Universal Rigs

[PixelVector]

It would be great if Moho could introduce some kind of universal rig system.

I will build and rig my character in its own moho file then I import this into the scene i'm animating. Sometimes this rig is used in multiple different working files. I'd love if there was a way so that if you make a change to this character or rig, it gets applied accross all of the moho files its being used in, so if the changes are needed in that file I can easily make it.

If this exists already please tell me

[Greenlaw]

That's what a Rig Reference does. The idea is to create a master project and import that into your animation project as a reference. (Check the Import By Reference option during import.) When changes are made to the master and saved, the animator is alerted about the change and has the option to update the rig in his animation project.

Bear in mind that not all features will update. For example, changes to bone strength in the master will be ignored. I think this is because bone strength is not a keyframeable property.

Years ago, Jeremy at Cartoon Saloon demoed a workflow where they had multiple stages of referencing (I think he referred to them as child, parent, and grandparent.) The idea is that this allowed riggers to make changes to a rig without disrupting the animators' work. When the rigger was ready to release his changes, he would update the parent version, which would then alert the animator. (I replicated this workflow where I work when we made Boss Baby: Back in Business.)

Also, just because there is a change to the rig doesn't mean you should update the animation rig because the changes can potentially invalidate the existing animation. This is why the process is not automatic. If you decide to update the rig during animation, update a copy of your file. If the animation breaks, you can regress to the good copy.

One last note: some users have reported unpredictable behavior with rig referencing in Moho 14.1. So make sure you work with simplified copies of your projects first.

Hope this helps.

[PixelVector]

That's what a Rig Reference does. The idea is to create a master project and import that into your animation project as a reference. (Check the Import By Reference option during import.) When changes are made to the master and saved, the animator is alerted about the change and has the option to update the rig in his animation project.

Bear in mind that not all features will update. For example, changes to bone strength in the master will be ignored. I think this is because bone strength is not a keyframeable property.

Years ago, Jeremy at Cartoon Saloon demoed a workflow where they had multiple stages of referencing (I think he referred to them as child, parent, and grandparent.) The idea is that this allowed riggers to make changes to a rig without disrupting the animators' work. When the rigger was ready to release his changes, he would update the parent version, which would then alert the animator. (I replicated this workflow where I work when we made Boss Baby: Back in Business.)

Also, just because there is a change to the rig doesn't mean you should update the animation rig because the changes can potentially invalidate the existing animation. This is why the process is not automatic. If you decide to update the rig during animation, update a copy of your file. If the animation breaks, you can regress to the good copy.

One last note: some users have reported unpredictable behavior with rig referencing in Moho 14.1. So make sure you work with simplified copies of your projects first.

Hope this helps.

thank you so much. I'm going to try this!

[Greenlaw]

Good luck! I hope this helps.

More info: When you're updating, you should also understand that there are two places you can update a reference for different properties:

- Right-click on a layer. Note the commands Sync All Layers To Original and Update Layers. The update layers command will pop up a window for updating certain elements from the original.

- In the Timeline, right-click on a channel and separate the channels. If there are changes, you'll see update commands that affect the channel's keyframes. This is for updating the specific channels to the original, but not affect anything else.

[Panha]

It would be great if Moho could introduce some kind of universal rig system.

I will build and rig my character in its own moho file then I import this into the scene i'm animating. Sometimes this rig is used in multiple different working files. I'd love if there was a way so that if you make a change to this character or rig, it gets applied accross all of the moho files its being used in, so if the changes are needed in that file I can easily make it.

If this exists already please tell me

You may try importing your character as reference.