SmartActions Mainline selected, other highlighted

[FloridaJo]

What does it mean when a smartaction is highlighted when you are on the mainline?
Like this:

https://imgur.com/a/TVBQw7r

[Greenlaw]

Since I can't see the workspace, this is just a guess, but that normally means the bone you have selected in the Workspace is associated with that Action. Note that this is a 'dimmed' selection of the Action and not a 'bright' direct selection. (Maybe...I'm not sure with the chosen color scheme in the image.)

Here's how to test this:

Select a different Smart Bone in the workspace--the action associated with that one should now be selected in the Actions window.

Select a bone that has no Smart Bone Action associated--now all the Smart Bone Actions should become unselected in the Actions window and only the Mainline should be selected.

Hope this helps.

[FloridaJo]

Okay, it looks like it is, and if there is a smartaction on the connecting bone, it will highlight that as well.
I was getting some funky action on one smartaction and thought it was connected to another smartaction somehow.
Thanks

[Greenlaw]

There's probably an unintended keyframe on that bone in the action.

For me, this can happen if I accidentally use Freeze Pose while setting up the Smart Bone Action, which will place a keyframe for all bones in the layer. Then I need to remove the keyframes for all the bones except the ones that should have it. Annoying, so be careful.

[FloridaJo]

I think it was something similar.

I think in creating an action for one bone, I went back and moved another bone a frame by accident, so now there was a
keyframe for that extra bone in one action.
2 bones in one smart action if that is possible.

Since there didn't seem to be a way to check all keyframes on a bone, I just deleted all actions on the 2 bones and will start over.

[Greenlaw]

Since there didn't seem to be a way to check all keyframes on a bone, I just deleted all actions on the 2 bones and will start over.

Actually, the highlighting goes both ways: opening the Smart Bone Action will highlight which bones are keyframed in that action. (By 'highlight, I mean the become bolder.) Then you just select the bone(s) that shouldn't have keyframes and the keyframes will appear in the red (selected bone(s)) channel. Delete the red channel keys and Moho will preserve the intended keys on other bones in the action. A quick way to select all the keys is to click once on the channel icon. There is also a right-click command to select all keys to the right of the current key.

Note: Most of the time, you only ever need to look at the red (selected) channels and the global channels just above. To me, the 'color bone' channels below are usually just a lot of clutter, so I keep these fully disabled from view using the Time Channels window.

[FloridaJo]

Since there didn't seem to be a way to check all keyframes on a bone, I just deleted all actions on the 2 bones and will start over.

Delete the red channel keys and Moho will preserve the intended keys on other bones in the action.

I tried that and when I would select keys on the red channel, the lighter colored channel above would also become selected.
There didn't seem to be a way to only select those keys.

So I deleted that smartaction then I ran into a problem where I couldn't create another smartaction for that bone.
When I click 'create action' it would only create a 'regular' action, not a smartaction.
This regular action would not then create movement on the maintimeline, only on the action timeline.

So I'm starting from scratch now grrrrr!

Any thoughts on why it would not create a smartaction after deleted the other smartactions?

Thanks for all your help.

[Greenlaw]

I tried that and when I would select keys on the red channel, the lighter colored channel above would also become selected.
There didn't seem to be a way to only select those keys.

That's weird because it shouldn't do that.

When you're on a bone layer, the red 'Selected' channels affect ONLY the selected bones, and it leaves all other bones alone. This is useful for animating localized areas fo the rig. The white channels above that affects ALL the keyframes in the layer...this area is more useful for global changes to the rig like retiming the animation between frames.

When you're editing a Smart Bone Action, you typically work with the Selected channels, and you want to be care not to keyframe other bones unintentionally while in an Action. If there are bones with keyframes in the Action that shouldn't have keyframes, you need select those bones and delete those keyframes in the red 'Selected' channel. The other bones which should have keyframes will be left alone.

If this isn't how it's working on your system, you'll have to show an example of how you're using it so we can see what's going wrong. Posting screencaps or a YouTube video will help.

So I deleted that smartaction then I ran into a problem where I couldn't create another smartaction for that bone.
When I click 'create action' it would only create a 'regular' action, not a smartaction.

Smart Bone Actions are only created when a bone is selected and then you create the action. The action will automatically adopt the bone's name so, IMO, it's a good idea to name the bone before making a Smart Bone Action. If you re-name the action in the dialog, note that it will NOT be associated with the selected bone because this renames the action but not the bone. If you're not careful here, you're just creating a broken action.

If nothing is selected, Moho creates a Regular action. In which case, you should name the action when the dialog pops up.

This is how it normally works so, if this is not how it's working on your system, you'll need to demonstrate it with pics or a video.

You can post images through the TinyPic tab in the Edit Post windows. Sometimes, this option isn't working correctly on this forum but if you go to the TinyPic website or any image hosting site, you can copy the 'image link for forums' here and it should work. For videos, you should use YouTube or Vimeo. The buttons in the Edit bar for posts has tooltips for how to add the link.

Good luck and I hope you get this figured out soon.

[Greenlaw]

I should clarify one thing above: It's actually possible to create a Smart Bone Action without selecting the bone first. To do that, you need to type in the name of and existing bone EXACTLY and Moho will associate the action to a bone with that EXACT name. This procedure works but it takes extra steps and it's a lot more prone to user error, so I don't recommend it.

It's a lot easier and more reliable to name your control bones as you create them, and select a control bone before you create a Smart Bone Action for it. Moho will handle the correct Action naming for you, even for the bone's second Smart Bone Action when you need it.

[FloridaJo]

Thanks.
I tried multiple times to create a smartaction with the bone selected.
If it happens again, I'll do a screencast. Not entirely convinced I wasn't doing something wrong. Very possible.
I've seen many software bugs and this didn't have a feel of a bug, but a procedural error on my part.
So, I'm back at square one (actually 2 by now) and we'll see how it proceeds.
Thanks again.

[FloridaJo]

Okay, I found out what I was doing wrong.
On creating a smartbone, I would name it slightly different.
So if it came up Torso, I would add an F to make it Torso F (for forward action).
That was evidently breaking the link and causing it to not become a smartbone.
Now I leave it whatever it comes up as, and it works like it should.
Mystery solved.