Timings are off

[MrSoHot]

Hey guys I'm using Moho Studio Pro 13.5 and Everything was going well, until I realized that the timings are all off now. I've been working on this animation for the past week and it's pushing 5 minutes, but now, the whole thing isn't synchornized with the audio anymore and everything is just slightly off and it's bugging me.

I want to assume its because of right-clicking the timeline and dragging it by mistake, I've noticed it seems to alter the timing of objects keyframes, which is really annoying.

I tried to use it and drag it to the right, everything is timed earlier than it should now, but it doesn't even let me do that. Is there Anything I can do to fix this? Huge inconvenience

[Greenlaw]

5 minutes of animation in a single Moho project sounds crazy long to me. Is this project one continuous shot? If so, I would break it down to multiple segments in individual Moho project files, and then assemble the rendered files in a separate Moho project or a video editor. You should cut in/out at the least noticeable points of course.

By working in such a huge file, I believe you're courting data corruption or some other file disaster. It would be a shame to lose all your hard work. Also, breaking the animation out into smaller project files will also improve Moho's interactivity and performance.

If this project contains multiple shots (as opposed to one long continuous shot,) I definitely recommend breaking out each shot to its own project file. This will make audio edits less likely to drift.

FYI, the normal workflow for long form animation projects is to use the animation program for animating individual shots and a video editor for assembling the final production. For example:

1. Cut an animatic in your video editor with audio. An animatic is basically your storyboard on a timeline with sound.
2. Export each shot from your editor with its audio clip. Typically, you want to use a frame accurate format. For example, I prefer to use a jpeg sequence with an uncompressed .wav or .aif.
3. Import a shot's video/audio to moho to use as a timing reference. When you're done, export the final animation. You don't need to include audio because the audio already exists in your video editor.
4. Import the animated shot to the video editor, overcutting the corresponding animatic shot. The audio will be in sync because you used the same animatic footage for your audio/visual timing reference.
5. Once you've overcut all the animatic shots with final animation, you're done. Render out the final video from the video editor and upload it!

Technically speaking, Moho can be used as a video editor to assemble your rendered shots, but I highly recommend getting a dedicated program for this. If cost is an issue there are a few good free and almost free options out there.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

[Daxel]

I tried to use it and drag it to the right, everything is timed earlier than it should now, but it doesn't even let me do that. Is there Anything I can do to fix this? Huge inconvenience

I'm not sure if I understand what you mean. You can't do that? Have you tried moving the timelines using the sequencer? If you have multiple layers animated, you can drag the parent layer or, if you don't have one, just group every layer into a parent group layer and drag that one on the sequencer.

Also, you can check if you actually dragged the timeline checking the green visual reference, that flag or arrow that starts on the frame 1. If you want to see how it looks by default, create a new layer and see if the green references are on the same position.

[SimplSam]

I tried to use it and drag it to the right, everything is timed earlier than it should now, but it doesn't even let me do that. Is there Anything I can do to fix this? Huge inconvenience

I'm not sure if I understand what you mean. You can't do that? Have you tried moving the timelines using the sequencer? If you have multiple layers animated, you can drag the parent layer or, if you don't have one, just group every layer into a parent group layer and drag that one on the sequencer.
Also, you can check if you actually dragged the timeline checking the green visual reference, that flag or arrow that starts on the frame 1. If you want to see how it looks by default, create a new layer and see if the green references are on the same position.

You can also use menu Animation > Set Layer Start Time to reset a layers' sequence offset.

Are you able to determine whether it is the audio or the video that has drifted? I would probably add some sort of temporary audial and visual markers to create sync points, and use an external video editor to review that Moho output to try and see what's what. Also -- breaking up the animation - as per Greenlaw's advice is probably best.

[MrSoHot]

5 minutes of animation in a single Moho project sounds crazy long to me. Is this project one continuous shot? If so, I would break it down to multiple segments in individual Moho project files, and then assemble the rendered files in a separate Moho project or a video editor. You should cut in/out at the least noticeable points of course.

By working in such a huge file, I believe you're courting data corruption or some other file disaster. It would be a shame to lose all your hard work. Also, breaking the animation out into smaller project files will also improve Moho's interactivity and performance.

If this project contains multiple shots (as opposed to one long continuous shot,) I definitely recommend breaking out each shot to its own project file. This will make audio edits less likely to drift.

FYI, the normal workflow for long form animation projects is to use the animation program for animating individual shots and a video editor for assembling the final production. For example:

1. Cut an animatic in your video editor with audio. An animatic is basically your storyboard on a timeline with sound.
2. Export each shot from your editor with its audio clip. Typically, you want to use a frame accurate format. For example, I prefer to use a jpeg sequence with an uncompressed .wav or .aif.
3. Import a shot's video/audio to moho to use as a timing reference. When you're done, export the final animation. You don't need to include audio because the audio already exists in your video editor.
4. Import the animated shot to the video editor, overcutting the corresponding animatic shot. The audio will be in sync because you used the same animatic footage for your audio/visual timing reference.
5. Once you've overcut all the animatic shots with final animation, you're done. Render out the final video from the video editor and upload it!

Technically speaking, Moho can be used as a video editor to assemble your rendered shots, but I highly recommend getting a dedicated program for this. If cost is an issue there are a few good free and almost free options out there.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

It defnietly did, appreciate the help! 5 minutes of animation was mad, there just wasn't any real change in scenery in the whole video as it was mostly informational, however I didn't play it safe, which I plan to do next time.

I ended up figuring it out though, it was in the sequencer, I'm probably not using proper terminology, but one of the layers was pushed far behind the main timeline, it was a simple fix of dragging it back through the sequencer.

I plan on following your steps though, super helpful!

[MrSoHot]

I tried to use it and drag it to the right, everything is timed earlier than it should now, but it doesn't even let me do that. Is there Anything I can do to fix this? Huge inconvenience

I'm not sure if I understand what you mean. You can't do that? Have you tried moving the timelines using the sequencer? If you have multiple layers animated, you can drag the parent layer or, if you don't have one, just group every layer into a parent group layer and drag that one on the sequencer.

Also, you can check if you actually dragged the timeline checking the green visual reference, that flag or arrow that starts on the frame 1. If you want to see how it looks by default, create a new layer and see if the green references are on the same position.

This was the fix! Thanks so much!

[Greenlaw]

Oh, yeah, unintended Sequencer offsets sometimes trips me up too. Good call Daxel!

For me, the unwanted offset typically happens when I accidentally hold down the right mouse button while scrubbing the timeline because RMB will slide the selected layer. It's not always obvious when this happens, and I may miss it until I select the layer later and just happen to notice that the green triangle is not positioned over frame 1. If I catch it early enough, it's not a huge a deal, but it's pretty annoying regardless.

Sometimes I wish the modifier for this feature was anything other than RMB since I use RMB a lot for workspace navigation.