frame by frame
Moderators: Víctor Paredes, Belgarath, slowtiger
-
Piratehunterzoro
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Tue Aug 08, 2017 6:14 am
frame by frame
when i bought the software i thought it would be good for frame by frame drawing with the free hand tool. It would be really cool if you guys had an update where i could draw better and make good animation from the free hand tool.It also should have a tool that draws and doesnt have points but still smoothes kind of like flash or toon boom. PLEASE MOHO.
Re: frame by frame
Try this.
Re: frame by frame
Chucky's tutorial is very good. It's helped me a lot and I highly recommend viewing it. To get the most out of it, you may even want to follow along in Moho.
I sometimes use Moho FBF at work but mainly for fx animation, like fire and water splash effects. I think it works fine for that but if you find the tools are awkward for drawing detailed work, it's because they are. The main issues are:
1. Freehand Tool tends create weird loops and curls at the ends points. This can force you to excessively tweak and cleanup your lines.
2. Blob Brush will constantly autofit the screen when you near the edge of the screen, which is super annoying.
3. The tools may generate random points off-screen, requiring more excessive cleanup.
4. The tools can behave differently between input devices. For example, I get very different Freehand results between the Wacom Cintiq 24HD I use at work and my mobile Wacom Cintiq Companion 2.
There are a few things you can do to minimize the problems but it can still get maddening. Chucky has made some great suggestions in his video and in other forum threads, like disabling Auto-weld. For me, I sometimes leave Point Reduction pretty low for accuracy, and instead selectively apply the manual Simplify button after I'm done drawing my main lines. I was told that this uses the same code for point reduction, and I find I have more control over the result this way. The process can be a little slow because it adds another step to the drawing process, but that might be offset by the fact you're not constantly re-drawing your lines to get the intended result.
TBH, I've started using other programs to create more details FBF for Moho. At work we have a few options like Harmony and Adobe Animate CC, and I've even used Photoshop's animation timeline mode. This latter one worked surprisingly well...it allows you to stack layers in the timeline, has onion-skinning, and you can use many of the normal Photoshop tools to draw with.
Tip: In a recent project, I blocked out my animation in Moho to be sure the FBF worked with other animated elements. Then, using Layer Comps, I output the rough FBF as an image sequence and loaded that as a guide in Photoshop. Then, in PS, I drew and colored my clean version of the FBF. When I was done, I output the image sequence from PS and imported it to Moho as an Image Sequence layer to replace the original 'rough' version. I found I got through the task much faster this way since I wasn't constantly correcting line errors, and coloring in PS was much easier too. If you have access to Photoshop, check it out.
At home, I've started using TVPaint for my FBF elements. It a very nice program but it is a more expensive option. The natural media tools are very realistic, and the pens work very smoothly. Like PS, the emphasis is on bitmap drawing though.
I've also been dabbling with CACAni at home. This one is interesting and it's not too expensive. CACAni is a vector based animation program with advanced interpolation tools and modes. It's a little tricky to work with but the interpolation is quite good once you get the hang of it. (I'm still getting the hang of drawing specifically for interpolation but I still think it's pretty neat.)
Animate CC may be another good alternative since it can output SVG sequences and images if you wish to edit the vectors in Moho. Although, to be honest, for Moho I'd probably just import a bitmap Image Sequence from Animate, or comp the elements with Moho renders in AE and be done with it. (I'm still learning Animate CC so this is largely untested by me.)
That said, I hope the Moho devs can address the current issues with the freehand tools (and add some basic bitmap painting/editing tools) so we wont' have to rely so much on third-party solutions for FBF.
BTW, I've created a few FBF 'doodles' in Moho when the feature first came out. They're crude but kinda fun. I'll try to post some of them tonight or later this week.
I sometimes use Moho FBF at work but mainly for fx animation, like fire and water splash effects. I think it works fine for that but if you find the tools are awkward for drawing detailed work, it's because they are. The main issues are:
1. Freehand Tool tends create weird loops and curls at the ends points. This can force you to excessively tweak and cleanup your lines.
2. Blob Brush will constantly autofit the screen when you near the edge of the screen, which is super annoying.
3. The tools may generate random points off-screen, requiring more excessive cleanup.
4. The tools can behave differently between input devices. For example, I get very different Freehand results between the Wacom Cintiq 24HD I use at work and my mobile Wacom Cintiq Companion 2.
There are a few things you can do to minimize the problems but it can still get maddening. Chucky has made some great suggestions in his video and in other forum threads, like disabling Auto-weld. For me, I sometimes leave Point Reduction pretty low for accuracy, and instead selectively apply the manual Simplify button after I'm done drawing my main lines. I was told that this uses the same code for point reduction, and I find I have more control over the result this way. The process can be a little slow because it adds another step to the drawing process, but that might be offset by the fact you're not constantly re-drawing your lines to get the intended result.
TBH, I've started using other programs to create more details FBF for Moho. At work we have a few options like Harmony and Adobe Animate CC, and I've even used Photoshop's animation timeline mode. This latter one worked surprisingly well...it allows you to stack layers in the timeline, has onion-skinning, and you can use many of the normal Photoshop tools to draw with.
Tip: In a recent project, I blocked out my animation in Moho to be sure the FBF worked with other animated elements. Then, using Layer Comps, I output the rough FBF as an image sequence and loaded that as a guide in Photoshop. Then, in PS, I drew and colored my clean version of the FBF. When I was done, I output the image sequence from PS and imported it to Moho as an Image Sequence layer to replace the original 'rough' version. I found I got through the task much faster this way since I wasn't constantly correcting line errors, and coloring in PS was much easier too. If you have access to Photoshop, check it out.
At home, I've started using TVPaint for my FBF elements. It a very nice program but it is a more expensive option. The natural media tools are very realistic, and the pens work very smoothly. Like PS, the emphasis is on bitmap drawing though.
I've also been dabbling with CACAni at home. This one is interesting and it's not too expensive. CACAni is a vector based animation program with advanced interpolation tools and modes. It's a little tricky to work with but the interpolation is quite good once you get the hang of it. (I'm still getting the hang of drawing specifically for interpolation but I still think it's pretty neat.)
Animate CC may be another good alternative since it can output SVG sequences and images if you wish to edit the vectors in Moho. Although, to be honest, for Moho I'd probably just import a bitmap Image Sequence from Animate, or comp the elements with Moho renders in AE and be done with it. (I'm still learning Animate CC so this is largely untested by me.)
That said, I hope the Moho devs can address the current issues with the freehand tools (and add some basic bitmap painting/editing tools) so we wont' have to rely so much on third-party solutions for FBF.
BTW, I've created a few FBF 'doodles' in Moho when the feature first came out. They're crude but kinda fun. I'll try to post some of them tonight or later this week.
Last edited by Greenlaw on Wed Aug 09, 2017 8:15 pm, edited 17 times in total.
D.R. Greenlaw
Artist/Partner - Little Green Dog | Little Green Dog Channel on Vimeo | Greenlaw's Demo Reel 2020 Edtion
Lead Digital Animator, DreamWorks Animation
Artist/Partner - Little Green Dog | Little Green Dog Channel on Vimeo | Greenlaw's Demo Reel 2020 Edtion
Lead Digital Animator, DreamWorks Animation
Re: frame by frame
Good suggestion there Greenlaw.
If Adobe isn't in your kit (piratehunter) you could try Clip Studio Paint Ex which has phenomenally good vector drawing tools and frame by frame capabilities.
There is Opentoonz , but it needs some little improvements , which I'm sure are in the works.
If Adobe isn't in your kit (piratehunter) you could try Clip Studio Paint Ex which has phenomenally good vector drawing tools and frame by frame capabilities.
There is Opentoonz , but it needs some little improvements , which I'm sure are in the works.
Re: frame by frame
This was awesome.
Thanks.
Katharine
Thanks.
Katharine
chucky wrote:
Try this.