YOU NEED TO KNOW eye strokes through hair vector (Anime)

[Bold Studio]

I recently joined this forum to solve an issue that I had, how do I get the eye strokes though the front hair vector? I am currently working on models that uses the "Star vs the Forces of Evil" art style, so you know I need to come up with a method that is animation friendly. Why should you know this??? Well if you're not interested in what's known as the "CalArt" style, there are plenty of Anime characters that have they're eyes go through they're hair. Here's my technique...

Step 1: First layer, the front of the hair vector, easy...

Step 2: Second layer, on top of the hair layer, are the eyes. This is very important because you can make the eyes any way you want. Are you a masking/smartbone kind of animator or do you prefer switch layer eyes...

Step 3: On top of the eyes layer you make....... A REFERENCE LAYER OF THE FRONT HAIR LAYER. This is ideal because instead of having cluttered eyes and hair vectors sharing the same layer or constantly switching between two hair layers, the reference hair layer gives you the ability to control two layers by interacting with one. Just adjust the opacity of the fill of the ref layer and your set.

[Greenlaw]

Extra tips for using Reference layers:

Even though a Reference layer has a slightly different icon from the original layer, it's pretty easy to overlook it and accidentally edit the reference, which breaks the link between the two. To make it more obvious to me which version I'm editing, I like to append the name of the Reference with REF and set the layer color to yellow (for 'caution'.) Like this:



Another way to prevent editing the Reference is to put it inside its own group and call the group [layerName] REF, and close the group. (You can probably tell, I have a habit of messing up reference layers.)

(To devs, wishlist item #392: Ideally, we should be able to lock layers (reference or not) that we don't want to edit. Can we make this a native feature in a future build? Please?)

If you happen to unintentionally alter the Reference layer, you can click on the altered channel and choose Reset To Original, or if you wish to reset all the channels, right-click on the reference layer and choose Sync All Channels To Original. (I wish we could select which multiple channels to reset; all or one is good but sometimes I want to reset all channels except one or two.)

One more tip: if you're on the reference layer and you're not sure where the original is (i.e., because it's nested in another group,) right-click and select Locate Original Layer.

Hope this helps.

[synthsin75]

If you want to lock reference layers: viewtopic.php?p=168104#p168104

[Greenlaw]

Thanks Wes. I've used that in ASP at home a while back. I need to get it in Moho on my personal system so thanks for the reminder.

At work, I'll need to ask if we can use it. For legal/security reasons, it's always a process getting third party software installed at work, so it's better for us when 'essential functionality' stuff like this comes native.

[synthsin75]

Thanks Wes. I've used that in ASP at home a while back. I need to get it in Moho on my personal system so thanks for the reminder.

At work, I'll need to ask if we can use it. For legal/security reasons, it's always a process getting third party software installed at work, so it's better for us when 'essential functionality' stuff like this comes native.

Or work just needs to hire a Moho Lua programmer, who can at least quickly vet third party scripts for security concerns, if not create proprietary scripts. But few studios have that kind of budget.

[Greenlaw]

We actually have that but, being a big studio, it really is a process.

That said, your scripts have certainly made life easier for me and many Moho users. Please keep the great work Wes! Your tools and experience are always deeply appreciated.

[hayasidist]

how do I get the eye strokes though the front hair vector … make the eyes any way you want. Are you a masking/smartbone kind of animator or do you prefer switch layer eyes...

There was an old enhancement request for the "project settings" render options (e.g. fill or stroke only) to be made "export" options. If that were done, a good way to get this would be to do two layer comps for the same hair/eyes artwork - one stroke only and one fill only - and then assemble them in a compositor. I've bumped that request.