Moho Animation Forum

Thank you thank you in advance

I am in week one of both Moho and my life as an armature animator and so far I am crazy about both.

I realise that with debut there are no smart bones and no layer grouping. Are there other features I am missing?
Also I am having lots of trouble with binding and getting the bones to work, are there any tutorials that just pertain to making bones in debut? I have already found the one where you make the star charactor and would like more that I can work along with.

And second:
Well for what I want to do I would like to draw my own stuff on paper, scan it and then bring it in to animate. I have a style of drawing that I can't really replicate on a computer you see. So my plan is to draw a body, head and each limb separately and import them into the program to animate them there.

Is that something that can be done and if so is there a special tutorial program that I can watch to learn it, and also do you think this is loads more difficult than just making the character in the moho program?

Would you draw a face without a mouth and draw a mouth in Moho to facilitate animation or is there a way to put points on already drawn lines to make them move?

Thanks so much everyone.

Will Sanders

Hi - welcome to the forum!

Phew! More than two questions there! First, other features: "I realise that with debut there are no smart bones and no layer grouping. Are there other features I am missing?" Here's a comparison chart: Comparisons

Although you don't have Group folders as such, you can use Bone folders as Group folders in Debut - just don't put any bones in them!

Tutorials:
Pin Bones Tutorial
Starting bone binding

"... for what I want to do I would like to draw my own stuff on paper, scan it and then bring it in to animate. I have a style of drawing that I can't really replicate on a computer you see. So my plan is to draw a body, head and each limb separately and import them into the program to animate them there."

Yes, you can do that. You need to isolate each scan component (head, legs, arms etc.) against a transparent background. Your best bet is to use the PNG format. You can export whole PSD files from Photoshop or Gimp, or export single PNG files individually if you want. There are plenty of tutorials on YouTube for doing these things.

Here's a couple of examples of what the files should look like from Cartoon Solutions:
Examples

Good luck!
J

Hi Will,
Welcome to the forum.
Here's a document which compares Debut vs Pro:
http://my.smithmicro.com/docs/moho/Moho ... onList.pdf
You can see other comparison tables here:
http://my.smithmicro.com/anime-studio-p ... sions.html

Debut doesn't support Group layers, but you can use Bone layers instead. If you don't add bones the Bone layer, it works mostly the same than a Group.

About binding, there are several options that can be mixed (you need to be in frame 0 for all of them):

- You can bind an entire layer to a single bone by using the Bind Layer tool.
Just select the Bind Layer tool, select the layer you want to bind and then click over the bone you want to assign to it.
Once you do that, the bone will be shown in bold. That means the selected layer is bound to that bone.

- You can bind specific points to specific bones
Select the vector layer and then the Bind Points tool. Holding Alt in the keyboard, select the bone you want the points to be bound. Once the bone is red (which means it's selected), release Alt and select the points you want to bind. You can use Shift key to add to the selection. Once all the points you want are selected, go to the Tool Proprieties bar and click "Bind points".
To make easier to know what points are bound to which bones, the software automatically colorize the bones and the points when using the Bind Points tool. So, for instance, all the green points are bound to the green bone.

- You can simply use Flexi-Binding:
By default, the software uses Flexi-Binding for both images and vector layers. This means the points/pixels of all the layers will be moved by the bones, based on the strength each bone has.
To modify the strength of the bones, select the Bone layer and the Bone Strength tool. Each bone will show an oval shape, which represent its strength. Using the Bone Strength tool drag the mouse over a bone to right or left, in order increase/decrease its strength.

Many times, some bones will need to have zero strength. For instance, if you previously bound a layer or points to a bone and don't want that bone to affect any other points/layers, simply reduce its strength to zero.

- "Use selected bones for Flexi-Binding":
This is one of my favorite options and it certainly will help you for the characters you are planning to create.
Flexi-Binding option is good, but the main problem is all the bones affect all the layers. That means, for instance, that if you move the arm of your character, the strength of the arm bones will probably distort the rest of the body too.
To fix that, you can tell the software that some layers be bent by using the strength of specific bones only.
So if you want the arm to be distorted only by the arm bones, simply select the arm layer, then using the Select Bone tool select the bones you want (arm, forearm, hand) and then go to the menu Bone -> Use selected bones for Flexi-Binding.
Once you repeat the process with all the layers you want, your character will move much better than before.
Please check this postfor short but more detailed instructions.


Also, remember that you can always test how your character is working by using the Manipulate Bones tool in frame zero.

And, finally, yes, you can draw a mouth (or whatever you want) for your character directly in the software.
I hope this helps.

PS: Sorry, Jahnocli, crossed posts.

Yeah so it was more than two questions, I got carried away sorry.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful and detailed answers. I have been working through your advice and got a very strange looking arm moving like a very strange looking arm should move so slowly slowly but progress.
I thank you for that and think you may hear from me again when I hit the next wall.
Will