Moho Animation Forum

Hello! I've got a head tilt and head turn action going both ways. I'd like to have my character's face look correct when mixing the controls. What is the technique for correcting the shapes? Does there need to be additional actions or do I keyframe on certain actions?

My particular issue is that when I turn my character's head all the way to one side and down, his eyes get all mushed. I'd like to know where I need to apply the shape fixes.

Thanks!

I prefer to split the motion axis between different items. For example, have one Smart Bone affect the X-motion in points, and another Smart Bone affect the Y-motion in a bone moving bound points. Alternatively, the second Smart Bone might control the Y-motion in a layer transform, Mesh Warp, or another deformer. The point (ha ha) is to use something besides point animation to affect the Y-motion.

Splitting the motion like this ensures there is no conflict between the two Smart bones. This trick works for many common situations, such as a head turn. Naturally, this also depends on the character design and animation style, but it worked for many of the characters I rigged and animated at DreamWorks.

A more advanced approach is called Mixed Smart Bones, developed by Mult Rush and A.Evseeva. This clever method uses a hidden third smart bone, driven by the main Smart Bones, to compensate for unwanted distortions. To learn about it, watch this video:

Mixed Smart Bones In Moho

A.Evseeva wrote this handy script that can automate a basic setup:

AE Mix Smartbones

I highly recommend learning how to do this manually first because the script may not necessarily work exactly the way you want, in which case you'll need to know how to edit the results. FWIW, I tend to always do my setup manually unless I'm pretty sure the tool will do what I want perfectly. It's really not a big deal once you understand the technique.

Hope this helps.

Thank you so much for the response!

I agree, I usually like to understand the basics approach or the non-script/plug-in way before I attempt savvier options.

I've uploaded a video that hopefully can be an aid to my issue: https://youtu.be/H621occljco

Just so I understand what you mean by X and Y clearly, do you mean essentially what I've done here? As you can see his eyes get mushy towards the end.

Is the mistake that I made animating a pose that is not very orthographic? I know that the projection of his head is already on a mixed axis of sorts. I don't plan on using this character rig beyond this scene so I wasn't too worried about doing a full turn around.

Is this correctable as a rig, or am I going to have to resort to just manually keying it on the timeline?

Thank you again!