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816 Chapter 8: Modifiers
morph and adds it as a child to the h ighlighted
bone in the list window.
Tip: By default, the Show Edges switch is on,
which might make it difficult to see the vertices
themselves. To see only the vertices, turn off
Options rollout > Show Edges.
Tip: To help keep track of morphs, use the Local
Properties rollout to rename each morph as you
create it.
Delete Mor ph—Deletes the highlighted morph,
removing it from its parent bone in the list window.
Avai lable only when a morph is hig hlighted.
Edit—Lets you shape the current morph by
transformingvertices.ToexitEditmode,clickthe
Edit button again.
Transfor m in g a vertex in Ed it mode creates a
morph t arget. E ach transformed vertex moves
into the morph target position (or orientation or
scale) as the morph value increases to 100.0, and
then out of it as the morph value decreases, based
ontheangleofthebonedrivingthemorph.
TransformingavertexinEditmodealsochanges
itscolorfromorangetoyellow.Thisletsyoueasily
seewhichverticesarepartofthecurrentmorph.
Choosing Edit places the skinned object at the
100% “pose” orientat ion for this morph (see
Create Morph, above). It also activates the Points
sub-object level so you can transform vertices
using the standard 3ds Max transform tools.
Clear V er ts —Keeps selected vertices in the morph,
but resets their deltas (changes from the initial
pose) to 0.
Reset Orient(ation)—Sets the morph orientation to
current orientation of the bone that controls the
morph.
Thisletsyouchangetheangleatwhichthemorph
has its greatest effect. For example, if you create a
bulging bicep at frame 120, and later decide that
themuscleshouldbelargestatframe150instead,
go to frame 150, choose the mor ph in the list box,
and then click Reset Orientation.
Remove Verts—Removes selected vertices from
the cur rent morph, which deletes any animation
applied as part of the morph.
Use this command to save memory by remov ing
vertices not part of the morph animation.
Enabled—When on, the morph is active; when off,
the mor ph doesn’t appear in the animation, and is
indicated in the list box with the text “Disabled.”
Default=on.
The ability to enable and disable each morph
individually lets you isolate the effect of each or
test them in combination.
Morph Name—Displays and lets you change the
name of the current morph.
Inf luence A ngle—Theanglearoundthebone’s
current orientation w ithin which the morph takes
place. Default=90.0.
This is an important parameter. T hin k of the
influence angle as a cone around the bone at
its orientation when you create the morph.
Consider an example in which Influence Angle
is set to the default value of 90.0 degrees. If the
bone starts its rotation beyond 45 degrees away
from the orientation at which the morph was
created, the mor ph has no effect at that time.
As the bone moves from 45 degrees away to the
morph orientation, the morph increases to its full
value. As the bone then rotates away, the morph
gradually decreases until, at 45 degrees or more
away from the morph orientation, the morph no
longer appears.
Tip: Influence Angle is useful for isolating morphs;
that is, to prevent overlapping of d ifferent morphs
onthesamebone. Reducethevalueuntilone
morph’scontributionpercentvalue(showninthe
list b ox) fal ls off to 0.0 before the next one begins.