Masking acting up after exporting

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denisa
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Masking acting up after exporting

Post by denisa »

Hi guys,

I am trying to test a little animation to see how the rigging looks so far. But when I export the animation, there are a couple of glitches? When I go to check the moho animation (checked frame by frame) there are no glitches whatsoever. The glitches look like they are more of a mask issue. Like on the arm of the elephant, I put a mask around it and this is how it looks in the render: https://www.flickr.com/photos/115003080 ... ed-public/.

This is the moho version: https://www.flickr.com/photos/115003080 ... ed-public/.


Any thoughts?
I tried exporting it in different mediums: Quick time, MOV, PNG sequence. All show the same thing.
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Víctor Paredes
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Re: Masking acting up after exporting

Post by Víctor Paredes »

Hi. You need to add the links again, because they are cut in your post.
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denisa
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Re: Masking acting up after exporting

Post by denisa »

Víctor Paredes wrote: Mon Apr 06, 2020 3:32 pm Hi. You need to add the links again, because they are cut in your post.
Sorry about that!

Hopefully these links work better! The exported version: https://www.flickr.com/photos/186345480 ... ed-public/

The moho version:https://www.flickr.com/photos/186345480 ... ed-public/
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Re: Masking acting up after exporting

Post by Víctor Paredes »

Moho normally doesn't show complex masking properly in the workspace. The real result will be always the one you see when you render a preview.
It's hard to know what is happening exactly with this file without checking the layers. Is there any chance you could share the Moho file to take a look?
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denisa
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Re: Masking acting up after exporting

Post by denisa »

Víctor Paredes wrote: Tue Apr 07, 2020 9:47 am Moho normally doesn't show complex masking properly in the workspace. The real result will be always the one you see when you render a preview.
It's hard to know what is happening exactly with this file without checking the layers. Is there any chance you could share the Moho file to take a look?
Sure thing, how can I share the file ?
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Víctor Paredes
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Re: Masking acting up after exporting

Post by Víctor Paredes »

Ok. I checked the file. I'm not sure if the issues I'm seeing are the same you are pointing (but if not, please post screenshot showing exactly what you are talking about and I can continue exploring).
I can see the arms have a white halo. To solve that, go to the arm mask vector layer ('l-mask', for instance) and set the mask to '+ add to mask, but keep it invisible'.
Please tell me if that helps :)
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denisa
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Re: Masking acting up after exporting

Post by denisa »

Víctor Paredes wrote: Tue Apr 07, 2020 12:50 pm Ok. I checked the file. I'm not sure if the issues I'm seeing are the same you are pointing (but if not, please post screenshot showing exactly what you are talking about and I can continue exploring).
I can see the arms have a white halo. To solve that, go to the arm mask vector layer ('l-mask', for instance) and set the mask to '+ add to mask, but keep it invisible'.
Please tell me if that helps :)
cheers for that Víctor! Indeed that did fix the white splotches in the render! Can't believe I missed that!

It still looks like I have some issue with the masking around the arms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjasNCr ... e=youtu.be

I am thinking of going back and redo the masking
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Víctor Paredes
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Re: Masking acting up after exporting

Post by Víctor Paredes »

Uhm, that could be a software issue. Can you try exporting with 'Enable multi-threading rendering' unchecked?
Is it happening only in frame 1? if so, maybe you can export from frame 2 instead (it's not a fancy solution, but could work, at least).

It also could be a conflict with the smart bones.
I'm checking the 'r-arm-2' action and I see you have a single smart bone that goes

- at frame 1, 72 degrees
- at frame 50, 2 degrees
- at frame 100, -84 degrees

Since the neutral angle of the bone at frame zero is 2 degrees, that means the software has two sources of information for that single angle. It has the info from frame zero and the info from frame 50. Than can be causing issues when the bone passes that angle during the animation.

A solution for future rigs is to create two actions instead of one. One action goes from neutral angle to clockwise. The second one goes from neutral to counterclockwise.
Having two actions, then the neutral angle will always carry the same information, so there will be no conflict during the animation.

For fixing this rig (if the issue is actually the one I'm describing), you could:
- Remove the keyframe at frame 50 inside of the smart action (that way the action won't contain that very specific neutral angle inside of the action)
- Or remake the actions, making two for each bone (even when this one is safer, I would recommend you to try the first option instead. This one will imply a lot of work and I'm not sure if it's worth it).
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denisa
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Re: Masking acting up after exporting

Post by denisa »

Víctor Paredes wrote: Tue Apr 07, 2020 3:10 pm Uhm, that could be a software issue. Can you try exporting with 'Enable multi-threading rendering' unchecked?
Is it happening only in frame 1? if so, maybe you can export from frame 2 instead (it's not a fancy solution, but could work, at least).

It also could be a conflict with the smart bones.
I'm checking the 'r-arm-2' action and I see you have a single smart bone that goes

- at frame 1, 72 degrees
- at frame 50, 2 degrees
- at frame 100, -84 degrees

Since the neutral angle of the bone at frame zero is 2 degrees, that means the software has two sources of information for that single angle. It has the info from frame zero and the info from frame 50. Than can be causing issues when the bone passes that angle during the animation.

A solution for future rigs is to create two actions instead of one. One action goes from neutral angle to clockwise. The second one goes from neutral to counterclockwise.
Having two actions, then the neutral angle will always carry the same information, so there will be no conflict during the animation.

For fixing this rig (if the issue is actually the one I'm describing), you could:
- Remove the keyframe at frame 50 inside of the smart action (that way the action won't contain that very specific neutral angle inside of the action)
- Or remake the actions, making two for each bone (even when this one is safer, I would recommend you to try the first option instead. This one will imply a lot of work and I'm not sure if it's worth it).

Thank you for looking through it! I see what you mean. I have done a render test: with the deleted 50 keyframe both from r-arm-2 and l-arm-2 and the 'Enable multi-threading rendering' unchecked. The glitch doesn't happen when the arms are bend. Only when the body turns around with the arms straight:

Here is the link to the render:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pTolrRrdOs

So should the issue be more with arms moving? I attached the r-arm folder to the 2.5_body_turn. I basically used the move layer tool so it goes with the body turn.
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Re: Masking acting up after exporting

Post by Víctor Paredes »

Hi, I'm happy that helped a bit.
I will take another look after lunch :)
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denisa
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Re: Masking acting up after exporting

Post by denisa »

Víctor Paredes wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2020 11:07 am Hi, I'm happy that helped a bit.
I will take another look after lunch :)
Cheers Víctor!
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Re: Masking acting up after exporting

Post by Víctor Paredes »

Ok, I found it!
Uf. It was hard, but it's a very easy to fix issue. If a mesh layer is not visible, some vectors following that mesh can behave in a weird way. This is specially common in complex rigs like this one.
The solution then is to have all the mesh layers visible in the layers window.
To hide them, instead of clicking over the eyes icon, open the mesh vector layer properties and check 'Hide in editing view' and 'Don't render this layer'.

You can use the name filter and write 'mesh' in order to easily open the propierties of several layers at the same time.
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Moho Product Manager

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denisa
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Re: Masking acting up after exporting

Post by denisa »

Víctor Paredes wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2020 5:32 pm Ok, I found it!
Uf. It was hard, but it's a very easy to fix issue. If a mesh layer is not visible, some vectors following that mesh can behave in a weird way. This is specially common in complex rigs like this one.
The solution then is to have all the mesh layers visible in the layers window.
To hide them, instead of clicking over the eyes icon, open the mesh vector layer properties and check 'Hide in editing view' and 'Don't render this layer'.

You can use the name filter and write 'mesh' in order to easily open the propierties of several layers at the same time.
Oh my God! You were absolutely right! :shock: Can't believe how easy that was! I have no glitches now.

Thank you so much for the help Víctor!
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Víctor Paredes
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Re: Masking acting up after exporting

Post by Víctor Paredes »

I'm happy it worked :)
Please share here any news related to the project when you can. It looks very interesting.
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