Moho Forum

Hi, does anyone know how to change the reference shape when using add, clip, subtract modes in liquid shape tool. This gets annoying when you want to add some shading easily in illustrastions without multiple layers.

I keep understanding how liquid shapes work and then forgetting about it every time I use this feature but this script tool from Rai López is always my saviour specially when working with liquid shapes but also for any kind of shapes:

viewtopic.php?t=36508

Animaatiotalo wrote: ↑Tue Apr 09, 2024 6:30 am Hi, does anyone know how to change the reference shape when using add, clip, subtract modes in liquid shape tool. ...

do you mean animated change to which shape is the base ... and this is "impossible" (best option is probably a [switch] group of various copy by refs with different shape orders);

or animated change the fill/stroke of the base ... and this is trivial - select the base shape and, in the same way as you'd animate any shape attributes, change the fill / stroke / .. as necessary


there are things you can't do, such as animate between plain and gradient; but you can animate the gradient stops and control handle to make it look as though you're doing that. If you want an example, just ask.

Oh I assumed animating the shape order would work but I haven't tried.

if you try to animate the order of the base shape, you'll need to get the order of all the others in the right sequence too... so not actually impossible, just very tricky. Which is why I suggested doing the re-ordering "offline" and having the results in a switch layer (or just a group if you wanted a transition other than "step")

E.g : 3 shapes two candidate "base shapes" order needs to start s1 (base) s2 (add), s3 (inactive base; normal)

then to swap: s1 - Move to front; s3 move to back.. but the more candidate "bases" plus if you wanted to swap some of the "child" shapes...

and I don't think you can change the "type" (IOW a base is a base; add is always add mode ...)

hayasidist wrote: ↑Tue Apr 09, 2024 8:26 pm if you try to animate the order of the base shape, you'll need to get the order of all the others in the right sequence too... so not actually impossible, just very tricky.

That's good to know. Then I guess that's another case where the Shapes Window script is super useful.