Day 20 / 38 – Moho

Liquid shapes today in Moho. Let’s dig right in.

Things to Know:

✔ Liquid Shapes

Draw the Shape

1. Use the Draw Shape Tool to create a circle.
2. Adjust the bezier handles to reshape the circle into a flame shape.
3. Use the Draw Shape Tool to create a star and place it at the top of the flame.
4. Select the shape using the Select Shape Tool.
   • In the tool options, you have Normal, Add, Subtract, or Clip and the percentage of Blend you would like to add.

Setting up Animation

1. Right-click on Layer_1 and choose Group with Selection.
2. Right-click on the new Group Layer and select Convert to Bone.
3. Right-click on the shape layer, go to Quick Settings, and enable Paths (this allows you to see all shape paths while on the bone layer).
4. Use the Add Bone Tool to add a vertical bone to each star, making sure they are independent and not connected.
5. Select the top-left bone and rename it ROTATION.
6. Select all bones and set their bone strength to 0.
7. In the Layers Panel, select your shape layer and begin binding points:
   • Select a bone first.
   • Choose the Bind Points Tool.
   • Click on the bone, then bind the desired points using the tool options.

Animate

1. On the Bone Layer, go to frame 72 and click + drag the first star’s bone counterclockwise.
2. Go back to frame 1, copy the zero keyframe, right-click it, and change it to Linear.
3. Return to frame 72 and set the keyframe to Cycle (starting at frame 1).
4. Select the other three bones. In Bone Constraints, under Control Bones (Angle), choose the ROTATION bone so they follow the first shape.
5. Select the two bones on the right. In Bone Constraints, set their rotation to -100 so they mirror the motion.

CTL + F = create a “Freeze Pose”

Animate Vector Points

1. In the Layers panel, select the shape and make sure the top-right star point is active.
2. Move to frame 72 on the timeline.
3. Press Ctrl + F to create a freeze keyframe.
4. Select the final keyframes and enable cycling (loop them back to the start).
5. Now you can adjust individual points—your changes will cycle smoothly along with the rest of the animation.

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Day 20 — Afterthoughts

These were my (not so much) flames of fire, but the liquid motion is there, and I’m counting that. I always love the motion

I’ll be honest: I’m starting to feel ready to move beyond vectors. Not because they’re useless, but because there were several steps in this process where I followed along, got the result (sort of), but didn’t completely understand why it worked, or more importantly how I’d apply the same ideas in a different project. That gap is starting to matter more to me.

Motivation is still high. Inspiration… not as much. But the important thing is to keep moving, keep experimenting, and trust that clarity will catch up with repetition (I think).

Onward. 🔥 Nik