Motionforge Documentation

System Requirements

Installation

Download and run MotionforgeSetup.exe from the download page. The installer registers the .mfa file association so you can double-click project files to open them directly.

Creating Your First Project

1. Launch Motionforge.
2. Go to File > New or press Ctrl+N.
3. Set canvas dimensions, FPS, and total frames in the New Project dialog.
4. Start drawing with the Pen Tool (P) or Pencil Tool (N).
5. Save your project with Ctrl+S — files are saved as .mfa.

Edit Mode vs. Animate Mode

Motionforge operates in two modes, toggled with Tab:

Main Panels

Docking & Workspaces

All panels support ImGui docking — drag panel tabs to rearrange, stack, or float them. Three built-in workspace layouts:

• General — Balanced layout for drawing and animation
• Animation — Timeline and Graph Editor prominent
• Minimal — Simplified layout with fewer panels

Access workspaces via Window > Workspace. You can also save and load custom workspaces.

Multi-Document Support

Motionforge supports tabbed documents. Each open project gets its own tab above the viewport with independent viewport state (pan, zoom). An asterisk (*) indicates unsaved changes.

Select Tool (V)

Click to select shapes and layers. Supports multi-selection with Shift+Click and Ctrl+Click. Drag to move selected objects.

Options: Auto-select, Select sub-layer, Lock children.

Transform Tool (Q)

Move, rotate, and scale selected objects using a bounding box gizmo with corner and edge handles.

Options: Center pivot, Transform separately, Lock children.

Pen Tool (P)

Create precise bezier paths by clicking to place points. Click-drag to create smooth curves with control handles. Works like the Pen Tool in Adobe Illustrator or Affinity Designer.

Options: Smooth/Sharp toggle, Close path.

Node Tool (A)

Edit individual vertices, handles, and segments of vector paths.

• Click to select vertices, Shift+Click for multi-select
• Drag vertices to reposition, drag control handles to adjust curves
• Alt+Drag handles to break/create independent handle pairs
• Drag edges to subdivide and reshape segments
• Marquee select for multiple vertices
• Right-click: delete point, toggle smooth/sharp, break path

Pencil Tool (N)

Freehand drawing tool that creates smooth vector paths. Draw naturally and the tool automatically fits bezier curves to your stroke.

Options: Smoothing slider (higher = smoother, fewer points).

Brush Tool (D)

Variable-width drawing tool optimized for tablet use. Creates strokes on a Drawing Layer with pressure-sensitive width variation.

• Pressure sensitivity (width varies with pen pressure)
• Tilt support (Windows Ink / tablet)
• Per-frame stroke storage (frame-by-frame animation)
• Brush presets: Round, Flat, Calligraphy, Marker

Options: Brush preset, Base width (1–100 px), Opacity (0–100%), Eraser toggle, Pressure sensitivity toggle.

Eyedropper Tool (I)

Left-click to pick fill color. Shift+Left-click to pick stroke color.

Gradient Tool (G)

Edit gradient fill start/end points and direction directly on the canvas. Drag to define the gradient vector for linear gradients, or center/radius for radial gradients.

Shape Tools (M — cycles through all)

Four parametric shape tools that cycle with the M key:

• Rectangle — Click-drag to create. Hold Shift for squares.
• Ellipse — Click-drag to create. Hold Shift for circles.
• Polygon — Regular N-sided polygons. Set side count in Tool Options.
• Star — Configurable point count and inner radius ratio.

Bone Tool (B)

Create and edit FK/IK bone skeletons. Click to place bone joints, establishing parent-child chains.

• Click on existing bone to set as parent, then click to create child bone
• Drag bone tips to adjust length and angle
• Right-click for bone properties (color, constraints, IK settings)

Weight Paint Tool (W)

Bind vertices to bones for skeletal deformation. Click vertices while a bone is selected to toggle binding. Visual feedback shows bound vertices highlighted.

Camera Tool (C)

Pan and zoom the camera. In Animate Mode, camera movements are recorded as keyframes for camera animation.

Hand Tool (H) & Rotate View Tool (R)

Hand: Pan the viewport without affecting objects. Rotate View: Rotate the canvas for comfortable drawing angles — does not affect the actual scene.

Layer Types

Motionforge uses a hierarchical layer system with 9 specialized types:

Common Layer Properties

Layer Operations

• Add: Right-click in Layers panel or + button. Choose type.
• Delete: Delete key or context menu.
• Duplicate: Ctrl+D or context menu.
• Group / Ungroup: Ctrl+G / Ctrl+Shift+G
• Reorder: Drag-drop in Layers panel.
• Nest: Drag a layer onto another to make it a child.
• Order: Send to Back, Back One, Forward One, Send to Front (Toolbar or Object > Order).

Bezier Paths

All vector shapes are cubic bezier paths. Each path consists of bezier points connected by curved or straight segments.

Path Operations

• Add point: Click on a path segment with the Pen Tool
• Delete point: Select with Node Tool, right-click > Delete
• Smooth/Sharp: Right-click vertex > Toggle Smooth
• Break path: Right-click on a point in a closed path to open it
• Close path: Tool Options button or connect to the first point

Path Morphing

Vector shapes support vertex keyframes — animate the path shape over time. Points interpolate between keyframe positions using the selected easing curve, enabling smooth shape morphing animations.

Fill & Stroke

Style Keyframes: Fill color, stroke color, and stroke width can all be animated via Style Keyframes. Enable the Style channel in Edit > Add Keyframe Channels.

Color Palette

The Palette Panel uses a Toon Boom-style workflow: left-click to set fill, right-click to set stroke, drag-drop onto a shape to apply.

Timeline

The Timeline displays a frame grid with rows for each layer and columns for each frame.

• Play/Stop: Space
• Previous/Next Frame: Arrow keys
• First/Last Frame: Home / End
• Frame scrubbing: Click-drag on the frame ruler

Features: keyframe diamonds per channel (color-coded), sub-tracks for bone angles and switch variants, in/out points for playback range, FPS display.

Keyframe Channels

Each layer supports up to 10 independent animation channels:

Enable/disable channels via Edit > Add Keyframe Channels and Edit > Auto-Key Channels.

Easing & Interpolation

9 built-in easing presets plus a fully customizable bezier curve:

The Easing Panel provides a visual curve editor. The Graph Editor shows property curves over time.

Onion Skin

Shows ghost images of neighboring frames for reference while animating.

• Frame offsets (e.g., ±1, ±2, ±3 frames)
• Before/after colors (customizable)
• Opacity per onion frame
• Per-layer mode: Inherit, On, Off

Toggle with O or the onion skin icon in the Timeline.

Creating Bones

1. Switch to Edit Mode (Tab)
2. Select the Bone Tool (B)
3. Click to place the root bone
4. Click on an existing bone joint, then click elsewhere to create a child bone
5. Build your skeleton hierarchy

Forward Kinematics (FK)

Rotate individual bones to pose characters. Each bone has:

Inverse Kinematics (IK)

CCD (Cyclic Coordinate Descent) solver for natural character posing.

• Target Bone — Which bone is the IK target (circular indicator)
• IK Strength — Blend between FK and IK (0 = pure FK, 1 = pure IK)
• Target Position — Keyframeable X, Y for the IK target
• Stretch — Min/max stretch constraints for rubber-band effects
• Ignore IK — Per-bone flag to exclude from IK chain

Vertex Binding

Bind shape vertices to bones so they deform with the skeleton:

1. Select the Weight Paint Tool (W)
2. Select a bone in the viewport
3. Click vertices on shapes to bind/unbind them
4. Bound vertices follow the bone's rotation and position

Bindings are layer ID-based, ensuring stability when layers are reordered or grouped.

Bone Dynamics

Add secondary motion (jiggle, follow-through) to bones. Great for hair, tails, accessories, and cloth.

Deformation Pipeline

Three phases: 1) computeBoneAngles() — FK/IK solver computes final rotations. 2) applySmartActions() — Smart Bone overrides modify vertex positions. 3) applyBoneVertexDeform() — World-space vertex deformation applied to bound shapes.

Concept

Smart Bones (inspired by Moho Pro) map a single bone's rotation angle to an action — a set of keyframed vertex positions across multiple layers. As you rotate the bone, the action interpolates between keyframes, producing complex synchronized deformations.

Use cases: Facial expressions, hand poses, mechanical linkages.

Creating Smart Actions

1. Select a bone in Edit Mode
2. Open the Actions Panel
3. Create a new action
4. Set action frames at specific bone angles (e.g., −45°, 0°, +45°)
5. At each action frame, adjust vertices on target layers
6. The Smart Bone now drives those vertex changes when rotated

Action Panel

Shows: list of actions for the selected bone, dial slider to preview angle-to-action mapping, action frame thumbnails, and add/remove action frame controls.

Boolean Operations

Non-destructive vector booleans via the Clipper2 library:

Usage: Select shapes, group them (Ctrl+G), set boolean mode via Toolbar, Object > Boolean, or Properties Panel.

Liquid Shape Blend: Boolean groups support a blend radius (0–500 px) for smooth organic transitions between shapes — like metaballs or liquid effects.

Camera & Parallax

The Camera layer controls the viewport camera. Animate position, zoom (via scale.x), and rotation for cinematic movements.

Parallax / Z-Depth: Each layer has a Z-Depth property (0–100). When the camera pans, layers shift proportionally — Z-Depth 0 is closest (moves most), 100 is farthest (moves least).

Mesh Warp

Moho-style vector-driven image warping using Delaunay triangulation:

1. Add a Mesh Layer and place children (images or vector shapes)
2. Define boundary/cage points around the content
3. Motionforge auto-triangulates using Delaunay triangulation
4. Each triangle applies affine texture mapping (BLPattern)

In Edit Mode: adjust cage points. In Animate Mode: drag points to deform — keyframes are created with auto-key.

SVG Import

Import SVG vector files via File > Import or paste from clipboard. SVG paths (M, L, C, Z commands) are converted to Motionforge vector shapes with visual feedback overlay.

Alignment, Distribution & Transform

Align: Left Edge, H-Center, Right Edge, Top Edge, V-Center, Bottom Edge. Distribute: Even spacing across selected shapes. Spacing: Space Horizontally / Vertically.

Transform: Flip Horizontal/Vertical, Rotate Left/Right 90° (Toolbar buttons).

All alignment operations work in world-space with accurate bezier bounding box computation.

PNG Sequence

Exports each frame as a numbered PNG file (e.g., frame_0001.png). Configure output directory, frame range, and canvas dimensions.

Sprite Sheet

All frames packed into a single PNG grid image. Auto-calculated columns (sqrt of frame count). Set output file and frame range.

Animated GIF

Export as animated GIF with configurable frame range and frame delay (milliseconds).

Video Export

Exports video via FFmpeg pipe rendering:

Appearance & Grid

Access via File > Preferences or Ctrl+,.

Project Defaults

File Format

Projects are saved as .mfa files — ZIP archives containing a JSON manifest (scene hierarchy, layer data, animation keyframes) and binary assets (imported images). Backward compatible with legacy .animo files.

Localization

Motionforge is fully localized in 8 languages: English, Turkish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, French, Japanese. Switch in Preferences.

Tools

File

Edit

Animation

Snapping

Toggle snapping with the toolbar snap button. Snap types: Grid (snap to grid intersections), Vertex (snap to nearby vertices), Line (snap to shape edges).

All shortcuts can be rebound in Preferences > Shortcuts.