Moho Forum

Hi,
I have loved reading everyones forum post, and learning more of and about animation!

I cannot tell you how much this forum helped me with FAQ!

I will soon have some work i did coming out that maybe you guys will like.

Thanks & Animate ON!

also can anyone help me?
I was building a model and i forgot to put it on key frame 0, when i press play it shows it being formed how can i set everything back to keyfram 0?

it starts building on frame 71

Briton wrote:also can anyone help me?
I was building a model and i forgot to put it on key frame 0, when i press play it shows it being formed how can i set everything back to keyfram 0?

You'll need to locate the frame where the changes in the object were made. To do this:

1. Select the layer your object exists in from the layers window.
2. Advance the timeline to the point where the changes in your object end.
3. Select all of the keyframes for that object in the timeline that rest on that frame.
4. Click the "copy" button in the timeline window.

Now if you want these changes to exist at frame zero, you'll need to do the following:

1. In the timeline window, advance the timeline back to frame zero.
2. Click the "paste" button in the timeline window.

This will copy everything that was different about your object in the later frame to frame zero. As long as no keyframes exist between frame zero and the other frame in question, the object should not change or move.

Finally, if you need to have any animation between frame zero and the other frame, you'll probably want to remove the keyframes from the other frame, so your object doesn't begin to animate back to it's same state in frame zero.

To do this:

1. Advance the timeline back to the frame where you copied the keyframes.
2. Select all of the keyframes of the object.
3. Click the "delete" button in the timeline window.

Now any changes you make after frame zero will be preserved until the next keyframe(s) you create afterwards.

Thanks So Helpful!


Few... That saved me a restart

also how would i make a character blink? I built the eyes at just 2 round circles and 2 small round pupils, the hard part of it it the blinking method

Thanks again!
Brit

example of how i want my character to blink

http://cccharron.50webs.com/animatons/Scene2.mov

There's a couple ways one can go about creating a blink cycle... "fast" blinking and "slow" blinking. Both are fairly easy to pull off, but the "slow" version is a bit trickier to set up.

- Fast Blinking -

Typically, blinking is a fast motion which can be done in about 1/15th - 2/15ths of a second. (Basically, 2-4 frames at 30fps.) At those speeds, you generally don't need to bother creating an animated transition between the opened and closed state.



To do this kind of blinking:

1. Create a copy of your eye object.
2. Delete everything in the copy, except for the eye white.
3. Change the fill color of the eye white to match the color of your character's face.
4. Create a new group layer in your layer window.
5. Move both the eye layer and the modified layer to the group folder. (Placing the modified version on top.)
6. To open the eye, select the modified eye layer in the layer window.
7. Click the "..." button.
8. In the general tab, uncheck "visible", so the unmodified eye layer is visible.
9. To close the eye, check "visible" in the general tab to hide the eye again.

The timeline in moho tracks changes in the layer visible property. This is done to allow animators to swap out certain objects with others where shape tweening isn't possible.

Here's an example of the fast blink:

- http://www.bones3d.com/moho/fastblink.moho
(8K Moho 5.3 document)

- Slow Blink -

The slow blink is a blink that last longer than the 2-4 frames a fast blink uses. While you can use the fast blink method with a lot more layers, it's not really necessary. Instead, you can use layer masks. The advantage of using layer masks over layer swaps for blinking is that they can be tweened to create smooth movement.



To do this kind of blinking:

1. Create your eye object, using one layer for the eye white, and one for the pupil/iris.
2. Create another layer and draw a box slightly larger than the eye with a fill color similar to your character's face. (This will become the eyelid)
3. Move the box so that it is above the eye object.
4. Create a new layer group in the layers window.
5. Move all of your object layers to this group folder, making sure the eye white is at the bottom and the eyelid is at the top with the iris/pupil in between.
6. Select the layer group folder in the layers window.
7. Click the "..." button.
8. Under the masking tab, set the "group mask" to "hide all".
9. Select the eye white layer.
10. Click the "..." button.
11. Under the masking tab, set the "layer mask" to add to mask. (your eye white and pupil should become visible again.
12. Select the eyelid layer.
13. Advance the timeline ahead a few frames.
14. Move the box (which should look like an outline only at this point) so that it covers the eye white area.

If you advance the timeline back and forth, it should blink.

Here's an example:

- http://www.bones3d.com/moho/slowblink.moho
(8K Moho 5.3 document)

Holy Smokes Thats great! Thanks

is there any feature that lets me loop blinking if so how?

Thanks so much!
Brit

Briton wrote:is there any feature that lets me loop blinking if so how?

Yes and no...

There isn't really an automated way to do this, but you can do this by copying and pasting keyframes in the timeline where needed.

Here's an example of how to do this, using the slow blink file I uploaded earlier:

First, select the "eyelid" layer in the "layers" window to bring up it's timeline.

Next, do the following:



You can repeat this as many times as needed.

For the LOOPING, there's a really easy way to do this.

I imagine you're using SWITCH LAYERS to have an OPEN STATE and a CLOSED STATE for the blink.

Set the OPEN STATE for the blink at FRAME 1.

Make the SWITCH LAYER go to the BLINK STATE at, say, frame 50 on the timeline (or however long you want your character's eye to stay open).

Then, create ANOTHER keyframe which goes back to an OPEN STATE 2 frames later, on FRAME 52 (2 frames is good, make it longer if you want a longer CLOSED BLINK period, like 3 or 4 frames).

Then, RIGHT-CLICK that SWITCH LAYER that you created at key-frame 52, and click on CYCLE in the pop-up box. Then, type in '1' in the 'CYCLE BACK TO THIS EXACT FRAME' field.

Then, your character will blink every 52 frames. Cool hey.

If you're not yet familiar with SWITCH LAYERS and SWITCH FOLDERS, I recommend looking at some of the FAQ's in this forum. I really think this one feature is one of MOHO'S supreme strengths.

NIce Clap Clap!!!
Now how about when blinking, i realized as his eyes closed the outline disapeared... can i fix that?

Thanks
brit

Maybe the mask is hiding the outline? If this is the case one quick solution would be to duplicate the eye outline and delete any fill -you just want the ring. Place it on top of the eyelid mask layer. Someone will jump in and correct me if I got this worng.

Hmm.

What I would do is have a SWITCH GROUP. You'd do this by clicking on the 'CREATE NEW...' icon in the layers toolbar. Create a new SWITCH LAYER.

NOTE: All of this should be done on FRAME 0.

Then, I'd create a vector layer. I'd create the eye from here. Create it with the outlines and pupils and get it looking how you want it. I'd duplicate that eye within this layer so I have 2 eyes on my layer (I'm guessing you're animating a person with 2 eyes).

Then, dupilcate this layer, and modifying this duplicated layer, delete the pupils in both eyes, and fill the eyes with the colour of the eyelid (usually the colour of the face).

Now you should have 2 eye layers: one that looks like both eyes are open, and another that looks like both eyes are closed.

Then, rename these layers OPEN and CLOSED. Then rename the SWITCH LAYER to EYES.

Then, drag OPEN and CLOSED layers into the SWITCH LAYER. Now, you can only have either an OPEN state or a CLOSED state displaying at one time. And, you should have all the outlines and sizes exact for the eyes, the only difference is the one state is OPEN and the other is without the pupil and with a closed eyelid.

Then, do the CYCLE thing as I've described above.

I went with the assumption that he was using the slow blink example with a mask.

Oops. I went with the assumption he was using the fast-blink.

I haven't learned enough about masks to help you there. If you're going with the slow-blink, ask Bujape to give you a hand.