Hello Wegg, and welcome!
Wegg wrote:Its just like. . . a 2D Animation Master.
Animation:Master users should be fairly comfortable with most of the basic concepts and tools in Moho - it's even got bone constraints, including dynamics! There are a few illustration concepts mixed in, but nothing too confusing. The users that have an initial period of confusion are the people from a paint-software only background - "where's the paint-bucket tool?"
Wegg wrote:I have some flash export questions though.
Be aware that while Moho does do SWF export, that's not its main focus and there are a number of limitations - many of the (pixel-based) effects won't export to SWF, for example, nor - perhaps more importantly - masking.
Wegg wrote:1. How do I embed a sound file? The docs talk about using an .mp3 but I guess support for that got broken in the last update so. . . I'm kind of stuck.
As the docs say, it does have to be an .mp3 file at a specific frequency, although there have also been other posts about problems. I haven't tried it myself - if I get time I'll experiment tonight.
Wegg wrote:Flash 8 Pro locks up when it tries to import this .swf even though its only 1.4 mbs.
Were you using variable-line widths, by any chance? That seems to reach the limits of the SWF specification fairly quicky.
Sothink SWF Quicker seemed to load single Moho-produced .swf files without any problems, last time I tried the trial version.
Wegg wrote:I read somewhere on the forum about a command line flash tool that could add an audio track to a flash file but. . . I can't find it any more. If anyone can help me out with an alternative solution or help me find that post that would be very helpful.
Possibly
SWF Tools ? There is a command-line Wav2swf and a command-line CombineSWF - I once used it successfully to add 2 visual SWFs sequentially - I didn't try adding audio on top of visual although I'm fairly sure it can also do that. In fact, a quick look finds
instructions for that in the Wink forum, along with a little GUI program further down in the thread to avoid the command-line .
Warning: there is a distinct possibility you'll get audio-video synchronisation problems when combining video and audio SWFs in this way (each SWF is added in as a separate sprite into the master SWF file).
As I understand it, SWF in general has potential synch problems - you either have a separate sound stream which is not synched to the video and it is up to the machine to keep the video frames playing fast enough or the sound gets ahead, or you have smaller sound chunks linked to specific events/frames, which can get choppy if the machine doesn't keep up and the sound is meant to play continuously.
Wegg wrote:2. How do you make object only appear when needed? My logo animation has the letters coming in about half way through but when things are off the stage, Moho still exports their movement which I think is causing bigger files than needed. So is there an animated hide toggle I could use? Or "on off" or something?
There is a keyframeable layer visibility toggle - either through layer settings, or click on the visibility channel in the timeline to directly toggle visibility.
Wegg wrote:4. When the animation loops. . . it seems to be adding another layer over the old one instead of starting from scratch. Hmm. . . hard to describe.
Possibly try ticking the "Extra SWF frame" under File, Project Settings. I vaguely seem to recall this fixing a similar problem.
Wegg wrote:5. Is there an IRC room where Moho people hang out?
Postality had a "dalnet #MoHo" channel - I don't know if it's well-attended or even still going - not an IRC person myself.
Wegg wrote:6. Am I asking too many questions?
No - you haven't even reached double figures yet
- and it's all been relevant.
Regards, Myles.
