Manual Modules MOCCA MOCCA Tags Morph Tag
Morph Tag Basic TagTag Properties
Here you can switch back and forth between the edit mode and the animate mode. You’ll see different settings appear depending on which mode you choose. In the following text, the settings for edit mode are listed first.
In this mode, you have all the settings you need to create and model the morph targets. Here you can also control exactly how each target should behave during the animation.
You’ll only need to use this option if you encounter problems when using relative morph targets and rotational morphs at the same time.
Suppose you’re working with a cube and you’ve created a relative morph target that moves one of the surfaces outwards, and a rotational morph that rotates the cube’s points around its axis. There's no problem with either morph target used completely on its own and most combinations also work correctly.
However, if you first blend in the relative morph target completely, then blend in the rotational morph target completely, then completely blend out the relative morph target, you’ll notice a problem: Under these extreme conditions, the points no longer return to their starting position.
You can correct this problem using the Refresh button. It calculates each morph target fully, one by one. Usually, the tag avoids performing this refresh for reasons of speed.
Behaves the same as Refresh except that it recalculates the morphing for each screen refresh in the viewport. Only enable this option if you encounter the problem described above during the animation; otherwise, this causes unnecessary slowdown. Keep in mind also that you can animate this value to correct problems that occur at specific times in the animation.
Here you’ll find a list of all the morph targets stored in the tag. When you add a new morph tag to an object, you’ll see two entries already in the list. The first is the base morph, which represents the object in its original starting position prior to morphing. The second entry is your first morph target. Initially, it looks exactly the same as the base morph. To model the morph target, simply select it and any changes that you now make to the points of the mesh will be stored in this morph target.
You can check how any morph target looks by selecting it (provided its Strength is set to 100% and Edit In Place is disabled). You can rename targets by double-clicking their names. Once you’ve started to rename, you can move up or down the list of names quickly to rename other items using the up and down cursor keys. You can reorder targets via drag and drop except the base morph, which is always at the top of the list.
If you already have morph target objects that were created as copies of the geometry and want to use them in the tag, simply drag and drop the copies into this list. You’ll be asked if the targets should be imported as relative targets. If you choose Yes, a new target is created in the list and you no longer need the geometry target object. If, instead, you choose No, the geometry target is linked in the tag. A new target will appear in the list but it will have a small “a” icon. If you select the target in the list, you’ll see that it has a link to your geometry target in the Morph Target box. This means the geometry target object is still required.
Also useful is the context menu available in the list, where you’ll find the following options:
Removes the active morph target.
Removes all morph targets.
Adds a mirrored copy of the morph target, mirrored along its X-axis, to the bottom of the list. This gives you a quick way to copy morph targets created for one side of the face over to the other side.
Adds a mirrored copy of the morph target, mirrored along its Y-axis, to the bottom of the list. This gives you a quick way to copy over morph targets created for one side of the face over to the other side.
Adds a mirrored copy of the morph target, mirrored along its Z-axis, to the bottom of the list. This gives you a quick way to copy over morph targets created for one side of the face over to the other side.
Adds a new morph target to the bottom of the list.
Adds a new morph target at the bottom of the Morphs list that corresponds to the object’s current state, taking into account all morph targets that are blended in as well as the effects of all deformers (similar to Current State To Object).
Creates a polygon copy of the object’s current state (including the effects of morph targets blended in and the effects of deformers) as a new polygon object in the Object manager (similar to Current State To Object). This is useful for creating geometry morph targets for use in other software.
Click this button to export all the morph targets as object files (“.obj”) if you want to use the morphs in other software.
Enable this option if you’re modeling a target and want to see how it blends with the other targets. The targets you now blend in will be evaluated taking their Strength into account.
This option gives you a quick way to correct any problems you encounter with the mesh when deforming it using joints. Or perhaps you just want to improve the look.
Either way, the option is easy to use: Create a new morph target and enable the Auto Joint Driven option. In the Object manager, select the joint object whose rotation is causing the problem and move it into the problem pose. You'll see a driver tag appear for the joint in the Object manager. Select your mesh once again and edit it until you're happy with the character's pose. Make sure that Deformed Editing is enabled in the viewport's settings so that you can edit the mesh in its deformed state.
Now, whenever the joint object created for the morph target reaches this pose, the corresponding morph target will be blended in automatically. If you have a look in the driver tag, you'll see how the relationship to the morph target has been stored.
Strength [-10000000..10000000%]
Here you can choose how your morph target blends with other morph targets. The following options are available:
If this option is selected, the point positions are stored as absolute (i.e. as coordinates based on the object’s origin). When you blend in an absolute morph target, the object will take the shape the morph target had when set to Absolute, even if you’ve changed the base morph since then.
Here, the changes are stored relative to the base morph. If the base morph is changed, the shape of the morph adapts to it. This is the default mode because it requires little memory and is very flexible because it can adapt to changes to the base morph.
This is also a type of relative morph target. However, unlike the other two types of target, the points no longer move in a straight line as the morph blends in from 0% to 100%. Instead, the points move along a circular path defined by the Axis settings. The next example shows how you can use a rotational morph target to prevent an eyelid from intersecting the eye as it closes.
Allows parameters on the Object Properties tab to be morphed.
Allows the geometry to be morphed.
If you disable this option, you’ll lose the pose that you’ve modeled in the morph target! The reason why the option behaves in this way is to free up memory. Only disable the option if you want to morph parameters and nothing else.
These coordinates are only available if Mode is set to Rotational. They allow you to manually define the position of the rotation axis used for the rotational morph.
These coordinates are only available if Mode is set to Rotational. They allow you to manually define the direction of the rotation axis used for the rotational morph.
You can also define the rotation axis for a rotational morph by selecting an edge then clicking this button. The edge will then be used as the rotation axis.
Another way to define the rotation axis for rotational morphing is via selected points. First, select two points, then click this button. An imaginary line drawn between the two points then becomes the rotation axis.
Here you have the option to save morph targets as external files.
This allows you to work with a huge number of morph targets without them requiring much memory. Choose a morph target that you want to save externally and click on the three dots button. A Save dialog opens that allows you to save the morph targets to your hard drive.
The process is similar if you want to load previously saved targets: Click on the three dots button and use the dialog that appears to open the file. Note that the dialog will warn you that the file already exists and will ask if you want to replace it. You can safely ignore this message which is more to do with a limitation of the operating system.
When you drag and drop an object into the Morphs list, you have an option to choose whether the morph is relative. If you choose for the morph not to be relative, the object is linked instead and appears in this box.
Here you’ll find a list of all morph targets, which you can animate using the sliders.
When animating complex characters, you may find it helpful to use the driver tag instead, which you can use to create a more comfortable environment for animating.