rigging process in Moho

[Greenlaw]

I disagree about the rigging part...I warmed up to Moho rigging pretty quickly when I started taking Moho seriously in v9.5. I'm not aware of another 2D puppet animation program where the rigging is easier and as flexible as what we have in Moho, and I've used all the major ones in production. I admit that it helps to have a 3D rigging/animation background because of the familiarity with concepts, terminology, and tools, but it's not necessary.

That said, I think the process for refitting an existing skeleton for a new character is easier in many 3D programs. I would like to see some improvement in that area for Moho's 2D rigs.

I totally agree about animating in Moho. This part is efficient and it's a joy to work with. Once the rigging is completed, I'm amazed by how quickly I can animate with Moho.

Re: the two Actions limit for Smart Bones, I think it could be neat to get a third Action option for scaling the bone.* There are some workaround tricks to achieve this by using a second Smart Bone with a constraints to the first bone...but, yeah, a scaling option should be built-in. That said, not having this option hasn't kept me from using Moho successfully for many TV shows.

*For that matter, maybe a fourth Action for z-pos? Just a thought.

[Greenlaw]

Just wondering: what do you find too limiting about Smart Bones being limited to rotation only?

I mentioned that it might be nice to have options for Smart Bone scaling and z-pos in the previous post but these aren't deal killers for me. I guess Smart Bone Actions for x/y screen positions might be another. But off the top of my head, I'm not sure how I would use these options. (I'm sure I could think of something if I put in an honest effort.)

I'm curious to hear about what other options you would like to see and in what situations you would use them.

[Greenlaw]

All that said, even being limited to only rotation for Smart Bones Actions, I find this feature is incredibly powerful, especially since I'm also allowed daisy chain multiple Smart Bone Actions, use constraints, and even nest Smart Bone Actions into other bone layers. So, I wouldn't say having only rotational available for a Smart Bone control is really that limiting.

What would be REALLY cool is to get additional controls objects besides bones for Smart Bone Actions, like sliders, knobs and buttons. (Smart Object Actions?) In a future release, I'd love to see something like a 'Smart UI' kit come to Moho that we can use to further customize how users control a rig.

[Greenlaw]

i do end up completing a rig but its no joy, like i have to use action on each joint.

For joints with vector art, I've taken to adding a hidden (Shy Bone) elbow/knee bone constrained to rotate 50% of the lower limb's rotation, and then I point bind the points around the joint to the elbow/knee bone. This helps preserve the volume of the shape around the joint when it bends. Then I add a Smart Bone Action to change the curvature from smooth to peak at frame 1 on the inside of the bend, and I mirror this in the counter-rotation Action. This method has worked very well for most vector based characters I've rigged in recent years and it only takes a few minutes to set up. Here's an example...



There is only 1 keyframe in each Smart Bone Action and that's for the curvature change at frame 1. No point animation required. Easy peasy!

Note: Normally the elbow point would be hidden but I left it visible here for demo purposes. The reason I use Shy Bone on the elbow/knee bone is to prevent it from being unintentionally keyframed by the animator. This bone should never be keyframed on the Mainline.

Prior to using this technique, I had to add point animations in the Smart Bone Actions to correct unwanted joint deformation in the bend. This method may seem obvious but it's also more finicky and time consuming to do correctly. With the elbow/knee bone method described above, the point correction in the Action usually isn't necessary. There have been a few designs where I still needed to add some point corrections in the Action but it's been minor because the elbow/knee bone does most of the work in preserving the shape.

BTW, I picked that trick up from Victor a while back and it's been my 'go to' trick for rigging vector art ever since. I believe he even made a video about it. A search in these forums should turn it up if you need more details.

Hope this helps.

[Greenlaw]

Thanks for asking! I have three Moho-related videos on Vimeo but they're not specifically about rigging. FWIW, you can find tips in the videos that may help with rigging.

https://vimeo.com/littlegreendog

I have two longer format videos in progress but TBH, these projects have been 'in-progress' for some time now. Sigh! I really should be writing shorter videos if I want to release anything new this year.

Anyway, I think I can release these during the upcoming spring break. To be clear, these are introductory videos. After I get these off my plate, I'll switch gears and start recording (shorter!) advanced topic videos, hopefully with better regularity.

[Palhil]

What would be REALLY cool is to get additional controls objects besides bones for Smart Bone Actions, like sliders, knobs and buttons. (Smart Object Actions?) In a future release, I'd love to see something like a 'Smart UI' kit come to Moho that we can use to further customize how users control a rig.

Yes, this is a feature I have been thinking would be welcome. Smart Bone Actions are good but when the bones are used as controllers they look a bit like an afterthought in terms of design. I'd like it if you could create a separate floating control panel window where you could build sliders, joysticks and buttons. This would allow you to keep the visual controller clutter away from the character you are animating.

[Greenlaw]

Yes, this is a feature I have been thinking would be welcome. Smart Bone Actions are good but when the bones are used as controllers they look a bit like an afterthought in terms of design. I'd like it if you could create a separate floating control panel window where you could build sliders, joysticks and buttons. This would allow you to keep the visual controller clutter away from the character you are animating.

The following is NOT the custom Smart Bones UI kit we've been discussing, but last year SimplSam wrote a clever script that lets you create your own custom bone graphics:

Virtual Bones - Create, Display & Render custom vector bones

It's interesting to see what's possible even in the current version of Moho.

As for the look of using bones as dials, yeah, this bugged me in the early days of the feature. I've grown accustomed to it since I've been using Moho is studio productions for quite a while now, but at minimum I would like to see improvements made to how the label appears around the dial.

I would prefer that the bone label didn't bounce around as the dial turns, and if I could lock the label in place I'd also like to be able to choose its position, alignment and other properties. This should be an optional feature because there are situations where the current bone label system works just fine. I think this small improvement alone can make for a nicer Smart Bone Dial UI experience. (For now, I use a Note layer instead of the bone label whenever I feel the UI layout is really important. You can bind every SBD and Note to a master 'mover' bone to keep everything together. Tip: Make sure Enable Note Layer Scaling is on or it can get messy.)