The Moho team has been cooking: Moho 14.5 SHOWTIME is the biggest Moho point update ever released!
AND IT IS FREE FOR ALL MOHO 14 OWNERS. 

Among its many new features, it includes big improvements to the drawing tools, a fully remade Paint Bucket, dozens of quality of life improvements, big boost in performance, new export options, Magnetic Onion skins and “Shift & Trace”, new options for Liquid Shapes, better Batch Exporter, EXR and PNG export with color profiles, improved video tracking, Brush categories and A FULLY NEW LIVE PLAYBACK MODE TO CONTROL, STREAM AND ANIMATE CHARACTERS IN REAL TIME

Download Moho 14.5 SHOWTIME here
Free update for all Moho 14 owners

Moho 14.5 allows you to control characters in real time using a webcam and game controller.

You can animate and stream characters live, use a screen or projector to create interactive animation, use them on meetings with the new Moho Virtual Webcam or work together with streaming software, such as OBS.

But it is not only about going live: Keyframes and audio can also be saved directly in the timeline, so you can use the new Live Playback Mode to quickly create and edit animation. You can even animate several characters at once or only animate one or more layers for different passes.

DO YOU KNOW HOW TO CREATE A SMART BONE? THEN YOU KNOW HOW TO CREATE A MOHO LIVE MODEL

The new input options allow users to control characters by using the gamepad thumbstick and buttons or acting with their own face.

These inputs can be easily attached to a Smart bone or Action. The system is so simple, that it takes just a few minutes to adapt a Moho character to work Live.

There is no need to learn extra software or arrange complex setups with different apps and cameras. If you know how to create a Smart Bone, you already know how to create a Moho Live Model. The entire process -from drawing, rigging, incorporating physics, and configuring controller and facial tracking, to the actual broadcast- takes place within Moho and uses the same tools you already know.

VTuber model creators are used to spending a lot of time creating their characters and are forced to use several software and complex setups to prepare, rig and stream their models.

With Moho 14.5, the entire process happens in the same place and it becomes faster, simpler and more powerful! Instead of spending weeks and even months to create a character, everyone can take advantage of Moho’s intuitive rigging system! Don’t lose time cutting your character in hundreds of pieces, and have access to every Moho feature to create VTuber models simply impossible to create anywhere else: particles, physics, blending modes, vector interpolation, boiling brushes, layer effects and so much more!

USING THE CAMERA

To use face tracking, simply create a Smart Bone and assign it to any of the camera inputs. These include head turning, head tilting, blinking, mouth closing, lip pursing, and many more. Everything is organized so that the process takes just a couple of clicks to complete.

USING THE GAMEPAD

You can also use a gamepad. Just connect any Xinput gamepad and you will be ready to go.

Any action created, including Smart Bone and regular actions, can be mapped to any button. Just click on “Select Input”, press the button you want and you are done.

Thumbsticks can also be attached to Smart Bones and there’s a new function to use the thumbstick to translate bones.

FACE OR GAMEPAD? WHY NOT USE BOTH?

You are not limited to using the Camera or the Gamepad. The possibilities expand exponentially when you use both! If you need inspiration, check the many new characters included in Moho’s Startup and Library.

IT’S ALL ABOUT ACTIONS

When creating an action, now you will see there are new options to assign a game controller button or thumbstick movement. To assign a gamepad input, simply click on “Select Input”.

This works with Smart Bones and normal actions, so real time animation can also be mixed with pre-made actions.

AND THE MICROPHONE

Included in the Live tracking options you will also find a Microphone option. This option allows you to control a Smart Bone based on the volume of the sound the microphone is receiving.

PICK THE RIGHT VERSION FOR YOU

Moho 14 owners can download Moho 14.5 SHOWTIME here
Free update for all Moho 14 owners

Owners of previous versions can upgrade with a discount on https://moho.lostmarble.com/pages/buy#upgrade

New users can pick between two versions, Moho Pro and Moho Debut:

Moho Pro 14.5 can create and stream Moho Vtuber Models and is available for purchase at $399.99, while Moho Debut 14.5 can open and stream Moho Vtuber Models and is available at $59.99.

Moho 14.5 runs on macOS 10.15 or higher and Windows 10 or higher.

Download Moho 14.5 SHOWTIME here
Free update for all Moho 14 owners

DRAWING THAT FEELS GOOD

There’s much more than Live Playback in Moho 14.5: The drawing tools have been massively improved.

The Freehand tool uses new algorithms for smoother pen tracking, point reduction, curve smoothing and sharp corners, providing a much nicer experience to artists. The Blob Brush has also been improved and The Paint Bucket has been fully remade, offering more options and better results.

All these changes provide more reliable tools for sketching, cleanup and filling. 

TRIMMING DANGLING TAILS

The new Freehand tool includes a new option to trim dangling tails. This option is very useful to draw, remove sections and more. And since it also welds the points, it makes the lines more suitable for using the Paint bucket.

To trim dangling tails, just hold <ctrl> or <Cmd> and drag the pen over the lines you want to remove.

The Trim option is also available for the Delete Edge tool. 

DRAWING STRAIGHT LINES

When using the Freehand tool, hold <Shift> to draw straight lines. If you are close to an increment of 45 degrees, they will snap to that angle. 

FULLY REMADE PAINT BUCKET

The Paint Bucket tool has been redesigned and now there are three distinct modes: Vector, Trace and Recolor.

This change makes it more predictable what the tool is going to do each time.

Vector mode:

The new Vector mode will never create new points. It will try to create a shape based on the points that are already on the layer.

There are several improvements that make the vector mode smarter. It automatically welds curves to make a fillable shape and uses several rules to help create valid shapes, even in scenarios where it wasn’t possible in previous versions.

The Vector Mode also includes the new Curve Extension option.

This option is useful when two lines are very close together but don’t overlap. With Curve Extension, the ends of the lines on the layer are temporarily extended, helping to close gaps and create the desired shape.

Trace mode:

The Trace mode works closer to a bitmap software Paint Bucket. It creates a new shape and vectors based on what is visible on the layer or canvas.

Trace mode also includes an option to consider All Layers. When this option is on, every layer visible on the canvas, including images or videos, can be used to create the new vector shape.

Recolor mode:

This mode doesn’t create new shapes nor vectors, but replaces the current color of a shape with a new one, providing a quick way to recolor already created shapes.

Download Moho 14.5 SHOWTIME here
Free update for all Moho 14 owners

NEW REVERSE OPTION FOR THE MAGNET TOOL

The magnet tool can now “reverse move” points. Hold the shift key to drag points back towards their original frame 0 positions.
This is specially useful to tone down movement on meshes or normal vectors without the need of resetting every position.

THE SELECT POINTS TOOL NOW ALSO SELECTS SHAPES

A major change is coming with version 14.5 that will make life easier for many animators! In the past, there was a clear differentiation between selecting points versus selecting shapes and users needed to use different tools depending on what they needed.
Although the  logic behind this behavior is related to Moho’s unique flexibility with vectors, this caused some confusion to new users or artists used to other vector software, where that distinction doesn’t exist.

With 14.5, when you select all the points related to one or more shapes, then those shapes are also selected.

This also works with Ctrl/Cmd+A, Tab to select connected, clicking on a vector line to Select all the related points, clicking on the fill to select, etc.

The Select Shape tool still works as before and some individual shapes can only be selected with this tool. For example, if you have two shapes sharing the exact same points or if you want to create a Liquid Shape group, but for most of the work with points and shapes, the Select Points tool will do the work.

CATEGORIES FOR CUSTOM BRUSHES

With Moho 14.0 the team put a huge emphasis on brushes, line boil and natural looking results. The inclusion of Color Drift in Moho 14.3 MANTIS SHRIMP made Moho’s unique vector brushes even more powerful and artists all over the world started to download brushes packs and create their own brushes.

In order to make it easier to organize and find custom brushes, Moho 14.5 now allows users to create categories for them: Simply go to the Brushes section in the User Custom Content Folder, create folders and organize your brushes in any way you want. Once you are done, you can press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+L on Windows or Cmd+Shift+Alt+L to refresh the software and you will see all your categories in the Brush window.

Download Moho 14.5 SHOWTIME here
Free update for all Moho 14 owners

HERE IS SOME LOVE FOR THE ONION SKINS

Better performance and Improved drawing and filling tools also make Frame by frame animation easier and more comfortable. To make this even better, the team also added new options for the Onion Skins: Opacity controls for past and future, smarter positioning with Magnetic Onion Skins and Shift & Trace.

OPACITY FOR ONION SKINS

With Moho 14.5, now users can define the color for past and future onion skins and also the opacity for them. This gives artists total control on how subtle or visible onion skins will look.

SHIFT & TRACE

The Pan/Zoom/Rotate workspace tools can now also transform Onion Skins separately from the workspace to facilitate tracing.

With the Workspace Pan tool: hold Alt and drag the mouse to Pan past onion skins. Hold Ctrl/Cmd to pan future onion skins.
Hold Shift+Alt to rotate past onion skins. Hold Shift+Ctrl/Cmd to rotate future onion skins.

With the Workspace Zoom tool: hold Alt and drag the mouse to zoom past onion skins. Hold Ctrl/Cmd to zoom future onion skins

With the Workspace Rotate tool: hold Alt and drag the mouse to rotate past onion skins. Hold Ctrl/Cmd to rotate future onion skins.
The rotation pivot will always be on the center of the screen and it’s indicated with a green dot. Before rotating the onion skins, use the Pan tool (or drag right click or hold space bar and drag the mouse) to define which part of the artwork should be on the pivot.
To Reset the position, rotation and zoom of the Onion Skins, simply go to the Onion Skins menu on the Timeline and click on “Reset Placement”.

MAGNETIC ONION SKINS

The new Magnetic onion skins are adjusted automatically based on neighboring keyframes.
When you move the cursor through the animation, the onion skins will automatically be shown over the next/previous keyframes. 

LAYERS WINDOW IMPROVEMENTS

The Layers window has also received some quality of life improvements.

NEW “IS ANIMATED” LAYER FILTER

The new “Is Animated” filter in the Layers panel is a little but extremely useful new feature. When selected, only layers that have animation will be shown in the Layers palette.

This is particularly useful when working with files created by someone else or doing retakes.
Instead of navigating dozens or hundreds of layers, you can only see the ones relevant for the animation.

This filter is also very useful to edit Smart Bones actions, since you will see only the important layers for each one.

IMPROVED MULTIPLE LAYER SELECTION

- If you Shift or Ctrl-click a layer, it gets added to the selection, but the previous primary selected layer does not change.
- If you Alt-click a layer that is part of a multi-selection, it becomes the primary selected layer.
- If you Ctrl-click a layer that is part of a multi-selection and it is also the primary selection, then a new primary selected layer gets assigned.

Download Moho 14.5 SHOWTIME here
Free update for all Moho 14 owners

IMPROVED VIDEO TRACKING

The video tracking has been updated and now it’s way more accurate, faster and it also works with Image sequences.

There’s a new Face tracking option that can track a face in a video and creates three layers:
Facial bones: It generates a bone layer with many pin bones around covering the face attributes
Facial Smart Bones: Creates a bone layer with Smart Bones and actions already assigned to face tracking actions.
Facial Mesh: Creates a vector layer with a triangulated mesh for the face
These layers could be used to apply the movement to a different character.

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS

Moho 14.5 comes with a big performance boost. Scenes using Reference layers, especially heavy ones, now work much faster and a Moho file saved in 14.5 can become much lighter.
This improvement also affects Undo and Redo, which are faster too. If you have a heavy file using reference layers, try saving a copy using 14.5 to see the difference.
Video playback has also been improved for some formats. 

NEW FEATURES FOR EXPORTING

There are several improvements coming with exporting animation, including a new MP4 option now compatible with browsers, new image export formats, color profiles and more.

NEW MP4 FORMAT COMPATIBLE WITH BROWSERS AND SOCIAL MEDIA

This one is going to make people on Discord and social media happier: Moho 14.5 comes with a new MP4/H.264 default export format. This new format works for social media, Discord and other platforms. We know it was tricky to share videos with previous Moho versions, now that’s a problem of the past!

COLOR PROFILES FOR PNG AND EXR EXPORT

Moho 14.5 now can import and export EXR images and PNG sequences can be exported with different color profiles
PNG: If you select Image sequence and PNG, you will see the PNG options in the export dialog, there you can define the color profile to Display P3, sRGB or None.

EXR: If you select Image sequence and PNG, you will see the PNG options in the export dialog, there you can define the Bit depth: 16-bit (half float) or 32-bit (float); the Color Space: Linear Rec.709 (sRGB primaries), Linear P3-D65, Linear Rec.2020, sRGB (gamma-encoded) or ACEScg; and the Compression: None, ZIP, PIZ, PXR24 (lossy) or B44 (lossy).

ON THE COMMAND LINE:

EXR: Use -exr with a quoted option string, e.g. -exr “bitdepth 16 colorspace rec709 compression zip”. Color spaces: rec709, p3, rec2020, srgb, acescg. Compression: none, zip, piz, pxr24, b44.

PNG: Use -pngprofile <p3|srgb|none>. The older -noprofile option still works as an alias for -pngprofile none.

IMPROVEMENTS TO THE MOHO EXPORTER (BATCH EXPORTER)

The batch exporter also received some extra touches:
Finished items are not removed from the window. They stay visible and show their status (Running, Done, Failed) in case you’d like to go get a coffee and check back later.

This also means that after you run the batch job, you can change render settings and run the whole batch again.

Frame Rate

Frame rate now supports 3 decimal places in frame rate text fields (for example, 23.976).

Download Moho 14.5 SHOWTIME here
Free update for all Moho 14 owners

 

IMPROVEMENTS TO LIQUID SHAPES

Liquid Shapes are more powerful and flexible in Moho 14.5:
You can hide curve segments in liquid shapes using the Hide Edge tool
Stroke-only shapes can now be part of a liquid shape (by the nature of Liquid shapes, this feature only works with plain vector strokes)
Stroke Exposure works together with curves that are part of a Liquid Shape

BETTER SVG EXPORT

Moho 14.5 does a better job handling variable-width strokes and liquid shapes in SVG export.

ARE YOU A LINUX USER?

Although Moho is a Windows and macOS application and it doesn't officially support Linux, 14.5 SHOWTIME has been updated to allow users to run Moho on Linux using a compatibility layer, such as Wine, Proton or Lutris.

Our team was even able to run Moho, with both camera and gamepad support on a Steam Deck.

AND EVEN MORE

Moho 14.5 SHOWTIME also includes many fixes and quality of life improvements. And, of course, Moho has no generative AI, its license is perpetual and it is developed by humans with the artists in mind.

Moho 14.5 SHOWTIME: Design, rig and animate characters live.
All the power of Moho, now live.

Download Moho 14.5 SHOWTIME here
Free update for all Moho 14 owners