No center line in bones

[yaakov]

I admit that I am not too swift yet with MOHO, but I am learning hard and pressing forward every day. I have MOHO PRO 13.5.1 (the newest release) and all the bones that I come up with or draw, so far, don't have a line running down the middle. They just look like ties with no lines in them. How do I make the bones look correct?
I am stumped.
Thank you so much, in advance.

[synthsin75]

That's just how bones look now.

[yaakov]

Wes, and others..
Thank you! That is encouraging.
I am now using a tutorial that has the line in the bones. He (McCoy Buck) says to use the manipulation tool to move an arm (keyboard Z). Nothing happens when I try to move the arm. I click on the bone manipulation tool and click on the bone that I have selected and there is nothing going on. I don't see any circles for moving the bone in the arm or any other symbols other than my cursor. It just seems like a useless tool. Obviously, I am doing something wrong, and I do not know what it is.

[Greenlaw]

Yeah, that was one of the changes made for 13.5.x. I believe the idea for the change is that now the display looks less cluttered looking when there are many bones close together, and it also makes it easier to see the color of the bones.

This next one is just a speculation: since the bones are simpler, maybe it improves performance when many bones are present? I haven't actually heard that or tested for it, it's just a thought.

It might be nice if the different bone looks were optional, but I'm actually used to the new look now and don't think about it much.

[yaakov]

The problem that I am having is that the Manipulate Bones Tool (Z) isn't doing anything at all with the bone. The gentleman in the tutorial has a character with bones that have lines in them and when he clicks on the bone gets the bone moving. For some reason, I cannot do that. My manipulation tool does nothing...that is what has me perplexed and I don't know how to make the bone move.

[Greenlaw]

...use the manipulation tool to move an arm (keyboard Z). Nothing happens when I try to move the arm. I click on the bone manipulation tool and click on the bone that I have selected and there is nothing going on. I don't see any circles for moving the bone in the arm or any other symbols other than my cursor. It just seems like a useless tool. Obviously, I am doing something wrong, and I do not know what it is.

I think you meant to select the Transform Bone tool; this is the tool with the widgets.

Manipulate Bones is meant for animating with IK, and you will normally see only the the tool's cursor when it's selected. When using this tool with Alt pressed, you can temporarily override IK and rotate a bone on its local axis. This is a very useful feature that helps you animate a character quickly. Manipulate Bones has no other transform modes so you should not see the cursor change.*

When you use Transform Bone, and hover over any bone, dots will appear at the bone's pivot point and the end point, and the cursor will be in 'rotation' mode. This is similar to using Bone Manipulation with the Alt key. When you hover the cursor over the pivot point, it changes into the move tool, and when you hover over the end point, it turns into a scale tool. This tool has no 'IK' mode and it's used differently from Manipulate Bones.

There are other useful tricks with Transform Bone but see if you can get the basics above working first.

Hope this helps.

*Edit: there is one instance where Manipulate Bones will move a bone and that's when the bone is the root bone. Even so, you will still not see the cursor change with this tool.

[synthsin75]

I am now using a tutorial that has the line in the bones. He (McCoy Buck) says to use the manipulation tool to move an arm (keyboard Z). Nothing happens when I try to move the arm. I click on the bone manipulation tool and click on the bone that I have selected and there is nothing going on. I don't see any circles for moving the bone in the arm or any other symbols other than my cursor. It just seems like a useless tool. Obviously, I am doing something wrong, and I do not know what it is.

Many reasons this can happen. If it's in an action, manipulate bones will not work, and the select bone tool is likely still active. Make sure the tool is selected on the toolbar, instead of the shortcut not being able to activate an inactive (grayed-out) tool. If the bone is controlled by a another bone, is targeting a bone, etc., the manipulate bone tool won't do anything either.

[yaakov]

Greenlaw and Wes,
Thank you. I am going to give your advices a try and see what I can figure out from it.
I have enough to keep me busy for a while. Hopefully, I can go with the information that you both have give me.
Thank you both so much!

[Greenlaw]

Also, just to be clear, Transform Bone's shortcut is T.

One more tip: if you're using the Manipulate Bones, you can press and hold T, and Moho will temporarily switch to the Transform Bone tool, in which case you will have the different transform modes available. Then, when you release T, the tool will switch back to Manipulate Bones. A word of caution: if you have a complex rig or a lot of keyframes, holding down T may slow Moho's interactivity significantly. Personally, I normally don't bother with this; it's easy enough to fully switch the tools by tapping between T and Z, and performance will not be affected.

Hope this helps.

[yaakov]

Thank you, kindly!