Smart bone dial - takes me back to mainline when going in to vector layer

[Mattyj]

Hey,

Ive had this issue where I will create a smart bone dial for an action, say a smile, but after going into the blue smart bone action timeline, dragging out to frame 100 (time period of my action) and go to change the image (e.g. go into mouth layer to change vector points to a smile) for some reason I get taken back into the mainline.

I think it may be because my mouth layer is in a group layer called "head", as when I go into the neck layer which is outside the head group but in the bone layer, it stays in the blue timeline.

Any idea what could be going on?

[Daxel]

When you create any kind of action, not only a smart action, Moho creates this action for that layer and the layers inside it, but not for the layers at the same level, and not for its parents. So when you are editing the action and click on a layer that doesn't have this action, Moho takes you back to the main timeline.

You only need to create the action in a higher level layer, one that has all the layers that you intend to animate inside it.

[Mattyj]

Cheers Daxel I figured out what it was. I had layer bound my head group to a bone for whole head movements, and therefore that must have conflicted with the smart bone dial bone for movements withthin the head group such as smile and blink.

Do you know of a way to rig up a head so that one bone controls the entire group, but smart bone dials can be created for specific movements of parts within the head group?

[Daxel]

Cheers Daxel I figured out what it was. I had layer bound my head group to a bone for whole head movements, and therefore that must have conflicted with the smart bone dial bone for movements withthin the head group such as smile and blink.

Do you know of a way to rig up a head so that one bone controls the entire group, but smart bone dials can be created for specific movements of parts within the head group?

If I understood correctly, you can avoid layer binding the group but layer bind each of the drawings inside it instead.

[Mattyj]

Got it sweet good idea ill try it ty

[Daxel]

Got it sweet good idea ill try it ty

But I am testing it and you shouldn't get directed to the main timeline for selecting a layer inside a layer binded group. That only seem to happen when the selected layer doesn't have the selected action (usually because it is outside of the bone layer). In your case, because the group is layer binded, you should get a red timeline (normal actions color) when you try to access a layer inside that binded group, instead of the expected blue timeline (smartactions color), but not the main timeline (the grey one).

[Greenlaw]

I'm not sure I follow what's going on. Can you post a demo file?

When making a troubleshooting request, it's always best to post example files or images, especially when Moho appears to be doing something it's not supposed to. You should also mention which version you're working in and which platform because the issue might not be reproduceable in other versions of Moho or different computer systems.

[Mattyj]

Ill try Greenlaw sorry about that, our drop box trial has ended however so ill try and figure out another way to upload, would google drive work?

[Daxel]

Ill try Greenlaw sorry about that, our drop box trial has ended however so ill try and figure out another way to upload, would google drive work?

Yes that would be useful. Any cloud service has the option to share files with a link, including Google Drive or OneDrive (included on windows)

[Greenlaw]

Ill try Greenlaw sorry about that, our drop box trial has ended however so ill try and figure out another way to upload, would google drive work?

Oh, does Dropbox no longer offer a free version? Bummer.

[Greenlaw]

Hmm, I just checked and Dropbox Basic is still free...

https://www.dropbox.com/basic

Scroll down the page till you see Basic Free and click Get Started.

It comes with 2GB of storage. I would suggest using this unless you need more space.

[Mattyj]

Aah ok cheers, ill get that on my devices and use it in the future, my bad was probably rushing

[Greenlaw]

Oh, and just to be fair, the two services Daxel mentioned, Google Drive and One Drive, have free versions too.

If you need more memory, Google Drive is a lot cheaper than Dropbox. If you don't need the bells and whistles of the paid version of Dropbox, I think the paid version Google is a good alternative.