Morph Question
23 messages in this thread
I am trying to morph between letters. For instance, I am trying to
morph an "L" into an "S". I added vertices (in Coreldraw) to the L
so it had the same number as the S. Then I set up the morph keys.
The problem is that even though the geometry of the morphed L which
is now supposed to be an S looks fine in the mesh display, when I
render it it looks like the wrong vertices are connected (sort of
like what happens when you loft with two shapes on the path whose
vertices are not aligned). How can I control the results of the
morphing better?
I tried creating an intermediate target manually, but that didn't help. The
same thing happens if I morph from S to L (but not as bad).
Thanks.
Bailey
I assume from your description that you import the Corel polygons into the 2D
Shaper, loft them, and then attempt to morph between the two meshes. Sounds
like the first vertex of the shapes for the two letters is not properly
aligned. Have you checked the first vertices of both shapes?
By the way, if you're using R4, it would probably be easier to use Segment/
Refine in the 2D Shaper to add the vertices.
– Jack
Jack,
>> By the way, if you're using R4, <<
Bit early for r4, isn't it? <g>
I'd take a vacation now myself, only we couldn't _both_ take off.
– J
Jack,
>> I'd take a vacation now myself, only we couldn't _both_ take off.<<
How nice, that's a compliment (I think). You've been working extra hard without
Gary around, and with me gone too, you'll probably need a holiday by the time
we get back <g>.
This is my last transmission, Roger, 10-4, over-and-under!
Have a great time Martin.
– J
Jack,
Yes, I'm lofting an L and an S and trying to morph between them. I tried
adding vertices to the L in both Corel and using segment/refine. I made sure
the first vertex of the two shapes lined up. I tried tracing out the L
manually. I tried duping the S shape and stretching and linearizing it to make
an L and morphing from that to the S. I tried intermediate morph targets.
After all this, the problem persists: the "S" morphed from the L does not
render correctly. The top half is ok but the bottom half looks like the wrong
vertices are connected. I think the problem lies with how the triangles of the
two mesh objects are not lining up or something like that.
The effect I would like to get is that of a french curve being bended from an L
into an S. Can you thing of any other ways to get to this?
Bailey
PMJI,
Bailey, I have observed, for some time now, the limitations that 3DS r2 & 3
have with morphing. You seem to be spending quite a bit of time on this so
here's my suggestion, or, how I now handle morphing in 3DS.
I render the two scenes in 3DS to TGA files. Then, I use HSC Morph to create
the the actual morph transition scene tga's. Then finish the project back in
3DS. I know this is not a purest 3DS approach to morphing but I've discovered
that just a few animation tasks that are extremely difficult to achieve in 3DS
are just plain simple in other software designed for this purpose. HSC Morph
is not that expensive and you probably spent 5 times the price of HSC Morph
just trying to accomplish the L-S morph in 3DS. Another product I used is
Griffon Morph but it does not do morphing of moving objects the way the HSC
product does, at least not the version I own. BTW I bought both morph products
for less than $160.
I don't know the exact movement you are trying to achieve in the morph, but the
way these morph software tools handle the movement is very flexible. The only
requirements are that your start and end file bitmaps be the same size, i.e.
both have to be same resolution, color depth, and file type. This should not
be a problem in 99.9% of the time.
I just got out of the video studio where I had taken a second look at the #D
studio demo video. I remembered seeing something like the S-L morph. It was
in the SUN Microsystems logo treatment. Ther morph several S's to U's and n's
in an interlock. You might want to check it out, studying, frame by frame.
Seemingly, it was done in 3DSr2 and not the cheating way I suggested earlier.
Don,
Please do jump in. I already have a shareware raster morph program. I need to
get a better one, maybe HSC. I'll see if the raster technique looks ok for
what I'm doing. (A company changed their name and I want to morph their old
logo into their new).
Bailey
Bailey:
IMHO, BlackBelt's WinImages:Morph beats the silicon out of HSC.
Retails for $195.
Greg Pyros
Beyond Don's suggestion (a good one), I can only suggest that you try morphing
in the other direction — from the complex S to the simpler L — and then
render in reverse order. You could also try creating a third, intermediate mesh
that contains a bit of both objects, and then morph from the L to the
intermediate to the S. Another possibility is to combine the morphing with a
cross-fade in Video Post, ending up on a completed, properly constructed S.
– J
Jack,
I think I'm going to try both the raster morph technique and also a variation
on your video post idea. I'll have the L morph into the S and then use a hide
key to hide the morphed L and show the original S at the end of the morph.
Bailey
There's always a way. Good luck.
– J
Bailey:
>> The effect I would like to get is that of a french curve being bended from
>> an L into an S.
Actually, I'd do it the other way around! Loft your S and then just manually
move the vertices to an L, and use that for a morph target! It is the only way
guaranteed to give you the exact result you need every time!
In doing it this way, also, you can keep some of the intermediate steps as
morph targets, also, you can control exactly how the letter changes shape and
when each part starts and stops morphing!
Greg Pyros
Greg,
Thanks for the suggestion. I thought it might come down to this. I guess
sometimes it just take elbow grease to get things right.
Bailey
A suggestion: try a simpler morph first and see if you can get that
working. Try a very simple S with no serifs, with maybe 12 or 14
vertices in the Shaper. Make an L with same number of vertices.
The trick is to have the same _orientation_ of vertices on each shape.
For example, if you took the simple non-serifed S and "uncurved" it
(in your head) to make a rectangle, there will be, say, 7 vertices on
each side of the rectangle. The L should have the same orientation
of vertices on its unbent rectangle. If there are 8 and 6, the
vertices can't move cleanly from the S to the L.
With this approach, the morph should work. If not, there is just too
much transition between the letters, in which case an intermediary
shape with the same vertex orientation should work fine.
BTW, this procedure is outlined the 3D Studio Tips and Tricks Series
book, "Morphing and Animation", available from Greg Pyros here on the
forum. The exercise does a countdown, morphing between 9-8-7-6 etc
from lofted shapes.
Michele,
I've given up on the morphing. I made a single lense flare pass over the
letters and use hide-unhide keys to make them change. It looks pretty cool and
was alot easier to do.
Bailey
And look, you even came up with a new technique for your bag of tricks.
Congratulations.
Michele
We just got your books in the lab the other day, and I leafed through
them. Stopped and looked at that particular exercise. I had never
thought about doing something like that. The books seem to be very
educational.
Bailey – If this is to be seen only from one angle, I'd download a shareware
morph program and do it outside of 3ds. If you need to fly around it, other
questions: Does it have to be a real font? Are we beveled, here, or vanilla?
Basically, how com-pill-icated is the geometry? How are you telling 3DS to get
from one to the other, just importing the letters and saying "be thou morphed"
or manually editing the vertices to the new shape? I suspect that some manual
tweaking would be necessary. OR (and I'm no Corel person) draw each letter in
Corel, starting with the same (corresponding) vertex in each, and working your
way around in the same direction so the vertices are numbered logically.
Perhaps "tracing" each letter in Corel could do that…?
FWIW
David Taffet
Bailey,
Aligning the first vertex points in each of the leters should help. Also,
adding your extra vertex points in 3DS using the refine tool might help as
well.
-Brian
Bailey
There is good advice in the previous answers but here are some extra thoughts.
1. download an image morphing program with sample files, there are a couple of
good ones in the graphics forum. Then look at the logic required to morph one
image to another successfully…. grid point to grid point. The same logic
applies to morphing your letters but instead of a user definable grid you are
constrained by the vertices of the meshes. Firstly arrange the order of the
vertices to get the right effect.
2. Consider this …. (back in 3dsstart by morphing 2D shapes flat-on, going
from S to L may result in strange shapes. Snapshot the intermediate position
and edit the vertices to get the intermediate shapes you really want. Then
extrude all the intermediates, go back to the keyframer and morph between each
of those.
This is not a "worked out" technique, just some thoughts for experimentation.
Good luck …………. Grahame