How to stop gradients from being moved by the bone

[ZV1LLE]

So I just need to adjust the gradient handles in the smart bones action of, lets say the arm, and it should fix the issue?

[Hoptoad]

A lot of Moho users, when they have a problem and they don't want to risk messing up their complicated rig by conducting experiments, will spend a few minutes making a new project with a super simple rig, then test their theories with the new rig. That's one of the nifty things about Moho. In the time it takes to bring a pot of water to a boil, you can make a simple test character with head, body, legs and arms, rig the character and begin experimenting.

[ZV1LLE]

Ok, I've watched a couple videos and learned more about making vectors in Moho, But I'm still trying to find a solution (or at least a tutorial) that will introduce me to gradients and how to use them efficiently (including as just a texture, any tutorials?

For the different possible causes of the issues you are having with gradients and bones, the actual relevant information you need to know is:

Gradients and a few other shape effects are positioned and moved using handles that you can see and manipulate using the select shape tool to select the shape.

These handles, and therefore the gradients themselves, can be moved manually at any frame to create position keyframes, animating the gradient's position.

To move the gradients using bones, which seems to be your case, only the bone's strength (using flexibinding) and the layer bind are able to do that. A third case, that is not automatic like those other two, is if the bone is actually a smartbone and has a smartaction that contains animation of the gradient's position, in that case the movement of the bone will automatically move the gradient according to the smart action.

If you are not familiarized with all those concepts firs, this may sound like chinese.

The problem with the body isn't actually the gradient, the gradient is fine, but that for some reason, the body's gradients get dragged by the bone causing it to look weird and not stay in the body, look at the first page of posts and you will see what I mean. This problem is what I am trying to fix

[Daxel]

The problem with the body isn't actually the gradient, the gradient is fine, but that for some reason, the body's gradients get dragged by the bone causing it to look weird and not stay in the body, look at the first page of posts and you will see what I mean. This problem is what I am trying to fix

Yes I know, your bones seem to be moving your gradients out of place, that's why I'm explaining how bones can move gradients in Moho.

[Daxel]

So I just need to adjust the gradient handles in the smart bones action of, lets say the arm, and it should fix the issue?

You can reposition the gradients using the animation of the smartbone yes, but I mentioned that as a possible source of the unwanted movement not as a solution. The problem with relying in smarbones animation to move a gradient is that the gradient will only follow the rotation of the bone but not its translation or scaling.

[synthsin75]

The problem with the body isn't actually the gradient, the gradient is fine, but that for some reason, the body's gradients get dragged by the bone causing it to look weird and not stay in the body, look at the first page of posts and you will see what I mean. This problem is what I am trying to fix

Again, this is what the offset bone tool is meant for.

[Daxel]

I gave you the three ways bone movement can cause movement of gradients so you can guess which one is the responsible of that unwanted movement in your rig, because we don't know how your rig is.

One of those three ways (and the most common) is the bone's strength moving the gradients using flexibinding, so if your rig uses flexibinding, synthsin75's advice of using the offset tool should fix it. I think using flexibinding in "Region" mode could fix it too. And limiting which bones have flexibinding with which layers could fix it too.

[ZV1LLE]

How do I limit which layers have flexibinding with other layers? and how do I use the offset bone tool to fix the issue (the offset bone repositions the bone)

[synthsin75]

I tried to explain the offset bone tool, and even gave you a link to the tutorial in the manual.

[ZV1LLE]

Yes, I've seen the tutorial, and yes, I know that I have to separate the character's limbs and rig the character from there, but I want the character to still be in its same position as before, and as seen in the tutorial, the character doesn't match up to how the character was before, and I want to ensure the character looks the same.

Besides, the purpose for the separation is to see the parts better and set up the bones, but I can just hide the character's different body parts to do that. So unless separating the limbs has a function that will help to stop the gradient tearing, I'm not sure if I will take this approach, Sorry.

[Daxel]

How do I limit which layers have flexibinding with other layers? and how do I use the offset bone tool to fix the issue (the offset bone repositions the bone)

What synthsin75 said is correct, the offset tool is also used to avoid other bones (like the leg bone) from moving the wrong drawing (like the arm drawing). Because flexibinding works by distance, so having limbs separated using the offset tool makes them interfere less with the other drawings.

However, I see Moho's manual doesn't mention that now. It did in the past, but now it looks like the official way to handle this problem is using "Bone - Link bones to layer". Select the layer with the drawing, then still in that layer select the bones you want to be the only ones moving the drawing, then click on Bone - Link bones to layer. If you watch old tutorials or comments, you'll see everyone calls this "Use Selected Bones for Flexibinding", because that was its name in previous versions.

[ZV1LLE]

Is it possible to use this feature with point binding and smooth joint pairs?

[Daxel]

Link bones to layer? Yes it works with point binding and I don't remember how smooth joint pairs worked under the hood but I think it shouldn't be a problem.

Link bones to layer is a way to tell Moho "this is the bone or the bones that go with this layer", and it has two consecuences:

1. When you are working with flexibinding (your bones have strength), only that bone strength will influence the linked layer. This is the official way of dealing with unwanted interactions between bones and layers that are not meant to be moved by them, so unless your rig is extremely simple, this should be used when using flexibinding.

2. If you are working with vitruvian bones, when you swap that bone, Moho will automatically swap its linked layer too. So again -Link bones to layer- should be always used when using vitruvian bones.

So yeah it's a very important feature but for some reason the Manual don't explain how it works or its purpose and only gives you a link to the Tutorial manual that for some reason requires you to have a google account and give your information, the right to do whatever they want with you and your firstborn. I'm not exagerating, this is what they demand:

You need a wiki wants to access your Google account.


This will allow You need a wiki to:

View, modify, create, and delete files in Google Drive

View and download contacts

View, edit, create, and delete all your Google Docs documents

Confirm that you trust You need a wiki.

This is not and April fools joke.

[ZV1LLE]

Heh, I see, I will try linking the bones to the layer and making the smooth joint pairs for the vector paths from there, then I'll see if it works, Thanks

[ZV1LLE]

Quick question, Is it possible to link 2 bones to the layer, and will the Link bones button have the same effect as link bones to layer?