Moho Debut - Combine shapes?

[Niko]

I know that merge shapes is only available in Pro, but wondering if I wanted to draw a background with buildings, is there a way to use the shapes function and combine these into one entity, or would I have to hand draw the buildings, where there are several different sized rectangles, triangles, etc? ANd if I hand draw, how can I make sure the different shapes become one, and also don't skew the other drawings?

Very new to Moho and animation so any help is appreciated!

[NanotechBeasts]

I am really really bad about using a ton of layers. As long as you don't change the default layer size you can copy and paste your vector drawings into one.

Other options include creating an object group.
Taking advantage of the building brush tool or creating your own custom building brush tool.
If this is just a background and you just want to draw it all in Moho you could export one frame or render and use it as the background as a jpeg after your done
Or save your background in one project and reference the project in your new file.

If I misunderstood your question and you just are looking at combining shapes for example like combining a rectangle and a triangle to create an arrow then you could draw both shapes I suggest using turning off the auto fill for shape and line and then you delete a line from both the triangle and the rectangle. You use auto weld to combine them and when ready you fill the shape. But I find this to be glitchy some times.

If you're importing from Photoshop Moho is pretty good about keeping all the files from the same file the same size. If you have issues put everything in the same folder in the Photoshop file.

Not sure how debut differs from pro.

If need help with finding a tool let me know.

[Niko]

Thanks for the help. Sounds like it would probably be the second recommendation where one shape is a rectangle, one is a trapezoid, triangle, etc. and then weld them together. Not sure if these options are available in Debut or not, but I'll check.

The scenery in the background will change. 2-D animation but think of a character walking through a city and buildings and shops change in the background. I want to have the different shapes of the building and shops as one layer(?) one shape(?) I wonder if the 3,000 total frame limit too, will eat up my project and I just need to bit the bullet and upgrade to Pro.

[NanotechBeasts]

Sorry I don't know on debut.

I am not even on the latest version of moho right now. I did record 2 screen recordings for you. Beware of the Sound! The sound is horrible and screechy so I wouldn't use headphones! I am sorry but I don't have the right program currently installed to correct it. There are better tutorials out there but this may help you to get started.

1st - How to combine shapes

https://youtu.be/bSbK-qtN3fo

2nd is using a default building line brush.
https://youtu.be/kb5OIBloBcE

PS. You can create custom brushes of buildings.

[Niko]

Thanks so much for the help!!! Awesome tutorials. I'll definitely be using the techniques in the first one, but also keeping in mind how to move the background from the second tutorial will come in handy for sure.

Forgot to ask also - Is the purple boundary supposed to be the screen size boundary so if we publish to a different platform it will only contain what's in the boundary?

[NanotechBeasts]

Not sure on that