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How attach e.g.: Eyes to head in debut 12?

Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2017 9:11 pm
by fredd5
Hi,

I am experimenting with debut 12. I understand how to add bones for head, legs, arms, but how are eyes attached? When I have used the character wizard the eyes are under the 'head' folder, which makes sense, but I cannot see how to add folders. Please could someone point out how to attach eyes do that they move with the head.

Thanks,
Fredd

Re: How attach e.g.: Eyes to head in debut 12?

Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2017 9:40 pm
by Greenlaw
Moho Debut doesn't allow you to create Group layers or 'folders'. I believe Group layers can be used in Debut but can only be created in Moho Pro.

However, Moho Debut does allow you use a Bone layer in place of a Group layer. If you don't add bones to this layer, a Bone layer is functionally the same thing.

I'm not sure what your setup is but you can probably drop the eyes layers inside a Bone layer and then layer bind the Bone layer to the 'Head' bone, or bind to an 'Eyes' bone parented to the 'Head' bone. If you do the latter, you'll have the ability to move the eyes independently of the head by moving this bone, and keeping all the animation in the same bone layer. That's a very simple setup.

Note that if you layer bind the Bone layer, you won't be able to use other bones from the top bone layer to animate the eyes individually. To do that, don't bind the bone group. Instead, bind the individual layers to eyes bones. If you want to get fancy, bind the 'eyeball/eyelids' layers to a single eyes bone, then parent two 'iris' or 'pupil' bones to the eye bone, then bind the artwork for the 'iris/pupil' to each of those bones. Now you can animate the head bone to move the eyes together, slide both eyes over the face area for head turns by animating the eyes bone, and animate the 'iris/pupil' by moving those bones. It's all about the hierarchy.

There are many variations and levels of complexity you can try but this info should get you started.

Oh, one more note: it's possible to nest bone layers inside bone layers. That's another workaround for the issue described above. I don't recommend this though because it means animating the character in multiple layers. Not that that's wrong--in fact, sometimes it's very necessary--but you don't want to complicate your setup more than necessary. Simple is better, especially when the result is the same.

Hope this helps.

Re: How attach e.g.: Eyes to head in debut 12?

Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2017 11:50 am
by fredd5
Thanks very much. I will have another try and see how it goes.