driving pov through windshield, using image layers in Moho 12.5

[basshole]

Hi. Using Moho 12.5, trying to make a shot of driving along a residential street, as seen through the windshield. May or may not have parts of two people visible in the frame. Also trying to do all this with image layers. I feel like there was a tutorial video on a similar camera move (I remember a snowy field and trees, although this was all created in ASP, not image layers) for a very old version of Anime Studio, but my searches are not turning up anything.

I have an idea of how to do this: road is laid out flat receding along Z axis, sky background layer deep on along Z axis, houses/trees etc are either a solid image layer on left and right, angled like walls (like a texture map in an older 3D game) that camera passes by, or could be individual house/tree/etc. images set to always face camera (or not, possibly 3/4 angle shots of houses to make it more realistic if I wanted that), loop them to create infinite houses to pass by. windshield/possible People is a layer somehow locked to camera, which moves along Z axis down our road. Gotta be something like all that, right?

Anyway a tutorial vid (or instructions) would keep me from fumbling in the dark with it until I solve everything.

Any ideas? Thanks.

[hayasidist]

rather than moving the camera, move the street.

This, hopefully, gives you some ideas (it's vectors not images, but ...)

https://discord.com/channels/1123979330 ... 8066691164

[basshole]

Ah. Yes I guess that would work too.

Sorry, that link isn't working for me. I'm not very familiar with discord, and I know it's its own thing, so probably pilot error.

[slowtiger]

Basically there's two approaches: one with flat layers, one with walls in perspective (as you pointed out). Both can be combined, but that's lots of adjusting work and maybe not worth the hassle.

That perspective thing is quite easy: do a guide first with all lines leading to the vanishing point. This will be your reference for drawing houses/walls. Also you need to indicate Z positions there which will help animating it.

This is the standard construction: top and bottom, two verticals = 1 hous. Red diagonal, copy, shift, draw next vertical. The diagonals of each colour are parallel to each other!

Draw a house over this guide, place both in Moho, and set the origin exactly on the vanishing point. This way you only need to animate scaling of the image.
Another tip: render the moving street, then import into the project file with the windshield and driver etc. This way you can play around and indicate a bumpy street.
You can easily figure out the rest, everything else is just refinement.

*********************

The other approach gives a different result. I've used it quite often, especially since I created an empty master file so the setup part is already done. I think I've described it here before, just repeat myself:

I create a bunch of empty group layers with different Z positions, like this:

Code: Select all

- Group 1, Z=0
- Group 2, Z=-2
- Group 3, Z=-4
- Group 4, Z=-6
- Group 5, Z=-8

etc.

Now I fill each group with an image (house, tree, whatever) but leave the middle empty. That's it. All left to do is to animate the camera from Z=3 to Z=-8 or whatever.

You can simply duplicate that setup to get more layers:

Code: Select all

- TopGroup 1, Z=0 (this one gets duplicated)
- - Group 1, Z=0
- - Group 2, Z=-2
- - Group 3, Z=-4
- - Group 4, Z=-6
- - Group 5, Z=-8
- TopGroup 2, Z=-10 (now I only have to change this Z value)
- - Group 1, Z=0
- - Group 2, Z=-2
- - Group 3, Z=-4
- - Group 4, Z=-6
- - Group 5, Z=-8
- TopGroup 3, Z=-20
- - Group 1, Z=0
- - Group 2, Z=-2
- - Group 3, Z=-4
- - Group 4, Z=-6
- - Group 5, Z=-8

etc.

This is the setup I used in that Pink Floyd video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KERj9nfEvkk and elsewhere.

[basshole]

Wow, thanks! I will to absorb all that. The perspective approach you mention first, is that using 2D/flat/no z axis animation only?

Also, how do I enable email notification when there's a reply to one of my posts? I've searched but can't find it here.

[slowtiger]

Yes, the first one doesn't use any Z movement, it's all just happening in one plane, like those old hand-drawn cartoons.

[basshole]

Thanks. Looks like I'm going with the 3D approach, much like the shot in the PF video you linked with the person walking along a tree-lined street. Except your will be better 'cause that video is stunning.

[slowtiger]

*bows* thank you!