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nixiejames
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freehand not registering

Post by nixiejames »

i just started learning moho using my pen tablet and i have a few questions so far.

how come whenever i use freehand, sometimes my drawn lines just disappear right after i release my pen from the tablet?

why is it when i fill a closed figure with the paint bucket tool, it generates an excessive and unnecessary amount of points around the edges?

how to i create a closed figure just by using 'add point' and without auto-weld on?

what is the best way to export images from clip studio for importing to moho for animation? i usually just export current layer to png.
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Greenlaw
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Re: freehand not registering

Post by Greenlaw »

nixiejames wrote:how come whenever i use freehand, sometimes my drawn lines just disappear right after i release my pen from the tablet?
Without seeing a screen cap or example, I can only guess. One possible scenario might be that you don't have auto-stroke enabled and maybe path is disabled in the display settings. Without a stroke, there is nothing to render, and is path is disabled, you will not even see the vector lines on the screen. There can be other reasons for this.

It's important to understand the there are two parts to elements drawn in Moho, paths and shapes. Paths are guides in Moho which have mutliple functions in Moho. By themselves, they do not render. Shapes are separate renderable elements that can be created from paths; you can even create multiple shapes from the same paths or portions of paths.
why is it when i fill a closed figure with the paint bucket tool, it generates an excessive and unnecessary amount of points around the edges?
My understanding is that paint bucket first generates a bitmap fill and then auto-traces it to create a separate fill shape. This is not the same as selecting the boundary ponts and creating a new fill shape, which would give you and accurate point-to-point match. Paint Bucket gives you flexibility in creating fill shapes more quickly where you might not concerned about that level of accuracy. Also, Paint Bucket can work on regions that may not be completely closed.

In general, I avoid using Paint Bucket when I'm creating vectors for bones deformation, but it's useful when I need to use the FBF layer or making a non-deforming element.
how to i create a closed figure just by using 'add point' and without auto-weld on?
Use the Create Shape tool.
what is the best way to export images from clip studio for importing to moho for animation? i usually just export current layer to png.
You'll need to save the images in a format Moho can read, like PNG or PSD.

I'm not 100% certain but I don't believe Clip Studio is able to export vectors, not even SVG. If you want to create vectors in another program, you should use Illustrator or Krita. IMO, if you're going to be deforming the vectors, it's best to do this directly inside Moho using the Add Point and Create Shape tools.

At work, we used a combo of bitmaps and vectors in some of our ealier work. You can see this in All Hail King Julian and in some later Puss and Croods episodes. Most recently we did all the 2D parts for Boss Baby completely with Moho's vectors tools. (I mean the characters and props; the BG art was usually Photoshop.) It really depends on the style of animation you want and how you intend to animate the designs. Vectors give you accurate deformations, and the abiity to animate the points and special properties of strokes and fills. Bitmaps do not have all of these capabilities but you can paint a lot more detail into bitmap images, and get very good deformations if you use mesh layers to warp them. Both types of layers can use masking tricks, and vectors and bitmaps can even be combined in the same layer (via, Image Texture, for example.)

I think a mistake new users can make is to make assumptions about how the tools should work in Moho before understanding how Moho's tools are meant to work. Be sure to go through all the tutorials and browse the manual because many Moho tools and techniques may not work the way you expect. I know this frustrated me a bit when I was starting out. But when I saw many inspiring things created by other Moho artists, I persisted. For me, the key was to start with simple tests and experiments, and use what I learned as building blocks for a bigger project. Gradually, 'the Moho process' clicked for me and I was able to design a couple fo shorts around Moho's tools.

What I found over the years is that working in Moho is very different from traditional drawn animation. It's really more like working in 3D animation, so it helps if you have experience in both types of animation. If you don't have experience in either, don't worry about it...you just have to keep an open mind about how it works.

Hope this helps.
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hayasidist
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Re: freehand not registering

Post by hayasidist »

yeah - like Greenlaw said - except there's maybe a step missing in the question about auto-weld...
nixiejames wrote:how to i create a closed figure just by using 'add point' and without auto-weld on?
to close the path you'll need to use manual weld. To weld points when Auto Weld is off: ... drag _one_ point on top of another and press the Enter key to weld them together into one point. for more info -- assuming you are on Moho 12 -- see the manual page 44/45


Note that the add point tool creates a PATH and you then need to create one or more SHAPEs from that path - either automatically (if you have auto fill / auto stroke on you'll get a shape with fill and/or stroke) or manually using the create shape tool.
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justoshow
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Re: freehand not registering

Post by justoshow »

nixiejames wrote:how to i create a closed figure just by using 'add point' and without auto-weld on?
You could just check the autoweld with trim on start and end and close your line and then uncheck weld unto you need to close it again. Thats what I do with my pen tablet.
chucky
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Re: freehand not registering

Post by chucky »

I should make a sticky on this Eh?

Set the freehand to these settings for a better result, and make sure gpu display is ON.
You can turns paths off too , brut this is not necessary using these settings.
Especially auto weld off, which really Interferes with freehand. You can always merge points later with the select tool.

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