More complex 3D in Moho?

stephklein · Post by **stephklein** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 9:29 pm

Can Moho (either by default, or with some kind of script) do any 3D beyond simple 2D planes in a 3D space?

Basically I need a scene with a few buildings in the background, and I'd like the buildings to each be on an angle, showing some perspective... the closest i've gotten so far, is to make each side of my building seperately, and line them up so they appear to form a rectangular building in 3D space. But this isnt exactly working out quite right.

Is there a better way?

Rai López · Post by **Rai López** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 9:33 pm

Mmmm, you always could import a texturized 3D *.obj objects... Is this on your way of work?

jahnocli · Post by **jahnocli** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 1:27 am

Take a look at Canoma. (Google for it). It's abandonware, but fantastic for quickly knocking up buildings to bring into Moho. And the great bit is, all the textures are imported along with the model in a painless way...

7feet · Post by **7feet** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 4:06 am

You can arrange Vector or Image layers in the Moho 3D space to make it look and move like a 3D object. Here is a building that I made for an animation. It's a zip file with a .Moho file in it. Import the building and play around. If you use the Rotate Workspace tool, you can fly around it and there are only a few specific spots where it will glitch out (very few). The key is to have the layers origins set properly so that the layers don't interfere with each other. I think I had a post a while ago with specifics about how it was built, maybe you can find it. If not, I'll try to wrack my brain and remember exactly how I did it. Heres a shot of a city that I built with that and similarly constructed buldings, all in Moho, and you can "walk around" most anywhere and it looks fine.

Imports from 3D apps are great, I use 'em when I need 'em, but you can do a lot of boxy-type forms in Moho with good economy of computer resources.

The steps were a bit of a pain, but not too bad. I have a version of this (brownstone kinda style) buiding around somewhere with a door that opens, and intended to create some interiors so I could have a character walk inside. I was gonna write a script to allow you to build a reasonably proper 3D box (of this type) with the dimensions you choose, maybe I'll get back on that one. Then you could draw on it. Thats one of the problems I had with the shot above. I intended it to be a rough approximation of my neigborhood, but the buildings should be covered in grafitti.

I'd also done the same thing with bitmap images I put together (I liked haveing more textures a lot) but a few hundred translated, rotated image layers killed my old machine. I should try that again.

stephklein · Post by **stephklein** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 4:50 am

that's pretty impressive

Runfunky · Post by **Runfunky** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 2:51 pm

Hey 7feet, or anybody. Could you post a screenshot, or jpeg of that building you spoke of. I'm having technical difficulties downloading the zip.

I would appreciate it! If not, that's cool too.

7feet · Post by **7feet** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 5:43 pm

Sorry, sometimes the space I have stuff hosted on gets a little wonky, or just falls over for a couple of hours. Seems to be okay now, but a proper host is on the top of my list for the next paycheck.

Runfunky · Post by **Runfunky** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 8:13 pm

Hey 7feet, not a problem.

I look forward to checking out your site when you get that upgrade, both monetary and hosting.

Peace!

7feet · Post by **7feet** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 1:06 am

Okay, heres a higher res shot I put at Photobucket,and an overhead shot of the whole "city".

Hope that helps some.

bupaje · Post by **bupaje** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 1:58 am

Wow, that is pretty impressive and looks good. Thumbs up.

Rasheed · Post by **Rasheed** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 10:28 am

Hear, hear. I totally agree with bupaje. That must have been a lot of work putting that together with Moho layers.

I was just thinking... Moho has 3D layers and AFAIK you can draw and shade in 3D, just like you would in 2D. Only there aren't any tool available, other than a few menu scripts. Perhaps some additional 3D tools in the toolbar wouldn't hurt. I surely want to try to create such tools, when I'm "up to specs" with Lua scripting.

And now I'm dreaming of possible things to come. Perhaps if those 3D tools are in place, we can persuade LM to create an additional layer type to manipulate 3D objects. What that type should be, I'm not sure of at this moment, but it has to be something like bones, only much better, much more flexible, moore cartoony, because Moho 2D animation flows, so possible 3D animation should have the same look and feel, otherwise you can't combine the two.

[ZZZzzzz]

Runfunky · Post by **Runfunky** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 5:53 pm

7feet - Thanks man! That's very inspirational. This is why I love forums.

stephklein · Post by **stephklein** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 2:09 am

When I try importing an .obj file, nothing happens... a new layer is created in Moho with that obj file's name, but nothing appears.

Help?

bupaje · Post by **bupaje** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 3:02 am

@Steph - try Scripts/3D/Auto-Scale and see if you see it sometimes it is so big it fills the whole frame and if it is white you might not notice. If that doesn't work also check in the 3D properties for that layer and change the Polygon Orientation to see if that helps.

Mikdog · Post by **Mikdog** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 9:10 pm

7 FEET, that's a schweet construction you've done there!
NICE ONE! Must've taken a fair bit of time that.

Very cool.