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Patch Layer other shape?

Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 12:01 am
by mdmodeler
Can a patch layer be any other shape than an oval/circle?

Re: Patch Layer other shape?

Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 12:35 am
by dueyftw
No.

Patch layers are only circles. You can have more than one. Or you can make a mask that can be any shape.

Dale

Re: Patch Layer other shape?

Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 1:54 am
by Greenlaw
Yeah, this is something I just asked for the other day. As mentioned above, you can only use the default circle shape.

However, you can transform that circle to make it more oval shaped and rotate it. I often find this useful, like in the wrist area, for example, where I don't want the patch to 'erase' interior details of the hand art.

Hope this helps.

Re: Patch Layer other shape?

Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 4:48 am
by mdmodeler
Thanks Dueyftw and Greenlaw. I've been playing with the Toon Boom Harmony Premium trial and they have a patch mechanism that allows for any shape. Since Moho has surprised me with some of the other comparable features as Harmony, I thought I'd ask :D

Re: Patch Layer other shape?

Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 5:45 am
by Greenlaw
dueyftw wrote:No.

Patch layers are only circles. You can have more than one. Or you can make a mask that can be any shape.

Dale
Hmm...I wonder if you can mask a Patch layer. BRB.

Re: Patch Layer other shape?

Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 6:00 am
by Greenlaw
Yes, it does work! If you make the patch layer large enough, you can cookie cut the patch using a mask layer and make it any shape you like.

This is very interesting. I actually needed something like this the other day but I'm not yet sure this would have solved my problem. I feel like there may be a limitation here I'm overlooking, like conflicting with other masked elements.

But it might work fine when I don't have other masking going on with these layers. Definitely worth exploring.

Re: Patch Layer other shape?

Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 6:08 am
by synthsin75
Greenlaw wrote:Yes, it does work! If you make the patch layer large enough, you can cookie cut the patch using a mask layer and make it any shape you like.

This is very interesting. I actually needed something like this the other day but I'm not yet sure this would have solved my problem. I feel like there may be a limitation here I'm overlooking, like conflicting with other masked elements.

But it might work fine when I don't have other masking going on with these layers. Definitely worth exploring.
Oh wow, Dennis, that's an amazing find. You can group the patch in it's own masking group and it still finds the assigned layer to mask no matter where that group is. You can even make the patch's mask group hide all or show all.

This might actually make patch layers worth using in my rigs.

EDIT: One thing to avoid. Translating the masking group creates an undesired offset in the patch, making it show beyond the assigned layer's content.

Re: Patch Layer other shape?

Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 6:19 am
by Greenlaw
synthsin75 wrote:You can group the patch in it's own masking group and it still finds the assigned layer to mask no matter where that group is. You can even make the patch's mask group hide all or show all.
Oh, geez! You're right, and that avoids the masking conflict I was concerned about. Thanks for looking deeper into this Wes. This trick is even more useful than I first thought.

And thanks to mdmodeler and dueyftw for setting us down this path. :P

Re: Patch Layer other shape?

Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 6:21 am
by dueyftw
Is it possible to have a layer script in the patch layer to replace the circle or add points to it?

Dale

Re: Patch Layer other shape?

Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 6:30 am
by synthsin75
dueyftw wrote:Is it possible to have a layer script in the patch layer to replace the circle or add points to it?
There's no scripting access to patch layers beyond the generic layer settings. Can't even assign it to a layer by script.

Re: Patch Layer other shape?

Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 10:47 pm
by mdmodeler
Greenlaw wrote: And thanks to mdmodeler and dueyftw for setting us down this path. :P
You're welcome :)
I'm using the masking approach and it's working great!!!
I've also tried this in Anime Pro 11.2 and it's working great there.

Re: Patch Layer other shape?

Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2017 5:37 pm
by Greenlaw
Yes, this is going be super useful.

One of the issues I've run into in the past is when the Patch layer 'erases' more of a layer than I wanted when the patched joint region was rotated, but now I can keyframe a Smart Bone action to morph the Patch's shape as it bends. Pretty cool!

FYI, you should probably use point binding for patch mask for the most predictable result.