Moho Forum

Greetings all. OK here's what I'm looking for. I have a character face, I want 3 positions for the face. Straight ahead, 3/4, and profile. Now I have created all three positions using the same "points", with the hope being that I can "interpolate" the betweens to a smooth transition of the head turning. Mind you this face is made up of many layers, not just one.

So what I would like to do is:

Draw position #1 looking forward. Save Point Positions.

move points into position #2 (3/4 view). Save Point Positions.

Move points again to create Position #3 (profile, side shot). Save Points position.

So I would have 3 "groups" of point locations, that I could then flip between and have it interpolate the movement.

Im thinking the multiple layers are what's holding me back, but I really want to keep them separated.

Here is what I tried" created face position #1, contained in its own folder. Duplicated folder twice. Created 2 other positions (again, using the exact same points and just slid them around to create new position, in such a way the if they were interpolated they "should" work). Then took all 3 positions, each in their own folder, and placed all 3 folders in a Switch Folder. Turned on interpolate and got no results. as soon as I place the layers in folders AS stopped interpolating.

So can I have saved positions (other than the original that you can reset).

Thanks, Let me know if I'm not making sense.

Erik

If you have ASPro you can use Actions for this. Switch layer point interpolation can be very powerful. But I've had the same experience as you that switch layers require a very specific layer hierarchy, which isn't always practical.

lwaxana wrote:If you have ASPro you can use Actions for this. Switch layer point interpolation can be very powerful. But I've had the same experience as you that switch layers require a very specific layer hierarchy, which isn't always practical.

I do have Pro, I will dig into actions more tonight. So I can save point positions?

Cant look until tonight.... <sigh>

Here's a solution that will work fine with switch layers (unless you have complex masking).

This is a process I have used before and it works well for me.

1. Work ONLY with ONE set of layers to make your switch layers.
1a. (Optional) Paste all layers into one layer. You can do this at the end if you like but it helps to have all the layers in one as you work. Makes it easier while working as you don't have to keep going from one layer to the other while editing the points.

2. Do what you've done already to modify the points of the face for the different views but only work on ONE layer. Put the different views on KEY FRAMES with point motion. This is great because you will always have the exact points (only working with one layer) and you can preview the "morph" or interpolation as you work.

3. When you are done, and if you haven't already in step 1a, select all points for each different face layer part, and paste those points into one "master" layer for use as a switch. Copy/paste will copy the key frames from each layer so they are all in one big face layer.


4. Now, let's imaging you have 3 views, and 3 point motion keys on your one layer for each view. You duplicate this layer 3 times (keep a backup of the master layer just in case).

5. On each of those copied layers, go to the frame of the view with a key, select the point keys, go to frame 0, use the copy/paste/delete key frame buttons. You now have a layer of that view. Repeat for the other duplicated layers.

6. put those layers into a switch layer. You now have perfectly matched layers that can smoothly interpolate. Plus you have your original layer in case you want to make changes or create NEW switch layers. Just do the same thing, create a new "view" on a key frame, duplicate the layer transfer the keys to frame 0 and add it to the face switch.

hope this makes sense.

-vern

i think vern forgot to mention (i'm tired maybe i missed it ) - interpolation isn't on by default, so once you have your master switch layer, go into its properties, and tick 'interpolate sub-layers' under the switch tab.