How do I rig a sleeve and arm

[KetchupCarjack]

So I’m drawing a character who wears something like this in vector and and I’m quite stuck on how to make so that the arm is above the sleeve but is still inside (and disappears into) the sleeve’s hole.

[slowtiger]

Since questions like this pop up all the time I recommend a training with cradboard and scissors. Build your character by just stacking shapes on top of each other - no holes allowed. Eventually you will be enlightened.

Look at the tools at hand:
- placing points on lines of other shapes
- switching outline segments on and off
- straight points vs. curvy points.

[NanotechBeasts]

As SlowTiger said you have to think of your animation layers like cardboard cutouts instead of something 3-D.

You split your layers on the sleeve.
So it should go like this.
*Sleeve meant to be in front of Arm
*Arm
*Sleeve meant to be behind Arm

There are various methods.

I can probably create a sample file if you need it. Just let me know

[NanotechBeasts]

Here is a quick video I made showing you a way you can do it. The video itself is a low quality and has awful sound but its the only recorder I currently have on my laptop. So sorry in advance, but at least you can see a method.

https://youtu.be/iEMVIRMRvjQ

[KetchupCarjack]

Ah yeah I thought about cutting the sleeve in 2 parts but was worried that it would look too weird if I applied any wrap to it, I should try it anyway to see if it works, thanks Beasts!

[NanotechBeasts]

I don't know on wrap. But I have double the same layer with bones to have overlay on certain parts and moved them with bones and it worked fine.

[Greenlaw]

For wrap, just split the drawing three ways. For example: Sleeve-Lo-Near, Sleeve-Lo-Far, Sleeve-Up.

The easiest way to set this up is to make it a single vector layer with the curves sectioning each region. You can use Hide Edge to hide the unwanted interior lines. When you duplicate or reference this drawing layer, knock out the shapes you don't need for each version of the layer, but take care to preserve ALL of the curves. Doing it this way ensures that all the parts stay lined up and 'connected' when animated (assuming you use the same rigging for each version of the layer.) This is critical for making the drawing appear seamless when you animate it.

Tip: At the elbow, you'll want to add a single point to the curve that splits the joint and pull it over the same curve in the other layer. This will prevent the thin gap that can appear in the seam due to how Moho anti-aliases the edges. I'm pretty sure I've posted examples of this in other threads in the past...a search should turn up one of these.

I hope this helps. I'll create a tutorial video on this topic later this year. (I have a batch of other tutorials I need to upload first.)

[Hoptoad]

You could also use a mask to limit the visible area, and thereby hide the hand when it goes up the sleeve.

[KetchupCarjack]

Since it’s the same project so I figured I would also ask this here to not clogging up the sub-forum

Something happens when I use the Follow Path tool, it looks like all the objects just has some offset ranging from nearing the Path to all the way outside the canvas, I’m not quite sure if I should set the object’s origin at the center of it or on the Path to fix it.

[slowtiger]

Since it's the center which is placed on a path I'd place that carefully on all objects.