Lost Marble’s Moho 14.4 update, charmingly titled “Side Quest,” arrives as a free upgrade for all Moho 14 owners. It’s more than a maintenance patch, it’s an expansion that connects 2D animation workflows to 3D pipelines and game engines via native glTF/GLB export.

The new exporter allows animators to bring Moho rigs, skeletons, and animation directly into Unreal Engine, Unity, or Godot, as well as 3D applications such as Blender. For production artists juggling both dimensions, this means Moho’s bone-based 2D animation can now live inside fully interactive environments without tedious conversion work.

The glTF Portal

At the centre of the Side Quest update lies the new glTF/GLB exporter. It preserves key rigging data such as bones, mainline animation, Smart Bones, Dynamic Bones, and Actions and transforms them into reusable animation clips ready for playback inside real-time engines. Each Action created in Moho, such as walk, jump or idle, is saved into the glTF file as independent animation data, making it possible to drive game character behaviour through player input.

Smart Bones, Moho’s custom rigging controls that manipulate complex deformations, now translate into Morph Targets (also known as Shape Keys) on export. This mapping ensures expressive deformations, like mouth shapes or limb warps, survive the jump into 3D software. Lost Marble notes that while not all Moho features are supported by glTF, the exporter retains the most essential rigging and animation data for cross-environment use.

Smart Bones Go 360°

Beyond the export layer, Moho 14.4 introduces a new 360° Smart Bone type. If a bone rotation reaches exactly 360 degrees, Moho automatically identifies it as a full-rotation Smart Bone, enabling artists to control the appearance of artwork at any viewing angle. That means animators can now smoothly rotate limbs, faces, or even entire character poses around a full turn, which is ideal for complex movements such as spins or walk cycles that require full rotational control.

Particles Behaving Better

Particle simulation sees a notable upgrade. Particles can now follow curve-based source layers, creating organic arrangements such as hair strands, tentacles, or tails. A new playback offset lets artists stagger particle timing to produce natural wave-like motion. Distribution has been improved to eliminate uneven gaps, and Moho now allows particle interpolation at variable frame intervals (1s, 2s, 3s, or custom) supporting both traditional and stylised timing.

Workflow Polishing and Quality-of-Life Fixes

The Side Quest update doesn’t stop at headline features. Lost Marble has tweaked dozens of small but significant details that make day-to-day work smoother. Freehand strokes are now more stable and visually consistent, with an improved smoothing algorithm and consolidated undo steps for pen input. Layer caching has been refined, reducing redraw lag when editing complex scenes. Vector layers now cache even when influenced by bones, and timeline zoom levels persist between sessions. Layer selection, particle rendering on macOS, and PSD import behaviour have all been cleaned up. Undo behaviour, motion blur logic, and bone visibility in Vitruvian rigs have been refined, while Moho’s scripting API gains new Lua functions for developers. New device presets have also been added for TourBox and Xencelabs Quick Keys, expanding the software’s hardware compatibility out of the box.

Styling, Simplified

A small but welcome improvement: users can now create a new Style directly from an existing shape. Instead of defining styles before drawing, artists can select any shape and automatically group others sharing its visual properties like fill, line, width, and brush. This makes it trivial to recolour or globally adjust line attributes across entire characters, without manual layer-hunting.

A Long List of Fixes, and a Few Quiet Triumphs

The update also addresses long-standing quirks such as accidental timeline drags, over-sensitive pen inputs, and incorrect particle rendering on macOS. Multi-threaded rendering now supports higher resolutions, and Liquid Shapes gain an obscure but potentially life-saving correction script.

These aren’t glamorous additions, but for working animators, stability improvements often matter more than new toys and Lost Marble’s changelog reads like a response to real production feedback.

Pricing and Availability

Moho Pro 14 retails for USD $399.99, and Moho Debut 14 for USD $59.99. The Side Quest 14.4 update is free for all Moho 14 owners, available now through the Lost Marble website or via Moho’s in-app update check. As always, users should verify compatibility within their specific production pipelines before deploying it in live projects.

Lost Marble Official Announcement: Moho 14.4 Side Quest

The post Moho 14.4 Goes on a Side Quest: 2D Meets Game Engines first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

With Task Force Querlitz, screenwriter Simon Thummet, director Arne Hain and producer Sebastian Simon have achieved something rare: a German adult animation series produced entirely for public broadcaster ZDF. Produced by the Offenbach-based animation and film studio PixelPEC, the show combines Moho and After Effects to deliver 60 minutes of animated anarchy. Despite its clean, colourful style, it refuses to look American. We spoke with the creative leads…

The Overview: We’re Talking to the Director

DP: Why adult animation, and why now, in Germany?
Arne Hain: As a person from the animation world I believe that animation is a medium to tell all kinds of stories, not only those aimed at kids. Animation can do anything and clearly that has long been recognized internationally. There is a big demand for adult animation and a lot of very successful shows out there.

Germany is still in the middle ages when it comes to adult animation. There have been close to no shows created directly out of Germany. But slowly the broadcasters are trying to change their approach. A big reason for this are the streamers and that the broadcasters see a need to build up their own streaming platforms now. They also want to broaden their target audience and make it younger. Adult animation has a very specific target audience that the public broadcasters have not reached yet. Thats a big reason why we got the chance to make this show now. The rest of course was funding situations and a bit of luck.

DP: When you pitched an adult animation sitcom, where did you meet the most resistance? Was it the format, the tone, the budget, or the schedule?
Arne Hain: I came into the project a little later and can only give an insight into this topic kind of second hand. The project was initialised by Sebastian Simon (the co-founder of PixelPEC) and written by Simon Thummet. The two of them where the people who really sold the idea initially. I came in shortly before the actual writing started.

“Task Force Querlitz” is a co-production between ZDF Quantum and Hessen Film und Medien funding. ZDF Quantum was super open to adult animation and our creative editor Jakob Zimmermann always pushed us to be bold. So I can really say that we had no backlash creatively. We did have to produce the whole show in one year, which was tricky. But since we agreed on realizing 3 Episodes, that was possible without sacrificing the quality of the show.

DP: How much did your Filmakademie network play a role in assembling the team?

Arne Hain: I was able to get a handful of people from my Filmakademie Network into the Lead positions, which was really helpful. It is always good to have people on board who you already know and trust. But I have to say that the whole team was very well picked and everyone (not only the Filmakademie people ;-)) did an amazing job. We also worked together with PIROS from Budapest and they were amazing.

Our team consisted mostly of very young talents directly from filmschool, which is a chance and a challenge at the same time. We had the chance to grow together, but of course we also had to create the complete workflow and pipeline from scratch. In the end I think the show benefited from this, because everyone could really add something personal to the project.

DP: From the pilot to the end of season one, how did your characters evolve visually?

Arne Hain: As mentioned the first season is 3 times 20min long. We really produced a lot of it parallel and the difference between the episodes is not really visible. Which I am of course happy about.

But in finding the initial visual style we did change a lot. Initially we were actually aiming to use a mixed media style with different animation techniques. But we quickly realized that would not work in the budget and also might not be the right fit for the narrative. In the end we decided for a much simpler and cleaner look, which also had to do with the workflow. Since we worked in Moho and the characters had to be rigged, we already had to think about this aspect in the design. We did have a lot of moments where we realized: Damn, this aspect of the design will not work in Moho, we need to adjust it.

The whole Design aspect was really held together by our art director Janis Frank (Instagram), he had a big influence on the final look and I am very happy with the quality we were able to achieve in the end.

Making it move!

DP: How did you refine the characters after the first internal test shots?

Dana Petrov: My job was testing the rigs, not building them, so I can talk only from this perspective. When making the test shots, I focused on three main things: the complexity of the rig (the rigs had to be relatively easy to use for animators without extensive moho experience), the range of motion, and the bugs.

We had a lot of communication with the riggers to find and fix all the glitches, but also to learn how each rig operates and how to fix some recurring bugs on the run. I’m not a rigging expert myself, so I relied on our rigging team for technical solutions and support – and they did an amazing job, never leaving an unanswered question.

DP: What does a fully rigged character look like under the hood in your current setup?

Dana Petrov: There are 2 kinds of characters in the show the simple rigs and the fancy rigs. Side characters that we only see for a few scenes got a simple rig: IK/FK controls for the limbs, a switch for the head turn, a blink switch, and a body turn switch that goes from front to ¾ view.
The fancy rig is for the main cast: they got a full turn around, with separate rigs for front, side, and back views. When a character had to turn around on screen, we would swap the rigs. These rigs have a big motion range, with controllers to do almost anything, including blushing and moving the character’s hair. In a rig like that, the head rig is placed on a different layer than the body, which makes it a bit more complicated to animate, but it’s worth it for the versatility it offers. My favorite rig is Goldie’s (built by our lead on the Hungarian team, Tina Orosz). It has a switch to give Goldie starry eyes!

DP: How did you keep Episode 3 consistent with Episode 1 in terms of character look and movement?

Dana Petrov: Before starting production, we had a little “animation bootcamp” for the leads – Oscar and me on the German team, and Tina and Domi on the Hungarian team. For two weeks, we worked on understanding the characters and developing the animation style. By the end of this time, we had an animation guide for each of the main characters. We also created a workflow guide to help the animators achieve the specific appeal we were going for in the animation: bouncy and fun, but not over-exaggerated.

During production, all shots went through 2 rounds of feedback, so any inconsistencies were fixed then. We had morning meetings every 2 days where we watched all the new shots and Arne gave us some pointers about the acting, so if one animator had a cool idea, the other ones could learn about it and use it too. There was also a lot of communication and information sharing between the teams.

Another thing that helped was the way we divided the shots: if an animator had a way with a specific character, we tried to assign them scenes where that character is in the spotlight.

DP: What was the reasoning behind choosing moho, and did you experience fit the expectations?

Dana Petrov: Working in Moho definitely helped :D Here’s why we chose Moho: We chose moho for this project because it’s accessible and intuitive. We needed a program that would allow us to create rigs that are at the same time versatile and easy to use, and Moho is a great choice for that, as an animator, you get a very streamlined experience working with this software.

Some of the animators on the project had zero previous experience with moho, and since we only had 3.5 months to create 60 minutes of animation, the learning curve had to be very steep. We created a detailed workflow for everyone to follow and a beginner Moho animation guide.  By the end of the first month, everyone was comfortable with the software and could focus on creating awesome animation.

Dana Petrov: Our goal was for each animator to achieve 6 seconds of animation a day, so most shots took a day to 2 days, but that’s just on average. The turnaround time depended on the complexity of the shots, the number of characters, and the interaction between them. A medium shot of a talking character would take about a day of work (or a bit more if it’s long). A shot with 4 main characters that interact physically, a bunch of extras, and some animals on top could take more than 5 days of work.

DP: Where did things bottleneck most often in animation?

Dana Petrov: They mostly didn’t. I’m actually a bit surprised about how smoothly things went. It was partly thanks to our pipeline, all rigs were ready and tested before the animation production started, and we used Flow for tracking the animation progress and the feedback rounds, so we knew when we could chill and when it’s time to push. The other part is the team, everyone was hyped and dedicated and willing to help, so if someone was struggling with a difficult scene, we usually had someone who had already finished their scenes and was free to help out. 

DP: If you had to do a second season, would you still rely on this approach or would you aim for a different setup?

Dana Petrov: Generally, I would keep the same animation pipeline; it worked pretty well for us. The only thing I would change is the way we approached the hand replacements on the rigs. We had a replacement library with about 50 hands for the main cast, and it was sometimes clunky to work with. If we get a second season, maybe we can try rigging the hands too, so we can have fewer hands and get more positions out of each one

DP: What are three tips you would give a small team starting animation in Moho tomorrow?

Dana Petrov: Having a clear idea of what I want the animation to look like before even opening Moho helped me a lot when animating. For some shots, I first sketched the main poses on paper. The interpolation can make choices that you wouldn’t make, so it’s good to have a guide. Keeping it simple is also important! Don’t make a fancy rig for a character that doesn’t need it, even if we see it on the screen a lot.

Let’s talk about Comp…

DP: Why did you build the show around Moho and After Effects instead of a dedicated pipeline like Toon Boom, Blender, Harmony, or Unreal?

Paul Mayer: After Effects simply integrates very well in the Adobe Cloud. Since the Illustration Department worked with Illustrator and Photoshop, AE came very handy in having all layers separated in AE already. The animators worked with Moho and could give me their animations as Image Sequences. That sped up the pipeline, as there was no need to animate in AE, but only to comp.

Simultaneously AE gave us the possibility to create more complex animations, like the Intro Sequence, Day-to-Night Transitions or a swirling Portal-effect right in the Comp. Another benefit was that most of the Team knew (at least a little) of After effects and could help out, setting up the composition to speed up the pipeline, while I could concentrate on the finishing touches. The finished AE shots were then brought into Premiere Pro, were they replaced the animatic shots (with identical timings) in the timeline and were color coded to keep an overview of what’s still missing.

DP: Where did After Effects shine, and where did it fight you the hardest?

Paul Mayer: After Effects really made it easy to comp all the different backgrounds and characters together, and integrate everything to one coherent image, using the Color Correction tools, Light wraps, Masks, Tracking, Glows, etc. and also allowed us to fix some smaller render issues (from Moho) or create custom shadow edges in dark environments.

For the most parts AE worked really great (It didn’t crash once!), but with huge Photoshop files it struggled and the render took an eternity. Luckily the Illustration department had an eye out for that and merged layers wherever possible.

DP: How did you structure AE projects across episodes?
Paul Mayer: Everything was divided into Preproduction, Production, Post and subdivided into their corresponding departments on the server drive which made it easy for us to find all relevant files. To avoid having too big After Effect projects, every Episode had its own AE file with the same naming structure in the projects as well as for the renders like this: “(Episode)_(shot)_(version)”.

In After Effects, the shot compositions were filed away in the classic AE folder hierarchy: “Footage, Comp, Precomp, Solids” And we also made a habit of moving old versions to an “_Old” folder, partly to keep the main folder neat, and partly so we didn’t spend 20 minutes trying to guess which file was actually the latest.

The rendered shots were then stored in the corresponding scene folders on the server drive. Additionally we could always cross-reference those namings with the master Shotlist in Flow (Shotgrid). With over 600 shots, keeping the habit of naming and storing everything correctly was essential. So, fortunately, no more “finalFinalV03FINAL” naming disasters this time. I’ve learned from my past mistakes…

DP: Which plugins or methods became essential during production?
Paul Mayer: Since we only comped in AE, we didn’t use any rigging and animation Plugin like DUIK or Limber. All the animation magic happened in Moho, which honestly wouldn’t have been possible in AE. But one of my favorite third-party plugins (besides Particular and Shine) is “Crates Lightwrap”, it makes adding lightwraps to characters ridiculously easy.

DP: How did you handle reviews and approvals?
Paul Mayer: We used Flow (Shotgrid) for reviews and approval, which works great to keep an overview (also on which background or animation is finished and ready for comping) and quickly get the shots approved.

DP: What was your render strategy?
Paul Mayer: Adobe Media Encoder was our render of choice, simply because you can queue the finished shots and keep working in AE while its rendering.

This needs some more environment…

DP: This might be the Bavarian in me speaking, but it looks far too colorful to be set in Eastern Germany. Why not make everything in muted concrete grays?

Tobias Pinegger: Oh, you caught me, I’m actually from Bavaria too. But we did not want to go too far into the cliche that east Germany is all gray because of course that is not true. My personal style is certainly one of the reasons why the backgrounds are on the saturated and colorful side. My first impulse, however, was also a more dirty and punk look, to match the anarchistic tone of the story. However, the director and production team decided to establish a friendly, cartoon look to create a contrast to the crude humor of the stories.

The look is, as mentioned, deliberately colorful, but we still tried to create a sense of sadness and boringness in the office spaces to provide a visual counterpoint to the Anomali madness.

DP: Which design elements changed when moving from style bible to production-ready assets?

Tobias Pinegger: In order to complete all the backgrounds for the three episodes in a short time with a team of an average of three to five artists, it was important to me to limit the number of backgrounds. We wanted to create only a few large master backgrounds for each location so that we could reuse each background often in sections. At the beginning, we racked our brains over how best to create the backgrounds using our approach, with the numerous crop-ins. Finding the right level of detail for our approach with the master backgrounds wasn’t easy. We actually had quite a long testing phase.

In a previous project, I was able to conceal many imperfections in the crop-in’s using depth of field. However, since TFQ’s backgrounds have a very graphic look, too much depth of field would look odd here. In preproduction, we decided not to use outlines in the backgrounds so that the characters with outlines always stand out clearly from the backgrounds. I had noted that the transition from a drawn layout to a colored background with outlines is much faster, because without outlines, you have to create all the objects in the backgrounds every time from scratch.

However, we later realized that our no-outline look is generally very beneficial when upscaling, as the outline of a background is the most revealing part that tells you it’s an enlarged background. The human eye quickly recognizes when the line thickness changes. So we were lucky that we chose the more complex route of creating the backgrounds without outlines. While we still had to put a lot of work into overpainting the crop-ins, with Outlines we would have had to create all the crop-in Backgrounds from scratch.

DP: What rules kept your backgrounds and environments consistent across episodes?

Tobias Pinegger: As already mentioned, we had to conduct extended testing during the production phase to see how the background look would affect scaling and crop-ins. So, we made quite some changes to the background look quite late in the process. Another important factor in finding the look was the small team of Artists. Especially in such a small team it can’t be ignored that each artist brings their own style.

In our case, it was essential to find a look that the team could pick up fast. You could say that each artist’s personality shaped the look. It took us some time because there was a lot to clarify at the beginning, but once the team had settled on the look, it was no longer a problem to complete the backgrounds towards the end of production.

DP: How did you set up parallax and background layering to keep episodes visually rich but still manageable?

Wrap-Up

DP: When you had to deliver to ZDF, what exactly did they require?
Paul Mayer: We delivered an MXF OP1a with 25fps in HD (even though we produced in 4K) with stereo sound.

DP: Did you need separate masters for Mediathek and broadcast, or could you deliver one version?
Paul Mayer: Fortunately we only had to deliver one Master file per Episode for the ZDF.  However it is also necessary to upload all episodes as additional MXF (of course with a different codec, why make it easy?) in a BagIt-Format for the mandatory deposit in the Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv). That was a first time uploading something to the Federal Archives for me as well. Now Task Force Querlitz is a piece of history :D

DP: What feedback did ZDF most often send back during QC, and how did you fix it for later episodes?
Arne Hain: The Quality Control happened only once in the end for all three episodes and was super smooth. We actually did not get any remarks. But internally we actually had a lot of bug fixing before we even sent it for QC. I personally still see some bugs that we did not have time to remove ;-) but as long as the viewers don’t see them it’s all good.

DP: Which tools would you recommend other teams learn early, and which tools should they skip unless absolutely necessary?
Dana: For the animation team, knowledge of rigging in Moho can be a great asset. So even if you have a separate rigging team like we did, it’s great when the animators can tweak the rigs by themselves for specific scenes.

Paul Mayer: A production tracking software like Flow, daily meetings on progress and good communication in the team are key. From my side as a heavy After Effects user, I would recommend learning AE since it is a very versatile tool to use for MotionDesign, Animation, VFX, Comping, etc. But also the whole Creative Cloud is a good skill to have. 

DP: Beyond season one, what is next?
Sebastian Simon: ZDF Quantum was a fantastic and unique opportunity to produce these first three episodes as a proof of concept. The project was overseen by funding officer Niklas Nissen (HessenFilm), with editorial supervision by Jakob Zimmermann (ZDF/Quantum). We are grateful that Quantum provides a format laboratory that makes such new formats possible in the first place.

Now that we have laid the groundwork and defined the setting for the world, scaling up would be the next big step for us. Adult animation has a good standing internationally, and the German market could seek to join forces here. ‘Task Force Querlitz’ is a great project for this, and we hope to be able to take the next step together with ZDF.

The post “Task Force Querlitz” Brings Adult Animation to ZDF first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Lost Marble has unleashed Moho 14.3, whimsically codenamed “Mantis Shrimp,” as a free update for all Moho 14 users. This release focuses on elevating the brush engine to new heights, aiming to blend the flexibility of vectors with the organic feel of traditional media—a combination as rare as a mantis shrimp sighting.

Brush Opacity: Transparency at Your Fingertips

The new Brush Opacity feature allows animators to control line transparency dynamically. By linking opacity to pen pressure, artists can achieve effects reminiscent of charcoal sketches or watercolor paintings. Each point in a stroke retains its opacity value, which can be modified and animated at any frame, offering a level of control that would make even a mantis shrimp envious.

Color Drift: A Spectrum of Possibilities

With Color Drift, strokes can transition in hue, saturation, and value based on pen pressure. For instance, a stroke might start in yellow and drift to red as pressure increases, mimicking the blending effects of gouache or acrylic paints. This feature enables the creation of natural-looking artwork while maintaining the editability of vector graphics—a true game-changer for those who refuse to stay within the lines.

Enhanced Freehand and Line Width Tools

The Freehand Tool now includes options to control line width, opacity, and color drift directly from its properties panel. Users can assign these attributes to pen pressure, randomization, or set them to fixed values, providing a customizable drawing experience that adapts to individual artistic styles. Similarly, the Line Width Tool has been updated to adjust not only line thickness but also opacity and color drift, allowing for on-the-fly modifications that keep the creative process as fluid as the ocean itself.

Additional Improvements: More Than Just a Pretty Interface

Beyond the headline features, Moho 14.3 includes several enhancements aimed at improving the overall user experience. These updates ensure that the software remains as reliable as a seasoned sea captain, ready to navigate the complex waters of 2D animation.

Pricing and Availability

Moho 14.3 is available now as a free update for all existing Moho 14 owners. For those yet to embark on the Moho voyage, the software is available for purchase through the official Moho website. While pricing specifics aren’t detailed in the source, prospective users can explore their options directly.

Test Before You Animate: A Wise Mariner’s Approach

As with any new software update, it’s prudent to test Moho 14.3’s new features within your existing workflow before deploying them in production. Ensuring compatibility and stability will help maintain smooth sailing on your animation projects, preventing any unexpected storms from disrupting your creative process.

In summary, Moho 14.3’s Mantis Shrimp update brings a spectrum of new features designed to enhance the artistry and efficiency of 2D animation. By integrating natural media effects with vector flexibility, it offers animators a toolkit as vibrant and dynamic as the mantis shrimp itself.

The post Moho 14.3: Mantis Shrimp Packs a Colorful Punch first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

In its own words, the biggest upgrade to date advertises the best 2D rigging system, the combination of unique traditional and non-traditional animation tools, a completely new graphics engine and many new tools, such as Liquid Shapes, Multi Strokes, Smart Line
Boil, Delayed Constraints, Vitruvian Bones, Physics, Particles, Dynamics… Despite obvious adversities in the past and great competition, Moho now wants to find and maintain its place among professional 2D animation programmes.

Moving story – from Moho to Moho 14 (2023)

According to Wikipedia, Michael Clifton, founder of Lost Marble LCC, published his animation software before the year 2000. Simple vector animation and a bone system that was already advanced at the time immediately attracted the attention of users interested in animation, who hoped for further rapid developments. As Clifton originally developed Moho for BeOS, which came to an end in 2001, he had to port his programme. He subsequently adapted his software for Windows, Mac OS and also Linux. in 2006, the programme – and the developer – moved to the company e-Frontier, which wanted to continue marketing it. A new change came in 2007, this time to Smith Micro Software. From then on, the software was called Anime Studio, but was renamed Moho again in 2016.

in 2020, many users in the Moho forum were delighted to learn that Moho was back in the hands of Lost Marble. Lost Marble acquired the software with the support of Cartoon Saloon. The Irish animation studio, Cartoon Saloon, is probably known to connoisseurs for animated films such as The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea and Wolfwalkers. It has received five Oscar nominations, among others.

“We always called Moho ‘our secret weapon'”, says Tomm Moore, co-director of Wolfwalkers
Director of “Wolfwalkers” and “Secret of Kells”, is said to have said at the time. This autumn, Lost Marble announced the release of Moho, Release 14, as a pro and debut version. While these lines were still being written, the first update, 14.1, was released, which Moho’s search for updates on a Windows 10 system did not (yet) recognise. The list of new features made us curious..

A lot of talk about a little 2D animation?

Despite the huge boom in the 3D sector, 2D animation will retain its justification in various sectors and in different media. This is not really the place to discuss design or media trends or the pros and cons of 2D or 3D. A look at 2D software, such as Moho, reveals a rather complex situation that is constantly being determined by new technologies and may soon change fundamentally through the use of AI. 2D animation has long since ceased to be limited to pure frame-by-frame animation, i.e. the classic animated cartoon that older people may still remember from early animated films, but now refers to various 2D animation techniques. The market now offers a whole range of programmes for animating with different approaches, including programmes with very different prices, such as Animate CC (adobe.com), Toon Boom Harmony (toonboom.com), TVPaint (tvpaint.com), CelAction2D (celaction.com), Pencil2D Animation (pencil2d.org), Cartoon Animator (reallusion.com), Synfig (www.synfig.org), OpenToonz (opentoonz.github.io/e)… This list is arbitrary and absolutely incomplete, but should give an impression of the fact that “simple” 2D – and the software for it – is still in demand. A look at current media also shows this: animated films still exist, advertising and explanatory videos can be found on almost every website and some stories or product information are more convincing through the graphical means of 2D design than through more elaborate, hyper-realistic 3D animations.
Meanwhile, the many programs and online platforms promise to simplify and revolutionise 2D animation and achieve the best results with the least amount of effort. Moho also aims to be such a tool. Moho is a versatile software with lots of tools that attempts to cover every area of (2D) animation and make everything animatable.

What can Moho do?

Moho Animation Software promises professional, powerful and user-friendly 2D rigging and animation tools as well as new drawing, deformation and effect tools. The list of new features is long and fills several pages in the manual, but only supplements the many tools already available. Moho is a vector drawing programme with a range of special drawing tools that now also enable a natural look similar to that of raster graphics. Thanks to the newly developed graphics engine, drawings, styles and effects should be displayed much better and more smoothly. The current version offers various drawing styles such as wet ink, charcoal, gouache, rough ink, watercolour and others, as well as several dozen preset brushes with complex adjustment options. By using styles, you can control the exact look of your drawings and edit multiple drawings at the same time, changing the shape, colour, line width, brush settings and effects.

Animations can be achieved by simply manipulating individual selected control points of the drawn (vector) curves – optionally also controllable with Bezier handlers or, for example, with a variable magnet tool or various deformation tools in the timeline, whereby Moho automatically sets keyframes. Fills and strokes can be varied as desired and thus also animated. There are a number of different tools and methods for deforming drawings (e.g. Liquid Shapes are new). Keyframes can also be set for effect settings.
In fact, everything can be animated in Moho. Moho supports the animation of vector points, strokes, shapes and layers as well as various effects in different ways. Moho allows better frame by frame animation in the current version, especially through improvements in the timeline. Although we are talking about frame-by-frame animation, with Moho this means that all of the programme’s manipulation options for vectors are available in every frame. Rotoscoping should also not be a problem.

Moho aims to support all conceivable animation options and technologies, which are almost impossible to list here: Already mentioned are animations of vector shapes (points, fills and lines), object and path animations, deformations through warping (also for imported images), bones that can be controlled with constraints (targets, IK stretching, IK solvier), or the use of physical rules, such as reactions to gravity or wind and adjustable collision detection.

New in Moho 14 are Delayed Constraints. A bone (Control Bone) to control everything! In the Bone Constraints, where Bone Dynamics and Control Bones are defined for controlling angles, position and scaling of individual bones, there is now also the option of specifying a delay for subsequent movements of bones. Controlled bones can be “told” when they should follow the control bone and by what percentage (before or after their movement, with smaller or larger amplitudes). There is an example in the Moho tutorials that shows how, for example, an (octopus) tentacle can move very lively and elastically after such settings.

Also new are the aforementioned Liquid Shapes: For shapes within a layer, it is possible to apply Boolean operations to each other. Each shape can be assigned either “Normal”, “Add”, “Subtract” or “Clip”. “Normal” shapes that are overlapped by others can then be “manipulated” by the shapes above them, as with Boolean functions in other programmes (the order of the shapes can be moved up and down within a layer using the Shift and arrow keys). The function is made particularly interesting by the “Blend” option, which, depending on the value, softly rounds off the resulting shapes. The result can be fixed with “Merge”.
As long as “everything is still in flux”, everything remains animatable and it is amazing what a variety of shapes and smooth animations are possible with this new option. The shapes behave in real time, like fluid forms that displace each other or seem to flow into each other. This technique, combined with various layer effects, is demonstrated in the trailer for Moho’s tutorial videos.
Although Moho is a 2D software, movements are also possible in 3D space. Moho can import 3D objects and also generate simple shapes from 2D shapes (rotation and extrusion bodies are defined in the layer properties, or layers are rotated and positioned around the X or Y axis).
Moho offers a rudimentary 3D view for working in space. When the 3D button is clicked, Moho still jumps to an obviously preset view, which has to be corrected every time you want to use the 3D space. A “smoother” camera pan or even the selection of possible camera settings would be more pleasant. Most users probably use the 3D options mainly to arrange objects in space and to create camera movements with parallax and depth of field effects.

Many tools

Many tools offer many possibilities, but also require a lot of work with the programme in order to be able to exhaust all the possibilities and use the respective settings and options effectively. Everything is easy if you know how to do it. – Or as the old maths teacher used to say: “The solver can see immediately what the result is”. This also applies to Moho.

A beginner can either be delighted by the ease with which lines and shapes can be animated in Moho, or frustrated by the sheer endless possibilities – and the corresponding settings and options that need to be “figured out” first. Accordingly (and irrespective of the fact that in many computer forums “your own software is always the best”), opinions also differ there, from rejection because it is too complicated, to euphoric statements about the “best 2D animation programme”. The tenor is that Moho offers a professional approach with a corresponding learning curve.
The community of Moho users appears to be quite large and there are numerous tutorials online (also on commercial learning platforms such as http://www.udemy.com or http://www.toonfiles.com) and also help, e.g. in the Moho forum of Lost Marble (see the box with links). Lost Marble provides dozens of tutorials and webinars on the software and also offers learning courses on its website in addition to various paid content and some brush packs (including character, cartoon and Halloween content packs…).
A first look at the software shows us that there can’t be too many of these courses.
The current version of Moho can be used in several languages, including German. We find the German version more convenient to use, but most of the help can be found in English-language sources, which is why we use modern, occasional German or English expressions in the programme. In addition to context-sensitive tool tips for all functions and information on the currently selected tools in the programme’s status bar, Moho offers help in the form of a wiki. Unfortunately, this is only available online. In some forums there have been requests for a downloadable PDF file or similar, which would be easier to access and perhaps more searchable.

We are sure that not all aspects of this software can be discussed here. We have limited ourselves to a general overview and some of the “specialities” and new features of Moho in order to convey at least some of the “Moho feeling”.

An easy start?

At first glance, Moho seems as simple as software is usually advertised by the manufacturers. And indeed, even beginners seem to find it easy to take their first steps in the programme. By default, a randomly selected sample animation opens after the splash screen – a nice way to see Moho in action. You can switch this off in the preferences, along with other settings, but you can also simply open several files in parallel.

Of course, everyone has already seen a graphics application, perhaps even an animation programme. Then the default UI of Moho will already appear somewhat familiar.

If you want, you can change the brightness and the display of some editor colours, e.g. for objects, selections or the canvas background, in the default settings. Menus can be docked or undocked in the Window menu and, of course, customised shortcuts are possible.
There is the usual menu bar at the top of the screen. In the centre of the screen is the canvas, Moho’s drawing area (the view can be split, display settings can hide certain content), to the left of it is the toolbar, which is equipped with different tools depending on the selected layer type. A new file opens with a vector layer by default. Accordingly, some drawing and layer tools as well as buttons for controlling the camera and screen navigation are offered (if a bone layer is active, the corresponding bone tools are activated). Depending on the active tool, a tool options bar above the canvas shows further options. To the right of the canvas, either the Style or Actions menu can be displayed. Below this is the layer menu (similar to the layer palette in other applications).

The centrepiece for animations is of course the timeline with the playback controls at the bottom of the screen. The timeline shows the current position of the playhead for the animation (a very narrow vertical line), animation channels for objects and, of course, keyframes, which can be set, moved, copied or deleted here.

There are various display modes (Channels, Sequencer, Motion Graph). The interpolation methods between keyframes can also be changed here. Onion skins can be switched on or off and the length of the animation can be set. The Relative Keyframing option allows animated objects to be repositioned and existing keyframes to be moved “relatively” with them. Perhaps a small pitfall for newcomers to the programme: objects and drawings, as well as receipt assignments… are created in frame 0 by default in Moho! No animation can be tried out here, while no drawing and no objects can be created within the timeline (except in FBF mode).

A look at different layers

Moho uses different types of layers for different purposes. Vector layers are the standard layers for all vector drawings, similar to
in common graphic programmes such as Adobe Illustrator.
There are a variety of layer options for different purposes. Among other things, there are settings for effects such as shading, the vector display (e.g. whether an animated “noise” of outlines should simulate the style of hand-drawn animations), there are also options for display, opacity, motion blur… In the layer settings, you can also specify whether elements of the layer are captured by Moho’s camera at all, whether DOF affects them – or how a layer should interact with other objects, e.g. follow a path or react to a warp layer..
Whether depth of field (as Moho calls the depth of field in the German translation) affects the layers at all, which render style, image resolution is used, or whether, for example, layers are displayed sorted by depth, is specified in the project settings. There are layers for imported images and image sequences. There are currently no more bitmap tools in Moho. Technical difficulties in editing and displaying bitmaps in earlier versions are cited as the reason. But apparently the developers are planning to fix this problem later. For the time being, the main focus was on the vector tools and the new graphics engine.
However, bitmaps can be imported and deformed, e.g. with Bones. Meshes can be
Meshes can be defined as warp layers or an automatic function for mesh creation can be used (Draw/Create Mesh Layer). Images can be masked in the same way as vector layers. Various options can be set under “Masking” in the group settings for layers. The lowest vector layer serves as a mask for the layers above it. Masks can be used to simulate light and shadow effects by applying layers with different colours, intensities, blur and layer modes to objects – but only up to the edge of the mask. In the test with a Windows 10 system, an assigned shadow effect was often only displayed in the render preview.

Patch layers offer a special type of masking, e.g. to conceal overlapping contours at joints. Patch layers (round vector shapes) “hide” the overlapping layer, e.g. exactly at the joint.
The new Curver layers are used for simple but effective deformation of vector or image layers. If a layer is selected, a new type of warp layer can be created under “Draw/Create Curver Layer”. The layers to be deformed are specified in the layer settings, under “Vectors”, to which warp layer they should react. Curver layers, originally consisting of just two points, can be customised in terms of size, thickness (area of influence) and number and position of points. Smooth distortions are then possible in the timeline.

Curver layers can be combined with Bones. The animations can also be controlled with Smart Bones. Compressible Curver layers do not distort their objects “linearly”, but according to exactly which points are moved. This means that part of a figure can remain “untouched” while the rest is wildly distorted. This is a very simple way of creating organic-looking deformations (which can of course be animated).
Special layers also contain particles and bones. Switch layers contain elements that are only displayed “switched”. Switch layers group different elements, but only display one at a time. This means that predefined or drawn hand positions (as vector or bitmap graphics) can be exchanged in animations using keyframes, for example. When importing Photoshop files, layer groups in which only one element is visible are automatically converted to switch layers. Moho also uses the same principle for FBF animations
principle is also used for FBF animations, as well as for lip synchronisation. Here, as with
Switch Layers, the most suitable mouth shapes are made visible according to the imported sound curve of a speaker. Moho attempts to do this fully automatically, but also works together with Papagayo, for example, a tool that simplifies lip synchronisation. Of course, the images for the respective phonemes can also be set by hand or Smartbone, as in “normal” switch layers. If vector drawings that have been “morphed” are used for the mouth shapes, Moho can even calculate smooth transitions here. However, the smooth transitions should not be visible when using Smartbones.
Layers can be sorted and summarised in groups in the layer menu. Different blending modes (as in other graphics applications) can also be selected there, for example.
If bones are used, all elements to be animated must be subordinate to a bone group. To do this, either create a bone layer in the layer menu and then move the layers to be manipulated underneath it, or create a layer group by right-clicking on selected layers, which can then be converted into a bone layer. Switch layers can also be created in exactly the same way. And Moho also has a text layer.

Bony

Lost Marble advertises a sophisticated bone system. Not all bones are the same in Moho. There are bones that are “simply” drawn hierarchically.
Every bone that is drawn on an active bone is automatically bound to it. With the “Reparent Bone” icon, the hierarchy, represented by green and, for selected bones, red arrows, can be viewed and changed. Sketch bones are drawn even more simply, in a single line. This allows long bone chains to be created. The length of the individual bones can be preset. Smart Bones can probably control every animation that has been summarised in an action via its respective angle – including the order of the objects in switch layers. Actions can be reused as required. Under “suitable” conditions, e.g. if bone structures with the same structure are used, they can even be used in different projects.
The Vitruvian Man, or rather the famous depiction by Leonardo da Vinci, was the model for the name Vitruvian Bones. When using these bones, similar to switch layers, elements (e.g. body parts, but with the bones included) are exchanged in the animation. For example, a character has four arms, like Shiba. Each arm has a different posture and position. By switching the individual poses of the arms, animation time is to be saved considerably.
Pin bones are created by simply placing a point when drawing a bone. They can be used like “normal” bones but, depending on the specified bone strength, they enable special distortion effects to be created both for vector drawings and imported bitmaps by moving (T), rotating (T Alt) or scaling (T CTRL). As mentioned, bones always affect the objects that are subordinate to them.
Binding in Moho, as in 3D software, is the linking of bones and “content”. Flexi-Bind Points is the standard method; it binds points to bones in such a way that they are influenced by all the bones in the parent bone layer, depending on the Bone Strength, the area of influence of each bone. More control is achieved with the direct binding of selected points to selected bones (bind points). When recreating classic cutout animations, it makes sense to have all the body parts of a figure to be animated in individual layers. Bones that are connected to these layers (bind layers) then only affect these elements.

Moho still offers some options to make rigging more efficient, e.g. the option to “Create Smooth Joint for Bone Pair” (tries to create smooth joints between two bones). This is probably best suited for bending bitmaps, e.g. when bending a leg.

Conclusion

Moho clearly claims to do 2D animation at a professional level, and not just because of the $400 price tag for the Pro version. Moho offers a wealth of drawing and animation options that cover almost every possible 2D task. However, the software also requires a corresponding amount of effort before it can be used effectively. We will save ourselves a comparison with other applications that are either easier to use but offer fewer possibilities – or can do even more, but are then also more complex.
If you are serious about 2D animation and want to try out the advantages of vector graphics and, above all, Moho’s Bone system, you should take a look at the demo versions. We think that the latest upgrade, especially because of the new graphics engine, has really taken Moho to a new level. We wish Moho a good way into the future and hope for good news from Lost Marble.

A collection of Moho scripts

There are various instructions for installing the scripts in Moho, including here:
is.gd/moho_scripts_install. At least for most of the scripts in this list there is the option “Download for Install Script command”. In this case, the installation was successful with just a few clicks using the installation script integrated in Moho. Please make sure that the scripts are intended for the current Moho version!

Some suggestions for testing
MR Curve Tool: This script simplifies the drawing of curves. One option is
z. Drawing outside frame 0. is.gd/mr_curve_tool

MR Pose Tool: Promises to speed up posing by combining the Transform Bone and Manipulate tools. is.gd/mr_pose_tool

MR Key Motion: Manipulates curves in the timeline by moving selected keyframes (Smooth, Pull
(Smooth, Pull, Scale, Flip). is.gd/mr_key_motion

MR Path: Should help to analyse animations by drawing “bone” and “point paths” across the animation layers for visualisation. is.gd/mr_path

MR Tween Machine: Anticipation and exaggeration – anticipating movements and “overshooting” are among the well-known principles of animation. This script generates additional keyframes before and after the end of a movement in order to achieve the desired behaviour. is.gd/mr_tween_machine

MR Transform Rig Tool: Parts of the rig can be deformed without affecting its functions. is.gd/mr_transform_rig

MR Guides: Create and edit guides without having to leave the current layer and action. is.gd/mr_guides

MR Overlay: Create an “overlay” to obtain a reference layer. is.gd/mr_overlay

MR Continue Animation: Extend existing animations based on two neighbouring keyframes up to the current frame. is.gd/mr_continue_animation

MR Track Bone: Transfer the transformation of a bone from an animation to any skeleton. is.gd/mr_track_bone

Script for importing Affinity Layers or Krita, Spine, Photoshop, AfterEffects, Gimp… into Moho is.gd/import_layers

LipSync with papagayo: An app to easily automate lip synchronisation lostmarble.com/papagayo

Specsheet

Moho Pro 14: 399.99 US dollars
Moho Debut 14: 59.99 US dollars
For the differences between the two versions, see here: is.gd/moho_debut_14
or is.gd/moho_pro_14

System requirements

Windows 10 or higher, 2.0 GHz Intel Core i3 or higher, 4 GB RAM or higher, 16 GB free hard drive space or more, OpenGL 4.1-supported graphics card required (1920 × 1080 recommended)

macOS 10.15, or higher, 2.0 GHz Intel Core i3 or higher, 4 GB RAM or higher,
1.6 GB free hard drive space or more, OpenGL 4.1-supported graphics card required (1920 × 1080 recommended) – Moho 14 is fully compatible with Apple silicon chips (M1) (M2)

For displays with high pixel density, the minimum resolution varies depending on the scaling level recommended by the operating system. For example, if the operating system recommends a scaling level of 200 per cent, the minimum requirement may be a resolution of 2736 × 1824. Or if the operating system recommends a scaling level of 150 per cent, the minimum requirement can be up to a resolution of 2160 × 1440.

A demo version is available. This is fully functional, allows opening and saving of Moho files, and is valid for 30 days. Restrictions are no import of external file formats (images, films) and no export of animations to other formats (MP4, MOV, PNG…)

The post Moho 14 – the most advanced 2D animation first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Ralf Gliffe.

Smith Micro Software is the name behind well-known software in the graphics sector, such as Poser and Anime Studio. The company has now released the latter under the new title Moho 12. The result is an all-in-one tool for 2D animations. Moho 12 comes with many new features, including a revised interface and tools for simpler workflows. We present the most important new features here.

The new Moho at a glance

Moho 12 comes in two versions that are aimed at two different target groups. “Moho Debut” is intended for beginners in 2D animation. “Moho Pro” is designed for advanced animation professionals.

Moho Debut 12

In addition to extended freehand drawing tools, it is now also possible to animate with bones. Added to this are position auto-freeze, an updated interface, the option to anchor bones and a library. You can see all the details here.

Moho Pro 12

The new functions of the professional version also include extended freehand drawing tools and the other features of the beginner version. In addition, you can control Bézier curves via vectors and create customised polygon meshes. Motion blur, multiple layers, simultaneous animation and the import and export of actions are now also possible. You can find more information about the Pro version here.

How much does it all cost?

Moho Debut is available for 59.99 euros. Moho Pro 12 is available for 299.99 euros. Details on the price and upgrade options can be found here.

The post Moho 12 – the new anime studio first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.