Toon Files - Courses and Files for Animators/Moho Masterclass: Animate a Cartoon!

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Moho Masterclass: Animate a Cartoon!

Learn character design, rigging, animating, action building, scene design and production assembly with this 45 hour masterclass. Build your own creations or follow along with the exercise files!

Bring a Cartoon Character to Life

With this course you will learn three ways to draw a character to be properly rigged using Moho's extensive bone tools. Raster and vector rigging is both covered! Other topics include:
  • Lip syncing
  • Hand poses
  • Facial animations
  • Dynamic bones
  • Target bones
  • Smart meshes
  • And much more!

Learn How to Animate using the Timeline and Actions Panel

Once rigged, we will animate our character and build various actions including:
  • Step or single frame poses for talking, thinking, standing and more
  • Animated actions for walking, running, and jumping
  • Stringing animations together for polished results

Learn to Build 2D and 3D Atmospheric Sets

This course covers the art of building backgrounds and sets for your cartoon characters to inhabit. We will build an indoor scene using three different workflows as well as a lava filled planet with particles and special effects.

Exercise Files Included With Every Step!

Exercise files have been mapped out to act as checkpoints for the learning process. Files include:
  • Moho Projects (requires Moho Pro 13 to open majority of files)
  • Images
  • PNG Sequences
  • After Effects Projects
  • PSDs
  • Audio Files
  • And more!

A Non-Linear Learning Experience

This course covers several aspects of Moho. It was designed to allow you to pick and choose which chapters interest you. Or you can follow along with all materials to get a cohesive learning experience, ending with the creation of an animated Moho sequence.

Contents

Introduction to Moho

In this section we discuss basic items to help understand the UI, tools and features of Moho Pro.
Course Introduction
Preview
Which Version of Moho Should You Have For This Course?
Preview
Downloading and Installing Moho Demo
Preview
Mouse VS Stylus in Moho
Quick Overview of Moho workspace
Preview
Frame 0 Compared to Other Frames
Preview
Software for Screenwriting
Software for Recording Audio
Accessing Exercise Files

Options for Character Design

Here I overview some basic differences between vectors and bitmaps as well as show how to sketch with the Bitmap tools. If you don't want to sketch in Moho, we show how to import external sketches, as well.
Preparing for Moho Design
Exercise Files - Lesson 2 - Options for Character Design.zip
Sketching with Moho's Bitmap Tools
Importing an Outside Sketch
Final Thoughts on Moho Preperation

Designing Vector Based Characters

In this chapter we will design a character from scratch using a combination of the Moho Draw and Layer tools.
What You Will Achieve With Vector Design
Exercise Files - Lesson 3 - Designing Vector Characters.zip
Drawing the Head
Preview
Drawing the Body
Drawing in Head and Body Details
Shading and Highlighting the Character
Polishing Up Character Design
Final Thoughts on Vector Character Design

Drawing Bitmap Characters

If you'd like to draw using raster tools, then Moho Pro 13 has the tools for you! Here we design a character from scratch, using the Bitmap tools while highlighting differences between raster and vector features.
Overview of Moho Bitmap Design
Exercise Files - Lesson 4 - Designing Bitmap Characters.zip
Preparing Your Workspace for Bitmap Design
Adding Character Ink Lines
Preview
Applying Flat Colors
Designing Mouth, Hand and Head Poses
Shading, Highlighting and Polishing
Final Thoughts on Bitmap Design

Designing Characters Outside of Moho

Would you like to design your characters in Photoshop or another design app? You can do that! In this chapter we show how to draw in the iPad app Procreate and bring the character to Moho.
Overview of Procreate Design Process
Lesson 5 - Designing Characters in Procreate.zip
Sketching a Character for Reference
Inking the Head
Preview
Inking the Body
Coloring the Character
Shading the Character
Highlighting the Character
Drawing Mouth Poses
Sketching Concepts for Additional Head Phases
Exporting Characters as PSDs
Final Thoughts on Procreate Design

Rigging Vector Characters

With our vector design polished and ready to go, we can draw in bones and begin the binding process. This also includes adding physics, smart action corrections, face controls and more.
Overview of Rigging Vector Characters
Lesson 6 - Rigging Vector Characters.zip
Preparing Vector Character for Rigging
Binding Vectors to Bones
Preview
Correcting Movement with Smart Actions
Adding Face Controls
Creating Head Movements with Smart Meshes
Polishing Vector Rig
Final Thoughts for Vector Rigging

Rigging Raster Characters

This chapter focuses on rigging bitmap-based characters and highlights differences compared to vector animation.
Intro to PSD Rigging
Lesson 7 - Rigging Image Characters.zip
Importing PSDs into Moho
Rigging Your Character
Preview
Implementing Dynamic Hair
Creating Face Controls
Adding Subtle Head Turns
Polishing Your Image Based Rig
Summing Up PSD Lessons

Building Reusable Actions

With your character rigged, it's time to incorporate some animation! With Moho, you can create poses and animations that can be saved, exported, imported and reused at any time. This chapter shows you how!
Intro to Creating Actions
Lesson 8 - Building Actions Library.zip
Preparing Workspace for Actions
Creating Step Actions
Building Animated Actions
Other Action Tips
Summing Up Actions

Designing 2D and 3D Backgrounds

In this chapter you will build a 3D set and use that to convert objects to 2D as well as enhance in and outside of Moho.
Intro to Moho Set Building
Lesson 9 - Constructing 2D and 3D Sets.zip
Sketching a Background
Building a 3D Room
Preview
Building 3D Props and Set Pieces
Assembling Background Pieces
Enhancing a 3D Set
Enhancing a 2D Set
Enhancing 2D Sets Outside of Moho
Other Moho Design Tips
Concluding Set Building

Bonus Chapter: Animating a Lava Filled Planet

Using 3D techniques in Moho, we can create a dynamic animated scene with lava, camera work and particle effects. This builds off the previous chapter and is more of a bonus than a full fledged chapter.
Intro to Additional Set Building
Lesson 10 - More 3D Set Work.zip
Sketching and Inking 2D Assets
Converting 2D Vectors to 3D Objects
Laying Out and Texturing Environment
Animating Scene with 3D Elements
Polishing Design and Animation
Final Thoughts on 3D Set Piece

Assembling a Moho Production

With the ability to design, rig and build sets, we can move on and create a cohesive narrative using Moho's timeline and sequencer. This chapter also includes additional animation techniques as well as how to pull off some eye catching effects!
Intro to Assembling a Moho Production
Lesson 11 - Characters.zip
Lesson 11 - Audio.zip
Lesson 11 - Effects.zip
Lesson 11 - Final Renders.zip
Lesson 11 - Props.zip
Lesson 11 - Scene_000_MASTER_FILE.zip
Lesson 11 - Scene_001_Ship_Reveal.zip
Lesson 11 - Scene_002_Torture_Chamber.zip
Lesson 11 - Scene_003_Van_Int.zip
Lesson 11 - Scene_004_Ship_Chase.zip
Lesson 11 - Scene_005_To_The_Sun.zip
Lesson 11 - Screenplay and Storyboard.zip
Lesson 11 - Ships.zip
Lesson 11 - Sets.zip
Lesson 11 - PNG Sequence Scenes.zip
Overviewing Production Materials
Laying Out Animation for Scenes 1 and 2
Lip Syncing the Characters
Animating Character Actions
Improving Character Actions
Adding Van Behind the Window
Adding Lightning Effect to Alien Gun
Adding Particle Effects
Preparing for the Third Scene
Animating Scene 3
Animating Ship Chase Shot
Polishing the Animated Shots
Editing Together Production in Moho
Editing Production Outside of Moho
Summing Up Moho Production

Bonus Chapter: Enhancing Moho Scenes with After Effects

Here we will take the lava planet animation and spruce it up using After Effects
Overview of After Effects Enhancement
Lesson 12 - Enhancing in AE.zip
Preparing Moho Assets
Enhancing Moho Assets
Adding Newly Animated Elements to Moho
Adding More After Effects Magic
Conclusion of After Effects Enhancement

Wrapping Up

Here I wrap up the course and share my final thoughts.
Final Thoughts
Preview