Ease control

[CandyCoated]

Longtime lurker, very seldomly post - But I need some guidance!

I'm really stumped on this one. I've been ignoring it and working around it but today I am stuck. I cannot seem to get proper easing (or at least not in the way I am used to working in most other software). I have a character that is running and then starts sliding on some ice. So keyframe A should be linear (full speed) and keyframe B should have ease so that the character slowly comes to a stop.

Unfortunately, it appears that Moho's keyframes affect the interval between the keyframes, not the keyframes themselves? (I could be wrong - this is just my observation).

So I'm using layer transform for this move from A to B. Looking at the motion pah for that, I see if I have keyframe A set to linear and B set to any ease setting, the subframes are evenly spaced (linear). No matter what setting I try to use on Keyframe B. The moment I change keyframe A to smooth or ease in or ease out, the subframe dots bunch up around both keyframes.

What I need is for A to be linear and then slowly come to a stop at B, so the subframe dots should bunch up around keyframe B.

I tried setting both of those keyframes to bezier, but I don't see handles for them in the motion graph view.

I cannot, for the life of me, get that to work.

What is the preferred method for doing this in MOHO?

Thanks so much!

[synthsin75]

Keyframes generally affect what happens after them (between one key and the next). So you're best bet is to set the first keyframe to bezier and adjust the curve in the motion graph. You could try setting the first keyframe to ease out, but IMO that's usually too subtle for most purposes.

[CandyCoated]

Thank you. Yeah it wasn't working as I expected. (I don't mean that it's working wrong, just differently than I thought it should.) Setting keyframe A to linear, and keyframe B to ease out had no affect on keyframe B. Because MOHO is affecting the movement following the keyframes instead of assigning an ease value to the keyframes themselves. This seems a bit counter-intuitive in my opinion, but now that I know I can use bezier and manually set the curves, it's all good. (I'm used to the way After Effects and C4D work)

I was not getting any visible keyframes or handles in the graph view. Then I discovered you have to double click the attribute to enable editing. I've been using MOHO for about 4 years and am just now figuring that out. ugh. hahaha

Sometimes I have to skip the basics to meet deadlines when jumping into new software. I'm forever a student!

Thanks again for your reply.

[Greenlaw]

When I started using Moho several years ago, I thought it was a odd that the chosen interpolation mode affects only the outgoing side of the key, but then I stopped expecting Moho to behave like After Effects and got used to it.

Anyway, when animating characters, most of the time I use Smooth keys and it's fine, but in situations where I really need to see the motion easing across several frames, I switch to Bezier keys. Apart from that, I may just use one of the presets. To switch modes, r-click over a key and select from the list.

As mentioned, I used Smooth most of the time, Bezier for special timing, and Linear and Cycle when appropriate. I rarely use Hold for hold keys; instead I like to copy and paste the previous Smooth key to hold. I find this gives me the same result and it's easier than switching modes and keeping track of it.

BTW, I keep my Default mode set to Copy Previous Key. This at least makes keyframe creation behave more like Ae.

Hope this helps.

[Greenlaw]

A good way to see what the modes actually do is to create a shape in the center of a layer, and then move/keyframe the layer over many frames in a rectangular pattern so you can see the keyframes and how the positions are spaced out as little tick marks. (Naturally, Show Path should be active.) Then r-click each key and change the mode to see how it affects the spacing of the tick marks in the path.

BTW, I agree with Wes that the Ease In/Out presets are probably too subtle, and you'll want to use Bezier mode when you want the easing to be obvious.

[CandyCoated]

I stopped expecting Moho to behave like After Effects and got used to it.

There's the magic phrase! Yeah I'll be using bezier a lot more now that I discovered you have to double click an attribute to edit it in the graph view and since the presets only affect what's forward in time and not the keyframes themselves (before and after).

Hoping to be able to show some of the MOHO work I've done if and when I get clearance to share it publicly.

[Greenlaw]

Cool! Looking forward to seeing what you create with Moho!