Is there any way to quick preview of the animation in Moho?

[Panha]

Most of the time, my animation is long 30 sec to 5 mins for each clips (for one video, about 15 - 10 mins). I most of time need to play the animation again and again to make sure that the animation is good enough before exporting. By clicking on play button on the timeline, the animation play in normal speed. However, when the animation is long, I want Moho to play it fast so that I can finish the preview a few time quickly. Is there any way to make the animation play fast?

[slowtiger]

No.

[Greenlaw]

Most of the time, my animation is long 30 sec to 5 mins for each clips (for one video, about 15 - 10 mins)...However, when the animation is long, I want Moho to play it fast so that I can finish the preview a few time quickly. Is there any way to make the animation play fast?

The typical workflow is to use the animation program to render out individual scenes and then use a video editor to assemble the entire production. A video editing program is better for reviewing long formats because it plays back pre-rendered video footage and doesn't have to process keyframe-heavy animation data like an animation program does.

(Vegas Pro is my favorite video editor, and many animators I know use Davinci Resolve. If you subscribe to Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe Premiere is another good one. Any video editor is fine so long as it plays back the timeline in real time and lets you get footage in and out from it easily.)

Here's my animation production workflow:

1. Create the storyboard.

2. Edit the storyboard as an animatic in a video editor. Add audio and music (can be temp.) Get the timing edited as closely as possible to what you want for the final version. (Don't waste time figuring this out during the animation stage.)

3. Export the individual scenes from the edit as clips to use as animation layout and timing reference. (Tip: For animation reference, I prefer to render a JPEG sequence and separate audio track. This ensures frame accuracy, even when streaming over a wifi network. I do this when I work in any animation program, 2D or 3D.)

4. Import the footage for a scene and create the animation to match the scene length and audio cues.

5. Render the scene.

(Note: I normally render an image sequence for compositing and then export my movie file from there. But even if I'm rendering a movie file directly out of Moho, I may render an image sequence first, and then compile the movie from the image sequence. This is more efficient, especially for long scenes, because if I need to change part of the animation, I can render only the range that changes and not the entire thing. Also, if the animation program crashes during the image sequence rendering, I can continue where it left off; whereas, with a movie file render, I pretty much have to start over from the beginning.)

6. Import the scene to the video editor and overcut the animatic version in a separate 'final' track above the 'animatic' track.

7. Repeat for each scene until you've completely replaced the animatic.

8. Mix the final audio, and you're done.

This is not just what I do for my personal projects; it's how it's done at every animation and Vfx studio I've worked at.

Tip: Scenes in popular entertainment average about 5 seconds in length, and 1 to 6 is what I normally see in TV animation production. Longer scenes are less common and tend to exist for a specific dramatic purpose.

Hope this helps.

[slowtiger]

Having a 30-sec-scene is common in my kind of work, so I understand the OP's wish. However, in praxi (if I dont use batch render) most often I hit render, only to notice a serious blunder in the first second the window pops up: forgot to re-activate a layer or something like that. Then I just stop, repair, and render again. (To be honest: to the end of projects I do 200% more render passes than necessary because of this.)