In this tutorial you'll learn a little trick to create perspective shadows. This trick depends on Moho's layer masking feature, and uses it in a creative way.
For this tutorial, we'll start with a project file that's almost finished. It's named "Tutorial 6.5" and it's located in the "Tutorials/6 - Effects" subfolder within the main Moho folder. Open this file in Moho, and you should see something like this:
Starting point for this tutorial.
Play back the animation to get an idea of what you're starting with. When you've seen enough, rewind the animation back to frame 0. What we're going to do in this tutorial is give Lenny a shadow.
We're going to create a shadow that matches Lenny exactly. Start off by duplicating the "Lenny Skeleton" layer, using the Duplicate Layer button . Move this new copy below the original "Lenny Skeleton", name it "Lenny Shadow", and add a new vector layer inside it as shown below. Make this new layer active, and name it "Shadow".
New layer.
In the new Shadow layer, draw a simple rectangle that takes up about 2/3 of the left side of the visible area, as shown below. The idea is to completely surround Lenny, with enough extra space for when he moves.
Rectangle in Shadow layer.
Next, select the "Lenny Shadow" bone layer and use the Shear Layer X tool to shear the lower copy of Lenny so that he leans to the right as shown below:
Shear the lower copy of Lenny.
Now use the Scale Layer tool to scale the "Lenny Shadow" layer down vertically. Be sure to leave it the same size horizontally - we just want it shorter vertically, as shown below:
Scale down the shadow layer.
Next, use the Translate Layer tool to move the "Lenny Shadow" layer into position so that the back heels of the two Lennys line up like this:
Position the shadow layer.
So far we have two copies of Lenny, with the lower one shifted into perspective. Here comes the trick with layer masking. Go back to the "Shadow" vector layer. Select the Create Shape tool and choose Edit->Select All from the menu. Press the spacebar to fill the rectangle in this layer (remember, it's been shifted into perspective), and give it a black fill color:
Filled in rectangle.
To turn on masking, double-click the "Lenny Shadow" layer and in the Masking tab, set the "Group Mask" setting to "Hide all". Next, double-click the Lenny layer and in the Masking tab, set the "Layer Masking" setting to "+ Add to mask, but keep invisible". The result of these settings is that the big black rectangle will now be masked against the shape of Lenny himself:
The shadow mask effect.
The final touch is to refine the appearance of the shadow. Double-click the "Lenny Shadow" layer. In the Layer Settings dialog, set the Blur radius to 8 and Opacity to 50. That finishes the shadow effect - you can now export the animation as a movie file.
The final result is also included as a Moho project file. It's called "Tutorial 6.5 Final" - take a look at it if you have any trouble following the directions above. It's important when using this trick to animate your subject first before you add the shadow - that way the shadow will also be animated, leading to a more realistic effect.