Moho Forum

anyone use Davinci resolve to add lighting in post or perhaps another program? Any recommendations?

I'm assuming you mean using Fusion in Davinci Resolve. I don't use Resolve but I use the standalone version of Fusion, and yes, you can use it to add lighting effects to any 2D and 3D media. This is typically done through manipulating the alpha channel as mask, using normal maps, and using the built-in lighting system. And that's just the basics.

Nuke is very similar for lighting effects, and it's what I use at my workplace. Nuke is very powerful but I still sometimes use Fusion at home because 1.) it's about as powerful, 2.) it's easier to use, 3.) it's a whole lot cheaper. (TBH, I haven't used Fusion as much at home lately because I haven't done much film/VFX work since I got involved with TV cartoons.)

For Moho, I tend to prefer to use After Effects. It's not as powerful for compositing as node based compositing programs like Fusion and Nuke, but it's easier and more capable for manipulating 2D imagery like cartoons. I also use After Effects at my workplace too, often alongside Nuke, usually because I do a lot hybrid 2D/3D animations there. Many of the concepts for lighting 2D in the other compositing programs apply in Ae, except Ae is a layer based compositor (think Photoshop but with animation.) Ae is pretty much the standard for motion graphics; I've occasionally had to create motion graphics in Fusion and Nuke, and it really is easier to do this type of animation in Ae.

For normal live/3D/VFX compositing, Ae's workflow is not as efficient or flexible as Fusion or Nuke but some of its unique tools and its wealth of third-party plugins and scripts can make up for that. Even though I create nearly all of my lighting effects from scratch in Ae (by manipulating alphas in precomps), there are a few plug-ins you can buy that give you nice results in a couple of clicks. This is one I use at home when I'm a hurry:



Natively, Ae has some simple built-in 2D lighting tools found under Layer Styles, and it also has the regular 3D lights found in other 3D animation and compositing programs. You can use normal maps too if you have them.

I recommend any of these tools for lighting and compositing Moho renders. Fusion is probably the least expensive if you want to own the software but it's probably not the best if you only work in cartoons. It's real power is in composting live action with 3D and VFX. You can work in 2D with it though; my first Moho project Scareplane was entirely composited using Nuke, including much of lighting effects. (The lighting on the characters was native Moho though.)

But if 2D is all you do, Ae is a good choice, especially if you think you can use other programs in Adobe's CC package. (There's a ton of useful programs included and I use many of them almost daily.)

I used to have Hitfilm, which is similar to Ae and probably a good choice if you prefer to own the program. TBH, I don't have a lot of experience with Hitfilm because I've always used Fusion and Ae at home, but I know its users speak highly of it.

All that said, Moho is very capable of lighting too and I often use Moho's lighting tools directly on the characters or for rendering elements used to assemble lighting effects in a composting program. (Layer Comps and Reference layers are ideal for this. Also add Synthsin75's Import Layer Comps script if you need to reuse your Layer Comps in multiple projects. See the Kung Fu Panda footage on my 2019 demo reel for examples of this lighting technique.)

Hope this helps.

All that said, Moho is very capable of lighting too and I often use Moho's lighting tools directly on the characters or for rendering elements used to assemble lighting effects in a composting program. (Layer Comps and Reference layers are ideal for this. Also add Synthsin75's Import Layer Comps script if you need to reuse your Layer Comps in multiple projects. See the Kung Fu Panda footage on my 2019 demo reel for examples of this lighting technique.)

I still haven't figured out how to use or what the layer comps would be for. Is there a tutorial or demo I can see?

Layer Comps are incredibly useful in Moho for rig development, improving performance during animation, and for generating render passes if you composite in another program.

Basically, you use Layer Comps to make 'presets' for what to show and hide in the Layers Window or during rendering.

For example, when rigging, you might want to concentrate on only the elements for the head and face, so you can create a Layer Comp called Head to hide everything but those elements. When you're done, you can have Layer Comps show all layers, or if you created a 'master' Layer Comp to show only the layers you wish to see by default, you can choose that Layer Comp. (Before using Layer Comps, I recommend creating a 'master' layer comp before creating other layer comps.) Then, when you need to concentrate on only the head again, choose the Head Layer Comp.

During animation, you might want to improve Moho's performance by creating a layer comp that hides the background, image sequences, and anything you don't need to see to animate with, like any characters or effects you're not currently working with. This can improve Moho's performance dramatically. When you're ready to render, show all or choose your 'master' Layer Comp.

When rendering for compositing, you can use Layer Comps to break out your project into multiple render passes. For example, create a layer comp for the background, midground, foreground, individual characters, effects, etc. Then, when you're ready to render, launch Moho Exporter. If you saved the project, it should automatically load. Next, choose your render settings, notably the output path. Now click the Split button and that will break the project into multiple projects, one for each layer comp. You can delete any layer comps you don't wish to render, and then click Render. Moho will render each Layer Comp to it's own folder. This happens in the background, so you can continue to work on something else in Moho while Moho renders.

Some tips:

When using Moho Exporter, you can save a render profile so you don't need to keep changing the settings every time you need to render. Just load the render profile and go.

When saving a Moho project for render, save two versions. In a WIP (work-in-progress) folder, save your work file. Here you can increment versions of your file as you work on it. For final rendering, save a 'master' version of your file outside the WIP folder...this version should not have a version number in its name. When you're ready to render, always overwrite this file with your latest version. When you render with Moho Exporter, create a profile that always loads this file with your preferred output path. This way, when Moho Exporter is rendering, you can be sure it will always overwrite your previous version because the file name will always be consistent. (Incrementing the project name with version numbers really messes up this workflow, so always render with an unnumbered master version.)

Using the Layer Comps window itself is pretty easy.

1. Click the Plus button to create and name your layer comp.
2. Show/hide the layers for that layer comp in the Layers Windows.
3. Click the Update button. This saves the current Layers Window state to the Layer comp.
4. To load a different layer comp, select it and then click the Expose Visibility Button.
5. Delete, Show All Layers and Hide All Layers are self-explanatory. As mentioned earlier, I suggest making a Master layer comp because this can be different from using Show All Layers if you use special layers you don't wish to render (like guide layers or animatic references.)

Layer Comps even lets you create presets for Timeline Visibility!

One critical 'missing' feature in layer comps is that you can't save and load existing layer comps for other projects using the same assets, and layer comps do not transfer when you import a project. Luckily, Wes wrote a handy Import Layer Comp script that solves this problem. You can get it here:

*NEW* Import layer comps script

Hope helps.