I'm wondering if a morph target has to be made from the mesh of the character or if the obj just needs to have the correct number of vertices? I'm looking to morph Michael, Vicky, Koshini, and Ichiro into various primitives. (I realize that they'd likely need to be in zeroed position with no other morphs.) If I can just do so with an obj that has the correct number of vertices, is there any program (free preferably) that can make a primitive of the required number of vertices?

you have to create the morphs from the same geometry and not with new geometry this will not works.. load your Michael into poser export only the head without eyes for example as morph and make a morph using for example Zbrush etc.. this cost you only work if you have to create exact the same head as you can export with one click and is ready for morphing..

The obj file can be viewed as points, facets, smoothed, textured .. but this is a function of the program that you are viewing it in, not what you take in to do the morphs. You want to open the whole group in your modeler. Free - Poser has magnets for morphing - not a modeling program, but you can do morphs with them. If history holds, others will let you know which programs are available for free. If you can draw your morph stock from the OBJ in Geometries, this is safer than using Poser export. But your modeler must be able to handle multiple groups. No matter which program you decide on, do controls before you do any morphs. That is, dry run the process without moving any verts and apply the product in Poser to see if you are using the correct methods. An unmorphed group will apply as a morph in Poser, it just will not make any changes.

Attached Link: http://www.anim8or.com

I find anim8or to be one of the best apps for morphing. I have 3d max, but I make practically all of my morphs in anim8or. It has the big advantage of doing NOTHING at all to an imp/exported obj file. No hassle with scale or weird side-effects. And it's free. See link above. Re # of vertices - It's not strictly true that a morph needs to be made from the character, but unless you're using very simple objects, the results will be bizarre. You could (in theory) make a morph for a simple cube without actually using the original obj, assuming the # of vertices is identical, but once you move on to characters - forget it. As jaager said - use the original obj stock for the best result. mac PS jaager - how are you? Long time, no see.

Hi Mac. All seems OK with me. How be you? Just found out that Carrara 3 will save the V3 head in native *.car. This makes doing morphs on it a lot more practical - but it is still a lot of verts to model morphs with.

Well, all I'm looking for is to morph the figures into simple objects. It seems it would be easier to make a cube with the correct number of vertices than it would be to turn the mesh into a cube by manipulation. Now I just need to find a way to make primitives of the required number of vertices.