Rigging imported PSDs: quadrupeds

[alleycat216]

Hi, I’m new to learning Moho, and have been trying to find tutorials and examples similar to the projects I’m working on.

Right now I’m trying to rig some animal illustrations that were imported from PSD files, that will be animated in natural walking and running cycles. I haven’t been able to find that much information wrt these particular specifics. There’s one on YouTube showing a PSD file rig, which is mainly breaking up the illustrations into many layered components, making a bone layer for each body part and using layer binding. But the user has not uploaded any further information on animating the character yet.

I found the CK Animal Pack characters in the Moho Imports folder, which appear to be similar to what I’m doing. The layering and rigging are more simple than the previous example. Are those bitmap images? Is there a tutorial on how these were rigged? …Or more specifically, what was the binding method and bone strengths? (I'm assuming they were flexi-bound). Thanks in advance for your replies.

[jahnocli]

Victor Paredes did some great quadruped rigs a while back -- try searching the forum.

[Víctor Paredes]

It is a bit old, but can be useful

[alleycat216]

Thank you for your reply. I am aware of Victor's video on YouTube. As I recall, you're working with a vector image? I'm working with imported PSD files. Is there a difference in how the bones work with bitmap vs. vector images?

My image is more comparable to the cat in the CK Animal pack (included in the Moho software). But the file doesn't seem to provide any information about the bone strength settings or binding method.

[Greenlaw]

As I recall, you're working with a vector image? I'm working with imported PSD files. Is there a difference in how the bones work with bitmap vs. vector images?

My image is more comparable to the cat in the CK Animal pack (included in the Moho software). But the file doesn't seem to provide any information about the bone strength settings or binding method.

Vector art give you more animation choices for changing the shape and overall look of the shapes. It's better to go with vector art if you need the shapes to change without swapping the drawings.

Image layers are good for textural details and getting 'painterly' looks. But you're limited in how you can animate the artworks looks in Moho.

One intriguing capability of Moho is that It's possible mix both types of art to enjoy the features of both. You can do this by using image texture for the strokes and fills of vector shapes, or through masking effects. A lot of my earlier Moho animations for Dreamworks used combo techniques like this, and the HLF titles animation on my vimeo channel was entirely created this way.

As far as bone rigging vectors vs. image layers goes, you can get much of the benefits of vector layers by using Smart Warp meshes to deform the images. If you rig the bones to the Smart Warp meshes instead of the image layers, you're effectively animating the images as if they are vector art. This means you can do things like apply joint corrections in the image layer through a Smart Bone Action.

A few years ago, I actually animated many, MANY cats using Moho for a Boss Baby episode. It was actually a simple rig but pretty flexible for posing. You can see the cats in multiple shots on my recent DWA demo reel. Unfortunately, I don't have any of the running scenes on the reel but this same rig was capable of running and walking. I'll see if I can whip up a tutorial for a similar cat setup when I have some spare time.