Using Moho - Introduction

Moho is designed in such a way that projects are split into "layers". You can have many, many layers in a Moho project, each representing a different element in a scene or animation, such as background scenery, a character, or a title. Some layers can even contain other layers, so a more complex object, such as a character, might contain separate layers for each arm and leg. Moho currently supports four types of layers:

Vector Layers are used to hold vector-based artwork. These are the main type of layer you will use to create drawings.

Image Layers can be used to bring in images from other applications. Image files created in 3D programs or photo editing applications can be used in Moho with Image Layers.

Group Layers are used to group together multiple layers. If you created 20 layers with trees for example, you could put them all in a Group Layer and call it a forest. Group layers are a useful tool for organizing a complex project.

Bone Layers contain skeletons that are used to control the artwork in your vector layers. You manipulate skeletons as if they were "puppets" by bending arms and legs to make a character move.

Switch Layers are just like Group layers, except they will only display one of their sub-layers at a time. Which sub-layer gets displayed is controlled by a switch data file. You can create this data file by hand, or better yet, use a program called Magpie. Switch layers are an excellent way to perform lip-sync animation.

Structure of a Moho Drawing

Drawings in Moho are vector-based. Vector drawings are different from pixel-based images (like a photograph) in that they use lines and curves to represent a picture, rather than a grid of colored pixels. This difference makes a lot of things easy in Moho that would be difficult or impossible to do with a pixel-based image.

First of all, since a Moho drawing is represented as a bunch of curves, you can reshape the curves at any time, without ever losing precision. Also, Moho projects are very small, even for complex animations - this means Moho doesn't require much memory even when working on a long movie. Vectors also have benefits when it comes to animation. By moving just a few points, you can totally change the shape of an object over time.

Moho 2.0 introduced a new feature called Image Layers. Using this type of layer, you can work with regular images within a Moho project, so Moho is no longer strictly vector-based, but you will probably still use mostly vector layers, as image layers are not a flexible when it comes to animation.

Of course, most standard image and movie formats are not vector-based, so when you're done working on a Moho project, it must be "rendered" to create a traditional pixel-based image. During the rendering process, Moho can apply various effects to the objects, such as shading and blurring.

Editing Modes

When using Moho, you will switch back and forth between various Editing Modes as you work. Each editing mode in Moho groups together a set of related tasks. When you switch into one of the editing modes, the tools available to you will change, although you can switch editing modes at any time. To switch editing modes, just click on the appropriate tab in the main Moho window:

Each type of layer has a different set of editing modes. Each editing mode for each type of layer is described in the chapters that follow, but we'll give a brief description here of the editing modes for Vector layers, just to give you an overview of how Moho is organized:

In Draw mode, you use Moho's drawing tools to lay out points and curves to define the shape of your objects. You can think of these curves as sketches. They won't show up in a final rendered image or movie, but are used later to define regions to fill with color.

In Fill mode, you take the drawings you created and assign regions to be filled with color. Moho lets you choose various fill and line styles that you can combine to create a particular look.

In Bones mode, you set up relationshipd between your vector artwork and bones (in Bone layers) that are used as animation aids. If you imagine that the drawing is made of soft rubber, then bones are like stiff wires that can be used to move and pose the drawing. Bones are not visible in the final image - they're meant as a tool to make animation easier.

In Animation mode, you set up keyframes - points in time where you manipulate objects into desired positions. At a keyframe, you define exactly how an object will be positioned. In between keyframes, Moho automatically calculates how to move the object from one keyframe to the next.