u/Top_Evening_2009

I have a group with hair, where the hair shine is a separate layer and is masked by a mask. The outline is also separate, and it’s a frame-by-frame layer (I want to be able to redraw its shape so it looks like frame-by-frame animation, especially when the hair is moving).

I just figured out how to snap points, and I snapped the main hair shape layer to the bone chain—it works great, but how do I snap the rest of the parts so they’re controlled just as precisely by this chain?

I realize this is all too complicated, but ideally, this is exactly the setup I need. If it can be achieved (by any means, even if they’re complicated or non-standard), I’ll try to do it. A simpler solution will only work if that is absolutely impossible.

I’ve tried searching for tutorials online and asking AI, but I haven’t had any luck—I just don’t understand how to do it. Can anyone help me? This is basically my first time using a bone chain, and I’m not very good at using bones in general yet. Is there anyone who just knows what to click and which functions to use to achieve this?

If I turn off all layers except one, I can draw on that single layer for a while—even with brushes displayed—without any lag at all. But turning off ALL my layers every time takes too long and is too complicated.

Is there a way to make the program simply display all inactive layers without actually loading them? Or to show only the layer you’re drawing on, hiding all the others? That wouldn’t be very convenient either, because you wouldn’t be able to see what you’re drawing on top of, but… At least it’s something.

Because right now, my work is plagued by insane lag—I can’t even move the canvas without it freezing, and even drawing a straight line from one point to another is very difficult and causes my laptop to freeze, let alone actually drawing.

There isn't a single part of my character that doesn't require a mask. Almost everything I draw needs to have edges where the brush strokes are visible—sharp on one side and gradually fading on the other. I create this effect using brushes rather than the “gradient” shape effect because I want everything to look like a hand-drawn illustration with texture. But to achieve this effect, I constantly have to create an entire group and adjust the mask. Taken together, these masks look terrible—like a bunch of spots through which you can’t see anything.

I can’t work like this anymore; half my time is spent just trying to figure out which part belongs to what. These are far from all the problems I run into—there are too many to even describe them all.

Are there any plugins or other methods to simply add a detail that functions as a mask, but one that masks directly on the same layer? (I’m using Moho 13.5, which doesn’t have Liquid Shapes.)

I realize that it’s probably not possible to do this directly, but maybe it could be done by building some kind of special structure?

The thing is, you can’t use the “texture” function normally (as an effect for a shape) in Moho (at least in my version 13.5). 1 — You can’t directly change the texture’s color without workarounds. 2 — You can’t properly adjust the texture’s scale; it keeps stretching randomly on its own, and there’s no way (except by manually editing each shape) to change this.

So I achieve the effect I want (an outline with a slightly porous and uneven texture) by placing a subtraction mask over the outline layer, which essentially erases some parts of it and creates the texture.

But to do this, I have to create a separate group with a mask for every outline. So I’m starting to wonder if there’s a way to simply select ALL the layers with outlines at once and apply a single mask exclusively to them, without affecting the other layers? Considering that they’re each in their own separate folder.

Right now, I have two options, but neither of them sounds very good:

1 (sounds good, but it won’t work in my case, and I don’t know if it would work at all) The entire object is placed inside a group with a mask, and the mask is disabled for all layers except the outline. It won’t work because if I set “Don’t mask this layer” on a part that’s already inside another mask, that part will stop being masked by the other mask it’s in. (And if not, it turns out that the mask with the outline texture will also apply to this layer, which I don’t need—I want the outline texture to affect ONLY the outline.)

2: (This will only work if there is a way to make objects in one folder replicate or reference the movement of another.

1. Copy the entire character.
2. Delete or hide all layers except the outline.
3. Make these layers replicate the outline’s movement from the first version. However, because they are separated and grouped into a separate folder, you can apply a single mask to that folder all at once.)

I'm not sure how clearly I've explained this, because I'm writing through a translator, and it's generally difficult for me to explain this even without one.

If anyone understands what I mean, maybe you know if this will work, and if there are any other ways to do it? For example, scripts, or maybe some functions I'm not aware of yet

To simply pick a brush that works properly, you need to:

1. Create a new style.
2. Copy this style.
3. Draw a separate line.
4. Select it using a specific shape selection tool.
5. Apply this style to it.

You have to do all this just to literally select a brush and draw with it. You can’t just click on a style and draw. Just pick a color, just pick a brush—no, you have to go through a whole ritual to do that. And I know this isn’t raster drawing. But I don’t understand how that prevents you from simply clicking on a style and drawing with the brush selected in it, and easily switching between different brushes. The program has brushes that make everything look less like “vector” art and more like artistic, textured drawing with a pencil or paints, and that’s what almost all of my work is based on.

Upgrading to version 14, which is supposedly better for drawing, is way too expensive for me; I’m still on version 13.5.

And yes, simply importing raster images sounds like a good idea, but it’s not. Properly transforming and animating raster layers is a thousand times more problematic than dealing with the incredibly clunky vector drawing tools, and I need to be able to fully animate and reshape every single element, adjust the stroke weight, and everything else.

I feel like I’m missing something, and that it’s actually much faster. Maybe there are at least some plugins for decent drawing or ways to make it faster and more convenient?

(I wanted to ask on LocalLLaMA, but I don't have enough karma) My laptop definitely doesn’t have enough power for local AI to run smoothly and quickly. I don't know if this is the most obvious idea or I don't know if this is the most obvious idea or something strange, but the AI suggested it to me. it told me that the best and most cost-effective option would be to buy a Razer Core X with an NVIDIA RTX 4060 Ti (16 GB) graphics card separately, and connect them to the laptop via a 1-meter Thunderbolt 4 (40 Gbps) cable

It sounds pretty logical—you buy the extra power your laptop is missing separately and just plug it in. I just wanted to hear the opinions of real people who know what they’re talking about before I actually go through with this, because AI loves to lie and give illogical advice. What do you think, is this a good idea?

(The main features I need from the AI: I don’t need it to generate photos or videos, write code, or provide any kind of reference information about facts that I can find on the regular internet. The most important thing for me is that it can think clearly, grasp the gist of an idea, and basically have a conversation. Maybe it could write some stories or reflect on things. Basically, I want to be able to just talk to it and figure things out. And, of course, no censorship or security filters.

The only reason I’ve never used AI seriously and couldn’t trust it with practically any important information was that it’s all connected to the internet and isn’t confidential at all. But recently I learned that the concept of local AI actually exists, and now I definitely need it.

I already have a few models, but for them to work properly without the internet, they clearly need more resources than my laptop has.

(I know that most people do this on a computer, but first of all, buying both a laptop and a computer is too expensive for me, and second, a computer is so inconvenient for me that I probably won’t even turn it on. I’ve only ever used phones my whole life, and a laptop is the closest thing I have to something convenient, at least similar to a tablet.)

I honestly can't figure out how to do this. The fill color doesn't affect it at all—only its transparency does. The texture itself has no colors; it has transparent areas and is saved in PNG format. I've tried making it black, gray, white... I’ve been trying to figure this out with Google’s AI for a long time, but it just keeps suggesting I use some “tint” checkbox in the texture settings, which I don’t even have. Plus, it first told me the texture had to be white, then that it had to be gray... In the end, none of that works. Is this even possible? Without workarounds like “filling the entire layer with color.” Sure, a lot of things in Moho work weirdly, but this sounds like the most basic feature. Or am I supposed to make 1000 textures with every color variation I need, instead of just picking the one I want? If anyone knows, please help