wishes for 2006! Better AI, RAM PREVIEW, steps layers, etc..

[rafdesign]

1) I finally bought the software few days ago and spent the last days to get deeper into Moho. I already put in this forum a question about the bad quality of Illustrator files. I got to understand much more why is it so. I fully understand it now, but here is the deal: not every vector illustration needs to be animated through bones and have the capability to bend and curve and arm. Think about background elements, things which needs to be vectorized but not animated like a character. Yes I could import PNG files, but if I like to zoom in zoom out, then I am screwed, it would be so slow..
2) If the render is to slow, then an option for RAM PREVIEW should be there with in and out point, so I can set which part to render.
3) Sometimes a character head needs to move, or have an arm in 1-2 separate illustration where the Moho theory doesn't work. More like traditional steps animation. just the ability to switch to a different layer in a group folder.
4) the texture files, could it be also a Quicktime? Like a loopable texture? Also I don't get the way it is rendered and the axis of it..

Overall I guess for the programmers the topic about importing files must be a tough decision, and I guess there is a license problem there too. So many softwares out there, but there are standards files, such as Photoshop PSD or Adobe Illustrator AI or EPS or PDF. Ask designers, printers, artists, they all work with those. Macromedia Freehand is great, but apparently it may go down since Adobe bought Macromedia.
I think it is asking a lot, especially if the software is keeping at this level price. But I believe people would pay few extras hundreds to get it if it could do it better. Professionals artists just don't know about it and if they try it, they may feel it's not stable or efficient in the work flow to get into. The artist act shouldn't be defined by the tools, it is up to the tools to follow the artist. I know I'm tough! Don't get me wrong I really love what Moho does!

Ok, I spent 7 days so far into Moho and Papagayo, here is a simple test I have done so far, learning...
http://www.rafaelmacho.com/anonymous/moho_test_raf.mov

[myles]

2) If the render is to slow, then an option for RAM PREVIEW should be there with in and out point, so I can set which part to render.

"F5" does a preview render (it uses the standard in and out points on the timeline) - it quickly renders a temporary low-resolution version to disk, which avoids the ram preview problems of dropped frames and slow audio.

3) Sometimes a character head needs to move, or have an arm in 1-2 separate illustration where the Moho theory doesn't work. More like traditional steps animation. just the ability to switch to a different layer in a group folder.

These already exist and are called switch layers in Moho. Tutorial 5.2 shows one way to use them for lip-synch with a generated data file, but they can be used for any layer switching (switch sub-layers can be any type of layer or layer group), and they can be manually switched rather than using a data file..

4) the texture files, could it be also a Quicktime? Like a loopable texture? Also I don't get the way it is rendered and the axis of it..

I haven't used a lot of bitmap textures, so I could be wrong about this, but you may get better control using a Quicktime file as an image layer with masking, rather than as a shape texture.

Regards, Myles.