Here we have Mike, the Moho Illustrative Kharacter Example 8-D | |
We want Mike to pick up the glass on the table and have a drink | |
We could keyframe Mike picking up the glass, then keyframe the glass to match his hand movements.
Or keyframe the glass, then keyframe Mike's hand to match. If you want to change or extend the action, e.g. making Mike salute with his glass before drinking, or waving it around to emphasize a point he's making in discussion, you would have to keyframe both arm and glass again, doubling your workload. There is however one further way of animating hand and glass together, requiring only a single set of keyframes. Some software has a system know as constraints where, for example, you could lock the glass to Mike's hand so that when the hand moves the glass also moves. I don't see any way of doing that in Moho 2.0, but I can see a workaround.
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By using another glass on another layer assigned to Mike's hand bone, you can add a second glass in Mike's hand. This layer will have its visibility tuned off in the animation palette (not in the layers palette) | |
As he picks up the glass, you make the glass on the table invisible, and the glass in his hand visible - a computer magic sleight-of-hand.
In this case you can see the difference by looking closely at his thumb. It is in front of the glass on the table, but behind the glass in his hand. |
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As a result, you only have to keyframe his hand, the glass will automatically move with it.
The same principles can be applied to guns and lightsabres, hats and umbrellas, pens and pencils, or anything else your character must pick up or put down, whether sitting on a surface or hanging from their utility belt. |
GIF animation, 190k |