I'm not sure how to fix this.

[DemonRem]

Im trying to make my first walk cycle animation and am currently working on the arms using smart bones. Whenever both bones are moved the upper arm and lower arm/hand get seperated. The lower arm/hand sort of float away from the upper arm. Im not sure how to fix it. Also no clue how to put my moho file into this post; never really used a forum page before so if anyone is willing to help me figure it out please let me know.

[synthsin75]

Probably have to see the file.

You can upload it to a file host, like MediaFire, DropBox, Google Drive, etc.. They will give you a sharing link you can post on a forum.

[DemonRem]

Ok I made an account and made a link. https://www.mediafire.com/file/ogz9uwva ... .moho/file

Let me know if the link worked.

[synthsin75]

Link works.

At a quick glance, it looks like you're trying to use smart bones to do too much. Instead of having them rotate the art, you generally want to bind the art to a bone, so it can rotate it. Then you use smart bones to correct the deformation of the art, as the bone bends.

[DemonRem]

Do you have any videos or project files I could use for reference perferably with something I could follow along too. Also how do I bind a bone to the art work?

[slowtiger]

It's the other was round: you bind something to a bone.
I seriously recommend you work your way through the tutorials, because without knowing the basic concepts you will not succeed.

[Greenlaw]

Im trying to make my first walk cycle animation and am currently working on the arms using smart bones. Whenever both bones are moved the upper arm and lower arm/hand get seperated...

I'd have to see the rig file to understand what's going on.

That said, you shouldn't need a Smart Bone to animate arms specifically for a walk cycle, so the first sentence makes me wonder if you're over-engineering something. Normally, you would just animate the bones directly and cycle the keyframes in the timeline. Or is the Smart Bone meant to do something general with the arm, unrelated to the walk cycle (like correcting an elbow deformation or rolling the limb?)

We need more details about what you're trying to do. Posting a demo file will definitely help too.

[DemonRem]

I've posted the rig on mediafire already and your probably right about the over engineering thing I just wont to understand what it is I need to do to maybe correct it or maybe just any useful information on performing my first walk cycle.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/g48kpqgp ... .moho/file

I've edited it and tried to use Flexi Binding to fix it; It worked for the arm however now the hand is floating now so not sure whats wrong with that.

[Greenlaw]

Cool! Will check this out when I get home tonight and let you know what I think.

[DemonRem]

I'm still not sure how to fix it; is there anyway I can copy and paste just the art work into another moho project so maybe I can start over using a tutorial?

[slowtiger]

Surprisingly, yes, that works, at least I remember I was able to copy vector art from one layer in Project A and paste it into a vector layer in project B.

[EricTheFish]

As well as copying artwork between files, you can also copy entire layers along with existing animation keyframes. Look under the EDIT menu for copy/paste layers.
Which method to use would depend on what you're trying to recover or correct.

I find this useful in identifying problems with misbehaving files. You can rebuild a file layer by layer and keep testing until something breaks and then you find the culprit!

[Greenlaw]

When you're using Copy Layer and Paste Layer to move items into a different project, be sure to check keyframes and actions that may carry over with the layer. If you really want to start clean, you may need to clear this data first.

You can easily clear all the animation keyframes from Animation > Clear Animation, and any unwanted Actions can be deleted by selecting the items with the Action and removing the Action from the Actions Window.

Tip for Copy Layer/Paste Layer: you can use this command to copy and paste a selected group, and this will bring along all of the group's contained layers.

[DemonRem]

https://www.mediafire.com/file/ir8o9529 ... .moho/file

Ok I've started fresh and my mind is kind of just drawing a blank. What binding method should I use for the rig and is there anything I should change with this character set up?

[Greenlaw]

Sorry, I did check out your rig the other day and forgot to respond. I'll check it out again tonight and give you my opinion.

In the meantime...

For vector art, I tend to use Use Selected Bones For Flexi-binding, which limits which bones can bend selected layers. This is useful, for example, when you want only the right arm bones to affect the right arm artwork, and only the right leg bones to affect the right leg art, and so on. I might also use Point Binding if I want to rigidly bind parts of a vector layer to a specific bone. This can be useful around the shoulders.

For the elbow and knees, I like to add a hidden bone that uses a constraint to give it half the rotation value of the lower limb, and bind the inside and outside points to it. This helps preserve the volume of the joint when it bends. But this is an advance setup. If you're just starting out, you can just use a Smart Bone Action on the lower limb to drive corrective point animation in the bend. This method is easy to understand once you've done it a few times, and it will work fine in many situations. The 'elbow/knee' bone method works with less fussing but you can try that after you've mastered the Smart Bone method since if's often used along with a Smart Bone.

Moho has other binding methods which I don't think you need here but here's a quick description in case you want to use them:

Layer Binding - this is probably the simplest and most direct method. This method rigidly binds the layer to a single bone. It's useful for rigid props or anything you want affected only by a single bone. For example, I sometimes use this method to bind a Mouth Switch layer to the head bone. N

Note that if you bind a group layer this way, you can't affect the contents with other bones in the rig. If you need the contents to interact with other bones, you can layer bind the layers individually or use a different method.

Smooth Joint - this is a special method that makes a clean circular bone between two bones. It works great with bitmap art as seen in my Puss In Boots rig here: Puss-In-Boots. The catch with this method is that it works only between two bones, but there's a workaround method Victor came up with that allows you to use more bones. A search in these forums should turn up that info.

And of course we have the default Flexi-binding. With this method, all bones in the rig that have strength have affect. IMO, you don't want to rely on this method for a complex character. If you want to use Flexi-binding, use the Use Selected Bones For Flexi-binding method instead...this helps prevent unwanted deformations on parts that aren't moving.

Hope this helps.