Managing Movements with Smart Bones in Anime Studio Pro
If you're already using the latest version of Anime Studio Pro, now simply known as Moho, you'll be glad to know that the smart bones system has improved tremendously compared to 9.5. This makes it much easier to create complex animations, like the one you mention: making a character in semi-profile move the leg forward and then forward without one interfering with the other.
In current Moho, the key is still handling keyframes well, but with much more intuitive tools. You can create custom Smart Bones that control specific rotations, and thanks to the improved Motion Graph, you can edit motion curves with more precision to prevent one movement from overwriting or jumping the previous pose.
To achieve this, set a keyframe that defines the leg forward and, just before changing the movement, create another identical keyframe to hold that pose. Then animate the forward displacement in the following frames. This way, Moho understands that it must maintain a stable pose before transitioning and doesn't mix movements that cancel each other out.
Additionally, the latest version allows you to save and reuse cycles or movements (for example, walking or trotting) as presets, which speeds up your workflow for animations with smart bones.
Practical Recommendations
- Use Smart Bones to control specific rotations without affecting other parts of the rig.
- Take advantage of the Motion Graph to smooth or customize transitions between poses.
- Create strategic keyframes to lock poses before making new movements.
- Save motion cycles to easily reuse them in other projects.
- Update to the latest version to enjoy improvements in interface and stability.
And remember that although the software advances, the secret remains the same: patience with keyframes and don't try to move the character while having coffee. At least, until you finish the animation ☕.