Mesh, Photoshop and Old iMac

[Njord]

Have an old iMac (late 2012), which will only update OS to Catalina, 16 GB memory, NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 512 MB card. When I add a mesh to a PSD file (photo) and move to frame 1, the image shows within the mesh (and can be animated) but image is blank outside the mesh. Might I be correct in assuming I need to buy a new Mac? That my old iMac just doesn't have enough umph (vram)? (Sorry if topic already discussed, I couldn't find it)

[SimplSam]

If you buy a new Mac, you will see the same behaviour,because this is normal.

Only content covered by filled cells of the Mesh will be visible. This allows you to do such things as make holes in the Mesh for eyes (or similar)

[Njord]

If you buy a new Mac, you will see the same behaviour,because this is normal.

Only content covered by filled cells of the Mesh will be visible. This allows you to do such things as make holes in the Mesh for eyes (or similar)

Thanks for reply. I can't quite follow your explanation - I should have duplicates of imported psd file so mesh works like a mask? Yet, when I do a simple drawing (original image was a photo), it worked fine. The other thing, I've a problem with - if I break up the image into MORE than two layers, Moho will only bring in two layers using "Individually", and only show two layers if I use "select". Something is not working right.

[Víctor Paredes]

The mesh needs to be bigger than the image. Everything that is outside of the mesh won't be visible during the animation.
This short tutorial may help you:

[Greenlaw]

[I should have duplicates of imported psd file so mesh works like a mask? Yet, when I do a simple drawing (original image was a photo), it worked fine. The other thing, I've a problem with - if I break up the image into MORE than two layers, Moho will only bring in two layers using "Individually", and only show two layers if I use "select". Something is not working right.

Layered PSD Tips
I'm not exactly sure what you're describing but when you import a multi-layered PSD file, Moho will present you with 3 options...

1. Individually - this imports each layer in the PSD as a separate image layer in Moho.
2. Composite - 'flattens' the layered image to a single layer (note that this does not destructively flatten the original data in Photoshop.)
3. Select Layers - lets you choose which layers to import and imports each to a separate image layer.

If you're not seeing these options, then either...

1. you're using Debut, which can import PSD only as Composite. You need Moho Pro for all three options.

...or...

2. the PSD is not saved in a compatible PSD format.

When using PSD import, it's a very good idea to make sure your layers have clearly descriptive and unique names, otherwise you may run into trouble later if you need to revise the PSD in Photoshop. Moho uses layer names and layer IDs to identify layers, but when you create new layers, merge layers, or delete layers in Photoshop the layer IDs will change and this can confuse Moho about how to update the layers. In this case, having specific names for the layers can be critical.

Alternatively, you can use the free Photoshop script Photoshop-Export-Layers-To-Files Fast to save out the layers as PNG, and then import them to Moho. This is what I did for many years using Moho in TV production and it's very reliable. This method shoudl also work well for Debut.

That said, the layered PSD support in Moho Pro 13.5.5 is actually very reliable compared to how it was in previous versions of Moho.

Smart Warp Tips
When you create a Smart Warp layer, note that it applies only to the most recently selected layer. So if you select three layers, it will only get applied to the third layer in the selection. But you can still easily apply that Smart Warp Layer to all the layers at once.

After selecting the first layer and then choosing Create Smart Warp Layer, all three image layers and open the Layers Settings window (click on the three dots [...]). Now go to Image and select your Smart Warp Layer and click Apply. The Smart Warp is now applied to all three layers.

This assumes you want to use the same warping for all three layers. If that's the case, you probably could have just imported the image as Composite to simplify this setuip.

However, if you want to animate each layer differently, then you need to create a different Smart Warp layer for each of the other layers.

Hope this helps.

[Greenlaw]

Oh, and regarding masking, as mentioned earlier by SimplSam, regions of the mesh layer without filled shapes are rendered transparent, so you want shapes covering the pixels of your image that you want to see in the render. These shapes can be set to not render in their Layer Settings, or you can disable the layer visibility by clicking the eyeball icon in the Layers window. In other words, the shapes need to exist in the project to warp an image but they don't need to be visible to render the image.

While you can use this technique as a masking effect, experienced Moho users will typically combine that with an image's transparent background for more precise and detailed edges.

Here's an important tip: if you're going to use any mesh warping technique in Moho (not just Smart Mesh,) you cannot use the Crop tool with it. You'll get really weird and bad results if you do. When using a mesh warp, cropping is not necessary anyway, so if you applied cropping earlier you should remove it.

[Njord]

Many thanks, Victor (great tutorials and webinars), SimoleSam. Greenlaw, et al, for time spent on my queries. One of my errors was not checking closely that ALL of the image was included. As for not importing all Photoshop layers, a re-boot the next morning and it worked properly - do like the export layers to files, though. As for a new Mac, still considering: one, as this one will, at times, labour and crash with Moho; two, latest Adobe up-dates not compatible. We are good for now.