Moho Forum

Hi, I'm missing a step somewhere (or misunderstanding something) so can't get an image to follow a mesh along a path.
Inspired by https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHpDHbjKpEs (goldfish in a bowl), I want a mesh of a 'snake-like' image to follow a path (in my case, not multiple meshes to be involved, just the one).
I have imported my image, created a vector layer with triangles and filled them in order so the last is the 'uppermost' and done the Draw > Triangulate 2D mesh as in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjnvaxauriQ&t=29s (mesh of leaf).
When I use the magnet to drag the mesh on say frame 48, the underlying image moves with the mesh - as I would expect. It seems, so far, so good. Before continuing, I deleted those keyframes I created to test that the mesh and image were properly bound.
Then, at frame zero, I create a path on a vector layer. (My Moho file up to this point is at https://www.dropbox.com/s/ssw4kq4rdg090 ... .moho?dl=0, the download option is under the three dots.) Then (this is not in the uploaded Moho file), with the mesh selected I click the 'follow path' button and click at the front of that path, only the mesh goes to there. On subsequent keyframes (I used 1 and 96), I still have the issue of the image not going along with the mesh. Unsurprisingly, given the above, when I 'export animation' and then play that movie, it is ten seconds of nothing that I see. I found https://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32520 (binding mesh to image) useful for the pre-path steps, but am still stuck when it comes to a mesh following a path (and that image being deformed by the mesh as the mesh follows the path).
Any ideas?

johnfromncl wrote: ↑Tue Sep 21, 2021 9:35 pm Then (this is not in the uploaded Moho file), with the mesh selected I click the 'follow path' button and click at the front of that path, only the mesh goes to there.

Yes, that's how it will look on frame zero, but for higher frames, the image does go with the mesh.

For some reason, the image only sticks with the follow curve mesh if you bend it to the curve (alt+click on curve). Otherwise, you have to make the mesh and image follow the curve and animate both.

synthsin75 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 21, 2021 10:20 pm For some reason, the image only sticks with the follow curve mesh if you bend it to the curve (alt+click on curve). Otherwise, you have to make the mesh and image follow the curve and animate both.

Oh, that's weird. I tried it myself and the image layer disappears at frame 1, so I think it's trying to work, it's just not displaying the image. I even tried triangulating the mesh but it made no difference. This has to be a bug.

As you noted, if I Alt-click for Bend mode, then it works fine...image is visible and deforms as expected.

Greenlaw wrote: ↑Tue Sep 21, 2021 10:54 pm Oh, that's weird. I tried it myself and the image layer disappears at frame 1, so I think it's trying to work, it's just not displaying the image. I even tried triangulating the mesh but it made no difference. This has to be a bug.

As you noted, if I Alt-click for Bend mode, then it works fine...image is visible and deforms as expected.

Well, if the image doesn't follow the mesh, the image is just outside of the mesh cropping. But yeah, there does seem to be a bug using follow curve without bending.

Oh, I see what you mean.

That crossed my mind when the image disappeared, so I tried moving the layer up to where the mesh was but that didn't help so I assumed it had become invisible. But I probably did something wrong because when I apply the same follow path settings/keyframes as you described then, yes, it does work.

That's a good workaround for now.

Hi all
I have another thing working for me!
Many thanks
John

I have what I think is the same bug with slightly different part of Follow path. The bend (alt click) mode works fine, until I make any animation to the bended layer (move anything, one vector point). Then the bended layer just won't bend anymore, unless I reassign it as not bend just classic follow path. It just flat out refuses to bend, and undo doesn't do anything there either.

My workaround is to close and reopen Moho, and assing the path again (so if I want anything animated on that layer I need to animate it blindly, then assign follow path and hope for the best, cos I can't make changes live), but it is painful to do this, so I hope tha bug will be fixed soon.

Can you post an example file? I don't think I've seen that behavior and I'm curious to see if it's repeatable here. Also, when you post a file, if the issue turns out to be a bug, it gives the developers something to fix.

In short, if can't be demoed, it can't be fixed.

Also, it's good to mention which version of Moho you're using and on which platform. For example, the last time I used follow path was several months ago and on a slightly earlier version of Moho. Knowing which version of Moho you're using can help identify if this is a new problem.