Moho Forum

[/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWBhqJM_hug&t=186s]

basically at about 3:10-3:25 i wanna recreate the asteroids moving and create the effect that the planets are moving withought making them move. if that makes sense lol. trying to do this for my kids animation but im not sure how to exactly do this any adivce would be amazing been trying for a little while now but cant quite get it right

I created similar animations for an episode of All Hail King Julien several years ago using Moho 10 or 11. These characters were actually 'multiverses' but relatively the same setup as far as rigging and animation goes. You can see some of this footage on my 2017 reel:

D.R. Greenlaw: Dreamworks Demo Reel, Pt 1 (2017)

Scrub to around the 1:45 mark.

I just gave the character a root bone to move/rotate it, a 'torso' bone to squash/stretch it, and a bone to move the entire face. So, basically 3 bones for body and face. Maybe 4 to bend the character.

Beyond that, there were single 'floating' bones to move each hand, the usual ones to move eyes and mouth positions, and a couple of Smart Bones for facial animation like open/close eyes. These extra bones may or may not be relevant for your character.

So, it was a very simple setup...which was necessary for an obvious reason seen later in the animation.

Looking at these animations again, I'm sure I also animated the top Group layer using Transform Layer and Shear. It's easy enough to animate the Group layer directly, so I doubt these transforms were driven by Smart Bones.

Hi thanks for your reply. i didn't so much mean the planets i meant the asteroides fading into the background. Nomatter what i do i just cant seem to get it lookong gokd

One recipe you could try:
- create some asteroids, each on its own layer
- give some of them a small slow spin
- put them into a group (or bone) layer
- duplicate this group and re-arrange the layers inside
- repeat until you have 4 or 5 layers
- set each group layer's origin point to one side (all same side)
- scale these group layers so they appear like in a multiplane setup (largest front)
- now animate each layer to move slowly to the side with that origin
- and scale them during this movement so they get a bit smaller over time
- to get more feeling of space create a vector layer with just one black rectangle, set to 5%, and put between the bottom 2 layers
- duplicate and put between the next layers on top

Ah, sorry for the misunderstanding.

I guess the closest thing I've done in 2D were the environments for Space Tommy: Mission Critical. This was animated using Moho Physics, which automatically animated constant movement and collisions with minimal input from me. The extra depth was the result of using two different simulations: a detailed 'hero' asteroids Physics layer in the foreground, and a less detailed background asteroids layer in the distance.

Many of the shots are rendered from the side, but there are two shots in which the camera moves into the asteroid field. This looks more like the example you linked to.

For a character layer in front of the camera, I would enable Immune To Camera to keep it locked to the camera.

Or, don't move the camera and let Physics do its thing. Whichever is easier.

This is if you intend to composite everything within Moho. I typically set my shots up in a single Moho project, but use Layer Comps, break out passes using Moho Exporter, and then composite in After Effects. This gives me a lot more control over what happens between the camera and the layers.

I checked the project files for those two 'z-animation' shots, and my description of the setup wasn't completely accurate. What I actually did was I duplicated the Physics group so there were six copies, and tweaked the settings so they all looked different. Then I added two layers with no physics, in the distance. These two layers were created using Moho's Scatter Brush.

To make the asteroids 'move' in z-space, I'm pushing the camera into the field. So, in this example, the asteroids are not actually moving in z-space, but the effect is the same. Here's what the project looks like...



To make it work like the example you linked to, I would lock-off the camera, place the Physics layers inside a group, and move these layers away from the camera. As the farthest layer moves away, dissolve it out and move it behind the camera. If you set this animation up as a cycle, it will loop infinitely.

To reduce CPU usage and insure predictability, I might pre-render the asteroids as Image Sequences. I guess it depends on the storyboards and how many camera angle variations I need to make. Whatever takes less work while maintaining the desired quality.

Since the camera is static, the character layers can perform in front of the camera like normal.

There was another asteroid question asked a while back, and I posted example settings there:

Hi guys how do i make objects float like in low gravity?

BTW, this topic was also the inspiration for me to create the Space Tommy short.

Hi im still struggling this im wondering if yoi could give a step by step guide on how to do it?

[/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWBhqJM_hug&t=186s]

put this in a while ago and im still struggling at about 3:10-3:25 i wanna recreate the asteroids moving and create the effect that the planets are moving withought making them move. if that makes sense lol. trying to do this for my kids animation but im not sure how to exactly do this any adivce would be amazing been trying for a little while now but cant quite get it right

If the link is yours I think it already looks amazing. I can't think of anyway to animate it better.

Hi Bicknell1999!

It's all in the layering. Separate your foreground and background asteroids from the midground element (i.e., the character, spaceship, planet, or whatever,) so it can be animated independently of the environment.

You might want to check out the tutorial we released last week on compositing; the first segment shows how the asteroid layers in one of the Space Tommy scenes were broken out. This tutorial was about breaking out layers for third-party compositing, but it's the same idea in Moho, too. In other words, you don't need a dedicated compositing program for this. When you separate layers in Moho, you're already compositing.



If you want to achieve a similar parallax effect seen in the Solar Balls video you linked to, push the layers in z-space, and also move the camera. And by 'move' I mean physically translate it. If the camera only rotates at a point, you will not see the effect...the camera has to move in 3 dimensional space. But no need to get too crazy with the camera movement...a little bit can go a long way.

Hope this is helpful. One of these days, I'll make a proper BTS for Space Tommy, and explain how the shots are set up in detail.

Also...don't worry about the Layer Comps stuff. That's one of the main topics of the tutorial, but the Layer Comps Window is only used to manage the visibility of layers. The actual layering part is still all done in the Layers Window. I'm only referring you to the video for the scene's layering breakdown.

Unfortunately the link isnt mine im trying to replicate the asteroids animati9n

Hi, could i send you a file of what iv attempt? And see what iv done wrong or if its right?