Can't Bind Layers

[FoundPebble]

I'm using Anime studio 9.5 and I'm trying to make an eye rig. I put the each component of the eye in a group and put both eyes in another group. The big group with everything inside is the bone group like in the tutorials. However I can't bind the bone I made to the pupil. It is only letting me bind the Left Eye and Right Eye masking groups to the bone but that's not what I'm trying to do. I only want to move the pupils. I'm not sure what I am doing wrong. The shortcut Alt click doesn't work either.

[FoundPebble]

Sorry, I meant alt right click. It does send me to the layer I clicked on but it unselecets the bone and I still can't bind. I made sure the bone strength is at 0 and none of the two pupil bones are parents to each other.

[Daxel]

the shortcut alt + left click, that it's used to select a bone when you have the bind bones tool selected, uses the left click. You are using the right click, that does what you described, it selects the clicked visible layer.

But you also seem to be talking about the bind layer tool, not the bind bone tool (this second one is used to bind the points to the bones).

The bind layer tools doesn't use that alt + leftclick shortcut. You just select the tool once you have your layer selected (the one you want to bind), and then you normally click (left click) on the bone you want that layer to be binded to. You will see how that bone gets highlighted once it is binded to the layer. You can click on an empty space instead of a bone to unbind the layer.

Edit: the following only applies to the spanish translation apparently:
By the way I think the naming of those two tools is not consistent and creates confusion unnecesarily:
The "bind layer tool" makes reference to what is being binded to the bone (the layer), while the "bind bones tool" doesn't. It should be called "bind points tool" to be consistent and specific, or use a different naming approach for both tools. When I think about it, I don't even see any good reason to not unify those two tools in one: the bind bones tool, that allows you to bind bones to anything you want (layers or points). After all, the bind layer tool doesn't have any specific buttons and you could just alt-crtl click on a bone with the bind bones tool to bind it to the layer. You don't need a different interface because actually layer binding prevents you from point binding. At the same time, begginers wouldn't be confused about why the bind bones tool is missing (because the selected layer is layer binded) because they would select this general bind bones tool and they will instantly see that the layer is binded and that they have to unbind it to do bind the points. Maybe I'm missing something but sounds better to me.

[Greenlaw]

By the way I think the naming of those two tools is not consistent and creates confusion unnecesarily:
The "bind layer tool" makes reference to what is being binded to the bone (the layer), while the "bind bones tool" doesn't. It should be called "bind points tool" to be consistent and specific...

Hiya Daxel,

Check again...I believe the tools are called Bind Layer and Bind Points.

If anything is confusing to new users, it's probably that some binding methods are applied using menu commands and some are applied using tools. I remember that used to confuse me way back when I was learning Moho. There is a difference in how they're applied though: the two Tool methods, Bind Layer and Bind Points, are each used to bind selected items to a single bone. The menu commands can use multiple bones. Keeping this in mind makes it easier to know where to look for the tool you need.

@Found Pebble,

The many methods might seem overwhelming but, it's just matter of getting familiar with each method as you need it, and experimenting with each method to learn its strengths and weaknesses. Don't try to learn all of them at once because most of the time, you only need to use one or two methods in a rig.

Back when I was learning Moho (starting mostly with Moho 9.5,) I figured out two methods worked for me for nearly everything and pretty much stuck with them for the longest time. These two were Selective Flexi-binding and Bind Layers. In time, I ran into situations where they weren't adequate, so I branched out to include some of the other methods.

From what I remember, here's how I learned each method (I'll stick to what was available in Moho 9.5 since that's what you're currently using)...

1. Flexi-binding (Menu). This is Moho's default mode. When you create a bone in a bone layer and you place layers inside it, they are automatically bound using this mode. This method is probably the easiest to understand because it's very basic. Every bone affects every layer, and how much each bone affects a layer depends on each bone's strength and how close the layer's content is to the bone.

2. Use Selected Bones For Flexi-binding (Menu; unofficially aka Selective Flexi-binding). Sometimes you'll find that you need a layer to be affected by ONLY a couple of bones and not the entire skeleton. Enter Selective Flexi-binding. To use this, select your layer or layers (like the arm artwork), select the bones (the arm bones,) and choose the menu command Bones > Use Selective Flexi-Binding. Now you'll find that the other bones in the skeleton will not distort the arm artwork.

It's important to understand the the arm bones will still affect other artwork because the other artwork is still using the default Flex-bind method (i.e., still affected by every bone.) So if you're like me, you'll quickly figure out that you want to use this method to bind every layer to specific bone selections. It's pretty easy though because you can select multiple layers and multiple bones and apply the command bind them all at once. When I learned this method, I used it for almost everything. For everything else I used the next method...

3. Layer Bind (Tool). Probably the simplest but very useful in its own way. This method binds a single layer to a single bone. Period. It's great when you want to add an item to a character that's going to be moved by a single bone but not deformed by any bones. You can use this method for points, images or groups.

When you use it for a group layer, you need to understand that any layers inside the group will be cut off from all the other bones. So if you want to use other binding methods for some of the contained layers, you need to not bind the group but instead apply the different bindings to the layers inside the group.

For the longest time, I only needed the above three methods, and really only Selective Binding and Layer Binding. But when I was tasked with animating Puss-in-Boots for the interactive episode, I started using the next method...

4. Smooth Joint (Menu). This is a specialty method that works great for certain styles of artwork. It works with vector art and bitmap art but I found it especially useful for bitmap art with parallel sides, like Puss' arms in the footage mentioned above. It can automatically apply a circular deformer at the joint of two selected bones. What's unique about it is how it deforms the artwork, and looking at the footage will give you some idea of what I mean, especially when Puss 'twirls' his arms at the elbow. Surprisingly, the method can work well for detailed textures too, and it Puss' painted fur textures.

BTW, there's no reason to stick with only certain methods for a give rig. In the case of Puss-in-Boots, I pretty much threw every Moho technique I knew at the time for this rig.

5. Point Binding (Tool). This is one of the more versatile methods because it can be combined with most of the other binding methods. It's kinda like Layer Binding but for Points in that you select a bone and then select the points you want to be affected ONLY by that bone, and press Enter to bind them. What makes it versatile is that you can assign different selections of points in a layer to different bones, and each point selection will be rigidly bound to it's assigned bone. Any points not bound using this tool remain affected by Flexi-binding or Selective Flexi-binding.

Note that just like the result with Bind Layer, Bind Points is a rigid binding method. This is good when you don't what the squishy effect that comes from Flexi-binding.

I think the only other thing you need to know is how to 'fix' your binding when everything seems to go wrong. My trick for this is the select the layers that are misbehaving and choose the menu command Bone > Reset All Bone Rigging. The resets the binding method for the selection to the default Flexi-binding. From there, you can apply the method you want. This is almost always easier and faster than taking the time to figure out what went wrong.

That said, there's merit in figuring out what went wrong if you keep repeating the same mistake. Once you understand the problem, hopefully you won't do it again.

Hope this info is helpful.

[Daxel]

Hiya Daxel,

Check again...I believe the tools are called Bind Layer and Bind Points.

Oh it is Bind Points in english? In spanish it's Vincular Huesos (Bind Bones). Well nice naming then haha, bad translation.

[synthsin75]

I don't believe nested bone control/binding was available in AS9.5. So you may want to do all your masking in the bone group, where you can still bind to the pupils.

[FoundPebble]

Thank you, that was the problem. I will make the mask layer the bone layer instead of a larger group.

[Greenlaw]

Oh it is Bind Points in english? In spanish it's Vincular Huesos (Bind Bones). Well nice naming then haha, bad translation.

Ah! Ha ha, yes, it's Bind Points in the English UI. I agree, the tool should be renamed for the Spanish version.



I'll report this. (Update: Done!)

[CharlieChompnChicken]

I'm experiencing difficulties related to this topic: I have created a vector layer named R hand. I copied the points and pasted them to a different layer named L hand. No matter what I try, I cannot get the L hand layer to bind to the designated L hand Bone. Even though the bone becomes highlighted, designating the change, the layer doesn't move with the bone. I am using the second method, use selected bones for flexi-binding. I have tried: bone > release layer and points, deleted layer shape and created a new shape, deleted L hand bone and created new bone. When I tried selecting L hand bone and bone > reset all bone rigging, it messed up the rigging for every bone and I wasn't able to reverse the change with the undo command. Nothing seems to work. I guess I could trace the first hand layer, but I would prefer the layers be identical. Does any one know why this is happening?

[Greenlaw]

... I have tried: bone > release layer and points...reset all bone rigging, it messed up the rigging for every bone and I wasn't able to reverse the change with the undo command...

Reset All Bone Rigging is what you want to use. I'm guessing it wasn't used properly. The orientation of the artwork, whether flipped on x at the points level or the layer itself, should not matter.

What Reset All Bone Rigging does is it resets the binding for the selected layers to the default regular Flexi-binding in use when you create the layer. To use it, simply select the artwork layers in question, and choose the command. The bones should now work, at least they way they work in default mode. If they don't don't work, check that the bone strength in those bones is higher than zero.

To use Selective Flex-binding, select the artwork layers you want to affect (you can pick more than one layer), select the bones you want to bind to, then choose Use Selected Bones For Flexi-binding. This will bind the artwork to only the selected bones.

Note that these bones will probably still affect other layers because they are still using regular Flex-binding. Regular Flex-binding basically makes every layer affected by every bone that has bone strength, so when you want to restrict some layers to only certain bones, you need to apply one or more of the other binding methods to them.

When you're starting out, my suggestion is to keep it simple and at first use only Selective Flexi-binding and Layer Binding. Trying to apply all binding methods will quickly get confusing and the result won't necessarily be better. For example, years ago when I started using Moho in TV production, I mostly stayed with only these basic methods for several shows and it was just fine. I gradually expanded to inserting other binding methods in my rigs as special situations came up, but by then I was very comfortable with using the basics for most situations.

Hope this helps.

[CharlieChompnChicken]

I repeated the instructed process and it worked the first time. The only thing that changed was the program was closed and reopened, maybe that can help somebody with a similar issue because I am certain I was executing the same menu commands. For what it's worth I'm using version 13.5.5 on Windows 10 64 bit. Thank you very much, Greenlaw. I am realizing now how poor my fundamentals of rigging are. I had been using point rigging (edit: point binding rather) for feet and hands on very simple characters. So many hours committed to this and I'm still a complete and total rookie.

[Greenlaw]

...So many hours committed to this and I'm still a complete and total rookie.

There's definitely a lot to learn, but the skills will come with practice. The important thing is to learn from the mistakes. (Trust me, I've made PLENTY of mistakes...but now I make NEW mistakes.)

Hang in there.

[Greenlaw]

Here's some good advice for anybody using any program to create art/animation (not just Moho):

If you're not already doing this, save multiple versions of your projects...I mean a lot of versions! Don't rely on Auto-save...it's great when it works and it has saved my butt from time to time, but it's not enough. There are few things that will crush your enthusiasm more than losing the hard work you spend hours or even days on. When things go wrong or you feel you're taking things in the wrong direction, keeping multiple versions of your project means you can easily regress to a 'happier' previous version and move forward from there.

It's not hard, you just have to form the habit. (Unfortunately, many of us won't learn this until we've lost important work and a small part of our soul.)

If you're able to, also consider using an OS based versioning system like Windows Previous Versions. But like Auto-save, don't rely on it solely. It's always best to keep versions yourself.

When I'm working on any task, I try to save a new version whenever I feel I've done a significant amount of work on a project, and whenever I add a new feature, especially if it's something I'm not 100% confident about. It's not uncommon for me to make many dozens of versions. After a while, I drag older versions into an '_old' folder, and keep only the most recent versions in my active 'work' (work-in-progress) folder. This keeps the file clutter in my 'work' folder manageable.