I tried to animate a simple walk and found out that this couldn't be done with the current setup. So, I had to change the image files again. The problem was that I had simply attached each shoe to one side of the trousers, together in a single layer (one layer for the right side and another for the left side). Now I had to create a new layer for one half of the trousers, erase that part of the trousers in the current layer and attach a leg to the shoe.
Luckily for me, I have saved several versions in PSD files (1024 x 768) and I have a Moho master file (1500 x 1500), so I can easily work on a copy of the PSD file and re-export some of the layers as PNG files, crop those to a minimal size, save and reload the image source file in Moho (or import a new layer if it's a new part of the character). For the walk animation, I imported the bone layer containing my character from the master Moho file. This walk animation file was only 320 x 240, but could just as well have been at 1024 x 576 (PAL 16:9). Moho scales your image layers beautifully for you, so you don't have to worry about that.
It seems that while with arms you can get away with attaching a hand and a wrist to a sleeve in a single layer, with legs, you have to have seperate layers for the leg and the piece of clothing covering that leg. Of course, you should use at least three bones for a leg (upper leg, lower leg, foot), and at least a single bone for the half of the trousers (probably two if you want more realism). It is going to be very crowded in that region, especially when both legs are next to eachother.
It might be handier if each leg and each part of the trousers is bound by a separate bone layer and that these bone layers are connected to the main skeleton with a single bone (that is used for bone offset only). This way you can select the bones more easily (although in that setup you can't animate anymore through a single bone layer and have to switch among several bone layers to make the legs and clothes move)
I tried to animate the hairdo during the walkcycle (24 frames repeated and used translate layer and flip layer to create the rest of the animation).
Anyway, if you want to see the movie, click on the image above.
(Quicktime, no sound, Sorenson Video 3, 70% quality, 10 s, 588 KB file size)
Animating using images is less comfortable than using vectors, because you can't use onionskinning as a guide where to move the parts keyframe-by-keyframe. You have to rely on your visual memory or use the layer window as a reminder where a certain part of the character was in the previous keyframe.
Furthermore, Moho slows down more and rendering is even slower than with comparable vector art. But I must say that it's a very useful experience. I guess when you animate cut-outs (e.g. from photographs you've taken), you have to use the image layer route.
So I see this as a good exercise for cut-out animation, though it could have been done just as well (or probably beter) with vector artwork.
