New Moho course from Bloop Animation

[neeters_guy]

There are other tutorials that teach the process from drawing the character to final export, but none that I know of in this style of character animation, which is my own preference. The first half covers the basics--interface, tools, etc.--so theoretically you can dive in as beginner, but I would say this is an advanced course and it would help if you already have some familiarity with the program.

You should be able to do the rigging described with earlier versions of Moho (I used 12), but if you want to do everything (ie., bitmaps, frame-by-frame, 3D) you'll need 13. All course files, and more, are included.

The second half, which covers rigging, animating, scene setup, etc., is quite dense and you'll need to really slow down and take notes to digest the information. The effects module is particularly difficult as it uses a lot of masking and references.

Note that this course doesn't dive deeply into the principles of animation, but there is a separate course for that.

With all that said, this course is highly recommended, especially if you already know some Moho and you want to do character animation. The speaker is clear, concise, and easy to follow. I really enjoyed it and I'm eager to go back and try the methods with my own characters.

[arglborps]

I bought the tutorial and did in in Moho 12.5.1. It was super helpful.

The new character “Gluk Garglesplash” (the fish-like blue one) in episode 2 of Phungus & Mowld is using the rigging techniques shown in this tutorial.
I can only recommend it, although it's probably for more advanced users.
Most of the stuff he does, is shown in time lapse, so you have to stop the video sometimes and go frame-by-frame to pick up everything he does.

The one thing I changed from his techniques is, I've stopped using layer reordering for smart actions like body/head turns and just use reference layers and visibility,
that gives me the freedom to use layer reordering for ad hoc changes in the timeline as I see fit.

[JoelMayer]

Looks really good! I agree, the bloop animation course is really great

[synthsin75]

Man, that's a lot of foley for his clothes. Maybe a bit much.

[arglborps]

You think so?
Yeah, I wasn't sure.
When I first did the scene without foley it felt a bit sterile, so I added it to emphasize some of his gestures, but looking at it again, I should've used it in fewer places.

[synthsin75]

You think so?
Yeah, I wasn't sure.
When I first did the scene without foley it felt a bit sterile, so I added it to emphasize some of his gestures, but looking at it again, I should've used it in fewer places.

Yeah, it sounded good for the few larger movements, but could stand to be toned down for smaller movements. It's also quite the contrast from the other two characters having no foley of their own.

[SimplSam]

I didn't even notice the "foley" sfx on my main PC. Maybe I need a better audio setup (or better hearing).

But I then listened to it on my mobile, and it is much more noticeable and seemed a little inconsistent with the movement.

Maybe “Gluk Garglesplash” should sound a bit different because it's a slimy fish in a suit? But what do I know ...

[chucky]

Hey Killian , Phungus and Mould is looking v cool.
Can I give some advice on the staging in that scene( from the perspective of a working storyboard artist)?
OK, good, don't mention it .
SO, what you've got in that shot is a classic line cross.
It can appear confusing when cutting back and forth as the eye direction of the blue guy is switching from left to to, to right to left.
Your blue character should stay on the same side of the screen when you change camera position.
That way the speaking characters retain their eye direction whether we see the front , back or sides of their heads during interaction.
Same goes if the blue character were to pass an object to any of the others on the right side of the screen. The receiver should stay on the right side if you cut to a close up of the object being passed.
This is a crucial staging principle that should be applied wherever possible unless you have a special reason to break the ' rule'.

Watch your favourite show or even your least and you'll see that this strategy is maintained in almost every situation.
The trick is to treat your set like a stage and keep you camera on the audience side, you can get as close to your characters as you like, even to a full front on, but never go past the centre of the face as the character will start to appear as they have turned away from whatever they are looking at.

[arglborps]

Damn, the 180 degree rule, which I thought I had internalized so well, and didn't even notice I screwed it up… Maybe I re-render that scene and republish the episode… I also found a continuity error in another scene.

Thanks for pointing it out!

[chucky]

No probs

[arglborps]

Reanimated the scene for one camera angle, but dang!
According to Murphy's law, of course it was the longest scene in the whole episode – took quite a while to fix and to render.

But it's definitely more natural now.

[chucky]

Reanimated the scene for one camera angle, but dang!
According to Murphy's law, of course it was the longest scene in the whole episode – took quite a while to fix and to render.

But it's definitely more natural now.

The universe conspires against us.