Wild points refuse to be tamed by CMD+M

[Hoptoad]

Sometimes, when I'm tinkering with a shape, the old points will do wacky things to the curve of a stroke and I have to delete them and create a new point in the same location. This happens to points when I create a shape with the blob tool, especially. I understand why this happens and it doesn't bother me. It makes sense that points remember their old curves.

This is the problem: command+M will only occasionally sort out the wackiness.

What would be fantastic is if command+M worked 100% of the time. That is, the shortcut would always update a wacky point to a curve clearly based on the new curvature of nearby points.

I know, I could adjust the lever-things, but that process slows things down too much. I find it faster to delete the point and add a new point. But that's annoying, so I try command+M first. But it only works from time-to-time.

If command+M always forced a point to adjust to the new curves of a shape, that would be great.

[Greenlaw]

Sounds like what can happen when you deform a Bezier points using bones, warping or an action.

The Smooth command (ctrl-M) resets it to a regular Moho point, and it should fix the problem. If there is still a problem after using Smooth, it might be that a neighboring point is also a Bezier point. (Peak will also reset the point to a regular point.)

Anyway, this is why I generally recommend against using Bezier points for drawings that will be deformed using bones, warping, or actions. To keep me from accidentally activating Bezier mode, I keep the handles hidden until I really want to use Bezier (usually in a non-deforming drawing.)

If you really want to Bezier for deforming with bones, warping and actions, Victor has a technique for making it work. A search in these forums should call up that discussion. I'll see if I can track that info down.

In the meantime, you can just prevent them until you need them like I do.

You can more or less create the same curves using regular Moho points. The curves will probably require extra points and more careful placement, but the deformations tend to be more predictable this way, at least in my experience.

[synthsin75]

My first guess would be that you have two points almost stacked on each other. Even if you smooth both, they're so close that it could still make a mess of the curve.

[Hoptoad]

My first guess would be that you have two points almost stacked on each other. Even if you smooth both, they're so close that it could still make a mess of the curve.

No, that's not it. I just carefully tested the problem.

I scribbled with the blob brush, creating a shape with a lot of points. I moved various points until I found a wacky point. I selected the wacky point and deleted it and it (the single point) went away, so I knew there was only one point at that spot. I then used undo to return the point. And then I used command+M in an attempt to smooth the curve and it did not work.

HOWEVER...

I just figured out what the problem is! Yay! I need to select the wacky point and the two adjacent points when I use command+M. The curve of the wacky point - I just realized - is strongly affected by the adjacent points. When three points are in cahoots, they may create weird curves that bulge like a hernia in an otherwise pretty shape.

So, thanks for replying and prompting me to test the problem more carefully. For anybody reading this, the solution is to select multiple points near the problematic point and then use command+M. That works 100% of the time.

So. . .never mind, Moho developers. You can go back to figuring-out how to add thumbnail icons to project files for the Mac version.

[Greenlaw]

If you really want to Bezier for deforming with bones, warping and actions, Victor has a technique for making it work. A search in these forums should call up that discussion. I'll see if I can track that info down.

Hmm...I was looking around for Victor's thread on this topic but the forum's Search hasn't been working properly for a while now, and it's turning up nothing.

But if you ever want to work with deforming Bezier points in a rig, you need to be sure to keyframe the handle positions (curvature) and not just the point position. From what I recall, that was the key to Victor's technique.

[Greenlaw]

I found it! The images are broken but here's the original post. There's a little more to the technique than I wrote above so worth a look. (I need to bookmark this)....

https://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewto ... 07#p187807

[Hoptoad]

I found it! The images are broken but here's the original post. There's a little more to the technique than I wrote above so worth a look. (I need to bookmark this)....

https://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewto ... 07#p187807

Thanks. That was interesting. My problem doesn't happen while animating points, though, it happens in the vector art-making stage.

Imagine a shape like an egg, made of 10 points (I always use a lot of points). Now image a bulge between two adjacent points, bulging outside the oval like a fingertip. That's pretty weird, right? I seem to have those kinds of occurrences pop-up every now and then whenever I'm creating vector artwork on-the-fly and making frequent changes to shapes.

Oh well. I guess that's the price I must pay for not creating a proper pencil drawing beforehand that I can trace.

Fortunately I now know how to eliminate the weird curves quickly.