Moho 14 - Issue with complicated masking on canvas. GPU disabling missing in this version?

[kenchtahm]

You're welcome!
If you are going to dive into liquid shapes, I totally recomend you to use the Shapes window script, by Rai López: viewtopic.php?t=36508.
It makes so much easier to understand and use liquid shapes. I was having a hard time understanding them without it.

Awesome, thank you! I'll look into this for sure!

The way you built that masking layer seems problematic, to me. Why include the lips, for example, since they are excluded from the mask?

Perhaps try this: delete "Mask for inside of mouth" and use the layer "Mouth Fill" as the mask (which is, I presume, the dark space inside of the mouth). It's simpler, imo.

The reason I have it set up like that is that I'm trying to do a switch layer for the mouth on a 180 turning head. In theory, the mouth stuff would be clipped by the head when it's at the edge, but I don't want all of the inside of the mouth to go to the edge of the head. Greenlaw's example shows where I want to be when the head is turned sideways.

Hi Matt,

The way I dealt with this in Boss Baby was to carve out a hole in the profile so I could insert any shape I wanted using a Switch layer. Like so...



This method was preferable because it didn't require complex masking techniques. Simply and literally, this is "what you see is what you get."

So, would I use Liquid Shapes for this situation in 2023? Probably not. Liquid Shapes is a fantastic new feature, and I've started using it in the shows I work on, but a limitation with Liquid Shapes is that all the shapes need to exist in a single layer for them to work. For me, the 'cutout' method described above offers more flexibility and control in this situation than I would have with Liquid Shapes.

Now, I did use Liquid Shapes in the above example for the eye. This was a suitable choice because, once again, I didn't need to use a complex masking technique, I just enabled Liquid Shapes for the pupil to let the eye shape mask it out. Easy peasy.



As with many things Moho, there are a dozen ways to accomplish something, and some are better suited than others in specific situations. Just give these a try and see if they work for you. If they don't, you have ten more ways to try.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for this! Like I mentioned above, this is more or less exactly the effect I'm going for, but it's on a head that I'm hoping to be able to turn 180 degrees (This is challenging enough, I can deal with the back of the head in a different setup if I really need it). My main problem is that I'm used to the masking setups in After effects being a little easier to deal with, especially once you start getting into subcomps. In theory, I was hoping to eventually somehow reference the switch group as a mask for the head as well to make a cutout similar to what you have there, but I'm getting stuck in how Moho deals with some of this.

Your followup example with the full head is pretty close to what I'm looking for, but I also want the inside of the mouth to move in perspective so I have a good solid negative space when the mouth is open in profile, like you have in your boss baby example. I'm having trouble juggling both the head mask and the mouth while using switch layers for the mouth shapes. Originally I was going to use actions to drive the mouth movements like I've done with other characters, but I've heard this way is a bit better, and I found a few cool scripts that make working with switch layers much easier.

I guess my main question at this point (and I apologize for drifting so far from the initial glitch I was having in this part of the forum) is, am I just overcomplicating this, and should go back to the way it was working before?

I appreciate all the help, everyone!! I'm going to play around with liquid shapes tonight either way, always useful to have more tools in the belt.

[Greenlaw]

Your followup example with the full head is pretty close to what I'm looking for, but I also want the inside of the mouth to move in perspective so I have a good solid negative space when the mouth is open in profile, like you have in your boss baby example.

I should have clarified that in Boss Baby, while the characters could turn 360 degrees, they were only partially smooth-turning.

For the smooth part, the characters could turn their head smoothly from front view to a little over 3Qtr view in either direction, and then the head would switch to the profile view shown above. Then the head turned from back 3Qtr, to back, and to back 3Qtr, before switching to the opposing profile, and then completing the turn with a smooth front 3Q to front view. So, essentially, I had four Switch positions covering 8+ views, with the front and back positions covering a 3Qtr-to-3Qtr plus range.

The facial features and their pose (i.e., mouth shapes) stayed in sync when I used a Smart Bone to change the view because I created paraless 'front' and side' versions of the features and has the Smart Bone control both versions simultaneously. This did cause a slight 'pop' when switching from front 3Q view to side view, but the pop was not noticeable during animation because I'd have the character move into that view. It's a performative trick and an effective way to hide my rigging 'cheats'. To see this trick in action, my 2019 reel should have some examples from the show.

I decided on this approach because 1.) it was a lot easier less troublesome to rig than a smoothly turning 360 setup, and 2.) the performances looked pretty good in animation, arguably just as good as a full smooth-turning rig. (Good enough for Dreamworks and Netflix, anyway.)

I try to avoid making my rigs more complicated than necessary. In earlier shows, I didn't bother with the negative mouth space shown above. This worked fine for the 'cave painting' versions of the characters in The Croods, and I was even able to get away with it for Puss In Boots and King Julien, but the Boss characters were specifically designed with the cut-out mouth, and I had to follow the designs. That did complicate things, but that didn't mean I had to make it complicated.

I hope this helps.

[kenchtahm]

That makes a lot of sense -- I generally hide changes like that in exactly the same way (you can see a few with head turns in my reel). Syncing it all up with smart bones is a brilliant idea, too. Thanks Greenlaw, that actually helps with a few things I was trying to wrap my head around -- I was overthinking a few things!

[Daxel]

I have a trick for creating the patch layer effect without using a patch layer. It's very handy because the technique works with groups, unlike regular patch layers. I'll throw together an example and post it this afternoon or evening.

Cool, a patching trick. Looking forward to it.

+1 (:
I always wanted to understand that custom patch I've heard people talk about but never saw any example.

[Greenlaw]

Thanks for the reminder! I'll try to post an example tonight.