Moho Forum

I think if you rotate your screen 90 degrees then you've found your problem.

Hi house10,

It's a bit unclear what you're trying to fix. You mention weld crossing but I don't see where you would use that.

If it's just a matter of moving the two halves closer to the middle, you can use Transform Point. This would be the best way but you could alternatively use Transform Layer too, assuming the two halves are separate layers. (I recommend moving the points vs. moving the layers.)

Or are you trying to figure out how to layer the parts for rigging. If that's the case, you should break out the arms into their own layers or groups, and keep the torso in its own group. This allows you to rig the arms exclusively to their arm bones, and gives you the ability to move the arms behind or in front of the body. (Use Animated Layer Order for this.)

For the arms, you could probably keep all the artwork except the hands in one layer. You will probably want to place hand poses in a switch layer. (This is just one way to do it, and probably the most straightforward.)

For the torso, you can try to merge it all in one layer but, personally, I would keep it in at least three layers (right side with jacket and collar, left side with jacket and collar, and body/shirt) inside a 'torso' group. This will make it easier to do a full 180 turn if that's your goal because you will be able to hide the left and right sides in the turn.

Note about the jacket: I notice you cut out the area where the collar is laid over. This isn't necessary because the collar will cover it. It's best to avoid adding detail that you'll never see in the render because it can make the art unnecessarily complicated to animate/edit.

It sounds like you're trying to merge everything into a single layer? If this is the case, I highly recommend taking the above approach instead. Merging everything into a single layer can limit the possibilities for rigging and animating the character.

Anyway, that's one way to do it. There are endless ways to rig a character depending the design and on how you intend to animate it. The above is a fairly common approach without being too advanced. Hope this helps.

Help>Tutorials

Select the shapes with the Point Selection tool, cut the paths, select the layer you want to 'merge' it into and paste. The shapes will come with the paths, and you can use the Select Shape tool and arrow keys to shift the shapes stacking order.

Personally, I'd keep these in separate layers because layers are easier to re-sort and animate. But merging all your shapes into a single layer should be fine and there may be a reason you prefer that. For example, you may want to reshape all the shapes at once using the Magnet Tool. That can't be done across multiple layers unless you install a Magnet Tool mod. (This mod exists...a search should turn it up.)

Hope this helps.

Just put them on the same layer, that's all.

house10 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 10, 2021 6:01 pm i just want the shapes in layer to b merge join bind glued as one

It's called welding points. Moho user manual, pages 43, 46, 479, etc..

house10 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 10, 2021 12:47 am soo u saying select d shapes i want to merge, copy them and paste in a new layer? sorry i do not really understand sorry.

You need to select the paths (not shapes) with one of the Draw tools, like Select Points or Transform Points.

Just use the standard commands...

Ctrl-c = copy
Ctrl-x = cut
Ctrl-v = paste

You cannot copy a shape selected with the Select Shape tool and paste that because shapes are dependent on their paths.

It's important to understand the differences between Shapes and Paths in Moho--they are not the same thing. One way to tell what you've selected is by the highlights. If you see a checkerboard pattern or a red outline (when Checker Selection is disabled), you have selected shapes. When you see the points and bounding box highlighted, you have selected paths.

This concept is a bit tricky for beginners to grasp but once you get it, everything becomes much easier, so hang in there.

Hope this helps.

A 'Path' in Moho is the vector line (the points connected with lines) you create with any of Moho's vector drawing tools or with an external drawing program like Illustrator. A path can be open (a line) or closed (like a circle.) You cannot render a path. You select paths using the Select Points or Transform Points tools under the Draw category in the Tools window.

'Shapes' in Moho are the renderable elements with fills and strokes that you create from paths. For example, when you're creating your wireframe, you're making paths, and when you select your wireframes/paths with the Create Shape tool, you're creating shapes. You select Shapes using the Select Shapes tool under Fill category.

Shapes are independent of paths. For example, you can create multiple shapes from the same paths, and you can even create a complex single shape using multiple paths. For all practical purposes, paths do not have a stacking order, but you can certainly stack shapes, and you can even animate the stacking order of the shapes.

If it helps, think of paths as the skeleton of your drawing, and the shapes as the skin of your drawing. To the renderer, the paths are the unseen framework and the shapes are the parts it sees and renders.

Back to your situation...

I'm assuming you exported your artwork from Illustrator as vector art. If you exported it as a bitmap or some other format, you won't be able to edit it as vector art in Moho because paths won't exist there. If this was the case, you probably need to go back to Illustrator and export the art as SVG, the preferred format for external vector art in Moho(see the manual for more info.)

In your case, if you have actually imported vector art to Moho, you will use the Select Points tool or the Transform Points tool to select the paths, cut and the paste to your target layer. That's pretty much it.

If you don't see the points and wireframe when you try to select them, then you probably imported a bitmap. In fact, if you select a bitmap layer, you won't even see the Draw tools because they are only available when you select a vector layer. If you decide to work with a bitmap instead, your editing options are to use a mesh in Moho to deform it, and to use a paint program like Photoshop or Krita to edit the pixels.

This is all fundamental information about Moho, and I highly recommend you read the manual and do the drawing/rigging tutorials before going too much farther.

IMO, I think you're making this project more complicated than necessary by introducing a 3rd party program before learning the basics in Moho. It should be easy enough to import the PNG to Moho and trace it as vector art. Besides, if you're going to use Moho to rig and animate characters, you absolutely must become familiar with Moho's vector drawing and editing tools...at very least so you will be able to edit the vectors, regardless of where they come from. Otherwise, it can get frustrating to constantly jump back and forth between two programs when really only one is necessary for the task.

Hope this helps.