fantasyrook1 wrote:Would you say its worth keeping both Toon Boom and AE after getting Moho? If so what is it that those 2 programs could do that Moho cant?
It depends on what you need the programs for.
For example, even though I think Moho's tools and workflow is much better for rigged character animation, Toon Boom is still stronger for frame by frame animation. Moho has recently seen a lot of improvements in its FBF tools but it has a way to go by comparison. I do occasionally use Moho's FBF tools for fx animations (fire, water, magma fx,) but it gets frustrating for anything more complicated than that. So if you intend to do a lot of FBF, you'll want to keep Toon Boom around. Also, if you already have assets and animations created in TB, you may want to be able to re-purpose that. And if you have After Effects, there's no reason you can't use both animation tools in a scene.
As for After Effects, I don't really consider it an 'character animation' program, not like Moho or Toon Boom anyway. AE is primarily a compositor and fx tool. If you add the DuIK plugin, it's possible to create similar 'Moho-style' rigged animations in AE but it's still not as easy, fast or as direct as animating in Moho.
Where AE shines is when you need to combine elements from various sources and add effects not available in Moho.
For example, I recently animated a couple of under water scenes which had waving water plants and seaweed. I animated one in Moho by rigging the plants and carefully animating wave cycles using the Sketch Bones tool. This worked fine but it did take more time than I wanted to spend. When the second scene came up, I created similar wave animations in AE by simply throwing a Wave filter on the elements, and it looked almost as nice as my hand animated ones in a fraction of the time and effort.
For other deformation effects, Smart Warp in Moho 12 has removed some of the need for Liquify and Puppet in AE. But I still use these AE warping tools from time to time, especially if the effect just a 'one-off' and not anything I really need to build into a rig.
Particle effects is another reason I use AE. Moho's particles tools are nice but they're also somewhat basic. I try to use them as much as I can but many times I have to turn to one of AE's particle systems. The one I usually turn to is Trapcode Particular. Trapcode is a third party particle system but, IMO, if you use AE, it's an essential add-on...
it's that good! In recent years, it's one of the reasons I've been using AE more than Fusion for work. (I still prefer Fusion for cgi compositing though.)
In many ways, Moho and AE are made for each other. The Moho Exporter and Layer Comps tools let you easily break apart your scenes and do things with Moho animations in AE that would be difficult, if not impossible to do with Moho alone. Without Exporter and Layer Comps, the process would be tedious (and it actually was only a few versions ago!)
You just have to decide what you need to get your tasks done and how much you want to invest in cost and the time it takes to learn the tools. For me, saving time is important but, also, these happen to be the tools I use at work.
TBH, you don't really need
all of these tools to do the job but having them can make it easier and give you a lot more creative options.