Moho, the software used to create Phungus & Mowld, and which is widely used in the animation industry as “secret weapon” has been in limbo for years. Now the original creator and a seasoned animator have raised money and bought the software back.

Moho is a very powerful application for “puppet” animation using bones and inverse kinematics for smooth movement. AFAIK Moho was the first 2D animation to use bones (a concept from 3D animation software) to deform and animate 2D vector graphics starting in the late 90s. For years the development has been stagnant an in limbo with the publisher Smith Micro showing little interest in going anywhere with several of its design software titles.

In an unexpected move the original creator of Moho, Mike Clifton, teamed up with Victor Paredes, supervisor of Moho animation at Cartoon Saloon and former Moho Product Manager and bought the software back. I have high hopes for the future of Moho and I am also relieved to know, I will be able to keep on producing Phungus & Mowld with this marble of a software. I couldn’t imagine using any other tool.