Moho Forum

Hey, guys. I have a layer that's moving in place in its little cycle. I'd like it to follow a nice smooth curve across the frame. Follow path seems like the obvious solution, although I can't get it to work. I select the layer, pick the Follow Path tool, but when I click on the path, nothing happens. Am I missing something really obvious? I'd appreciate the help.

Is the path you wish to follow in another layer? You can't use a path that's in the same layer as the artwork.

Clicking on the path with the Follow tool will attach the layer to the path, but you still need to animate the position of the layer on the path to see it move. Go to a later frame and, with the Follow tool, drag the layer along the path to where you want it to be on the path at that frame.

Tip: The position of the origin of the layer or group affects the offset of the art from the path. Normally, you want the origin to be in the center of the artwork so you may want to move it. If it's a walking character, you probably want the origin between the character's feet.

Greenlaw, thanks for the reply.

The path is in a different layer and the origin point was right in the middle.

I got frustrated and made the whole thing again from scratch - it followed the path with no issues. I wish I knew what the problem was, but anyway, all's well that ends well.

Thanks again!

It's probably not you. For me, Follow Path works as expected most of the time but every now and then it seems to get mixed up here too, and I never know why. When it starts misbehaving like that, I usually remove the effect and start over too. (At least now I know it's not just me.)

Anyway, glad you got it working.

Hello,

I'm newbe, I found the same problem. I have a butterfly that moves the wings and I want move this butterfly along the path.

1. I select a layer path and follow path tool
2. Select Layer with object to move
3. Select follow path tool
4. Select first frame and start path point
5. Select last frame and stop path point

this workflow work if the object to move is a simply object, if I select a "bone" layer (with his object) this way don't work...

cay anyone help me or tell where I can study to learn the correct way?

Thank you very much.

In this link you can found the butterfly that I would like to fly around the head :
http://giuseppe.toffoli.net/post/170540 ... n-progress

Giuseppe

It's simpler than that:

1. Select the Butterfly group or layer.
2. Select the Follow Path tool.
3. Click on the path you want to follow (different layer.)

To animate it, go to a frame later than 0 and, using the Follow Path tool, drag the butterfly to the desired position on the path, then go to another frame and move the butterfly to another position. Other rules mentioned earlier apply, like the butterfly should be oriented to screen right and centered on its origin before you use the tool.

Hope this helps.

Oh, forgot one thing: for a butterfly, you might want to enable Rotate To Follow Path.

It depends on the animation though. I've animated butterflies and bees in Moho for different shows, and sometimes I have Rotate To Follow Path on and sometimes off. In general, if the art is just drawn 'top view', having this option enabled works great. If the animation changes angle, like top to side or 3 qtr, you might want it disabled so you can manually adjust the orientation to what looks correct. Another option is to place the art inside a group and have this parent group Rotate To Follow Path. This way, you can still manually offset or 'counter-rotate' the art or group inside the parent group if you need to.

Thank you Greenlaw,

perfect, I resolve my first problem

Giuseppe Toffoli