Reasonably Priced Laptops for Moho 12?

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ThePerseverer
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Reasonably Priced Laptops for Moho 12?

Post by ThePerseverer »

Hey,

Does anyone know any laptops, that are not ridiculously expensive gaming laptops, that will run Moho 12 quite well. Just want to be able to work on my animations on the go.

Thanks.
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Greenlaw
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Re: Reasonably Priced Laptops for Moho 12?

Post by Greenlaw »

Sorry, I don't know much about lower cost laptops. I like Lenovo these days--very good quality and sometimes they have good sales--but there are probably much cheaper laptops out there with similar capabilities.

I'm mostly writing to say, Moho doesn't really require a high end laptop for decent performance on the go. I made my first 'Moho' movie Scareplane using an HP tm2, which is a very small laptop with only 4GB (!) of RAM. I think I was really pushing the laptop's limits at that time but it really wasn't too bad. I didn't need to switch to a desktop computer until I got to some of the 3D parts and compositing, and even then I was able to do most of the compositing on the laptop.

Also, be aware that Moho doesn't take full advantage of GPU processing or multi-threading, so getting the fastest and most powerful computer isn't necessarily going to make using Moho faster/better.

Moho does like more RAM though, especially if you intend to use a lot of image files or plan to work in FHD and higher. For example, Scareplane was 720p and mostly vector art, and it was very easy to create and animate (in ASP 9.5, an older version of Moho) and composite (in Fusion) on a somewhat low-end laptop. The animated titles for 'Hearts Like Fists' was 1080p, had a lot of bitmap art/textures, and it was harder to animate and render (in ASP 10) on the same laptop computer. A desktop with more RAM was required to finish that project, but mainly for the compositing part (in After Effects).

When spec-ing out a laptop, consider what else you might be using it for. If you intend to do a lot of compositing, video editing, 3D, etc., and working with HD/FHD and higher res, then you want something with more 'oomph!'.

I don't recommend going with lowest-end gear but Moho should run fine on most modern laptops with enough RAM. IMO, you should base your choice on what else you intend to do with the laptop.

Good luck!
Last edited by Greenlaw on Wed May 20, 2020 4:26 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Greenlaw
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Re: Reasonably Priced Laptops for Moho 12?

Post by Greenlaw »

Oh, almost forgot: get one with decent battery performance and a removable battery pack if possible. The tm2 could run for about 6 or more hours and I carried a spare battery when I needed more 'on-the-road' time. This allowed me to animate 'Scareplane' all over town, including parks, diners, coffee shops, etc. When I got my Wacom Cintiq Companion 2, the battery performance was about the same but the battery wasn't removable, so when the power died, that was it. Eventually, the Companion's built-in battery wore out and I can no longer use it as a mobile computer.

(I think the battery completely died in its third year? Wacom offered to replace the battery but it would have cost $260! Nowadays, I use it as a small 'Cintiq' but not as a mobile computer.)

My current laptop is a beefy Xeon class system, which is way overkill for Moho but necessary for my other work. It also drains battery life like crazy so I definitely need and use a second battery pack when I'm away from home. So getting a very powerful computer for mobile use does have its downsides.
Last edited by Greenlaw on Wed May 20, 2020 4:38 pm, edited 6 times in total.
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alanthebox
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Re: Reasonably Priced Laptops for Moho 12?

Post by alanthebox »

When not using my desktop, I also run Moho 12 (and now 13) on a modestly spec'ed/priced refurbished Surface Book (i7, 8GB RAM). Although my desktop runs the software much better, I usually use the laptop to work on smaller elements individually (and with the display quality set to medium or low), rather than full scenes with multiple rigs. Only complaint about the Surface is that the hinge doesn't bend enough to allow for a comfortable drawing position with the Surface pen.

But I agree with Greenlaw. You don't need a crazy fast computer to run Moho!
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