Objectives: Attempt to fill in some missing information for Noobs when they try the "Flag Tutorial" and best practice for starting your morphshapes.
Then add an advanced technique to combine a wheel and morph-shapes.
FILLING IN A FEW BLANKS TO THE FLAG TUTORIAL
You may have noticed that after the first you use the 'Morph Targets' function the
list of morphshapes is:
'-- none --'
'morph01'
We have the original dataset of '--none--' and a set of offset points with a shapename 'morph01'. The set of points in the Object for shapename 'morph01' are only those points that have moved and the vector of displacement for that specific point.
The set will be empty if you don't move any points.
The '--none--' shape can be edited in the point editor. Keep in mind that any of the morphshapes that contain the points you move will be moved because they are referenced off the baseline set of points which are the object. Morphshape '--none--' is displayed in the Scene Editor when all the other shapes are turned off in the timeline.
Let say you change point number 1 from (0 2 0) to (1 2.5 0) in the Point Editor. All of the "morphXX" datasets that contain point 1 will be changed by the same amount the Scene editor.
Each time you create a 'new --' Morph Target, and shapename, you are adding a new dataset of offset points called morphoffsets in your Anim8or project. Anim8or makes transition from one set of points to another in the scene editor depending upon how you sequence the order of shapenames as you to turn them on/off. Mathematically the morphshape is Baseline + SCALE * morphoffsets. The Scene Editor is used to change the scale multiplier of the morphoffsets in the Scene timeline. The flag tutorial changes values between zero and one, but you can use -2 to +2 just as well. The video displays a rod with scale values greater than one and negative values on the width.
Now remember back to the flag demo. You started with a flat flag and then modified it to make wave shapes. The '--none--' shape is your flat baseline (Object) that is displayed when all the other shape-names are scaled to zero (turned off). You could have started the flag with a single bump prior to the first time you activated the "Morph Targets + new" function. Then add/move bumps for each new morphshape. This would give you an object without a flat surface flags in your animation. Keep it simple and less work to accomplish the same action.
The Morphing function only works on meshes. Animator artists will need to use other methods to animate parametric shapes and meshes at the same time. See advanced methods below.
Review:
Several things happen in the background and in your project when you use the Morph Target function for the first time on a mesh.
a new command line for data is created > morphoffsets { "morph01" } <
and a list-name > morphtarget { name { "morph01" } } <
Processes 1: Preferred process.
1) Open the Point Editor
2) Main Menu Function > Build + Morph Targets + New ---
2.2) Rename the morphshape to something meaningful to you.
Some of us use sequence numbering because that's what the order will be
in the Scene editor. Many types of movements don't follow a sequential order, so be
creative.
3) Move points or surface(s) to the desired location(s)
4) Repeat steps 2 through 3 as needed for your object.
SLIGHTLY ADVANCED BUT SIMPLE, BONES AND MORPH
Combine a parametric shape and morphsets.
You can have a mesh and parametric shape, Wheel in this example, doing different things in the same object.
1 Create two new objects
2 Make a cylinders in each new object
2.2 Cylinder01 (Wheel) change lat: = 1. Start and end radius 8 units. Length 2. This will be a wheel. Don't convert it to a mesh for this simple experiment.
2.3 Cylinder02 (hopper) Change the lat = 2, orientation, position etc to be what you want to see in the Scene Editor.
2.3.2 Convert Cylinder02 to a mesh.
2.3.3 Morph Target + new--
2.3.3.2 Choose an end set of points and move them.
We will be using the scale function to grow and shrink the cylinder.
2.3.3.3 (OPTIONAL) Add a second morphshape to bend the cylinder or make it fat.
3 Figure Editor: add two bones to the root.
3.2 One bone for the wheel axial. (Rotation Z-axis used in demo)
3.2.2 Set Y-axis rotation to unlimited.
3.2.2 Attach the wheel object to the axial.
3.3 Position the second bone in the Y-direction (or x-direction)
3.3.2 (OPTIONAL) add rotation movement to the second bone.
3.3.3 Attach the second cylinder02, the morphset, to the fixed bone02.
4 Sequence Editor: Select the figure you just made in steps 3.
4.2 Set Frames to 48, or more.
You wont see the morpsets in the sequence editor.
4.3 Turn the "Key" green make add start adding "addkey" values for the wheel.
eg. Frame and value pairs (Frame,Value) (0,0) (11,90) (24,180) (36,270) (47,352.5)
Dont worry if your wheel jumps backward. We will fix this in the Scene editor by using the graph editor and pull the knots into a more favorable value.
4.4 (OPTIONAL) Add values to the vertical bone if you permitted it to rotate. Your morphing mesh will move with the bone in the Scene editor.
5 Scene Editor:
5.1 Bring in the Figure.
5.2 Attach the sequence to the figure. You only see bones so far.
5.3 Jump to the Object editor and back to the Scene editor.
You should see the morphsets appear in the list of things to activate of the timeline.
5.4) Now you can turn on/off each morph-shape, Change rotation speed of the wheel and move the entire object in the usual ways.
5.5 Use the Graph editor to make the wheel spin at a constant speed by moving the knots at the peaks horizontally. You can also use the graph editor to change how morphsets transition into each other by changing the knots in the same way you changed them for the wheel. See other tutorials for more instruction on using the graph editor.
