Importing layered illustrator files.

[toymaker12]

I have just started to use Moho 13.5. very disappointed to discover that layered Illustrator files, (saved in AI cannot be opened in Moho, keeping each layer complete. Looks like I will have probably need to continue to use Adobe Animate.

[Maestral]

This reminds me of a person leaving the table while informing others about their trip to the loo.

Though, the key for the loo is Ver8

[Greenlaw]

As Maestral points out, you'll need to export to Adobe Illustrator's v8 format, or as some users prefer SVG. I think many users find SVG paths are more accurately translated, but note that not all features of Ai are supported. A search in these forums should turn up examples and useful tips.

When I started using Moho years ago, my initial impulse was to use Ai to draw with and Moho to animate, but this actually imposes many limitations for character art. If you're intention is to use Ai to create scalable backgrounds and props that you don't intend to deform with a complex bone rig, that's fine. But if you're drawing your characters in Ai, bear in mind that the path construction will not be nearly as optimal for deforming as vector artwork specifically designed for that purpose from within Moho.

That or you can convert the Ai artwork to an image format. Then you can use Moho's custom mesh warping tools to deform the artwork, which for many items you will animate in Moho is nearly as flexible as using vector art directly.

The best way to see what I mean is to actually experiment with the tools for a reasonable time and see which workflow works best for you.

But, if you feel it's better to stay with Animate, that's fine too. Animate is a pretty good program (it's one of many we use at my workplace,) but it's very different from Moho. I think Animate's freehand drawing and FBF tools are better than Moho's, but Moho rigging and puppet animation tools are far superior, and it's 'click-and-drag' drawing tools are very precise for creating deforming character art.

I learned a long time ago that combining the strengths of multiple programs is usually the best way to go, so I recommend also learning a good compositing program, like After Effects or Fusion. (I use these two at home but we use Ae and Nuke at my workplace.)

Good luck!

[toymaker12]

This reminds me of a person leaving the table while informing others about their trip to the loo.

Though, the key for the loo is Ver8

What bad manners.

[toymaker12]

As Maestral points out, you'll need to export to Adobe Illustrator's v8 format, or as some users prefer SVG. I think many users find SVG paths are more accurately translated, but note that not all features of Ai are supported. A search in these forums should turn up examples and useful tips.

When I started using Moho years ago, my initial impulse was to use Ai to draw with and Moho to animate, but this actually imposes many limitations for character art. If you're intention is to use Ai to create scalable backgrounds and props that you don't intend to deform with a complex bone rig, that's fine. But if you're drawing your characters in Ai, bear in mind that the path construction will not be nearly as optimal for deforming as vector artwork specifically designed for that purpose from within Moho.

That or you can convert the Ai artwork to an image format. Then you can use Moho's custom mesh warping tools to deform the artwork, which for many items you will animate in Moho is nearly as flexible as using vector art directly.

The best way to see what I mean is to actually experiment with the tools for a reasonable time and see which workflow works best for you.

But, if you feel it's better to stay with Animate, that's fine too. Animate is a pretty good program (it's one of many we use at my workplace,) but it's very different from Moho. I think Animate's freehand drawing and FBF tools are better than Moho's, but Moho rigging and puppet animation tools are far superior, and it's point and click drawing is very precise for creating deforming character art.

I learned a long time ago that combining the strengths of multiple programs is usually the best way to go, so I recommend also learning a good compositing program, like After Effects or Fusion. (I use these two at home but we use Ae and Nuke at my workplace.)

Good luck!

Thanks for your interesting and useful response. I saved to SVG and to V8, but could only see one layer in Moho. - I am a beginner in Moho, so I will experiment to see if I can achieve all SVG or AI layers when importing into Moho, which appears to be very good. In Moho I would also like to be able to create artwork with the option of using millimetres as well as pixels as measurement units. - Is this possible?

[Greenlaw]

Thanks for your interesting and useful response. I saved to SVG and to V8, but could only see one layer in Moho. - I am a beginner in Moho, so I will experiment to see if I can achieve all SVG or AI layers when importing into Moho, which appears to be very good. In Moho I would also like to be able to create artwork with the option of using millimetres as well as pixels as measurement units. - Is this possible?

Yes, as mentioned, vector import from other programs to Moho can be done but it can also be limited depending on how you intend to use the artwork. In many cases, for anything you intend to animate with bones and Smart Bone actions, it's better to create the vectors directly inside Moho.

IMO, if you really need to create the vector art in another program, you may be better off converting the layers to bitmap in Photoshop before bringing them into Moho. You'll want to convert to a suitable resolution of course. But this all really depends on what your goal is. In my case, I mainly use Moho for puppet-rigged character animation, but for other types of animation, I'll may use After Effects, Animate, Harmony or a 3D program. (You can see a lot of my Moho work on my last three demo reels.)

For animation elements imported to Moho, I also use Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. For example, a lot of the character art seen in the earlier stuff we did for our Netflix shows, the art was painted in Photoshop and then rigged and animated in Moho. For a lot of techy-looking stuff I did more recently on Fast & Furious Spy Racers, I drew complex paths and elements in Illustrator, and then I either imported the vectors to Moho where I could finish the art and rig it, or I brought it into Photoshop and converted/finished it there before bringing it into Moho. As mentioned, it depended on what my goal was and how I intended to animate the scene.

As for measurements, unfortunately, Moho only has the currently set screen size and relative scale percentages of that size to work from. The advatage is that you can easily scale the project for different output resolutions. But, yeah, it doesn't really provide tools or workflows for precisely measuring elements. For that sort of thing, using Illustrator to create the elements does make a lot of sense. (Actually, I probably do this more between After Effects and Illustrator, especially for screen graphics and motion graphics. For character work in Moho, I don't use Illustrator at all.)

[Greenlaw]

A little more on the topic of measurements.

When I do need to measure things out in Moho, I used third party measuring tool called FastStone Capture, which is a swiss army knife of graphics utilities. It's main strength is image capture but it has a ton of other features that artists will find useful, including a very capable online-ruler. There are other on-screen rulers out there, but I really like FastStone Capture because that's just a small part of a robust graphics toolset.

Alternatively, I will sometimes create a ruler, grid or other measuring device, either in Moho or in another program and import it.

During the 13.0 development, there was discussion of adding local and global measuring tools for Moho. I think that all went away when the SM crew was dismissed, but it's probably worth bringing up with the current dev team.

In the meantime, be sure to check out Kuzkuz's new guides tool for Moho. This tool is awesome!

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=34520

Also, Moho does have some useful alignment tools and a grid you can snap things to. They're both limited compared to what's available in Illustrator and After Effects, (for example, the alignment tool only works with layers not shapes, and the grid is local the layer only,) but they're still very useful.

Hopefully, the devs can focus on improving these areas in a future version of Moho.

[ITAK]

You can try this plugin: IllustratorSmartExport
This way you can export each layer as SVG (Tiny 1.1). Of course, before exporting you need to expand all strokes.

[Greenlaw]

This is great to know! Thank you for the tip ITAK.