Modeler

280MorphLightWave 10 - ModelerNew EndomorphWhat is an Endomorph?Sometimes, when you are changing the shape of your objects inLayout, you’ll find that the deformations you can get with bonesjust aren’t accurate enough. Fortunately, you can also force anobject to change its shape into the shape of another object. Thisis called morphing. Morphing gives you total control, since youcan manually place all the points exactly where you want them.You can use morphing to help create character facial expressions,to make a flower bloom, to transform a boat into a car, and theninto a rocket; anything you want to do, as long as both objectshave the same point count and order.The different states, or poses, of a morph are generally referredto as morph targets. They are made using morph maps, whichare a form of Vertex Maps that define the different positions forthe points. The original state of the object is known as the Base.The map is known as an Endomorph, and is incorporated rightinto the Object file, like any other VMap. If you copy and paste theobject, all its morphs are copied and pasted right along with it.When you make a morph, you can push and pull the pointsaround, and place them anywhere you like. However, although it’spossible to add or subtract geometry within a morph, it’s stronglyrecommended that you refrain from doing so, and make all suchmodifications to the Base object instead. Otherwise, you can endup with incorrect point orders.This command allows you to create a new Endomorph, orMorph Target.How do I use this tool?When you click on the command, a dialog box will open that’s notunlike the dialog you get when you click on W in the Vmap Barand choose (new) from the drop down menu.NameEnter a name for your new morph in the Name field, or choosean existing name from the drop down menu. The menu containsall the names of all the Morph Maps used during the currentsession, whether or not the objects remain open, and whether ornot the maps have any points assigned to them.It’s suggested that you name your morph using the group.poseformat; like Eyes.Open or Mouth.Smile. That will cause the morphto appear on the same tab with all the other poses in that groupwhen you use Morph Mixer in Layout.TypeChoose the Type for the new morph. Relative targets record pointdisplacement relative to the base object, so they are affectedwhen the base object moves. Absolute targets are not affectedby positional changes to the base object, although they do reflectchanges to the number of points in the object.Click OK to create the new Endomorph, and start to move thepoints around. (If you don’t, and you change the map shown in theVmap Bar, the new Endomorph will vanish. )