I'm looking for a program that can morph 1 figure into another if they have different vertex counts. Normally both the source figure, and the target figure have to have the same vertex counts.

All I found was this outdated post so far, and unable to find the programs
in question.

Jynks
01-30-2004, 08:34 AM
Hi, I have a problem where I need to morph a object from one 2 another. The problem is that the 2nd morph target's vertex's DO NOT have the same vertex numbering, so the morph targets "EXPLODE" when morphing.

I have found a number of threads on this and there don't seam to be any solution in them I could find apart from a maxscript

http://www.cyberkreations.com/kreationsedge/index.php?url=storage/cdk
Morpheus 0.52 (Y2K Update) release creates morph targets for meshes of similar topology regardless of vertex/face counts. I used this script to match the Shorty mesh to another mesh with a vastly different vertex count/order. Notice how some meshes contain teeth while others don't, only Morpheus makes it possible to make impossible morphs! This is the perfect companion for Ishani's Mix or MAX R3's built-in Morpher plugin. Updated 2-4-00. Download Free, Full Version 120 KB.

Unfortunately this script doesn't seam to work (let me know if it dose ok)

Dose anyone have a solution?

The data is for a real-time game engine so partial morphing is a no go.

If you know one even if it uses a 3rd party plugin I am sure the boss will spring for it.

Thanks for your time.
   
EricChadwick
01-30-2004, 03:36 PM
Morpheus was created for max3, and I've never been able to contact the author for an update.

Anyhow, even if it did work in max 5 or 6, it wouldn't work with your game. You need the vertex order to be identical for use in a game. Remodel the target by hand, snapping vertices to the messed up model.

Verty is a cool little script (http://www.boutin.de/english/maxscript/verty/) that helps if you make morph targets but then need to add more verts to all of them at once. Not perfect... doesn't create UVs, vert positions are often wrong... but the vert order is perfect. Only tool I know of that does this.

Morph Toolkit (http://www.di-o-matic.com/products/Plugins/MorphToolKit/index.html) is also very handy, especially Copy-O-Matic which lets you use mirror-modeling techniques to create morph targets quickly.

Hope this helps, I've been doing a lot of morphing lately.
Jynks
02-14-2004, 12:57 AM
Unfortunatly no. The morph toolkit isn't in our tools and I do not know if we have budget to get hold of that plug.

That vertex script you told me about though is very powerful

IIRC, that script is for 3DS MAX (and an old version at that)
You might want to ask in the poser technical forum but I don't think you are going to be able to do it easily

ummmm maybe :)

Would it be possible to see your original and morphed figure? Even a screen shot so we can see the size of the problem. How many polygons/vertices in the figure?

Why not do it post? It would be quite a bit easier. (1) Animate both figures as identically as their rigging will allow (2) Render from / to the fade-in / fade out points of the animation (3) use your compositing software to seemlessly transistion from the first to the second.

Or use zbrush or Silo or similar to ummm "surface snap" one mesh to the other, save as a morph, spawn morph targets, etc etc.

There really is no easy answer to what you want to do.

Found out how to do it! It involves using maya 8.5 or higher.
From maya 8.5 docs:

Deformers

What are blend shapes? Blend shape deformers let you change the shape of one object into the shapes of other objects.

Blend shape deformers let you to deform a surface into the shapes of other surfaces. You can blend shapes with the same or a number of vertices (or CVs). In character setup, a typical use of a blend shape deformer is to set up poses for facial animation.
 

Unlike other deformers, the blend shape deformer has an editor that lets you control all the blend shape deformers in your scene. You can use the editor to control the influence of the targets of each blend shape deformer, create new blend shape deformers, set keys, and so on.

##### Note

Other software packages use the terms “morph,” “morphing,” and “shape interp” to refer to what Maya provides with blend shape deformers.

When creating a blend shape deformer, you identify one or more objects whose shapes you want to use to deform the shape of some other object. Objects whose shapes you want to use to deform the shape of another object are called target objects, and the object being deformed is called the base object.

Deformers

Blending objects with different topologies You can blend shapes with the same or different number of vertices or CVs.

When you create a blend shape deformer, you should turn the Check Topology creation option off if you want to blend objects that have different numbers of CVs or vertices. For more information on Check Topology, see Create Deformers > Blend Shape.

If objects have the same number of CVs or vertices but their order is different, Maya blends the shapes whether Check Topology is on or off. However, the position of the base CVs will be transformed to the position of the target CVs. This change might cause the object to blend in a way you might not expect. To ensure a smooth transition between base and target, make sure the order of CVs is the same in both objects.

In addition to blending individual objects, you can blend hierarchies of objects. Make sure both hierarchies have the same number of children and parenting relationships.

To blend hierarchies, you must select the parent of the target hierarchy (or hierarchies) first and the parent of the base hierarchy last before creating the blend shape. The parent of each must be a transform.

Each child in the base blends into its corresponding child in the target. The order of children in the Outliner (and Hypergraph) determines which children blend. If necessary, use the Outliner to change the order of objects in the hierarchies.

A common blend shape technique is to create duplicates of a base, deform the duplicates, then use them as targets. For example, you might make several copies of a face, and then alter the copies to create a smiling face, frowning face, a crying face, and so on. If you use this technique, turn on the Check Topology creation option when you create the blend shape deformer. This checks that the base and target hierarchy shapes have the same number of CVs. If the CVs are different and Check Topology is off, you might see, for instance, an eye blending into the nose. If Check Topology is on, the members of the hierarchies must have corresponding numbers of CVs.
 

Deformers

 

Create Deformers > Blend Shape Create Deformers > Blend Shape > ### Basic tab

BlendShape Node

Specifies the name of the blend shape deformer (the blend shape deformer algorithm node). You should rename this node so that its name reminds you of the role of the blend shape deformation (for example, lipSync). If you don’t specify a name, Maya provides the default name blendShapen.

Envelope

Specifies the deformation scale factor. Use the slider to specify values from 0.0000 to 1.0000. Default is 1.0000.

Origin

Specifies whether the blend shape will be relative to the base object shape’s position, rotation, and scale. Click Local or World. The default is Local.

Local

Local will blend the base object shape to the target object shape(s) while ignoring differences in position, rotation, and scale between the base object and the target object(s). For facial animation setup, you would typically want to select Local. In general, Local is useful when you want to have your target object(s) in various separate positions for easy viewing but don’t want their positions to affect the deformation.

World

World will blend the base object shape to the target object shape(s), taking into account any differences in position, rotation, and scale between the target object shape(s).

Target Shape Options

In-Between

Specifies whether the blending will be in series or in parallel.

If on, the blending will be in series. Shape transitions will occur in the order in which you selected the target shape(s). The effect will be that the blend shape will be able to change from the first target object shape, to the second, and so on, back and forth through the series of target object shapes chained together as “in-between” shapes.

If off, the blending will occur in parallel. Each target object shape can influence the blending simultaneously in a parallel fashion rather than one after another in a series. Typically, for facial animation setup, you would want In-Between off so that you can have a variety of basic facial expressions that form the basis of all the possible expressions. Because the blending is in parallel, you can control the influence of each basic expression at any moment to get a nearly infinite variety of highly nuanced expressions. Default is off.

Check Topology

Specifies whether to check if the base shape and the target shape(s) have the same topology. For example, if using NURBS objects, you could check if all the shapes have the same number of CVs. Click on or off. Default is on.

Delete Targets

Specifies whether to delete the target shape(s) after creation. Deleting target shapes can be useful if you don’t need to see or manipulate the target shape(s) and you want to improve display performance. However, be sure to save a copy of the target shapes in case you later decide you need to adjust them. Default is off.

### Advanced tab

Deformation order

Specifies the placement of the deformer node in the deformable object’s history.

Default

Typically places the deformer immediately before the current final shape node.

Before

Places the deformer immediately before the current final shape node. Default and Before typically provide the same placement.

After

Places the deformer immediately after the current final shape node, and creates a new final shape node.

Split

Splits the input deformation history into two separate deformation chains, providing two final shapes originating from the same deformable object.

Parallel

Creates a final shape that blends the object’s current input history in parallel with the new deformer.

Maya user here. While I'm not saying it's impossible, I am having considerable difficulty morphing a polyCube into a polySphere, which obviously have different topologies but serves as a simple example of what you're looking to accomplish. I will continue working at this problem; otherwise I would be very interested to see your result using this method.

Ok I'll let you know how it turns out. They have over in daz3d.com a new figure model:
Night World Lycanthropos. http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/shop/itemdetails/-/?item=7542&cat=5&_m=d
Which is a very cool werewolf model. I want to be able to morph mike 3, the freak,  david 3 into the werewolf. Um, replicate the effect of seeing  lon chaney jr morphing into the wolfman from the old wolfman movie. 

Also in the forum on the site, there is a lot of talk about morphing the wolf figure into other werecreatures, like tiger, lizard, etc  which people are working on. One thing  that is wanted is a horse like creature  but they need a decent leg morph. Which is here: http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/shop/itemdetails/-/?item=5281&_m=d. It's for victoria 4.2. What I'm planing to do is morph v4.2 legs etc with this, and  then save the new mesh, then use that  mesh to create a new morph for the legs of the Night World Lycanthropos figure, using maya. I suppose I could do this by scratch but.....

No dice with maya so far.  Different tops, verts not working. The morphing works to a point and then it dies. Not good.

manoloz already gave you the best approach to doing this in a way you could use in poser:

Quote - Or use zbrush or Silo or similar to ummm "surface snap" one mesh to the other, save as a morph, spawn morph targets, etc etc.

Um yes I saw his post I wanted to try this first.