Moho Forum

Moho would really benefit from an exposure sheet plug-in, especially for traditional frame by frame tasks. Basically, an exposure sheet is a spreadsheet that lists what drawing is displayed in what layer on which frame. If you've seen/used something like ToonBoom you'll see what I mean.

My idea is that a spreadsheet could be used as a visual tool to control multiple switch layers in Moho (Colums being switch layers, rows being the frame and displayed layer). This would help with incorporating traditional and swap animation tasks dramatically.

Basically, I'm envisioning it working somewhat like this:
-create a switch layer and fill it with sub layers (hopefully be able to add more as you animate)
-Open the exposure sheet
-Right click or select from a menu the sub layer you want displayed
-Be able to drag/expand an "exposure" to cover the frame range you want it to be "exposed" for
-have all of the switch layers for a scene in one exposure sheet (or even better be able to load/unload combinations of switch layers)
-Possibly be able to load the wave form into one column? (far from necessary, but could be cool)
-Highlight current frame

Definitely not a necessity in light of working out the bugs in the V5 beta. More of a "when you've got the time" add on kind of thing.

Thanks,
Kurt
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I just agree
Thomas (see thread by stalti, posted today ... feature requests)

You've already got some of that functionality already in Moho, especially in v5, just turned sideways - that's almost what the timeline channel for a Switch layer does, only horizontally in the timeline instead of vertically in a spreadsheet format.

Done (v4 and earlier) -create a switch layer and fill it with sub layers (hopefully be able to add more as you animate)
Done (v4 "exposure sheet" = "timeline") -Open the exposure sheet
Done (v4 choose a keyframe, select from switch layer context menu) -Right click or select from a menu the sub layer you want displayed
Done, but from a different viewpoint (v4, select "exposure state" at start frame, select different "exposure state" at end frame - if you don't select an end state, even an exposure sheet range makes no sense - what would "blank" mean in rendering terms ?) -Be able to drag/expand an "exposure" to cover the frame range you want it to be "exposed" for
Sort of done, maybe (v4, all switch layers in a single hierarchy, is having them in a different palette more useful ? hmm, maybe) -have all of the switch layers for a scene in one exposure sheet (or even better be able to load/unload combinations of switch layers)
Done (v5, soundtrack waveform shown in timeline) -Possibly be able to load the wave form into one column? (far from necessary, but could be cool)
Sort of done, maybe (v5, set frame marker in timeline, right-click on switch layer to see current state ticked - I agree, I'd like to see the sub-layer highlighted or something) -Highlight current frame

Sounds like you want something similar to a lipsynch program, only choosing from any set of layers instead of just phonemes. Hmmm.

Heh, heh - maybe Lost Marble could just add the ability to display the timeline vertically

Regards, Myles.

There are several things it's missing. Notably:
-the ability to compare and work on more than one layer at a time (this is a huge problem of all the keying, not just switch layers, IMO, how can you retime a whole scene, other than doing it all, layer by layer by hand)
-the actual name of the layer in the spreadsheet cell rather than just a dot on the timeline

Not much of a difference, but enough to make it frustrating.

I agree the tools are almost there, that's why I don't think it would take too much to implement a spreadsheet palet/add-on. And no one would have to use it who didn't want to.
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kdiddy13 wrote:the ability to compare and work on more than one layer at a time (this is a huge problem of all the keying, not just switch layers, IMO, how can you retime a whole scene, other than doing it all, layer by layer by hand).

Well, you can change the overall timing using keyframe scaling, but I agree the ability to select multiple layers or channels before moving keyframes would sometimes be nice.

kdiddy13 wrote: the actual name of the layer in the spreadsheet cell rather than just a dot on the timeline

Select the Switch tool in Moho 5, and choose any frame in the timeline, and the drop-down option above the main workspace shows you the currently active layer name, as well as the option to change it.

Regards, Myles.

Thanks for all of the suggestions but I guess that's my point. The tools are all there. Currently, you just have to jump through hoops to use them. The actual process of putting an animation together (and refining it) is such a large orginizational task, that any tools that can add that organization would be very helpful, especially if they consolidate and more clearly display what's going on.

Moho 5 seems to be a step backwards from this idea with the disappearance of the single transform palet for bones, layers and cameras (now tools sensitive? that's absurd!)
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