Moho Forum

My personal theory is that the easiest way to learn moho is to see how other people do. The tutorials show some things, but nothing complex. To make things a bit easier for beginners I think it would be great if moho-users posted moho-files containing some objects ore animations. Then other people could learn alot by simply checking how other people did to accopmlish a certain effect, animation or object.

I'm posting two files and I hope other people will join me.

Sprucetree (is that what it is called in english?) - Somethings wrong woth this one, cause if you rotate the whole object different parts move different. I think it's because two parts are always facing the camera, and that might cause some trouble. If you want to rotate the tree you have to open the group-layer and rotate the grouplayer within it.
Sprucetree
The creation of this object was quite simple. I drew a simple, 2D, half christmastree made up by maybe ten branches. The braches are just outlines, colored green, gradient from lightgreen to darker green, and with a brush. I made eight copies of the branch-layer and rotated them in 3D. I put the eight brach-layers in a grouplayer and made the grouplayer sort objects by true distance. To make it look correct I hade to put the orgins on the same place on every branch, and not on the edge. I made a thicker outline, using the same style as the branches, and put it in the mittle. In the layerproperties I made it "always rotate to face camera". I made a brown trunk with a dark-halo effect and made it rotate to face the camera too. The trunks outline I gave the branch-style.


Table - It sure was a pain creating this object, and it wil probably not be too any help for beginners, but just in case, I'll post it whatsoever.
Table
The table is also quite simple. I drew all the different parts in the same layer to make sure they all hade right sizes. I then moved them all into seperate layers rotated them and moved them so they all were at the right positions. I put them all in a group-layer and sorted them by true distance. After that I put all the orgins in the middle of each layer.

More will (maybe) be coming up when I have time.

This is a pretty common one when working with 3D vector layers in Moho. It is best to group all layers, in one way or another, that you intend to rotate. And then, all of the 3D tranformations depend on where the layer origin is. That's the most inportant thing. In the case of your spruce tree, the problem seems to be with the Layer Origins.

1. I'd put the tree trunk into the same group as the branches.

2. Because you want the branches to rotate correctly around the trunk, I would create the branch layers with no 3D rotations, align their Origins as exactly as possible with the origin of the trunk (which should also be the same as the origin of the Group layer, and then draw the branches. After that you can 3D rotate them to the position you want them in. In this case, just rotate them in the "Y" dimension. If the layer Origins are properly aligned, they will all rotate around a common center.

In the end, you might need to tweak each branch layers origin a tiny bit to place it a very, very small distance away from the trunks origin. Layer visibility sorting of 3D vector layers is determined almost entirely by how far away from the camera each layers origin is, not what is in the layer, so if you don't do this you might have sets of branches popping to the front unexpectedly. Maybe you are aware of this, but I wasn't sure. If all the layer origins are set corectly, you should be able to rotate around the tree however you want (although directly from straight above or straight below might confuse Moho a bit), with it looking like one piece.

If I get the chance, I'll try to tweak your file tonight and put it up.

I like the idea of using examples of more advanced objects so other people can learn how the program works. If you (or anyone else) does this, along with a good description of exactly how it was done, I think that would be a great thing. Maybe some thing to put in the so far almost empty FAQ section. But more likely, I would like to see a new "How-To" or "Tutorial" section of the forum. The "Tips and Techniques" section can wander a bit, and a dedicated section for thing that might more properly be considerd tutorials might not be a bad thing for people trying to figure out how to get the most out of Moho. I'd certainly be willing to make up a few.

--Brian

1. I'd put the tree trunk into the same group as the branches.

I planned to, but thought it would be easier to put them in a separet layer so they always were behind the branches. I could have but them in the grouplayer and mixed around with the orgins until it worked, but it was easier this way, and it should work.

I just tried to make a new tree, and it worked fine. I'll upload it later today.