How to copy frame 0 keyframes?

[gmarcc]

I've created a smartbone dial for vector mouth shapes and setup the key frames in the sub-timeline for all shapes. On frame 0 I've created a neutral shape and modified it from frame 1 on. Now, I noticed that I forgot to have the neutral shape from frame 0 in the timeline. I tried to select all the key frames from frame 0 and copy them to any other frame, but I get a totally different shape on the target frame. So my question is, how can I copy the shape of frame 0? I event tried to move all the key frames to the left by 1 frame so that frame 1 has actually no key frame at all, but still, the shape looks different than on frame 0...

I hope anyone knows about this and can help... I've lost already hours to find out what's going on...

Thanks
Marc

[Greenlaw]

Before we go too far into this: are you drawing all your mouth shapes as a single-layer animation inside a Smart Bone Action? IMO, this doesn't sound like an ideal way to animate mouth shapes in Moho.

The most common approach is to use a Switch Layer and then use the Switch Selection Window to set your mouth shapes. This method is not only easier to set up and animate with, it allows you to morph between drawings for smooth mouth-shape transitions. You can't do that inside a Smart Bone Action, not in a non-linear way anyway.

Alternatively, you can use a Smart Bone to animate a Switch Layer. I used to animate mouths this way years ago but stopped when I discovered it was easier to use the Switch Selection window. Plus, as mentioned above, you can't get the non-linear morphing effect using a Smart Bone Action. While I don't normally use morphing mouth-shapes, it's nice to have the option.

Unless you require a special mouth setup because of a specific character design or animation style, I suggest sticking with a more traditional mouth setup.

[Hoptoad]

. . .how can I copy the shape of frame 0? I event tried to move all the key frames to the left by 1 frame so that frame 1 has actually no key frame at all, but still, the shape looks different than on frame 0...

Did you copy everything from the frame 0 vector layer to frame 1? What you tried should have worked, unless you missed something like copying the curvature for the points.

Another option is to delete the smart bone action and start over. I did this a lot when I was learning smart bones and making mistakes. Eventually, if you makes enough mistakes, you can get pretty fast at re-doing something. Sometimes, if the error is mysterious, it's faster to start over than try to understand what's going wrong.

[gmarcc]

Thanks for your fast replies! The character is quite complex and I'm not only modifying the isolated mouth shape, but also some other parts of the face, like the jaw and shadows. That's why I chose not to use a switch layer which would have certainly be easier.

Maybe, I will start over again as suggested, it's probably less time consuming than finding the issue.

[SimplSam]

Just one thing to note... Frame 0 is Frame 0, is Frame 0. i.e. It is the same if you are on the main timeline or any sub-timeline.

So if you make any change on Frame 0 anywhere (timeline or any sub-timeline), that change will be universal.

p.s. Can get confusing if you shift the layer sequence - but that's another matter, for another day.

[Hoptoad]

Thanks for your fast replies! The character is quite complex and I'm not only modifying the isolated mouth shape, but also some other parts of the face, like the jaw and shadows. That's why I chose not to use a switch layer which would have certainly be easier.

Maybe, I will start over again as suggested, it's probably less time consuming than finding the issue.

It sounds like some of your points that aren't moving in frame 1 (they have no keyframes) are moving frame 0 to frame 2. That may be the problem.

When I have this problem. . .what I usually do is select the bad point on the frame with the problem, which makes the point red, then I'll go back to an earlier frame. On the earlier frame I can easily see the bad point because it is still selected. Then I fix it. In your situation, fixing it means copying the keyframe for the selected "bad" point from frame 0 to frame 1.

Maybe!

[Greenlaw]

Thanks for your fast replies! The character is quite complex and I'm not only modifying the isolated mouth shape, but also some other parts of the face, like the jaw and shadows. That's why I chose not to use a switch layer which would have certainly be easier.

Oh, yeah, I can see how you might want to take another approach for a more realistic effect. Here are a few suggestions...

Some Moho animators will combine Switch Layers with separate controls for the jaw and cheeks. In an advanced setup, Switch Selection is used to choose specific mouth shapes, and the jaw control can dial in the strength of that mouth shape. I usually keep this simpler, though, with the control only reshaping the bottom part of the mouth and cheeks as needed. To me, a very complicated control can be hard to modify later when I inevitably need to, so keep that in mind.

As mentioned earlier, Switch layer drawings can be made morphable, automatically blending into each other. To make Moho art morphable in a Switch, you must enable Interpolate Sub-layers from the Switch properties. Also, you must use the same base drawing for each mouth shape so Moho can track the point order in each layer. Because of this, it's important to make sure you have all the points you need to create all or most of your mouth shapes from that base shape because adding or deleting points will break this connection. I like to make an extra copy of my base drawing and hide it...this is my backup in case I really mess something up. Tip: Not all mouth shapes need to be morphable, and you can have alternative mouth shapes with a different point count structure for different types of morphing. There are many ways to go about it, and the best one depends on your character design and animation style.

What's extra nice about using a Switch Layer for mouths is that you can switch between groups of drawings, so my mouth shapes are usually made of multiple layers, i.e., mouth, teeth, and tongue. I don't normally make all of these morphable because it's extra work, but I've done it occasionally, and it works great.

Practically speaking, morphing mouth shapes can look kind kinda mushy in a cartoon character, so instead, I keep the mouths non-morphing and insert my transitional 'shapes' by transforming the Switch group itself. This helps the animation look smooth and not so 'poppy', and it's easier to setup and animate. All the Moho mouth animations on my two DWA demo reels had been animated using this method.

Re: Shadows: Lip shadows may be drawn into the art layer and can be morphable along with the rest of the mouth. For the jaw shadow, I use a Style effect, or I'll add this as a post-effect in comp. If I need the Moho-rendered shadow to be more complex than an offset-matte trick, I'll rig a masked shape for the shadow. The Po rig near the beginning of my 2019 demo reel is an example of that.

Hope this helps.