I've already figured a way around this, but I need to learn how to properly mask. I tried the tutorial but haven't seen how to apply what I'm trying to do:
I have a pair of eyeballs behind a face (you say "hey, so do I!"). The face has hollow spaces for the eyes to show through. I was trying to make the face a mask and have the eyes peep through the holes, but if the sides of the eyes move beyond the face they are visible when rendering. I want only what is in the eye holes to render. How do I do this?
This one is much easier in Flash.
help with masking
Moderators: Víctor Paredes, Belgarath, slowtiger
Do you need to export to SWF? If so, you may be out of luck. I don't think Moho exports layer masking to SWF format (does SWF even support layer masking?).
If you are happy exporting to MOV, AVI, or image sequences, it can be done.
One possibility is to duplicate the face without the eyeholes, and use that as an invisible mask.
Of course, if you are exporting to MOV or AVI, there is no longer any need to cut eyeholes in a face. You can just make the base eye the mask for the pupils and eyelids.
Regards, Myles.
If you are happy exporting to MOV, AVI, or image sequences, it can be done.
One possibility is to duplicate the face without the eyeholes, and use that as an invisible mask.
Of course, if you are exporting to MOV or AVI, there is no longer any need to cut eyeholes in a face. You can just make the base eye the mask for the pupils and eyelids.
Regards, Myles.
"Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted."
-- Groucho Marx
-- Groucho Marx
Not a direct answer to your question but thought you might find this recent thread talking about eyes useful ...
http://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2999
http://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2999
[url=http://burtabreu.animationblogspot.com:2gityfdw]My AnimationBlogSpot[/url:2gityfdw]
Another method is to put the eyes in a group which group mask is hidden and as the eyeholes add two filled circles in a layer that has the following layer masking property: "+ Add to mask, but keep invisible". Now the eyes in the group will only show if they are on top of the eyeholes.
Here's an example animation:
(sorry for the bad quality, that's because ZippyVideo messes up QuickTime movies)
Here's an example animation:
(sorry for the bad quality, that's because ZippyVideo messes up QuickTime movies)
thanks
Thanks guys,
I'm gonna give your ideas a shot and see if I can pull it off.
I'm gonna give your ideas a shot and see if I can pull it off.
switch layers better?
I played around with masking. I guess I'm not getting it. For now I decided to cheat and just use switch layers.
It's REALLY REALLY annoying that several years have gone by and Anime Studio Pro STILL doesn't export masking to SWF. I just discovered this after spending a couple hours drawing. Bad kitty!jahnocli wrote:Myles said:Yes, it does. Has done for some time. Its REALLY annoying that Moho can't export masking to swf format...(does SWF even support layer masking?)
In another thread, I found this tip, which is relevant here, too:
"For a list of what can and can't be exported to Flash, look in the user's manual, in the Reference section, under "Flash Tips"."
You should realize that SWF export was slapped on at a late stage in the development of Anime Studio (Moho). Furthermore, SWF is a rather limited format, so many of the feaures of Anime Studio should be exported in pixelized format and composited in Flash (or a compatible SWF authoring tool) with the vectorized stuff.
Anime Studio never was, and will never be, a complete animation solution, and the modest price reflects that. It is an animation tool, and its output should be processed by another application before the finished product. You can start drawing your animation in Anime Studio, or process artwork you've created in other applications. Because Anime Studio has no real support for sound recording and editing, it has to be done outside the application. Nevertheless, Anime Studio is good at what it does. I rather have an application that does a few things rather well, than one that does a lot of things rather moderately or badly.
In short, you need to develop a workflow that works best for you.
Anime Studio never was, and will never be, a complete animation solution, and the modest price reflects that. It is an animation tool, and its output should be processed by another application before the finished product. You can start drawing your animation in Anime Studio, or process artwork you've created in other applications. Because Anime Studio has no real support for sound recording and editing, it has to be done outside the application. Nevertheless, Anime Studio is good at what it does. I rather have an application that does a few things rather well, than one that does a lot of things rather moderately or badly.
In short, you need to develop a workflow that works best for you.
Thanks for the detailed reply, Rasheed, but I must respectfully disagree.
I don't think I "should" realize that SWF support is limited for any particular reason. I'm a paying customer, giving my opinion, and that's a take-it-or-leave-it offer. Flash export happens to be the only reason Moho and Anime Studio Pro were at all attractive or useful to me. Given it's low price point and the recent focus on anime, I think it'd be wise to focus on Flash exporting. That's another take-it-or-leave-it opinion for the developers to consider, or not. Up to them.
As for AS never being a complete animation solution: so what? Not relevant to the Flash masking issue, in the first place, and in the second place, that doesn't mean they shouldn't try to be a complete animation solution, because they can actually accomplish everything a web animator needs. I'm confident in their abilities.
Moreover, the target market probably expects exactly that -- a complete animation solution for online-friendly animation. I don't think anyone reasonably expects them to seriously compete with a product designed to serve a television production studio, but the lone animator working on her home computer in the evenings, developing the 'next big thing' in animation and trying to get attention for her work.
I don't think I "should" realize that SWF support is limited for any particular reason. I'm a paying customer, giving my opinion, and that's a take-it-or-leave-it offer. Flash export happens to be the only reason Moho and Anime Studio Pro were at all attractive or useful to me. Given it's low price point and the recent focus on anime, I think it'd be wise to focus on Flash exporting. That's another take-it-or-leave-it opinion for the developers to consider, or not. Up to them.
As for AS never being a complete animation solution: so what? Not relevant to the Flash masking issue, in the first place, and in the second place, that doesn't mean they shouldn't try to be a complete animation solution, because they can actually accomplish everything a web animator needs. I'm confident in their abilities.
Moreover, the target market probably expects exactly that -- a complete animation solution for online-friendly animation. I don't think anyone reasonably expects them to seriously compete with a product designed to serve a television production studio, but the lone animator working on her home computer in the evenings, developing the 'next big thing' in animation and trying to get attention for her work.
Well, mooncaine, I should say, try to let people send a request directly to e frontier for better Flash support in Anime Studio. I understand from heyvern's report of Comicon, that they are quite responsive to user requests, as long as there are enough users who request it.
Until that is put in place, though, let us be practical, and use the tools we have. That what all I was indicating in my response to you.
Until that is put in place, though, let us be practical, and use the tools we have. That what all I was indicating in my response to you.
Thanks for that link. I made my request. I agree we should be practical. I also believe I'm doing the developers a favor by telling them what annoys me about using their product. It's not like I'm nagging them. That's free market research from a paying customer -- someone who already overcame that crucial first obstacle and plunked his money down. They can take it or leave it, but then again, so can I. I could have just left, and not bought the next version without telling them why.
Practical advice is advice that one can use to get the job done. I mentioned the help topic that lists what doesn't export to Flash because I see that as a practical response: keep that list handy and look at it before I start, so that I don't commit resources into work I won't be able to use.
I think I've hit on a workaround that will let me rescue some of yesterday's drawing work: I'll export a frame in a format that DOES support masking, convert it to an image file and import it as a tracing image, and trace. Better than nothing. Luckily I was just drawing objects and I hadn't done any animating with them yet.
Practical advice is advice that one can use to get the job done. I mentioned the help topic that lists what doesn't export to Flash because I see that as a practical response: keep that list handy and look at it before I start, so that I don't commit resources into work I won't be able to use.
I think I've hit on a workaround that will let me rescue some of yesterday's drawing work: I'll export a frame in a format that DOES support masking, convert it to an image file and import it as a tracing image, and trace. Better than nothing. Luckily I was just drawing objects and I hadn't done any animating with them yet.
One method I've used in the past is dividing projects into different depths, where this is possible. Then you can mask away using whatever you fancy, export it in Quicktime or whatever, convert it to FLV format, and import it into Flash as a background animation. It's better than tracing...
You can't have everything. Where would you put it?