Point Animation Workflow

[JoelMayer]

So, i recently got back into Moho after using Toon Boom for the last few projects and i wanted to try to go the old school Greykid/Itch way of the good old Moho 5 days and instead of doing these elaborate rigs, do more simple puppets and really rely a lot on point animation (shoving vector points around).

I'm not sure if i'm missing something but obviously i have quite a few layers and i basically draw out my keys first and then roughly pose the puppet using my drawings as a guide (i have a frame by frame background). After that i want to go in to adjust vectors and modeling my character a bit more. But this is just super clunky i find. First of all, the Consolidating Layer option doesn't consolidate the vector layers it seems so if i want to retime something i basically have to go through the whole thing and activate every vector layer on the timeline.

Is there an easy way to just show consolidate EVERY layer that has animation on it into one simple thing so i can adjust easings etc. for it together?

Again, i might do it wrong. I also like to pose out my stuff in Step mode and then gradually add interpolation and maybe use the motion graph editor for that but it seems i would have to go through EVERY layer separately where i have animation and do the adjustments. Is this true or, again, am i missing something? I find this makes it really cumbersome to edit anything or quickly retime stuff or setting interpolations on two's etc. because i have to do the whole thing for several layers. I know i can make the layers show up on the timeline permanently by checking the little watch symbol in the layer view, but it the timeline grows ridiculously long that way and it's pretty cumbersome scrolling 2 miles to find the right layer to make an adjustment.

Does anyone have any tips for this kind of workflow? I think Victor recently mentioned that they prefer doing simple puppets at Cartoon Saloon as well and relying a lot on point animation. In my mind, from what i've seen so far, this has always given the coolest results and the closest to a certain traditional look.

Thanks for your input!

[synthsin75]

First of all, the Consolidating Layer option doesn't consolidate the vector layers it seems so if i want to retime something i basically have to go through the whole thing and activate every vector layer on the timeline.

Is there an easy way to just show consolidate EVERY layer that has animation on it into one simple thing so i can adjust easings etc. for it together?

The fastest way would be to consolidate all layers from the menu Animate>Consolidate Layer Channels, and shift/ctrl-select all the layers. This will show all, consolidated, on the timeline without having to set each one to show. Very good for just retiming keyframes.

Again, i might do it wrong. I also like to pose out my stuff in Step mode and then gradually add interpolation and maybe use the motion graph editor for that but it seems i would have to go through EVERY layer separately where i have animation and do the adjustments. Is this true or, again, am i missing something?

Yeah, you can only edit one layer at a time on the motion graph.

I find this makes it really cumbersome to edit anything or quickly retime stuff or setting interpolations on two's etc. because i have to do the whole thing for several layers.

You can select all the keyframes and set the interpolation interval to 2's (or anything else) all in one go.

I know i can make the layers show up on the timeline permanently by checking the little watch symbol in the layer view, but it the timeline grows ridiculously long that way and it's pretty cumbersome scrolling 2 miles to find the right layer to make an adjustment.

Animation>Consolidate Layer Channels might help with that a bit. Otherwise, don't set timeline visibility permanently and just shift or control select the needed layers.

[JoelMayer]

Thanks for your swift reply.

When i want to select layers in the layer Window with Shift, it still only shows me the last selected layer in the timeline since that is the active one. Is there a way to shift select layers and have it really show ALL the layers that i selected in the timeline? Thanks!

[synthsin75]

When i want to select layers in the layer Window with Shift, it still only shows me the last selected layer in the timeline since that is the active one. Is there a way to shift select layers and have it really show ALL the layers that i selected in the timeline? Thanks!

That doesn't work if you have any layers set to permanently show in the timeline. Then it just shows the permanent and last selected layers.

[JoelMayer]

When i want to select layers in the layer Window with Shift, it still only shows me the last selected layer in the timeline since that is the active one. Is there a way to shift select layers and have it really show ALL the layers that i selected in the timeline? Thanks!

That doesn't work if you have any layers set to permanently show in the timeline. Then it just shows the permanent and last selected layers.

Aaaaah! Nooow i get it Thank you so much, works now One last question: What do these yellow keyframes in the timeline mean when i have a consolidated channel? Seems when i drag one of those keys then it also drags all the others from other layers...

[JoelMayer]

Ah i found out that the yellow ones are my markers... but it still drags all the keys around when consolidating the layers... that's weird...

[synthsin75]

Probably won't solve all your woes, but glad I could help.

[Daxel]

But this is just super clunky i find.

Yep that aspect could be improved but with Wes advices and a few scripts it's mostly fine.

I would recomend you this script from A.Evseeva to help you on the retiming, moving arround, copy pasting and a few other cool things:
https://mohoscripts.com/script/ae_keytools

And this other one by davoodice2 that is a tween machine, pretty useful to help you to rely less on the motion graph editor and to make over reachs, anticipation frames, overlaping actions (creating keyframes just for selected layers and then for other layers at a different frame) and apply few other animation principles with ease (Lukas also has a cool version):
https://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewto ... 13#p199370

Have fun!