Moho Forum

Hi Moho people!

I've been a user for a long time and have participated in these here forums many a year ago. I retired from animation a few years ago and took a break. But I've been getting the bug again just to do stuff for fun. Moho seems to be hitting the spot for me right now. Probably because I'm already comfortable using it. I've just been trying to familiarize myself with some of the new tools since I last used it. What's up with the bitmap drawing tools? I get the feeling those have been taken out and are being retooled? I was just curious about them. Everything else seems cool, I especially like the new warp layer and the workflow for that. OMFG! I would have used that a ton a decade or two back. Hah!


Nice to be back!
-OK

Although I am not the most informed person, it is my understanding and observation that the new owners are being very methodical and thorough about the newer versions and releases of Moho. Think of them as the Merrick Garlands of animation (attempt at humor). I believe bitmap brushes may have had a few bugs and may show up in an update down the road. I think you are in the right place. I have poked around and visited other animation software platforms and it seems that Moho has just about everything one needs to create world class 2D (plus added 3D tools) animations. The evidence is in the award winning creations. Awards + Disney = legit.

Quick history...

Under Smith Micro the previous version of Moho that the current development team worked on was Moho 12.5, which did not have bitmap painting tools (or the re-worked Actions window.) Then the team was let go and replaced by new developers who added the bitmap tools in question in Moho 13.0. Unfortunately, these new features were never properly finished when Moho 13.0 was released and it introduced serious new problems for Smart Bone Actions. Then Smith Micro abruptly let that team go, and Moho development languished for about a year.

Then last December, the original Lost Marble team re-acquired Moho. After reviewing the state of 13.0.x, LM decided it would be better to pick up where they left off in Moho 12.5. This means the current 13.5.x cycle is a direct descendant of 12.5, not 13.0.x, or in other words, the Bitmap tools were not so much removed but skipped over.

I think the plan is to eventually introduce paint tools in the future and they will likely be a completely new feature, but I'm sure that's not going to happen in the 13.x cycle. In the meantime, you'll need a third-party paint program (like Photoshop, Krita, Procreate, etc.,) to create the bitmaps.

To make up for the 'missing' features, LM added several new features this year, notably: Vitruvian Bones, Perspective and Quad Mesh, Smart Warp Layer, Wind Dynamics, and a bunch of UI improvements like right-click masking. If you're using bitmaps in Moho, Layered PSD import also got significant improvements and it's become more usable and predictable than it was in earlier versions.

Hope this clears up some of the confusion.

Thanks for the update Greenlaw! I'm pretty used to working with no bitmap tool so it's not an issue. Thanks for the history lesson! I appreciate knowing where things are. I'm glad Moho is back in Mike's hands. I originally bought it back when it was moho and I bought it a few times under smith micro. I like supporting independent developers!

Oh, and welcome back!

Yeah, I'm very excited about the new direction Lost Marble is taking Moho...more exciting times ahead!

Thanks Greenlaw! Yeah it's odd being on the other side. I see you are still working in the industry. I always felt like I designed or animated a certain way to get jobs/work. And I'm curious what kind of impact not having to compete will do to my work. Seems like I jumped back into Moho at the perfect time.

ooof I just updated to windows 11 and now I'm getting a system error from Moho.

"The code execution cannot proceed because MSVCR100.dll was not found. Reinstalling the program may fix this problem" (reinstalling does not help)

I have done zero googling or searching the forum.

Ok! Had to install some old Visual C++ stuff to get it to work.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-GB/cpp/wi ... w=msvc-170

Windows is just so awesome!

Cool! Glad you got it working, and thanks for sharing your solution. I'm holding off on installing 11 for now but this is good to know.

Welcome back OttoKirby
Cheers
D.K