Moho Forum

In response to a user request - here's an update to my shape tool

This update extends the "polygon of triangles" to allow concentric polygons - the innermost is subdivided into triangles; the outer rings are subdivided into quads - if you use "auto fill" and not "auto stroke" these will be directly usable as smart / warp meshes.

This update also increases the limit of grid / mesh dimensions from 24 to 48 -- BE WARNED: using values that will cause many (e.g. "hundreds of") shapes to be created will impact Moho's performance -- more about this in the readme in the download file ---

--- which is here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/b4o5s3x0 ... 0.zip/file


previous versions are here:
http://lostmarble.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=33900

Awesome!

Thank you Paul, and congrats on finally getting this version released! As you know, the new 'spiderweb' shape has already been very useful for a rig in my child Sienna's recent animation project. I'll post an example and walkthrough for how well this new feature worked for us soon.

That's awesome Paul, as you well know lol
The polygon triangle so good.

It all makes me think of the possibilities that branch off this type of logic.
Like if a random shape was drawn , could there be a way of ' offsetting a copy internally ( Maybe if the points were sharp to get the angle of ' extrusion?) and segmenting that smaller copy into quads?
DO you know what I mean?

Playing with the meshes also made me see where the magnet tool could be improved ( I'm loathed to point this out in Lenny's) by being able to change the falloff from what looks to be 'sigmoidal' ( I don't know maths words) to more parabolic or hyperbolic?
Sorry for the bad language there, Maybe if I say less like a wave and more like a jelly.
I know I normally offend people if I try to explain what I mean ( and risk getting cancelled) so forgive me for sounding like a crazy person ( which I probably am).
Do you think that would be of benefit?

Edit I looked at the script to see if I could maybe fiddle value, but I didn't see anything I could understand.
I suspected possibly might have something to do with it but I wouldn't bet a peanut on that.
Either way, it would want to be a falloff that could be changed in the UI, not by fiddling the script, eh?

chucky wrote: ↑Fri Jul 30, 2021 11:54 am That's awesome Paul, as you well know lol
The polygon triangle so good.
It all makes me think of the possibilities that branch off this type of logic.
Like if a random shape was drawn , could there be a way of ' offsetting a copy internally ( Maybe if the points were sharp to get the angle of ' extrusion?) and segmenting that smaller copy into quads?
DO you know what I mean?
...

I'm guessing you mean that the corresponding vertices get connected so that the "gap" between the two copies gets filled with quads; and the central shape gets broken down into triangles that share an apex at the "centre"?

like this (example mockup!)?


Let me give that some thought... in principle it's pretty straightforward - but I can't really start until Spetember-ish... loads of other stuff in progress!

==

chucky wrote: ↑Fri Jul 30, 2021 11:54 am Playing with the meshes also made me see where the magnet tool could be improved ...by being able to change the falloff ... Maybe if I say less like a wave and more like a jelly.
Either way, it would want to be a falloff that could be changed in the UI, not by fiddling the script, eh?

yeah - there are a few things that could be tweaked with the magnet tool.

- One could be to make it more like a magnet - IOW as it moves, the set of points it influences will change in the same way as with a magnet moving over "mobile but inertial" particles - it will drop some and pick up others. Right now the points are selected and the associated "effective force" (that magInfluence value you found that is stored in the table) is calculated only on mouse down, and neither seem to be re-evaluated on mouse moved.
- Another opportunity is to change the "effective force" profile from Smooth (which is what Slerp does) to - well - any user-selectable interpolation profile ...

But tweaking the magnet tool is an even further downstream challenge right now.

Paul, you are absolutely right about everything. Great diagram too.
Yeah wouldn't that be a cool trick?

Hey right now even answering is good form, what a freakn year eh?

Slerp was right?
I did a thing!
Well I guessed a thing.

Good onya fella

Update to match 13.5.3 functionality; https://www.mediafire.com/file/qrt889l4 ... 7.zip/file

This version has the same drawing functionality as 9.60. It adds the option to create the shapes on frame 0 (the new 13.5.3 default) or on the current timeline frame. It still checks the "drawing tools enabled on frame 0" option -- so remember to set it as required.


Let me know if the option to create shapes on other than frame 0 is useful. If there's no call for it, this option will go in a subsequent release.


(The "inscribed shape discussed above has not been forgotten -- this is in the works, it's just queued up behind a load of other more time-critical stuff right now.)

Wow! Amazing set of tools. You have packed so much in there, no wonder its 5000 lines of code (compared to moho's default shape tool which is 1000 lines).

I love the rounded corner options on the shapes - I don't think I've seen that on the default moho shape tools.

I wonder if it might be possible in future to perhaps give it the ability to tile the shapes (with some offset options)? Would be brilliant for motion graphic type animations.

I tried the option to create shapes on frames other than 0, cool! That allows me to easily create a shape build up animation. I think you should keep it. I tested it on the annulus shape:




Seeing the segment circle tool reminds me how much we miss not having boolean operations in Moho

ggoblin wrote: ↑Thu Jun 23, 2022 6:49 pm Seeing the segment circle tool reminds me how much we miss not having boolean operations in Moho

take a look at (13.5.5) manual at the section on "Creating Boolean Shapes" ... printed page number 37 (or page 48 in my PDF Reader's page search box)

Wow, don't know how I missed that. That's great. Thank you.

Just experimenting, I noticed you do have to take care in the order you remove lines as it can have different effects:

Interesting example.

I've seen this sort of thing before and I found that enabling Fixed Bezier Handles first sometimes (but not always) helps. I just tried it with this example and it almost works...it's better but I can still see a slight shift in the curve angle.

ggoblin wrote: ↑Fri Jun 24, 2022 11:29 am Wow, don't know how I missed that. That's great. Thank you.

Just experimenting, I noticed you do have to take care in the order you remove lines as it can have different effects:

If you hold alt while deleting, you can safely do it in any order, without that distortion.

By default, the delete edge tool does "smart trimming," where it tries to delete multiple segments of an edge until it reaches a weld/different curve. Personally, I don't find that too useful most the time. So my default is to hold alt.

Ah! Awesome tip Wes! Thanks for sharing it. Using Alt with Delete Edge works perfectly in the above example.

Brilliant Wes, it works great with that tip!