ok_pepo wrote: ↑Tue Dec 06, 2022 5:24 pm
...Are there a way to do a perfect rig through illustration? I was trying to find some tutorials but nobody explain that. What I'm needing is make an illustration on illustrator, and then export it to Moho. But, on Illustrator, should I make the illustration following some rules or something? Like making cirlces on each joint, or make the character simetrical... Or something like that... Or it is indifferent?
Thank you so much for your patience!
This depends entirely on your design so it would help to post at least a sketch for the vector art you intend to import. But basically, anything that will be moving on its own should be broken out in its own layer, and anything that should be bending or deforming should have its points in position at where the path is going to bend (sharply or smoothly.)
BTW, this is just one of many reasons why it's better to create
deforming vector art inside Moho instead of in a third party program. This way, it's easier to test how the art will deform in Moho as you are creating it.
If you're determined to use a third party vector drawing program, the best way to learn what's optimal is to practice drawing and rigging vector art inside Moho first. Once you have an understanding of how it works, this knowledge can guide you when you draw artwork for Moho in your external program.
Side note: The rules for creating bitmap art is simpler, since you're working with pixels instead of points in the external program. When you import the art to Moho, Moho will automatically apply an invisible mesh to the art when you rig it. Chances are, you will want more control, so at this stage you will create your own mesh manually or by using the new SmartWarp Layer. Rules regarding optimal point placement still apply but a little differently from working with only vector art.
In general (bitmap or vector) the best practice is to break your character into groups based on limbs and appendages. So for a human the groups are:
Head
Torso
ArmL
ArmR
LegL
LegR
To make this easier, create the groups first and place/create your artwork inside each group. You can bind the contents of each group rather than binding the group itself. (Or you can bind the group itself if that's what you really want...again, this depends on your design and how you intend to animate it.)
As for placement and symmetry, again, it depends on your design and how you intend to animate it.
For a one-off animations or small projects with only 1-3 scenes, you can probably get away with a single illustration and simply rig that. This is the easiest and fastest way since you're mostly dealing with only movements required by the scene. Basically, you avoid drawing and rigging anything you don't need to complete the animation. The tradeoff is, well, the rig is limited to only movements required by the scene.
If you intend to use a character in multiple scenes from different angles and performing a wide range of motions, then you want to create a general purpose rig. This is kind of rig is more complicated to create but it can save you more time in larger productions.
When I create a general purpose rig, I like to start off with a front facing and symmetrical pose. Then I work out to creating or manipulating the artwork to achieve a 3qtr view inside a Smart Bone action, and continue for side, 3qtr rear, and back. Sometimes I'll design the animation to morph from pose to pose, and sometimes the art will simply be swapped using a Switch layer. Usually, it's a combination, where the front and 3qtr views are morphing but every other view is a separate drawing. it depends on what's required for the production.
For the other side, I can usually just duplicate and flip the artwork in Moho to create those views and edit any non-symmetrical changes for that side.
Once I have a complete turn, I can make a second Smart Bone Dial (SBD) that turns the first dial forwards and backwards...this way, I don't need to create two separate animations for a bi-directional turn, just one aniamtion that I can play forwards and backwards in time. (When I'm done, I'll hide the first SBD. This is because the second bone should have complete control over the first and the first should never by keyframed by the animator.)
Move move limbs forwards and backwards in Z-space, you can simply enable Animated Layer Order. If you want, you can setup an SBD to switch between all the layer order possibilities. (I used to create multiple controls for this but it's not necessary because there are only a handful of stacking order possibilities. IMO, it's better to keep things simple.)
If you want limbs to be able 'wrap around' the torso, you'll want to split them at the joints. This subject is a whole topic in itself and has been discussed many times in other threads...a search should turn up some of those discussions.
Anyway, that's only
some of the drawing/rigging possibilities you can explore in Moho. Moho is quite flexible and there really isn't one 'perfect' way to rig something. There are many ways to rig in Moho and depending on what and how you want to animate, certain methods can be better than others.
Hope this helps.
