Creating Morphs with the Morphing Tool

Morph targets are custom parameters added to body parts or props that allow you to reshape the affected part(s). Poser includes some built-in morph targets with the stock figures, and you can create your own. Morph targets allow you to easily resize and reshape items and are fully animatable.

Faces reshaped with the Morphing Tool.

While morph targets appear as parameter dials in the Parameters palette, they are actually custom geometry containing the deformation, which you then apply using parameter dials. Does this seem confusing? It’s actually pretty simple once you get the hang of it. Let’s explore this functionality a little further.

You can create your own morph targets using Poser and/or another application. This manual primarily covers creating morph targets in Poser, but we will discuss using third-party applications in general terms. Within Poser, you use a combination of deformers and existing morph channels (such as the Surprised parameter) to create morph targets. Each morph target gets its own Parameter dial whenever the affected element(s) are selected and the morph target is loaded. For example, if you create a morph called Bulging Bicep for the upper arm, you’ll see the Bulging Bicep parameter dial in the Parameters palette when you’ve loaded the morph target and selected the upper arm.

Clicking on the Morphing Tool in the Editing Tools display opens the Morph Editor palette. The Morphing Tool has two operational modes: Combine and Create, which are covered in the sections that follow. Click on the appropriate tab in the Morph Editor to switch between these two modes.

s The Morphing Tool in the Editing Tools palette.

• The Combine Tab
• The Edit Tab
• Applying Pre-Transform Morphs
• The Morph Tool and Pre-Transform Morphs
• Converting to Pre-Transform or Post-Transform Morphs
• Saving Morph Injection Poses
• Copying Morphs Between Figures