Moho Forum

I find that I have to constantly place 'neutral' keyframes right before a given action to prevent the desired action from slowly taking place over the course of an entire animation...for example... if I wanted to tilt the camera at frame 250 I would have to insert a keyframe at 249 in which I simply click the camera tilt once to prevent it from spending 250 frames slowly tilting the camera to my value as specified at frame 250. Is there some intuitive moho feature that I have simply overlooked, or is this standard procedure? It is easy to miss a frame and play back the animation to find things slooooowly floating into place and such...and while it is comical...it disrupts the workflow intensely and leads to extensive "debugging". Bear in mind that I am roughly two weeks into animation...therefore all that I know has been learned in that time.

Do you mean to use a "step" keyframe instead of a "smooth" keyframe? On your timeline, rightclick on your keyframe to choose the keyframe type.

This is how ALL computer animation is done.
It is the same in every application.

There is a "trick" you could use.

You could use the "step" keyframe interpolation on the first key frame... or which ever is the last key frame you want to "hold" until a change.

Then the next keyframe will "snap" to the new position. However you would not get any smooth motion if you use this.

-------------
This is one of the most common beginner questions I hear all the time.

I actually have a name for the confusion that results from this "problem".

I call it "Psychic Animation"... we would need software that could "read our minds" in order to do what you suggest.

How would the software know that you want the motion not to happen until a specific point in time if you don't specifically tell it to?

All animation "actions" require those 3 key frames. The two "holding" frames... before anything happens. The distance between those frames determines how long before something happens. Then the key frame of the action. The distance between the second keyframe and the action key frame determines how long the action takes to happen.

If something is not moving on frame 1... and you change that something on frame 100... when should the computer decide to start moving? Frame 75? Frame... 42? If you want it to "jump" to that position then you would use "Step Interpolation". But that doesn't really look very nice unless you want it to do that.

For instance... you put a key frame right before the one that changes. I usually put that key frame several frames before it so that the change is gradual... not really slow... but there is some motion.

In your solution the camera will change its angle in one quick step... someone else may want it to smoothly change.. 20 frames ahead... or quickly change... 5 frames ahead... there would be no way for an application to know what you intended.

I too get those sloooowww motions when i forget to key frame the pause before the action. I usually just copy a key frame from an earlier position and paste it in before the action.

-Vern

That all makes perfect sense. I suppose initially it just seemed natural that if I had not used a feature until a given fram...the feature would "not exist" until then. In essence I was denying the reality of frame zero...and superimposing a fantasy world in which keyframes placed beyond it were somehow intelligent and responsible.

Without being able to apply a name to the "keyframe of death" right before my intended action I was reluctant to take it seriously. Now I suppose I am free to call it an anchor...or a reference frame...or a key....frame....!

Indeed, I appreciate the detailed explanation. Much of the difficulty I find in Moho lies in my overcomplication of the incredibly intuitive interface.

I have found that a lot of people buy software... then they confuse a lack of animation knowledge as a potential failing in the software.

Not suggesting that is the case with you at all... but that has been my experience. Sometimes I find it quite humorous.

For instance... there was talk a while back about something called "The Moho Flow".

It didn't have anything to do with Moho... it had to do with animation techniques and placement of key frames... but as a new user I had no idea what this "bug" was that people were talking about... I couldn't find it.

It can be difficult to learn animation AND software at the same time.

-Vern