Steve Shanks
In this tutorial I'll show you how to make a morph target for Poser 4 or 3 using 3D Studio Max. First, if you don't already have them, get both Wavefront OBJ plugins from Habware and install them into your 3D Studio Max Plugins folder as per the instructions. Once these are loaded import a Poser figure into 3D Studio Max, you'll need to change the file type to Wavefront OBJ in the files of type drop down. Important note: you must use a figure from the geometry's folder of Poser or export the body part with only the As morph target (no world transformations) box checked. We'll use the first choice. As soon as you open the OBJ (We are using the Poser 4 nude woman, P4NudeWom.obj) this window will pop up.
You need to set yours up exactly the same. The reason for this is the end morph we create must be in exactly the same position as the original so the import and export of the mesh must be exact. Once your figure is in select the head either by clicking on it or by going Edit/ select by/ name. Then go Edit/ select invert and then hit your delete key to be left with just the head. Next step is to zoom in by hitting this button.
Now you will notice you have nothing in the Perspective view. This is because Poser figures are tiny and 3D Studio Max can't handle so small a mesh in that view so either change it to another view or if your like me ignore it as we'll move to a single view. I'm going to lengthen her nose and add a small bump so I want to be working in the left view so I select it by hitting the text "left" in the view, then select this button.
To get this result.
Now to the fun bit, the actual morphing. Make sure the head is selected and then go into the modify panel and select edit mesh, then Vertex and follow the sequence below.
Now with the Select and Move tool we could start moving points around immediately but we can get a much smoother, natural looking morph by using soft selection. So slide the panel down until you see the soft selection bar and click on it to open the roll out. Then check the soft selection box. If we started dragging points now we would move the whole head because Poser meshes, again, are tiny so we need to change the falloff to about 0.02 (this depends on which part you are morphing best thing is to experiment). Now if we click on the nose tip it also selects part of the mouth so we need to adjust the bubble. -0.5 is about right for the tip of the nose but you can see the profile in the graph below if your morphing another part.
Then just drag the tip of the nose out. I've also dragged a little further up to try and add a slight roman nose affect. I then switched to front view and changed falloff to 0.04 and bubble back to 0. Then I made the face a little wider in an attempt to give it more strength.
Now its time to export our OBJ ready for use in Poser. So go File/ export and make sure you have Wavefront OBJ selected and save it anywhere you choose. Then a window will open which must be set up like this.
Now close down 3D Studio Max and start Poser. If you created a Morph for the Poser 4 nude woman it will only work with her so load her up and double click on her head. This box will pop up.
Click on the "Add morph target" button then in the next box click on the "Locate" button and find the head we exported from 3D Studio Max
Once that's loaded type in a name for the morph in the label box and click OK then OK again. You should now have a dial named the same as you just typed in, if you turn the dial up or down you will see your morph change the head. Warning, change the dial to minus figures or past 1.000 may produce horrible results. Here is a picture of the finished morph alongside an original figure (right).
Copyright 2000, Steve Shanks, All Rights Reserved
