Conflict between target bone and action

[julgul]

Hi everyone. I am new to Moho and rigging, and this is my first rig. I want my character to have target bones on the feet. I am also trying to create an action where the feet will rotate 180 degrees. But there seems to be some sort of conflict between the target bone and the action. As soon as the action is used, the targets don't work, and I can't bend the character's knee. Please see the videos linked. Also, I've linked the project file. How would you approach this task? Thank you!

https://vimeo.com/771216153/0fb9c0b560
https://vimeo.com/771220642/7965a58994
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3gunugy4c0l5b ... .moho?dl=0

[Greenlaw]

In the Rotation CTRL Smart Bone Action, select the right shin bone and remove the rotation and scale keys for that bone. As far as I can tell, you don't need these keyframes here and removing them makes the target work properly on the Mainline. In general, avoid making unnecessary keyfames inside a Smart Bone Action as they can potentially create conflicts in the Mainline.

BTW, I quickly looked at the R_shin bone Action and I'm not sure what that's supposed to do. I'm guessing it's meant to apply joint correction in the artwork and, if that's the case, you should instead set up two actions: one for clockwise rotation and one for counter-clockwise rotation. Just set up an action for one direction and when you're done, select that action and click the New Action button. This will automatically create a new action with the proper name for the counter rotation action (don't change this name.)

I've seen single action setups similar to what you have by other animators, but IMO it's better to keep things simple and straightforward. Using two separate Actions for joint correction is more flexible to work with and easier to troubleshoot when something isn't working correctly.

Additional note: inside a Smart Bone Action, I like to create a copy of frame 0's keyframe at frame 1, and set frame 1 to Linear. This leaves frame 0 free to use other Interpolation modes on the Mainline (usually Smooth but it depends on what you need it to do during animation,) while making it easier to sync the animation with other elements inside the Action.

Hope this helps.

[julgul]

Thanks, Greenlaw, for your help on this! I will try deleting the keyframes. And, yes, the action on the R_shin bone is to correct the joint during rotation. I appreciate the tip, as the manuals do not cover things like that. Also, thanks for the tip about the interpolation of the first frame. I was wondering what the interpolation should be within the actions. I assumed smooth, but it makes sense that the first one should be linear. Thanks again!!

[Greenlaw]

Sure, glad to help.

...thanks for the tip about the interpolation of the first frame. I was wondering what the interpolation should be within the actions. I assumed smooth, but it makes sense that the first one should be linear. Thanks again!!

Yup! When I create a Smart Bone Action, the first thing I do is make a linear key for whatever I intend to animate at frame 1, and then I make sure the key that appears at 0 is Smooth or whatever it needs to be for the Mainline. (Smooth usually works for me and Step for special cases.) If you have a lot of animated items in the Smart Bone Action that need to stay in sync, you definitely want to use Linear. When you have the linear keyframe at frame 1 of the Smart Bone Action, you can use whichever interpolation the animation calls for on the Mainline.

Here's another tip: Set Moho's default Interpolation mode to Copy Previous Key. This makes Moho's timeline keyframing behavior like After Effect's, making keyframing easier/quicker.

[julgul]

Thanks for taking the time, Greenlaw. I appreciate all the tips!