Moving over from Flash to Moho problems

[Nimphaea]

Hello everybody!

Wonderful that these forums are online. Ik hope someone can help me at this moment, so that I will be able to help other new people in this forum in a while .

I have a lot of questions. Untill now, I have only used Flash as a tool to animate. I have used Flash since 2001. I do not always need to have swf output, I've also made animations for tv, but Flash is not really the right tool for such sort of work.
Then I heard about Moho. I downloaded the trial, saw the movies in the gallery, and now I am so enthausiast about Moho that I really want to learn to use this wonderful tool. So I have read the tutorials in the past weeks during my vacation, and tried to make some artwork, but then came my problems. It seems it is very hard for me personally to get used to a new way of making animations (learning new software).

Because of the fact that I only know how to animate with Flash, I really don't understand how Moho's animation method works. I am so used to Flash that I don't understand the differences.

- When making a Flash animation (for example, my latest project, the intro at http://www.wesa-ospel.nl ), I only use graphics, no MovieClips, and tell them if they have to loop or only display one frame. How can you do this in Moho? Moho does not have such a thing as MovieClips. What is Moho's way of animating? How do you get the same result (theoretically)?

- So far, I understood that when you don't want to see an animation anymore (for example a character, from a certain place in your movie), you must set the layer on that point to 'unvisible', is this correct or didn't I inderstand this? I can't manage to turn layers 'off', where can I find 'this button'? Or didn't I understand the 'turn layer off' function? In Flash you just remove the MovieClip from the stage.

- In Flash, in every frame on a layer you can draw a new drawing of a character to animate it frame by frame. How can you make frame by frame animations in Moho? Or do you have to use a new layer for every new drawing? Than you would end up with hundreds of layers (in Flash I always have about 100 layers in the end, for each little animation, and all those animations also have their own timelines _inside_ the clip... So that makes a lot mare layers... ). Is this true?

- In Flash I can re-use all the animations. I like the use of a library with all the artwork I made, and I re-use things a lot. I can drag and drop artwork on the stage. Did I understand well that, In Moho, instead of having a library, you work with 'the first frame in a layer'? Or is this something that is called a switch layer?

- Only when I WANT a tween, Flash makes one. But in Moho, when I move anything, there is created a tween directly. Can you turn this off when you don't want a tween at a certain moment?
In Flash there are keyframes, and normal frames. In Moho the tweens go everywhere automatically. or am I doing something wrong...?

- In Flash I can see the right colors already on the stage. In Moho I first have to render to see how the colors will look. It's hard to color things that way, I find. Is there a way to see the correct colors already during the drawing of the artwork?

- In Flash, I always make one long movie timeline. For example, the animation showed above at Wesa-Ospel, is a very big Flash file. Is it right to work the same way with Moho? I mean, for example the 'Good Spirit Song' movie I saw in the galery is really the kind of movies that I would dream to make. Is this one huge Moho project file, or do you have to make a new file for every camerashot, and than put all the small movies together in the end with video editing software?

As you can see, all these changes got me completely puzzeled. I really hope that somebody could take the time to explain the differences with working in Flash and working with Moho. Moho is a much better animation tool so I _have_ to get used to it . I assume that it's just a new way of thinking, but I can't figure it out myself. Sorry for my bad use of the English language, I hope you can understand my point .

Thanks a lot in advance!!!

[cribble]

I'm not going to answer every question, but i'll do my best to answer some.

No, moho doesn't have a movieclip function nor does it have action scripting. But you can export your project, or individual parts of a project, to flash (swf) and import them into flash and work with them further there. But at the moment, there are still a few errors with the flash export as it doesn't import properly.

For the visablity, i usually use the alpha to sort this out. This can be found by double clicking the layer you want to fade, this should now bring up the properties, and now where it says alpha (or beta5 it'll say opacity) type in a lower number to turn the transparency down. 0 being see through. But moho will animate this so you'll have a gradual fade so put a keyframe, before the keyframe with whatever alpha or opacity you want, if you get my drift!!

For frame by frame it become alittle tricky (or atleast for me it is). Make a switch layer and put you vector layers inside of it. Now make a new vector layer everytime you want to create a different frame. Now go to frame 1 and right click your switch layer, select your first drawing, then frame 2 and select your second etc etc....

You said something about colours on stage. Try and put the quality up, its in one of the moho menus (somewhere....)


But you have to understand that it is a learning curve and it will take sometime to learn. Heck, i'm not that pro at it yet, i hardly know my way around it (you can tell by my confusing language). But learn, use tutorials and whatever resources.

Hope this helps

[spasmodic_cheese]

Coming from flash myself, you hvae the let go alot of the assumptions from flash, moho is a true animation tool where flash is now a web development tool with animation features.

hopefully I can help to.

To make graphics that 'loop' if you rightclick keyframes inthe timeline you can do cycle which lets you cycle that animation over and over.

Reusing animations is generally you would have a moho file for each character that you would import, I think this has been improved in the upcoming moho 5, but i haven't looked into it.

I still prefer to draw in flash because i can get better optimized vectors for web, hope i helped abit.

[Nimphaea]

Thank you both for the answers! You are a great help, it's getting much clearer to me now .

I am still wondering one thing... In the end, could you make a whole movie in just one file, or would you say that that is not really recommended? Would it be better to make a new Moho file of every camerashot, and use video editing software to combine everything?

For example, this movie: http://www.feelgoodanyway.com/motion/frazier_hmpop.html

Do you think this could be one large file, or a lot of files (I don't know if this little movie is made with Moho, but it's just the example for this question)?

[Simpy]

Nimphaea,

I realise your problems. Coming from a different program can always be difficult and confusing. I'm sure that you may be sick of people saying this, but the simplest way to learn is to go through the tutorials.

In response to your most recent question, It can be done both ways. Coming from flash myself i realise that animating in MoHo can be very strange at first, but if you play with it, you will find what you like best. In my opinion, it is easier to 'shoot' different scenes and then compile them in the order you require for your video.

That's what i do, and i find it easy.

[cribble]

I am still wondering one thing... In the end, could you make a whole movie in just one file, or would you say that that is not really recommended? Would it be better to make a new Moho file of every camerashot, and use video editing software to combine everything?

For example, this movie: http://www.feelgoodanyway.com/motion/frazier_hmpop.html

Do you think this could be one large file, or a lot of files (I don't know if this little movie is made with Moho, but it's just the example for this question)?

The example given is a few files thrown together i'm guessing. I've always said (to myself) that i don't have to make everything within one moho file. mainly because i would be limited to 1 camera shot. Just make multiple moho files until your happy with all the angles and results, import them into your favourite video compiling software (like adobe's premiere) and put it together.
But really the chioce is yours, its just that if you do use alot of layers, and try to make everything in one file, it would get rather confusing.

[nobudget]

As another (ex) Flash animator I also would recommend the excellent Moho tutorials to understand the different workflow.

One question about the http://www.wesa-ospel.nl animation. Did you do that yourself? If so, good job! But it's a shock to see that intro and the ugly site that follows it... By the way, was this a commercial project? It's hard to imagine a company like that would invest in such an elaborate intro animation, especially considering the design of the main site. I've been making small-business sites in Holland for years and most companies seem to want a website but they don't want to invest much in making it great instead of "good enough"...

Reindert.
www.nobudgetvideo.com

[Nimphaea]

Thank you so much everybody for all your help. Maybe there IS a chance now that I will succeed in learning how to use Moho, haha!

About the Wesa-Ospel intro: Thank you for the compliment!! Yes, I made it myself. And the site IS indeed extremely ugly ! The website was made by someone else. I'm happy they've asked me last week to redesign their website too, so, in a couple of months I will make a new website for them with a new CMS and a design that fits more with the intro (I work together with a developer).

I've been making small-business sites in Holland for years and most companies seem to want a website but they don't want to invest much in making it great instead of "good enough"...

Ooohhh, I know this... It's terrible ... But I was glad: this was a commercial project. Though their budget was very little, I wanted to make something sweet because I liked the theme of the website so much... Most websites I have to make are so boring: Sites for tires of trucks, sites about panels, sites about trailer wagons... You know, the companies you find at the industrial zone... In the grey, square, dark, buildings ... So I really enjoyed making this intro, because all the other websites I make have such UNinspiring subjects, haha... It's a pity, yes... But I think it's wonderful that it's possible to make money by drawing! So, although most of the websites I have to make aro so extremely boring... Everyday I go to work with a smile . By the way, you make cool stuff too!

In any case, THANKS a LOT to everybody!!!