Hidding lines in the timeline?

[DaBeav]

Hello all, I just started playing with Moho a few weeks ago, and MAN do I LOVE IT. But, I am kind of stuck, and have a question. I am attempting to make a "realistic" arm for my character. My character is in a 3/4 stance, so his arm can be in front of him, to his side, above him, or even behind him (arms folded in front, arms waving for a taxi, sitting on his hands, etc). To do this, I need 2 things, the first I have figured out fairly well, which is bones. I placed my bones in my arm, and walah I have movement. However the second thing I need excapes me. At certain points in the animation I need to be able to hide lines, or unhide them, without effecting the entire animation timeline (which is what is happening now). I know the command to hide/unhide lines, but it seems to effect the ENTIRE animation line, which is not what I need. Also, I havent tried yet, but will moho allow me to move a layer above or below another during the animation and not effect the entire time line as well? That one isnt as cruicial since I can just create 2 of the same object, 1 on each side of the other layer, then turn one on or off during the animation. Thanx for your help all.

[jorgy]

I believe what you want to check out are "switch" layers, and I believe that there is tutorial on them. Look also on this forum for tricks to make it appear layers go in front of and behind other layers.

[myles]

Also, I havent tried yet, but will moho allow me to move a layer above or below another during the animation and not effect the entire time line as well? That one isnt as cruicial since I can just create 2 of the same object, 1 on each side of the other layer, then turn one on or off during the animation.

I believe you can change layer depths, but I think you'll probably find that creating two copies and swapping visibility is both easier and more efficient from an animator's point of view. You can do this with visibility keyframes, but it's probably better to put both objects inside a switch layer and use switch keyframes, as jorgy said - that way you only create a single keyframe to swap objects, not two visibility keyframes, one for each layer, which need to be kept in synch.

At certain points in the animation I need to be able to hide lines, or unhide them, without effecting the entire animation timeline (which is what is happening now). I know the command to hide/unhide lines, but it seems to effect the ENTIRE animation line, which is not what I need.

As I see it, with the information given, you have 2 options:
1. Create different versions of the arm, with and without the lines, and again, as jorgy said, use switch keyframes to change from one version to another,
or
2. Break the outline up into several separate lines, and keyframe alpha for the segments you want to hide.


However, if you're concerned about the arm bending and folding over itself but still showing outlines from both forearm and bicep/upper arm, you can also break the arm up into 2 or more fill/outline segments so, for example, the forearm fill will obscure the lines of the upper arm (or vice versa), which is a better solution for that situation.
(A somewhat outdated version of this situation is shown at http://www-personal.monash.edu.au/~myle ... bones.html - version 4 at the time used separate objects for fills and partial outlines, without the option to hide outline segments associated with a fill).

Perhaps you can show us an example of where you would want to hide line segments and we might be able to show you an alternative solution?

Regards, Myles.

[DaBeav]

Thank you all for your info thus far. I think I have a better understanding of what I need to do, and as soon as I get home from "the day job" I am going to try some things out and see how they pan out.

One more question off the top of my head though. Is there a way to "bind" points between 2 layers? Its hard to explain why I would want or need this, but it seems like it would solve alot of problems I am having. But basicaly the idea is to have 2 layers, that share common points move with bone movement without creating gaps between the 2 layers, thus it would be "best" if the points that were shared were bound togeather.. Any Ideas?

Thanx again, you are all most helpfull.

[myles]

Is there a way to "bind" points between 2 layers?

No, except by binding them both to the same bone - and using either region binding or manual point binding instead of the default flexi-binding.

If the curves change so that gaps appear there is usually some workaround possible - changing the curves (often by adding an extra point or two), changing the bone setup, using "gap-filler" objects behind the usual objects, putting both curves on the same layer if possible, etc.

If you could post an example of the where the problem is occurring, you're likely to get a more detailed solution.

Regards, Myles.