Moho Animation Forum

You can check this Moho file:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/bcqdt7ah ... 306j&raw=1

Looks like a simple animated image with a mask...

Masking basics part 2 - YouTube

wow that moho file is just what i need! didnt even think of using particles! gonna give that ago! i was just wondering tho how do i make it so they go into the space instead of to the sides or up and down. if that makes sense

dont worry i just figured that out

Been trying the particle approach but doesnt seem to be very effective going into the z as the lines seem to get thicker and doesnt look as smooth. Any advice would still be great many thank

Bicknell1999 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 17, 2025 5:17 pm Been trying the particle approach but doesnt seem to be very effective going into the z as the lines seem to get thicker and doesnt look as smooth. Any advice would still be great many thank

Just turn on "Scale compensation" in the vector layer properties.
I disabled it for these layers, but it is on by default.

iv tried it both on and of still doesnt seem to be working very well

wondering if anyone can check it out and let me know what im doing wrong i feel im pretty close but when i try pan the camera to the left and right like in the solarballs vid it doesnt quite work. thanks for all your help guys!


[https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/yu39ofyh ... 3our3&dl=0]

Víctor Paredes wrote: ↑Thu Apr 17, 2025 4:26 am You can check this Moho file:...

Pretty cool, Victor!

Bicknell1999 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 18, 2025 6:18 am wondering if anyone can check it out and let me know what im doing wrong...

Will take a look and write back shortly.

Just a few observations...

This seems like a heavy scene...maybe unnecessarily so? Scrubbing was slow on my computer, so I deactivated GPU caching, and that seemed to make it more responsive.

Looking at the layers, I think the scene can be simplified by using Scatter Brush in fewer layers, or using Particles (as Victor did.) This should improve the responsiveness.

There's a dark layer in the middle, and I'm not sure what this is for. Is this a placeholder for something? For now, I'm hiding it. Note: use Hide In Editing...this hides the layer but allows Moho to still render it.

If it's meant to 'fade out' distant asteroids, maybe you can use a setup based on depth. Personally, I like to just cycle my layers to fade out as they drift away from camera, and then keyframe the layers to hop back behind the camera to restart the cycle. When using the Cycle Interpolation mode, I can use fewer layers to get what appears to be infinite layers. Tip: In this situation, I might make groups of layers to animate in z-space...it could be easier than animating many single layers. Just wait for the last layer in the group to fade out before moving it behind the camera to start again.

Probably doesn't matter, but I noticed the camera is rotating in place and not moving. This is what's called a nodal camera setup (i.e., like on a fixed tripod,) and, as mentioned earlier, it means you won't see any parallax effect from the camera movements. Depending on your intent, this is fine, but the shot can look more dramatic if the camera drifted through the field. Just an observation and comment, not a critique or really even a suggestion.

Ok...going back to re-read your comments now.

yeah the black layer was meant to make the asteroides look faded and further away without using a blur. is there a better option for this? also how do i set it up so they fade out as they go to space? the only way i know of doing that is by lowering the oppacity? also im wondering in the solar balls video im gonna guess they use 3 different presets to capture the other angles?

so do you recon i should use scatter brush instead of place each one?

Yeah, but it depends on how you want to animate them. If they're not moving much individually, that would be fine. I might use this for distant asteroids where you wouldn't notice it so much. This probably makes more sense for distant stars. I'm using this approach for distant asteroids and stars in many Space Tommy shots.

If you want them to rotate individually, making multiple layers is better, but you can minimize the number of individual asteroids by cycling their positions. In Space Tommy, for example, I think I'm using two or three sets of asteroids in most of the shots, and just cycling their positions as after they move off camera. I'm not animating the asteroids themselves because Moho Physics is handling that part for me, including random collisions. I'm only animating the positions for two or three groups.

Note: I should verify exactly what I did. Space Tommy was made 10 months ago, and I've animated so much stuff since then that my memory about the Space Tommy setups is a little fuzzy. I try to keep my setups pretty simple to avoid problems, and from what I recall, creating the short went very quickly using Moho 14.1, and I didn't run into any major problems. If I have time, I'll check those setups and let you know exactly what's going on in them.

Particles is another good way to go because, with the right settings, they can stay 'on' for a limited time and disappear when they go off camera. They don't need to pop off...they can fade out just before they disappear.

Not really related, but I used Moho Particles for the sparkles coming off the gold asteroid. The sparkles in the coffee machine were made using Scatter tool, though. So, I guess I used a lot of different techniques. I really should make a BTS for Space Tommy before I totally forget how it was made.

id love to use the particles and physics but i just cant seem to figure out a way for them to go into the z without it looking out of place