Moho Forum

Hi,..has anyone thought about producing a "Complete Visual Lesson Guide to Moho" DVD that covered all stages of Moho from a basic introduction to the tools, GUI and preferences, to the different step by steps in Bones, coloring, timelines etc.... all the way through to a complete animation sequence and finished animation project?

Just wondered. It would certainly be a big undertaking, but boy what a neat thing to have as an offering or companion to Moho 5!!!

TD

Usually a subject header like yours means "I found one" or "I've created one". If you're looking for something or asking for something, either use question marks instead of exclamation points in the subject, or put the post in a section specifically for things being requested/suggested.

I have a one minute cartoon completed using moho , flash, AE, sound Forge, and Actionsript. I have over 1 gig of completed source code ( moho files, Flash files, AE files, .avi, mp3s...).

I just have to find the time to put it all into a tutorial and create a DVD. I wrote a Flash book about 3 years ago. I'll never write another book. The publishers get ALL the money. It's not worth the time or effort to write a computer book anymore.

If I do any "technical documentation" I'll do it as a DVD and have a .pdf file (with source code and finished cartoon) or put togetther a bunch of WBTs on DVD and charge some serious money ($60.00 a pop - $25, 35 or $49.99 don't cut it. Good thing no cheap, cheap thing NO GOOD!!!!!).

It takes some "serious time" and effort to figure out all this "synergy" and create a cartoon that is on the "pro" level, let alone create a "book" or instructional DVD that unlocks how everything was done.

Yeah,..I know what you mean about the book deals. I think it would be great to have your expertise on DVD. That would be a colossal effort though. Ido wonder if there would be a market for such a disc. I think there would. Especially sice seeing is better than rading sometimes when it comes to instructions. I think Moho has pretty decent tutorials though so a DVD might be anice companion!

td

Question is, Do i really need to watch a video on how to animate in MoHo? Online tutorials, yes, Online Flash or something of th visual kind, yes, but a DVD?

Also how would you gain this DVD if Lost Marble don't want to ship MoHo as a packaged product?

And to be honest, theres nothing wrong the tutorials provided. They helped me alot and it got me on the right tracks.

cribble wrote:Also how would you gain this DVD if Lost Marble don't want to ship MoHo as a packaged product?

I think the suggestion is for someone else to create and sell this hypothetical DVD. Just like how you can buy third-party training books and videos for Photoshop, Flash, Maya, etc.

You would gain by being able to provide all the files needed to complete ac project. You could use up a gig really quick with all the moho, flash, avi, flv files needed to complete a cartoon.

Also you must remember that you would HAVE to use other programs, not just moho. To be useful the DVD would have to show how flash or AE fits in the production pipeline. Moho would be a section or part of the overall process. This way the DVD would be something that Flash users or AE sers would buy, not just Moho users.

The DVD is the only way to do this in a complete and easy to use/watch format. Plus it will cost you just as much (in time and money) to do it on DVD as it would CD-ROM.

People also tend to not "flip" at spending $30-70+ (USD) on a DVD.
Spending that same amount on a CD-ROM is a stretch. Using a DVD would also allow you to provide video (WBTs) and printed materials in one distribution.

The comprehensive tutorials Lost Marble has created go a long way to show the main tools in practice and should be enough for most people I think. Details can be discussed right here in this forum. Looking at a complete step-by-step seems a bit silly to me. Your workflow could and SHOULD differ from mine and others. Your work method and logic gives your animation originality, and simply following 1000s of steps will only make it harder to produce something unique.

Simple example; one person draws on paper, scans and traces in Moho, another designs in AI and converts to Moho and fine-tunes, yet another uses bitmaps and combines them in Moho and number four draws in Moho directly. And this is just one step. Would you buy a DVD from ONE guy/gal with a singular vision? I hope it fits your style...

Finally a bit more constructive advice from me (up until now it was moslty ranting). The BEST learning tool right now is the internet (both internets in fact ). Use a search engine to look for tip and tricks, examine many sites, many creative people and see the similarites and differences. See what fits you and extrapolate from that. Why does he do it that way? Oh I see, but what if... This is the difference between gathering information and actually using it. On my website (will be updated soon I promise) there is a simple bullet time effect in one of my clips, I've had many e-mails asking how I did it. I knew how the Matrix did it, i knew how amateurs did it on the web, then I figured out my own technique.

"Sound of me being kicked off soapbox"...And Moho is finished rendering

Reindert.
www.nobudgetvideo.com

The people @ LM should really think about this. A really good DVD training product showing how Moho works with Flash, AE, even powerpoint would be a good way to educate users as well as show how usefull Moho is in a production pipeline.

If Flash users could watch a DVD on how to use Moho in a Flash project They would BUY Moho. If users saw how using Moho "fit" into doing something in AE, AE users may BUY Moho.

Use the DVD training as a marketing tool. Just make the DVD a really good "technical trainer" using "real" full-scope projects, not marketing puff projects. LM could make some more loot, train users the "LM way" AND market Moho "all in one". Cisco and MS did very well doing this in the book/cd market in the 90's.

To be honest I think linking Moho to Macromedia/Adobe/Microsoft products is a bad idea. They might not like it if Moho is riding along on their brand recognition, maybe they have a competing product that they will push harder than before (the sleeping dogs lie thing) or maybe they just buy-out Moho and overpice it under their brand or dump it altogether.

Face it, Lost Marble doesn't stand a chance if they get mixed up with the big boys.

Just my 0,16 Eurocents...

Reindert.
www.nobudgetvideo.com

I think any experienced user of Flash, or After Effects, or LightWave, or... could figure out in a heartbeat how to use Moho together with their other software.

There's no "trick" to using multiple software programs together. Multimedia creators do it all the time, and would be unlikely to need training material to do such a thing.

Now, I can see where a Moho-specific book or DVD might help people get up to speed using Moho, but I think the sections on working with other programs can be kept to a minimum.

I agree with LM,...where I differ from others is that I would actually pop a DVD in and watch the lessons looooong before I select help or tutorials from the help menu. Everyone works/thinks differently. Sometimes I just like to "see" a program at work. You can read about a process all day long, but actually seeing it implemented is something different altogether. The fact that you can stop,..pause a DVD and follow along is not a bad thing. The fact that you can have menus so that one can jump right to where they may feel the need for a refresher or look at the process is nice. Will it work for all? Maybe not. This may not be the replacement for the help menu,..but just an alternative. I used the Moho tutorials before. They are fine. Nothing wrong. I personally would rather see it all come to life on a video and work along side of it. That's just me. Not right or wrong,..just me. A DVD also can house a ton of files so many different lessons can be placed on them with corresponding files if one should want to practice with the same files later. It was just a thought.

To many that have used Moho awhile,..this may seem silly,..to those who haven't maybe not. I know for a fact that visuals would be great in detail covering the bones feature. I followed the tutes pretty closely and still had some issues with the bones. It's an important feature that sets Moho apart,..a video showing several examples wouldn't hurt.

Anyway,..I'm slipping off my soapbox too. Gotta run...

td

I hang out at the 3D Game Studio community www.conitec.com and there have been a few good community ezines that are very popular -might be a market for a similar thing if there are enough Moho users.

One of the magazines is a free monthly job and there are two paid mags -about $5/month; one focuses on art stuff and one is a coding mag.

I am of course happy with all the free support but if there is a demand for more then maybe there is a niche market for a small group of individuals to create a Moho magazine.