Moho - Webinar
Moho is a software package that I picked up around 2006. I needed an animation software that could animate characters. After Effects wasn’t easy, Toon Boom seemed difficult, 3D wasn’t going to happen, but Moho, previously Anime Studio, was a magical unicorn of a software package. It was quick, and cheap, and powerful. The trifecta that is near impossible to achieve, it was. I had used Moho for many projects for my freelance animation career, but not many other animators used it. Meanwhile, Moho went through some changes of management and branding through the years, and now is in the hands of its original creators. This software is used on feature films and is my secret weapon. I’m an advocate of it and I teach it in my classroom.
One instance of advocating for Moho came as an opportunity to do a Webinar with them. These 1-hour sessions featured artists demonstrating their technique and artistry over a live video conference and there was time for Q&A as well. This was a fantastic experience where I could use my teaching style of organization and presentation, while demonstrating my skill with the software. Getting it cut down to about 45 minutes was the real challenge.
Moho - Zorbatron
Another unique opportunity with Moho was the chance to create a character and scene that would be built into the next release of the software as a free sample file. When I started learning this software, there were always 4-5 samples that you could learn from that were inspirational and would push my understanding. I was given a great opportunity to step into this role and I didn’t want to disappoint, so I came up with a wrestler with a mustache and a Keytar named Zorbatron.
This final piece had to be produces differently that most videos I make. It needed to be as light of a file as possible so that it could load with the software quickly. No bitmapped images, no heave effects or transparencies, a very different experience. This is a render of the final file as a video, but you could open up the sample files and see all the keyframes, art, and effects that were built.