Moho Plans

[formxshape]

Seriouly update the UI of Moho, logo, even name. Needs a modern refresh across the boards. Use blue #0088FF as the highlight colour, that's what I change it to and it looks much better for it.

Also the name... is it Moh'o or moe - hoe? How to say it? Wish it sounded more serious, pity you guys didn't take 'Sketch' before sketch became a thing. Figma would have also been good.

Please use https://animwood.com for all the promo content.

Get rid of debut edition. Try to make it less a 'dorky cartoon tool', that's how it comes across with current branding/marketing/content supplied with it.

Try to target the Motion Design crowd more than the amateur animation crowd - as many After Effects users would love the tools Moho has. If possible have some tight integration with After Effects. Would love to be able to import/export camera data, null positions etc. If you can do that, you'll bring across more users from the AE Motion community and in doing so 10x your customers and revenue. Import AI files if at all possible would be great. Or layered SVG - at correct size!

I've been trying to tell everyone in Motion Design community that there is an animation plugin for AfterEffects that is amazing and solves all the current problems they have... except it's not a plugin... it's Moho!

Anyway, keep up the great work, look forward to version 14.

[arglborps]

I love the name don’t know why you’ve got such problems with it.

As for AE integration. If I wanted to use software with a subscription model I’d be using ToonBoom Harmony... Couldn’t care less for Adobe stuff. Haven’t used it in decades, ever since they went down The subscription model.

For composition I use Motion. I think it’s enough if they could update the ProRes 4:4:4:4 support to give me a clean alpha channel like PNG image sequences (currently Moho’s alpha channel in ProRes 4:4:4:4 is for some reason really “dirty”), and fix the obviously wrong color profiles currently used when exporting to ProRes with the washed out colors, then moving exports to other compositors or NLEs should be fine for most purposes.

Maybe support for USDZ format would be nice like Motion does, since USDZ is an open standard and much less trouble than OBJ for 3D data.

[Greenlaw]

I use Ae for most of my Moho compositing at work, so I wouldn't mind seeing this. That said, there are dozens of other features and improvements I need more in Moho. (The devs know what they are so I won't bother listing here.)

But it they decide to pursue this, I'd like it to be able to import the Moho project to Ae just the way it appears in Moho, with layers properly placed and scaled in z-space and a baked camera. It would be nice if this could go both ways, meaning if I transformed some layers or re-animated the camera, these items would update Moho. I know that's a tall order so I'm not expecting anything like that anytime soon.

(FWIW, Cartoon Animator 4 Pipeline added a Ae exchange feature late last year. It's kinda neat...does what I described regarding placement and camera animation, and for the character animations, I think it bakes the frames and loads the frames in Ae (the Ae part is done via an Ae script). I've only tried the workflow once as a test so I may be fuzzy about the details, but I can revisit this if the devs would like a more accurate and detailed description.)

TBH, between Layer Comps and Moho Exporter, I don't really need the proposed project interchange with After Effects. If we didn't have these two tools, my use of Moho would be much more limited (with Ae and just in general.) If we need more development for using Moho with compositing programs (i.e., Ae, Fusion, Nuke, etc.,) I would rather see Layer Comps and Moho Exporter get more options and features for outputting special mattes. (Again, the devs already know what I'm talking about.)

(It should be noted that CA4P getting this Ae exchange feature didn't get me to switch over. While it is pretty cool, and the program has a number of intriguing features, there are UI and output issues that prevent me from using it in serious production work. Its devs know what I'm talking about.)

Regarding 'Moho', I don't have strong feelings about the name, and I think it's fine. FWIW, I do like 'Moho' much better than 'Anime Studio'.

[synthsin75]

Mo·ho [moh-hoh]
It's a geology term: "The Mohorovičić discontinuity, moh-hoh-ROH-veech-itch, usually referred to as the Moho discontinuity or the Moho, is the boundary between the Earth's crust and the mantle."

I like it because it sets Moho apart as being both unique and uniquely fun to use (don't really want something that sounds serious, like work). But yeah, the current Moho logo is a bit bland, and I also change my highlight color to a blue.

[SimplSam]

Strong supporter of the name Moho. I hear (online) some people call it Moho Studio and Moho Animation Studio (based on Anime Studio) - which has a more pro feel to it.
I would however vote to get rid of the name Debut. I think it undersells and cheapens the product. I would rather see Moho (standard version) and Moho Pro / Studio (with pro features).
Also No Probs with the Logo - in fact I quite like it. Can't see changing it adding any significant value to the product.

I forsee Moho continuing to straddle both Wannabe/Enthusiast and Pro sectors, and I think it needs to up the ante at both ends of that spectrum.

[Penny]

I agree that Moho should have more interactions with AE. I use both but over the years for motion graphic stuff I definitely left Moho. I'm currently using it only for character animations. Every other AE plugin can't do easily what Moho does. Since I'm the only one who uses Moho in the company I work for, It gaves me great advantage in terms of animation quality, but sometimes compositing stuff it's a nightmare.

Don't know if it's possible but an interesting option could be also to develop an AE plugin that interacts with Moho.

[Penny]

Here's a further information:
This AE plugin (which I never used by the way) uses LUA so I guess the interaction between AE and MOHO is possibile. In the comments section someone already pointed at this.

https://aescripts.com/pixelsworld/

[dueyftw]

I agree that Moho should have more interactions with AE. I use both but over the years for motion graphic stuff I definitely left Moho. I'm currently using it only for character animations. Every other AE plugin can't do easily what Moho does. Since I'm the only one who uses Moho in the company I work for, It gaves me great advantage in terms of animation quality, but sometimes compositing stuff it's a nightmare.

Don't know if it's possible but an interesting option could be also to develop an AE plugin that interacts with Moho.

There is a Moho camera to AF script:
https://www.animestudiotutor.com/moho_scripts

It was for version 8 but still might work.

Dale

[Greenlaw]

There is also a Layers To Ae script at that site. I'm not sure either one still works for the current Moho, but we will need both parts for a complete Moho to Ae transfer feature.

It would be cool if we had a true 'interchange' feature for Moho and Ae that allowed the two programs to communicate back and forth. So, for example, if the linked camera is re-animated in Ae, the interchange should be able to send that change to update the Moho project, and vice versa.

I can currently do something like this between Ae and LightWave. In this case, I can send the camera and nulls between the two programs, and I can make a change in either program and send the change to the other program.

I know Cartoon Animator 4 Pipeline recently added a link to Ae. The way it works is that the rendered frames appear as 3D layers in Ae, and the CA4P camera is baked and sent to Ae. I'm not sure this works both ways; obviously the rendered animations cannot be reanimated in Ae for CA4P, but maybe the camera animation can be? Not sure...I played with this feature briefly last year, but I'll need to revisit this to recall exactly what it does. But if a future Moho can do even this much natively, that could be pretty useful.

Frankly, I'd like to see the camera supported in FBX, both for export and import. This would make Moho more compatible with almost any 3D animation program and most other compositing programs (that aren't After Effects.)

That said, before the devs add too many new features to Moho, there's a bunch of existing features I'd rather see improved or fixed first.

[Lychee]

For my part, I use Hitfilm Pro for compositing (I don't like the idea of subscriptions, I like to pay for things once and for all).
Making a tool to communicate between Moho and a compositing or 3D program would be a good idea.
I think it would be nice not to focus on AE and make a plugin in a format popular in most compositing programs, like OpenFX for example.

[synthsin75]

For my part, I use Hitfilm Pro for compositing (I don't like the idea of subscriptions, I like to pay for things once and for all).
Making a tool to communicate between Moho and a compositing or 3D program would be a good idea.
I think it would be nice not to focus on AE and make a plugin in a format popular in most compositing programs, like OpenFX for example.

Yeah, individual scripters, for Moho or AE, can write for those specific programs. Moho development would be better spent working on more widely used transfer formats, IMO.

[erikk]

(FWIW, Cartoon Animator 4 Pipeline added a Ae exchange feature late last year. It's kinda neat...does what I described regarding placement and camera animation, and for the character animations, I think it bakes the frames and loads the frames in Ae (the Ae part is done via an Ae script). I've only tried the workflow once as a test so I may be fuzzy about the details, but I can revisit this if the devs would like a more accurate and detailed description.)

I looked at CA4 Pipeline when I became convinced Moho was abandonware (proved wrong, so hooray, but SM had a history of this). It had some good things, but lack of a motion graph was an absolute deal killer for me. Of course, I’m on Big Sur, I needed Big Sur for the security for other work and it’s non-negotiable for client safety for me, and now can only use Moho on my tiny Lenovo Yoga. Even 12.5 stopped working with the recent update. 13 is no longer red, just a blank stage without working tools.

Here’s hoping the mid-March is coming up soon.

[Greenlaw]

I looked at CA4 Pipeline when I became convinced Moho was abandonware (proved wrong, so hooray, but SM had a history of this). It had some good things, but lack of a motion graph was an absolute deal killer for me.

Yeah, same here. CA4P was one of my backup plans in case Moho had gone belly-up last year. Happily, that's not happening.

For me, CA4P not having a curve editor is an issue but it's not the main one. TBH, I hardly ever use the motion graph in Moho, (although I'd probably miss it as soon as it isn't there.) For me, CA4P isn't developed enough for hand-keyframing animation. For example, I find it very tedious to change the Transition Curves (called Interpolation Modes in Moho.) In CA4P, I can only do this one keyframe at a time. Also, the program doesn't allow me to animate specifically at 24fps. (It does allow me to render at 24fps but that's not the same thing.)

Maybe this is because the developers are more interested leveraging motion capture tech. I don't think that's a bad thing---I use mocap in some of my personal projects--but it's not what I use in everyday work. If I overlook these issues, I think CA4P is a neat program, and it has some cool things going for it, like standard rigging templates and modular parts.

But for more sophisticated rigging and hand-keyframed puppet animation, Moho is way more flexible and capable.

[arglborps]

I’m on Big Sur, I needed Big Sur for the security for other work and it’s non-negotiable for client safety for me, and now can only use Moho on my tiny Lenovo Yoga. Even 12.5 stopped working with the recent update. 13 is no longer red, just a blank stage without working tools.

Must be something else than Big Sur, because I'm using Moho 12.5 on Big Sur 11.2.3 and it's fine.

[pihms]

I haven't heard anymore on the updates, development, and futures recently for Moho, though a lot of great ideas floating out there. I would really like to hear from the Moho team. I can see Moho taking on the top animation programs in the competitive market with some additions and slight changes.