Moho Animation Forum

This is my first post, sorry if its bad
If we could control the soft edge blur size with something like the width tool you could achieve a shape with hard and soft edges, allowing for better lighting like Klaus. Id imagine it work for both soft edge fill and soft edge line, perhaps it would be an extra option on the width tool that would only show on shapes that have soft edge on.
The closest thing we have to achieve a shape with hard and soft edges is the colorpoints tool, but it is very limited in the shapes it can create, its better used for gradients.

Hi trufflefluffle!

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but there are currently several ways to blur images and edges to create the Klaus-look you mention. These features are also keyframeable.

In Layer Settings for Vector, Image, and Group layers, there is Blur Edges. This property blurs the entire layer. There are also Layer Shading options under the Shadows tab.

In Styles, there are Effects that can blur the Fill and/or Stroke of a Shape. For example:

- Shaded: This Effect can blur the shading's edge, an effect that looks very much like what you see in Klaus. It can be applied to the Fill and/or Stroke for different effects.

- Soft Edge: This blurs the edge of the Fill area or the Stroke, depending on where it's applied.

- Halo: applies a blurred color around the edges inward, preserving the regular outer edges.

- Gradient: Technically, a gradient shading effect, but it can be adapted to create very colorful lighting effects.

Any of these properties and effects can be masked, allowing arbitrary shapes for shading to get the Klaus-look.

Try playing around with them. I've been using these options to shade characters seen in TV shows for many years, and they work great.

Note that some effects may not be visible in the Workspace, and you will need to use Ctrl-R to see how they look when rendered. Generally speaking, when you're in the shading stage in Moho, you should use Ctrl-R often to preview the result. The live preview is an approximate image, optimized for performance, and is not necessarily an accurate representation of the final render quality.

Hope this helps.

Here's an example from a Little Green Dog Channel project I've been working on...



This character was created for an upcoming YouTube shorts series and tutorial video, and it's drawn entirely in Moho using some of the techniques described above, using the Blur Radius Layer Property, Soft Edge, Shaded, Gradient, and Masking for the shading and lighting effects.

It's been a while since I drew this, but I think I'm also using the Shadow and Shading properties found in Layer Settings, with Clip To Group enabled in some instances. Regardless, these are also good options for achieving soft shading and soft shadow-edge effects.

Hope this helps you get started.

Note: After the series and tutorial video are complete and uploaded, the character project file will be available on our Ko-Fi page.

One last set of examples:



The two upper circles use the Soft Edge Effect, and the only difference between them is that I've changed the Stroke Width. The Soft Edge is applied to only the Strokes for both circles, using the same settings. Because the Effect is applied only to the Stroke, the Fill is not affected...which can be useful when there are details inside this region.

In the lower left, I applied the Shaded Effect. This is probably the easiest and most common method. The effect is basically offsetting the alpha of the entire layer, blurring it, and then applying it as shading. It can be applied to the Fill (as seen here) and/or applied to the Stroke, but normally, you would apply this Effect only to the Fill. If you want to apply this effect globally to an entire character, use the Layer Shading property found in the Parent Group's Layer Settings instead.

To the right is an oddly shaded circle. This is an example of using an arbitrary shape, masked by the circle as a shading effect. I'm using the Exclude Strokes option to hold out the hard edge. This method is useful when the shading needs to represent more realistic shadows than what the Shaded Effect can create, such as a side-lit face viewed from the front.

There are many ways to mix and match these Effects, properties, and techniques, so definitely play around with them. Also, some (most?) of these features are keyframeable, so if you wish, you can control them using Smart Bone Dials.

Hopefully, what's already available in Moho will meet your needs.

Since you mention Klaus, you might be interested in the videos here: viewtopic.php?t=33459
Shows what can already be done in Moho, granted almost ten years ago.

The only problem I have with masking is that my computer lags soooooo much when I use even the simplest of masking and gpu caching, and I have a good computer meant for blender (Though it is windows 11...), If I could fix the masking problem, i think I could achieve what I want in my animations. Ive achieved the look I want in other programs, but they are sooooo finicky and time consuming when it comes to animating the points of the shape. Which is why I would like this feature in moho as it would cut the time in half from using other programs and masks.
If anyone could help me with the masking problem, like making it lag less, would be appreciated

Here is what I did in other programs. I used blender and a bit of ebsynth for an overpaint.
[youtube]https://youtu.be/iKzZzc2xUIE?si=XOBIG8G_YsTpW_Dq[/youtube]
[youtube]https://youtu.be/oRzRxtU9Hu8?si=fjOCikSJc2IgB4bL[/youtube]

trufflefluffle wrote: ↑Sun Jan 11, 2026 8:41 am The only problem I have with masking is that my computer lags soooooo much when I use even the simplest of masking and gpu caching, and I have a good computer meant for blender (Though it is windows 11...), If I could fix the masking problem...

I'm not sure I've ever seen a lag caused by masking. Can you post an example? Uploading an actual project file for investigation would be best.

The type of lagging I've seen in Moho is usually caused by one of two things:

Unintended Negative Keyframes. This is a bug where Moho creates one or more keyframes thousands of frames before frame 0. I believe the lag is caused by unnecessary processing between the negative keyframes and frame 0. To detect and fix this error, use Synthsin75's Find & Delete Negative Keyframes script.

If I suddenly notice a lag in a project, this is the first thing I check.

Deforming Many High-Resolution Images. This type of lag can be compounded by excessively high-density custom meshes. In these situations, there are multiple ways to improve performance; usually, a combination of methods works best. Some suggestions...

- Try turning off or turning on GPU Caching.
- Simplify the Custom Mesh (i.e., reduce its poly-count or optimize the structure.)
- Reduce the resolution of images that don't need the extra resolution.
- Merge image layers that don't need to be separated. This may be easier to do with a Layered PSD in the native paint program. Be sure to give the layers clearly descriptive names.
- Does it have to be an image layer? In some situations, I'll take a hybrid approach and use simpler vector art that resembles a bitmap and fill the interior and strokes with lower-res or tiling images. This was typical of my early DreamWorks setups for Puss In Boots, All Hail King Julian, The Croods, and some of my personal work like the Hearts Like Fists animations, and real-time performance was always very smooth, even on modestly powered devices.
- Besides GPU Cache, try disabling some of the other display settings.
- Hiding layers you don't need to see for animation can also help. The Hide In Editing layer option is good for this workflow; it hides the layer while I'm animating the project, but allows Moho to render it.

Imported video files is another one. I don't typically do this in Moho. If I need to import video or animated footage, I'll use an Image Sequence instead. If the footage is only for reference, use JPEG...it streams well even across a slow network. For footage that will be rendered, use PNG. Otherwise, it's probably better to comp the footage in a dedicated compositing program like After Effects or Fusion.

I guess the audio format could be another one. I always use uncompressed .wav or .aif. 16-bit works reliably in most animation programs; I'm not sure Moho really cares about that, but I know it's important in other programs I've used (like Maya.) Using an uncompressed .wav or .ait is especially important for frame accuracy when animating lipsync.

These are a few things that come to mind. Let me know if any of them help.

Allow Frame Skipping is another option to consider. I often have this on, and I usually still see reasonably accurate playback in my projects (of actual production animation, not just the simple demo anims seen in my tutorials.) When I need to be sure, I'll use the Preview Animation command for real-time playback.

One lagging situation from a long, long time ago (an early version 10, I think,) was that Moho could bog down when the Enable Bone Dynamics option was active. This should not be a problem in Moho 14.4, but try it just in case.