Re: Moho 12.4 Update
Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2017 8:35 pm
Oh, ok. I never use the Switch Selection window (reasons explained in an older thread*) but I'm trying it now and it seems to be working without crashing.
*(I"ll have to revisit this tool and see if the problems I had with it in the past are still present.)
FYI, I prefer to control my Switch Layers with an SBD. This way the keyframes stay with the Bones layer along with all the other animation. If you set frame 1 inside the Switch's Action to be Linear, and frame zero to Step, the SBD switches non-linearly in the Mainline, and this 'single layer' setup is a lot easier to align the rest of the character animation with the lipsync. (Well, for me, anyway. Of course, if you prefer to keyframe the Switches directly, enabling Timeline Visibility for each Switch lets you have all keyframes present along with the Bones keyframes. But this does take up more space in the Timeline, and the large Switch Select window itself adds to desktop clutter.) Naturally, you should have Copy Previous Key enabled so you don't have to keep switching Interpolation modes.
BTW, one thing I've been doing lately is adding non-rendering Note labels for all viseme mouth shapes...this helps me run through the lipsyncing process very quickly. It's kinda like having the visible text label from Switch Select, but right inside the Workspace. (I typically label only the viseme drawings in the switch; other 'expressive' shapes are usually obvious.) This is a little more effort to set up but I and the other artists I work with prefer it.
Another lipsynching trick I like is to Ctrl-Alt-Right Click over the character's mouth region (or any Switch region in the Workspace). This causes a list of switches to appear near where you clicked, which can be a fast way to select mouth shapes without moving away from the rig. However, if you have large 'invisible' shapes in front of the switch, it can block you from the clicking the drawing's 'hot spot'. (This is the why we stopped using this method, but Ctrl-Alt-Right Click is still useful in simpler character setups. I still use it for quick 'one-offs' where I don't need to build a full rig.)
*(I"ll have to revisit this tool and see if the problems I had with it in the past are still present.)
FYI, I prefer to control my Switch Layers with an SBD. This way the keyframes stay with the Bones layer along with all the other animation. If you set frame 1 inside the Switch's Action to be Linear, and frame zero to Step, the SBD switches non-linearly in the Mainline, and this 'single layer' setup is a lot easier to align the rest of the character animation with the lipsync. (Well, for me, anyway. Of course, if you prefer to keyframe the Switches directly, enabling Timeline Visibility for each Switch lets you have all keyframes present along with the Bones keyframes. But this does take up more space in the Timeline, and the large Switch Select window itself adds to desktop clutter.) Naturally, you should have Copy Previous Key enabled so you don't have to keep switching Interpolation modes.
BTW, one thing I've been doing lately is adding non-rendering Note labels for all viseme mouth shapes...this helps me run through the lipsyncing process very quickly. It's kinda like having the visible text label from Switch Select, but right inside the Workspace. (I typically label only the viseme drawings in the switch; other 'expressive' shapes are usually obvious.) This is a little more effort to set up but I and the other artists I work with prefer it.
Another lipsynching trick I like is to Ctrl-Alt-Right Click over the character's mouth region (or any Switch region in the Workspace). This causes a list of switches to appear near where you clicked, which can be a fast way to select mouth shapes without moving away from the rig. However, if you have large 'invisible' shapes in front of the switch, it can block you from the clicking the drawing's 'hot spot'. (This is the why we stopped using this method, but Ctrl-Alt-Right Click is still useful in simpler character setups. I still use it for quick 'one-offs' where I don't need to build a full rig.)