Basic morphing tutorial with Anim8or and Terranim8or
Anim8or version 0.9 introduced morph sequences, but still lacks the animated materials. If your animation needs simultaneous shape and color morphing, you can use Terranim8or to accomplish that and this tutorial is for you.
The common understanding of morphing is a smooth transition between a start and a target object.
Anim8or - Make a few key vertex-positions of your object you want to morph, modifying the position of some points, like this:
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Export the object as .an8:
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Make a new key position and export it:
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... and a new key position and export it as well.
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Till this point, in this example I've created in Anim8or three key
objects and exported them as cat.an8, smiley.an8 and sad.an8. The idea is
to perform morphing of "cat" to "smiley", then of
"smiley" to "sad". This task requires two morphing
sequences to be added in a project.
Now begins the Terranim8or part: |
Terranim8or - Import the first object (cat):
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Click Morph object, then select starting (0) and ending (20) frame numbers and clicking "Import Target", specify the target object (smiley):
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Terranim8or will ask to specify the file name to save the morphing animation.
If the file doesn't exist, it can be created for you. Lets suppose we saved the
morphing animation in the file "morphing.an8". We have finished the
first morphing sequence!
Back to Anim8or - Now open "morphing.an8" in Anim8or, switch to
scene mode and watch the animation from frame 0 to frame 20. Now, before
continuing adding the second morphing sequence, save the file! The
purpose of this saving is not at all evident, as long as we didn't do any
changes to the file. The reason is that by saving, Anim8or rearranges the data
in the file in its own way and makes possible for Terranim8or to add new
sequences to the file.
Back to Terranim8or - Repeat the steps performed earlier, but this time import "smiley.an8" (the start object for the second morphing sequence). After clicking "Morph object", specify as starting frame # 21 (to continue the animation ended at frame 20) and 40 for ending frame #. Click "Import Target" and select the last key object, "sad.an8". When Terranim8or asks for the file name to save the animation, enter "morphing.an8" (the file already containing the first morphing sequence). [If we wouldn't have saved earlier "morphing.an8" in Anim8or, at this point Terranim8or would give a message announcing that is not able to perform the operation now, inviting to open and save the file in Anim8or! In that case we would have to do the saving anyway and to repeat the "Morph object" step.] Now the job is done!
Opening "morphing.an8" in Anim8or and rendering to .avi from frame
0 to 40, we get this animation:
This is a facial expression morphing sequence made
with Terranim8or and a shape & color morphing (Dark Angel made by Bob_I_Ts)
To avoid frustration, keep in mind that only single objects are allowed for morphing (meshes, or subdivisions). If a composite object (more distinct components, or groups) is tried to be morphed, only the first encountered component object will morph! The target object must have the same number of vertices and the same point - face structure as the start object for a correct operation and should be derived from the start object!
Have fun,
Leslie www.biederman.net/leslie