Material Editor > Type button (labeled Standard by default) > Material/Map Browser > Morpher material
The Morpher material works hand-in-hand with the Morpher modifier. It can be used to make the cheeks of a character blush, or to wrinkle a character's forehead when the eyebrows are raised. Using the channel spinners in a Morpher modifier, materials can be blended just as the geometry is blended or morphed by the Morpher modifier.
There are 100 material channels in the Morpher material that map directly to the 100 channels in the Morpher modifier. Once you apply the Morpher material to an object and bind to the Morpher modifier, then you use the channel spinners in the Morpher modifier to morph materials and geometry. Empty channels in the Morpher modifier, with no geometry morph data, can be used to morph materials only.
Important: The mental ray renderer does not support the Morpher material.
Note: If even one sub-material has its shading set to Wire (see Shader Basic Parameters Rollout), the entire material displays and renders as a wire material.
An object must have at least one Morpher modifier in its modifier stack. The material can be assigned to an object and bound to the object's Morpher modifier in either of two ways.
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After the Morpher modifier is applied to an object, use the Assign New Material command in the Global Parameter rollout of the Morpher modifier. This is the simplest way, and applies the Morpher Material to the object and binds the material to the Morpher modifier at the same time.
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Open the Material Editor, select the Morpher material, and click Choose Morph Object in the Parameters rollout, then click the object in the viewports. After clicking the object, a dialog displays in the viewports, select the Morpher modifier from the dialog (an object may have multiple Morpher modifiers). This binds the Morpher material to the Morpher modifier.
A Morpher material can be bound to only one Morpher modifier.
Example: To apply and use the Morpher material:
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On the Modify panel, right-click the sphere's entry in the modifier stack display, and choose Convert To: Editable Mesh.
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Choose Animation Modifiers > Morpher from the Modifier List.
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On the Morpher modifier's Global Parameters rollout, click Assign New Material.
The Morpher material is now applied to the object and bound to the Morpher modifier.
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Open the Material Editor, and click Pick Material from Object (the eyedropper), then click the sphere in the viewports.
The Material Editor displays the Morpher material parameters.
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On the Morpher Material Parameters rollout, click the Map 1 slot.
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On the Basic Parameters rollout, click the Diffuse color swatch.
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On the Color Selector, choose a bright yellow, and close the color selector. Leave the Material Editor open.
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Turn on the Auto Key button, then move the time slider to frame 50.
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On the Morpher modifier's Channel List rollout, set the channel 1 spinner to 100.
In the Material Editor, the color of the sample sphere changes to yellow.
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On the main toolbar, click Render.
The sphere is yellow. If you render an animation the sphere changes from a grey color to yellow.
The Morpher material interface is on a Parameters rollout in the Material Editor.
Choose Morph Object—Click this option, then select an object in the viewports that has a Morpher modifier applied to it. Clicking an object in the viewports displays the Choose Morpher modifier dialog. Choose a Morpher modifier, and click Bind.
Name Field—Displays the name of object to which the Morpher material is applied. If no object has been specified, the field displays "No Target".
Refresh—Updates the channel data.
Marker List—This list is identical to the marker list in the Morpher modifier. Markers you save in the Morpher modifier appear here.
Base material button—Click to apply a base material to the object. The base material represents what the model looks like before any channel blending takes place.
Map #—100 material channels are available. The scroll bar allows you to scroll through all the channels. Double-click a channel to jump to the material parameters for that channel.
There is a one-to-one correspondence between the channels in the Morpher material and the Morpher modifier. A material in channel 1 of the Morpher material is controlled by the channel 1 spinner in the Morpher modifier.
Material on/off toggle—Turns a channel on and off. Channels that are off do not affect the morph result.
The system can slow down if there are many active materials being blended. Options in this group allow you to control when the morph result will be computed.
Constantly—Choose to compute the material morph result all the time.
When Rendering—Choose to compute the material morph result at render time.