Moho Forum

Is it possible to use smart bone manipulation to create switch layers?

I have a face that has a bunch of smart bone actions that control facial expressions, including mouth shapes. If I get a mouth shape I like using the smart bones, can I then save it to one of the mouth layers?

1. Go to the frame you want to capture the result from.
2. Duplicate the layer.
3. Move the layer out of the bone layer.
4. Keyframe the point translation.
5. Copy that keyframe to frame zero (and you can delete the keyframe created in step 4).

Voila!

Make sure you do not change frames while doing steps 3 and 4, or you'll lose the smart bone shape.

Thanks for the response. I'm away from my Moho til later, but can't wait to try this!

I'm not getting this to work.

I have a bone layer "Head". Inside is a Group Layer "Mouth". Inside is a Vector Layer "Mouth Shape".

1. I go to a random frame, say Frame 27. I select "Head" Layer, so that bone manipulation will work. I adjust Smart Bone controls, and Mouth Shape changes.

2. I duplicate the Vector layer "Mouth Shape". It creates "Mouth Shape 2". I turn off layer "Mouth Shape". I'm still on Frame 27.

3. I move layer "Mouth Shape 2" up out of Bone Layer "Head".

4. With layer "Mouth Shape 2" selected, I click Animation / Add Keyframe. It adds a keyframe on 4 channels - Point Motion, Layer Translation, Layer Scale, and Layer Z-Rotation.

5. I draw a "rubber band" around the 4 keyframes, and copy. I go to Frame 0, and paste. 4 keyframes appear at Frame 0. However, the mouth shape appears in its regular pose, not as it was changed on Frame 27.

What am I missing? My goal is to set up a switch layer, to switch between mouth shapes, the standard thing. But I want to be able to create the mouth shapes with these awesome smart bone tools, rather than drawing them.

You just need to keyframe the points with the transform point tool, by clicking in the workspace.

I have a bone layer "Head". Inside is a Group Layer "Mouth". Inside is a Vector Layer "Mouth Shape".

1. I go to a random frame, say Frame 27. I select "Head" Layer, so that bone manipulation will work. I adjust Smart Bone controls, and Mouth Shape changes.

2. I duplicate the Vector layer "Mouth Shape". It creates "Mouth Shape 2". I turn off layer "Mouth Shape". I'm still on Frame 27.

3. I move layer "Mouth Shape 2" up out of Bone Layer "Head".

4. With layer "Mouth Shape 2" selected, and Transform Point Tool selected, I click in the workspace. It adds a keyframe on 1 channel - Point Motion.

5. I draw a "rubber band" around the 1 keyframe, and copy. I go to Frame 0, and paste. 1 keyframe appears at Frame 0. However, the mouth shape appears in its regular pose, not as it was changed on Frame 27.

What am I missing ?

Did you select all the points before clicking with the transform points tool?

No, I had not selected the points. Yes, that worked. Thank you for both brilliance and patience.

No problem. This is one of those very old techniques that needs to be revisited every once in a while...least it be forgotten completely.

We're still struggling, trying to create a library of mouth shapes, using the technique described upthread. My animator tells me that the "teeth" layer "resets" itself instead of animating properly. I've uploaded the Moho file.

Is anybody else able to recreate the problem?

Is it possible to create a lip sync switch layer system with a group layer like this?

Is there something strange about the "teeth" layer that is causing problem?

Thank you for any help.

Here is link to Moho file.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rigdn2xsheq18 ... .moho?dl=0

I'm not seeing the problem, so you might need to post some steps to follow to replicate what you're seeing.

I just had to disable animated layer sorting in the Head bone layer, so it allows layers to be pulled out on frames other than zero. After that, just pick a frame, pose the mouth, duplicate the Mouth group, drag it out of the Head bone layer, activate timeline visibility for all three sublayers, select all points and keyframe each layer, copy/paste all those keys to frame zero, and delete the keys.

You might want to set a mouth pose that's giving you trouble and repost the file.

EDIT: Here's a couple of mouth shapes I did real quick: http://www.filedropper.com/adamhcopyedit

Thanks for the help Wes. However, I clicked on your link and it took to Spam hell. I'm very afraid to click anything on that site.

I've never had trouble with FileDropper. I could upload it to MediaFire if you really want to see some spam. Or just get Ad Block for your browser.