Bones not working...

[11thIndian]

I've just downloaded the demo version for mac. I'm running 10.3.7 on a G4 733.

I've tried several times to do tutorial 3.1 "Bone Binding", but once finished adding the bones, the attached vectors do nothing when I rotate the bones. I'm used to 3D programs so I'm pretty darn sure I'm doing this simple operation correctly.

What goes on?

[ralphrubbish]

i'm guessing you just didn't do this part "Finally, drag the "Arm" vector layer upward to move it into the bone layer:"

[7feet]

First thing I can think of - are the Vector layers set up as sublayers of the Bone layer? The Vector layers names should be indented below the Bone layer in the Layers window. If they're not, click on the Vectorlayers and drag to the Bone layer. The Bone layers name strip will turn red, release, and you should be okay. Another possibility - check this thread -
http://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1454

[11thIndian]

ralphrubbish. Yeah, I've done that. The name is indented under the bone layer with the red dot. Nadda.

7feet. I looked at that thread and did the manual selection of points in order to make sure they're accepting binding. When I go to the "bone" menu, everything is non-selectable.

This is horribly frustrating...

[7feet]

Before you go to the Bone menu, make sure the Vector layer, not the Bone layer, is selected.

[ralphrubbish]

maybe you can post up your file so we can download it and see if its just your machine or what?

[11thIndian]

7feet. I'll check that.

I've just tried loading some of the stock objects. None of their skeletons work either. They're vector layers are subset to the bone layers, but there's no red dot beside the vector layer.

[Lost Marble]

The red dots have nothing to do with bone binding. The red dots are an indication whether that layer is optimized for Flash output or not.

Here's another possibility: When the object doesn't seem to move with the bones, how are you moving the bones? If you're using the Rotate Layer bone, that could be the problem. In Moho, frame 0 is kind of a special setup frame. At frame 0, you are setting up the skeleton, and it has no effect on the underlying objects. At later frames, the vector shapes will move if you use the Rotate Bone tool, but not at frame 0.

To test out the bone setup at frame 0, use the Manipulate Bone tool instead of Rotate Bone. At frame 0, this tool has no permanent effect on the bones - after switching to a different tool, the bones will snap back. This tool is useful at frame 0 (the setup frame) because it lets you see how the connected objects respond to bone movement without making any permanent changes.

[11thIndian]

That's got it, it's because I was on frame 0. As soon as I moved off that frame, everything worked fine. That's not in the tutorial, is it?

Thanks for the help everyone. This program is providing me with a nice break from traditional 3D work. The posibilities are intriquing.

Marcus R. Moore
Hoverboy Historian

[Lost Marble]

That's not in the tutorial, is it?

The tutorial specifically says to use the Manipulate Bones tool, but it doesn't go into the details about the difference between frame 0 and other frames.

In the description of the bone tools in the manual (Using Moho->Tool Groups->Bone Tools), it talks about the behavior of the tools on frame 0 vs. other frames.

[jahnocli]

Side issue. I went to the Hoverboy site, and the blue links on a blue ground are almost impossible to read. That's a bad thing, isn't it?

[11thIndian]

LM. You are quite correct. I think I was FF through some of the earlier chapters to get to the more exciting stuff.

jahnocli. yeah, there are some things I've been meaning to fix, navigation wise for a while now. But it always ends up being a decision between fix site/ new content. Thanks for the input, I'm on it.