Moho 13.5.2 update is available!

[SimplSam]

If it's MP4v, then yeah, it sounds like that's actually H.263, which is a very old codec and deprecated by many browsers.

By now (the article is from 2016,) I would think H.265 should be fine for modern browsers but I can't confirm that.

There appears to be significant non-support for H265 in most popular Browsers (according to various sites) - due to a combination of Hardware requirements and Licensing.

The current landscape is illustrated below:


Source (+ more info): https://caniuse.com/?search=h265


Source (+ more info): https://caniuse.com/?search=h264

[Greenlaw]

Wow, thanks for looking into that! I had no idea the browser support is still so far behind.

That's too bad; I've been using HEVC/H265 for all my uploads to Vimeo lately because the compression size-quality/color-black levels accuracy is so much better than H264.

[EricTheFish]

Release Notes state:
* Changes to the Bind Points tool
When binding, only attach the points that are selected, don't detach unselected points
Added an Un-Bind Points button to change the selected points back to flexi-binding

I'm not seeing any binding changes here. Binding a new point still drops existing bound points if unselected and also I don't see an Un-Bind button anywhere?

I'm on Windows10 with v13.5.2.

[synthsin75]

Make sure you don't have a third-party replacement tool installed.

[Greenlaw]

It should look like this...



Are you sure you launched 13.5.2 and not an earlier build? Check [About Moho...] to be sure. (Tip: I routinely keep multiple versions available for testing, so I make sure my shortcuts reflect the version numbers.)

Update: just saw Synthsin75's post; good point. Any mods you have in your Custom Content Folder>Scripts folder can override newer officially updated tools. Something to keep in mind when using third party mods.

[EricTheFish]

I just removed all my scripts and shared resources and reinstalled 13.5.2 - no change.

After digging around, I recalled having had a look at a binding mod script by A.Evseeva (http://mohoscripts.com/script/lm_bind_points_ae) but never actually installed it permanently.

What I did do at the time, however, was copy and rename the standard point binding script as a backup and left it in the scripts folder and it was still there!
Removing this cleared up the issue and I can now see the new binding tool options.

I had presumed that renaming a script would stop MOHO using it! Obviously not - which probably explains why I never got A.Evseeva's mod to work if there were conflicting scripts resident.

Thanks guys for all the advice! Another lesson learnt!

Many thanx!

[Greenlaw]

The best way to disable third party scripts is to create a folder called 'Disabled' in your Custom Content Folder>Scripts folder, and then drag the script you wish to disable in there. Moho will not load anything from this folder. This is a good way to try out new scripts or test for problems.

Basically, any script that shares the same name as a script in the main program's script folder will be loaded in its place when Moho is launched. When it's moved to the 'Disabled' folder or removed entirely, Moho's official tool script will load again.

[synthsin75]

Basically, any script that shares the same name as a script in the main program's script folder will be loaded in its place when Moho is launched.

That also goes for a scripts internal function names, so renaming a script won't stop it from replacing a stock tool.

[Greenlaw]

Thanks for the additional info Wes! From discussions with you and other expert scripters, i knew there was potentially more to it than just the filename but I didn't know how to express that.

And now I do!

[strider2000]

Hey everyone,
I'm finally thinking of updating from 12.5 to 13.5.2, but I'm a little confused over the mp4 discussion. Since I'm just a hobbyist, I'm not needing any fancy output. For 12.5 I just output Mp4 which shows h.264. All I really care out is that

• * the output looks ok
  * not much larger than 12.5 mp4 output
  * it can display in windows 11 standard movies and tv app
  * it can upload to youtube

Are those expectations met with 13.5.2? I think maybe so. I'm not sure how people are loading directly into their browsers, but I don't expect to do that. Basically just wanting simple output.

Thanks for any info

[Greenlaw]

It should be fine. The issue above is mainly about a browser's ability to play H.265 (aka, HEVC.) Despite being an improved standard, many modern browsers apparently still don't handle this codec. However, YouTube should be able to read it and convert it to their own browser compatible format. In general, you should upload the highest quality available with a reasonable file size because YouTube is always going to recompress it to play efficiently on their website.

Here's list of the new video formats...



I haven't tried all of them yet but here's what I know or can guess about them...

MP4 (MPEG4) is H.264.

MP4 (H.265) is obviously H.265. This is a higher quality codec with better compression. It should be compatible for streaming sites and many video editors. I use the 10-bit option for Vimeo, which gives me very accurate colors and black levels. (In other words, I no longer need to apply a special Computer RGB to sRGB levels conversion for YouTube & Vimeo uploads.)

I wasn't sure what M4V (MPEG4) was so I did a test render and checked the properties. This seems to be H.263, which is an older codec.

The ProRes option is new for Windows users. This is a very high quality codec, and probably should be used if you're going straight to video editing. The file size will be significantly bigger than MP4 but that's the price for quality. I'm not sure which form of ProRes is used here...I'll check later.

I haven't tried the PNG and JPEG video formats but these are probably rendering whole frames to the video container. Use JPEG if you want speed and don't care so much about quality. This is fine for reference videos or proxies where you need frame-by-frame accuracy. (You generally don't get frame-by-frame accuracy with H.264.) If you're compositing with videos, use PNG with the Alpha. Because PNG is a lossless codec, the quality is very high compared to the above, but the file size will be larger. (This is just my assumption; I'll check this later.)

As a general rule of thumb, if you're rendering for compositing programs like After Effects, Fusion or Nuke, you want to render to image sequence, not video. For After Effects, I've always used PNG with Alpha from Moho. The file size is smaller than TIFF or PSD, and it's the same quality.

I have to confess, I haven't checked the manual about these choices and there is probably more info about them there. (Guess I have some reading to do tonight.)

[Greenlaw]

Oops! I should explain the '10-bit option': this is not relevant in Moho because Moho can't render 10-bit color. In other words, it's not an option available in Moho. But if you're compositing Moho renders with higher bit-depth images and are applying effects, you want to render 10-bit color or higher from the composting or video program you're using.

I hope Moho will start supporting higher bit-depth renders soon. It's really needed these days for studio work.

BTW, I'd still use 10-bit H.265 for Moho-only animations imported and exported from a comp or video editor, just to get to proper black levels for YouTube or Vimeo.

[alanthebox]

Are those expectations met with 13.5.2?

I've been using the MPEG4 option for my exports with 13.5.2 and it's working just like 12.5 in terms of quality/filesize. I'm also just a hobbyist that doesn't typically need the uncompressed quality of a PNG sequence or some of these other formats. I had experienced some problems with the MP4 H265 option, so, I just reverted back to MPEG4 output.

[synthsin75]

I'm not sure which form of ProRes is used here...I'll check later.

ProRes is 4444 on Windows.

[strider2000]

Thanks Greenlaw! Based on your input I went ahead and purchased the upgrade Thanks also, alanthebox. I've tried it out and MPEG4 works well M4v also works, as I'm sure other versions do, but I'll probably use MPEG4. My laptop doesn't have the GPU support for H.265. Off to play with image meshes, just for some fun