Vector Layers: Animation Mode

After all the preparation time drawing your objects, assigning fill colors, and setting up bones, you move on to Animation mode. This is where things actually start to move around.

Animating in Moho is based on the concept of keyframes. A keyframe is a point in time where you position some object (either a point, a bone, or an entire layer). A keyframe tells Moho exactly where that object should be and when. Keyframes are set up at "important" moments in time - typically where an object begins moving, stops moving, or changes direction. In between keyframes, Moho automatically calculates how to move an object so that it gets from one keyframe to the next in the amount of time allowed between the keyframes.

To create a keyframe, just set the current time to whenever you want the keyframe to occur, then move the object to the desired position. Controlling the current time and working with keyframes after they've been created is discussed in the Animation Palette chapter.

You can animate two types of motion in a vector layer, and they can each be used alone or in combination. The first type is point motion. Point motion very basic - it just involves moving individual points around in time. Point motion is good for small distortions to an object where you want something to look soft and flexible (turning up the corners of a mouth into a smile, bulging out a belly, etc.). You can move a shape in any way you want with point animation, but it might require manipulating a lot of points - in many cases bone animation can simplify the job.

Layer animation is for very simple, large-scale motion. When you move a layer, everything in it moves together. This doesn't give you a lot of flexibility as far as what you can animate this way, but it's a good way to get certain effects. If you want an entire scene to pan side to side or zoom in or out, then layer animation is the tool to use.

The keyframes you define are only visible while you're in Animation mode. If you switch back to Draw, Fill, or Bone mode, then the current time will be set to frame "0" - the original placement of all your objects. Whatever you do in Animation mode can never affect an object's original shape and position, so even if you think you really screwed something up, you can always delete some keyframes and get back your original drawings.

The Tutorial section has a useful hands-on overview of how to animate in Moho, using each type of motion (point, bone, and layer). Once you've mastered Moho's Draw and Bone modes, animating is a simple job of repeatedly using the tools you already know, keyframe by keyframe.

Animation Tools

The following tools are available in Animation mode.

Select Points
This tool is identical to the Select Points tool used in Draw mode. It allows you to select a group of points to be manipulated in some way (translated, scaled, rotated, etc.).

Translate Points
Scale Points
Rotate Points
Horizontal Shear
Vertical Shear
These tools works exactly like their counterparts in Draw mode. However, instead of just moving the selected points around, you're actually assigning keyframes for them at the current time.

Move Layer
Click and drag to move an entire layer around. Hold the <shift> key to limit the motion to only horizontal or vertical.

Scale Layer
Click and drag to resize an entire layer. Drag toward the center point of the layer to make it smaller, and drag outwards to make it larger. Hold the <shift> key to constrain the tool so that it resizes the layer the same amount both vertically and horizontally.

Rotate Layer
Click and drag the mouse in circles around the layer's center point to rotate the entire layer. Hold the <shift> key to constrain the rotation to a multiple of 45 degrees.