Help with animating a simple character...

[bluedeviltron]

Hi, I'm a total n00b when it comes to animation, and I'm hoping Moho will let me develop my skills. I make short films now, but I really want to get into cartoon animation. Anyway, here's my question:

I'm trying to play around with using bones to animate a simple character. I've drawn the character as simple as you can get it. Body, head, arms, legs. In the tuturial it shows all of the animated kid's body parts separated, with the bones in the correct places. But when I try to move a body part after I put a bone on it, the bone just stays in the same place.
I guess what I want to know is, how would I go about setting up a bone structure on a simple character? I just want to make him walk across the screen and wave or something.

Also, how exactly am I supposed to draw in this program if there's no eraser? Am I missing something? Why can I only draw with the point tool, because everything I draw ends up looking circular. Is there any way to turn that setting off and just draw normally (like in Flash or Photoshop)?

Thanks for any help guys.

[mr. blaaa]

I DO THIS FOR FREE... JUST IGNORE IT.

[F.M.]

Checkout Steve Ryans' tutorials by way of Lost Marble links. HTH

[bluedeviltron]

Hey, thanks mr. blaaa. I'm pretty sure I know how to attack and assign the bones, but how exactly would I use a bone setup in a character that is broken apart (arms, legs, etc...). Because the bones just stay in the same place when I move the arms and legs.

And F.M., I looked around for the tutorials but I couldn't find them. Can you give me a link? And does anyone else know of any character animation tutorials?

[myles]

Because the bones just stay in the same place when I move the arms and legs.

I'm a little confused by your description - could you be a little more explicit?

when I move the arms and legs

How are you moving the arms and legs - the Manipulate Bone tool or the Rotate Bone tool? Are you moving them using the bones or are you moving the vector shapes or layers directly (which defeats the purpose of using bones)? Do you have the bone layer selected in the Layers panel when you move the bones or do you still have the vector layer (controlled by the bones) selected?

the bones just stay in the same place

Are the bones even rotating? If not, how are the arms and legs moving?

If you have the vector layer selected, the bones will still be visible, and you can "test move" them on frame 0 with the Manipulate Bones tool, but the Offset Bones tool will not be active until you select the bones layer in the Layers panel.

The Offset Bone tool you use to put the separated limbs together (as in the last step of Tutorial 3.4) is only available on frame 0 (the "setup" frame), and you must have the bone layer selected.

Also, how exactly am I supposed to draw in this program if there's no eraser? Am I missing something? Why can I only draw with the point tool, because everything I draw ends up looking circular. Is there any way to turn that setting off and just draw normally (like in Flash or Photoshop)?

You can use the Freehand tool, but you have to understand that with Moho you're now working in a vector/spline world, not a paint/pixel world. From the (very) little I know of Flash, it's like Flash's pen(pencil?) tool, not like the brush tool. It's like Illustrator (or any other similar vector/spline/drawing/illustration program) rather than Photoshop (or any other similar paint/pixel/raster/image manipulation program). Erasers don't work in a vector/spline world.

Imagine a rubber band (possibly called an elastic band if you're American), with pins pushed through it. You can only manipulate the pins, although you can cut the rubber band at the points where the pins go through it, add pins, and remove pins. You can't "erase" some of the rubber band (although with Moho 5 you can turn a section between pins invisible).
However, unlike a drawing on paper (Photoshop), in Moho you can move the pins to animate the rubber band (unlike ink-and-paint animation programs where you do the equivalent of the traditional painting each and every frame).
For Moho shape fills (and, in disguise, Flash's brush tool), imagine dipping your arrangement of rubber bands in soapy water - the fills are the bubbles stretched between the strands of the rubber bands.
Oh, and the rubber bands are invisible until you give them a colour (in Moho-speak, a shape outline).

(To take out some of the curve, change the "stiffness" of the rubber band at the point it passes through a pin - check out the Peak and Curvature tools - draw a rectangle, select just one or two corner points (pins), and play with the Peak, Smooth, and Curvature tools).

Regards, Myles.

[bluedeviltron]

Thanks Myles. After going through some of the tutorials again, I think I'm starting to get it. The tutorial says that the easiest way to create a character is to split the character up into body pars, and put each body part on a separate layer. OK, so say I put them all on a separate layer. This is at frame zero. I understand how to set the bones up on each body part, and the parent child relationship between them. Then in the tutorial it says to use the "offset bones" tool. This is the part I don't understand. What exactly am I doing when I offset the bones? And why is it that in the tutorial's file (the character setup tutorial), all of the body parts stick together (when it's not in frame zero) perfectly? When I manipulate the bones, the body parts stay in the same form on the body. For example, when I try to move the leg away from the body, it's as if the hip is actually attached to the lower torso of the body, and I can only move the leg around, but not away from the torso. In the tutorial, I don't think it explains how exactly it's perfectly attached to that point. Does that have something to do with offsetting the bones?

[F.M.]

From the Lost Marble Homepage: under resources you will find Links: in the Links page you can click to go to either Myles or steve. Their tutorials and tips are a great way to get up to speed with Moho.

[myles]

Then in the tutorial it says to use the "offset bones" tool. This is the part I don't understand. What exactly am I doing when I offset the bones? And why is it that in the tutorial's file (the character setup tutorial), all of the body parts stick together (when it's not in frame zero) perfectly?

The Offset Bones tool can be thought of as a special setup-only variation of the Translate Bones tool.
It only works on frame 0, and is designed to "stick" body parts together correctly for the rest of the animation.

When you set up your body parts separately (don't forget to change to Region binding and to adjust Bone Strength), let's say a leg with bones, the bones only influence the isolated limb. If you set up your character all in one place (like drawing a character on paper) the leg bones would possibly influence other nearby or overlapping anatomy such as the other leg, possibly the nearest hand, and maybe part of the torso.

Once you've got each body part working correctly, you need to stick them together into one complete puppet/mannequin, so that you aren't constantly moving body parts around for the rest of the animation, but can just bend parts naturally at the joints.
It is important to have the bone hierarchy correct for this to work correctly for puppet-like animation in later frames.

Sticking the parts together as one complete character is the job of the Offset Bones tool (think of it as a "parts assembler" tool), and the last step of your character set-up.
If your setup is okay this far, you just grab the thigh bone with the Offset Bone tool, and move the entire leg (thigh, shin, and foot bone, plus vector geometry) into place at the bottom of the torso (and thereby "offsetting" the bone from its original setup position).
Likewise for all other body parts.

If you have made a mistake and need to change an individual limb, changing back to another tool (not Offset Bone) should show the pieces in their separated state again, while choosing the Offset Bone tool should once again show the character joined.

Bones stuck together with the Offset Bone tool, unlike the Translate Bone tool, will not influence nearby anatomy. This is what sets the Offset Bone tool apart from the Translate Bone tool (oh, and on frame 0 the Offset Bone tool also drags its associated vector geometry with it - the Translate Bone tool doesn't do this on frame 0, only on non-0 frames).

Then, in later non-0 frames, you animate the bones only with the Rotate Bone tool (forward kinematics rotation) and Manipulate Bone tool (inverse kinematics rotation), bending the limbs naturally at their joints (translate shouldn't be necessary for the limbs unless your character gets cut/pulled/broken into pieces, although you might still use translate on the uppermost patriarch bone to move the entire character).

When I manipulate the bones, the body parts stay in the same form on the body. For example, when I try to move the leg away from the body, it's as if the hip is actually attached to the lower torso of the body, and I can only move the leg around, but not away from the torso. In the tutorial, I don't think it explains how exactly it's perfectly attached to that point. Does that have something to do with offsetting the bones?

Unless you are using the Translate Bone tool (or the Offset Bone tool on frame 0), bones should stay in place, only rotating at their base.
No other tools, apart from Offset Bone and Translate Bone, have "translate" capabilities.
Of course, if a bone is the "child" of a "parent" bone, it also "inherits" the parent's rotation, centered around the parent's base point.

This is the whole point of inverse kinematic bone chains and hierarchies.
This is more the result of the bone hierarchy (visually represented when you use the Reparent Bone tool), than the Offset Bone tool.

If your character is a toy and gets hit with a large hammer, you could (in non-0 frames) use the Translate Bone tool to move the limb bones (and attached vector anatomy) away from the body as your toy breaks into pieces, but in most animation you want the bones to stay anchored in place and just rotate at their base point (the joints of the limbs), by using the Rotate Bone tool and Manipulate Bone tool (IK rotation).

Regards, Myles.

[bluedeviltron]

Wow. Thanks Myles. You must be a master at this program. Why aren't you the one writing the tuturials for Moho? You seem to explain everything a lot better than the tutorials included.

Thanks again man.