jpg

and yes that is a Shave and A Haircut dongle sat alongside my old P:M CD and original USB dongle. Not so easy to get Shave back up and working though as my current PC does not possess a parallel port.
 
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The Dommo

The Dommo

Globally Illuminated
Boris Goreta uses Messiah still for every animation project, and he's running latest LW and Octane etc. No problems for him. His work is awesome.
 
T

TheLexx

Well-known member
Can't hide my jealousy Qexit. :D Do you have a view on Shave and haircut compared to Sasquatch or FiberFX ?

I get the distinct impression that Messiah is a tiny operation and they may have suffered a bit of a blow with their plans beyond that famous email, ie they were telling the truth at the time but something went wrong. Then they got wise to people cancelling subscriptions in response. Long story short, my speculation is they will not, or are unable to, answer any queries, but when some cash rolls their way the system crackles into life for a couple of minutes and someone presses a few buttons, then goes back to sleep again. If that is true, then it is easily worth buying another license even if there was a previous one - like if I lose the license I just bought, there would be no way I would particularly expect to see it again. Just a speculation though. Incidentally, I never cancelled the subscription (yet) as I found it totally amazing that the "deadware" is in fact still breathing and even the full price of $399 seemed reasonable.
 
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