Moho Forum

I want to achieve to folowing:

I want to animate a figure that lifts a tree that is laying on the ground. The tree should rotate araound it's top while the arms of the figure raise. How could I achieve this?

I started as follows: I drew a shape representing the tree and added a bone in bone layer through which the tree can rotate around it's top. Then I added a shape, representing the arm and a bone through which the the arm can go up and down.

Now I want to connect both movements: lifting the arm should result in rotating the tree around the top. How do I have to connect the bones to achieve this or do I have to follow another strategy??

I am not sure if I understand you right,
and I presume there’re different ways to achieve this.
Try this:
Select your Layer (your tree) you like to attach to a bone,
and “Set Origin” to the point of rotation.
Select the Bind Layer Tool and click on the bone you want the tree to attach to.
To rotate your tree use the Rotate Layer Tool. (no bone necessary)
You might have to create two trees - one on the ground,
and the other one already attached to the arm and switch Layer-Visibility at pick-up-point.

Cheers
Nolan

Thanx for the help, there is still one part which I do not understand. I want the tree to rotate when the arm of my character lifts. So I want to animate the arm. I do not want to animate the tree directly but the tree rotates as a result of the arm movement of the arm. Could that be achieved or do I have to animate the tree completely independent of the character?

Well, I presume you have to animate the tree yourself -
how should the tree otherwise know what to do.
You just let the tree rotate with a few Keyframes.

Cheers
Nolan

You could throw the tree (or a copy that's only visible after its been picked up by the character) into the same bone group with the character, and build your arm bone structure as normal, with an extra bone that goes through the tree.

Then you could animate the arm and the tree would follow, or move the tree and the arm would follow... I'm pretty sure that would work.

You could possibly set up a rig where the tree is a continuation of the arm, and the top of the tree is locked to the ground.

Is something like this what you were looking for?

http://img236.imageshack.us/my.php?imag ... ft24yu.swf

Regards, Myles.

> Is something like this what you were looking for?
Yes it is!

Okay, it's just a simple setup as I described.

The bone chain goes: bicep-forearm-tree trunk- tree leaves/greenery/top.
The tree-top bone is locked. That's about all there is to it. Oh, the hand bone and the tree-trunk bones are both a child of the forearm bone.

If you want your character to walk up to the tree before lifting, you'll have to use two separate versions of your character+tree scene -
one with the extended bone chain for lifting, one where the character is separate from the tree.
Use either two separate Moho files (the two shots joined together in a video editor, possibly with a change of camera angle just before the character lifts the tree) or switch layers (using a Switch setup or simple layer visibility switching).

Regards, Myles.

Thanx for your help

Wow, Evil Sock Pup(p)et, suddenly you're everywhere like a big bright rash