Morph Keys, for multiple purposes.

JD_Mortal

The morphing tool is great, for linear blunt transformations, even for complex transformations. The transitions, though, are linear and demand more morphs to handle "corrections", to themselves or other morphs, which are also linear.

The issue here is the linear component of transition. Not that there is anything wrong with linear transforms, but having more options would be great. (Not too many options, which is what is leading me to the following.)

I was thinking about asking for "progression control", per morph. Such that, given a minimum and a maximum value, and a "curve value", and "curve type", the transition between point-A and point-B could be controlled a little more. However, that got me thinking about more oddball controls... The goal was, for instance, when morphing from a "Teen" to an "Adult", with proportions, that the proportions are not linear and are more of an exponent and tapered transition, between some points, but not all from start to finish.

The solution I came-up with, would suit and extend the morphs better, and not be so "programmatic" in nature. They would just feel more organic in use, and would be nearly intuitive, in comparison to the animations. (Either making us more familiar with the animations process.. or for those who use the animations, this will feel similar to that, and less like some new thing to learn.)

The idea is to have "Keys", with morphs. They could be setup at the time of creating them, or added later. (Added as interpolation corrections between point-A and point-B, or extending the morph by adding point-c, point-d... and still ending up at the same end-result of point-A being 0% morphed, and point-X being the obvious ending.)

This came-about when I was working on the eyes for my model. I was setting-up an eye deform, which had a span from about 10% lower than the original height, and up to about 30% higher than the original height. However, only one morph position could be saved, so I choose to use the 30% one, which came close to matching the 10% morph when the negative-value was used on the final morph-slider. However, it defaulted to 30% lower, which I had to adjust. (Not a big deal there.)

However, I noticed after, that the 10% lower didn't exactly match the 10% lower of the original morph, as it was created. Like I said, it was real close, but it didn't capture one part of the inner-eyelid correctly, which made it stick-up at a funky angle. This was not that dramatic of an issue. I am living with it, comfortably. I doubt anyone would even notice.

Though, Had I had the ability to setup a key-position for the morph, one being at the 10% (negative value), and one being at the 30% (positive value), with the center of the slider being at the center, there would be the same number of steps between each one, and each would be 100% true to the desired original deformation desired. (As opposed to linear, which would put the slider-value at around 25%, not 50%. (10% + 30% = 40% change, 10 is 25% of 40. Being at 50% on the slider would make the morph 25% into the 30%, and partially morphed.)

Going back to the "teen" morph... We could add "keys", and lock to keys, or allow the slider to slide and snap to keys... But setup each morph transition along the way.

So, for instance... The head proportion only goes-up 2% for two keys, then 10% for two keys, then 5% for two keys... Yes, an odd curve. While the body may go up 25% the first two keys, then only 10% the next two keys, then 2% for the last two keys. (Which is sort-of how nature works. Organic proportions. Thanks to hormones and target growth-spurts.)

Normally, this would require 3-6 individual morphs, which would have to chain off of one another, not come from the base-model, with linear slides. That just makes it more of a task for the user and adds undue clutter for something that should fit within one slider. (Or there would have to be all sorts of "correction" sliders to stack with the primary slider, but those would all be linear too.)

Now, I know Daz can handle stacked items like this, as this is what animations are. With the exception that the "morphs" saved with an animation are not the actual morphs, just a reference to A-Morph and A-Value... This, however, would be including the morph within the file, keyed as morphs of the prior morph, retaining bone-info and scales, and adjustable along the way, at each key. (That part is another thing you can handle, as edits would require an extra step behind the scenes, to alter the following morphs to retain their final values. Thus, subtracting the edit from the old-morph, and adding that difference back onto the next morph, so it does not alter that form by altering the prior morph, or any following morph, in turn.)

Keys... Morphs... Inline transitional limitations and corrections...

More dramatic use...

Morph a child into a young adult, into an adult, into a middle-aged person, into an elder, into a zombie, into a super-decayed zombie... One transitional slider, working for all models with similar forms.

Materials swapping and transitions being a future potential bonus for "Morphs III"...

Or just call this new morph, Morph-X (X for targets) or Morph-Z (Z for depth), or just keep calling them Morphs, since they are backwards compatible and only expanded if desired.

Bonus if you setup liked-bones first... Big transition data-saver, instead of having to remember each literal point-location as XZY off origin 0,0,0. Like how animations work. Scrap the "Export as object" portion, unless we intend to use external editors. There needs to be a way to do morphs with "What's on the screen", without having to downgrade to an OBJ, open a new parent-target, import the OBJ, setup the moved bones, and five other steps. Easy, like the animations... Just hit save when you are done, and save as a morph-control. (Which should just be a universal control that doesn't require objects at all, if the morph is only bones, or material transitions, which don't exist yet.)

larsmidnatt

PA's already do this sort of thing, they give presets for certain targets that dial in thing as needed. They do have their own corrective morphs as well. There are tools to basically do what you want to do basically.Basically you are talking about corrective morphs and linking morphs to each other, which is done already.

There may be some sublties that you mention that don't exist, but even if that was the case I don't see PAs wanting to spend time on all that :)

JD_Mortal

PA's? (Pretty Asians) (Post Apocalyptic) (Poser Assets) If it is poser... I don't use poser, doesn't help me in Daz.

The thing with corrections and ... ... ... is that it is a cumbersome and non-intuitive thing to do, more ten-step programs for things that should be simple, automatic, assumed, and easy. (Also they are bloaty and cluttering. My Daz is filling with all my mods/morphs, and I have not even gotten to the corrections yet! and there is no way I see to make a slider move through iterations of translations, with non-linear movement/scale. Nothing I have to make, has equal proportions between transitions. Last thing I want to do is have to learn how to program my models and morphs. Imagine programming the bones to make animations. Possible, but not practical.)

Modeling, you spend no time on anything... Well, the modeling... Add-key, next modification, add-key, next modification, add-key, next modification... Test it... oops, that doesn't look right, add-tween-key, fix modification... Done. Save. Exit. Get Rich.

I would love to have all my characters on one morph... Just flip to each one needed, no individual models all over to find. (Also my age-progression, per model, as the only other needed morph, for flashback scenes.)

Then, if I want precision tweens from the slider, I just hit "OK" or "Lock", and it throws one morph-key to the beginning, one to the end, and I can slide inbetween the two with more precision, as opposed to snapping to positions. One slider, all my stuff I want in there, or all yours! (Related to that models progressive morphing pose... Not like desks and chairs and plants... unless that is a morph the model has! That won't work with linear corrections either.)

I am asking Daz to make this a "thing", a "function" built-in to Daz3D...

larsmidnatt

published artists. It's what Daz calls their content creators.

point is while the exact feature you mention may not exist, I've seen the content creators use multiple morphs,  linked morphs, and presets to address many of the concerns you mention.

Cris Palomino

PA = Published artists, who make products sold through the DAZ store.

larsmidnatt

I don't know the real advantage of all characters in a single morph. Unless you mean something else. You can have all the moprhs in a single model so you don' thave to find models all over. I have thousands of characters I could morph to in a single animation :) Seems messier to try and have several shapes in a single dial.  Much easier just having different morphs to dial in. Especially thinking about blending behavior, bone rigging, using corrective morphs and maintenence. There would be no way for clothes to use autofit if things were not linear.

You could just have age progression morph for a particular character, I don't see what is stopping that.

JD_Mortal said:

I would love to have all my characters on one morph... Just flip to each one needed, no individual models all over to find. (Also my age-progression, per model, as the only other needed morph, for flashback scenes.)

 

JD_Mortal

Cris Palomino said:

PA = Published artists, who make products sold through the DAZ store.

Ahhh... Gotcha...

Comment to post under that...

Having all "My characters", pertaining to my novels, in a single point of access, would be freaking awesome! But that was just one other example of a dramatic potential use.

Having 1 or 100 models in a slider is no different than having one, except they would be all in one location. Everything would still fit, as the morphs would all still be off the gen-3 model. Doesn't matter what scale-stage it is on, if it fits on one morph, it fits on all the transitions. That is why they made morphs. The non-linear transition is irrelevant. It is just turning the slider value of 50% into 25%, or 75% into 50%... the "fit" is still 50%, no matter where the slider is. If one morph scales the head only 10%, but the body 50%... that is non-linear morphing, but the outfit doesn't care what the number is at. The slider already does that. But it doesn't let a morph go UP in one direction, and DOWN in another, out of linear paths. EG, head going UP for half the transition, then stopping, while the body goes down, for the rest of the slider. (That is the non-linear part I need. As opposed to the head going up 50% while the body goes down 50%, and both go 75%, then 100%. Without any way to "correct" a portion just in the middle, which would scale 0% till just near the center, {a key}, and begin correction, then stop a little past that point, where no more correction is needed {another key}.)

But now I am getting into complex uses...

The short use, as I stated, was to make inline corrections at key points. To also create non-linear morphs, where my eye would morph UP in part of the slider, then sideways, then down, then back up... while something like my mouth would just keep morphing down or larger, but my arms would only morph half-way through, to just near the end. And also for simple stacked morphs, from A to B to C to D, where each is dependent on the other, which would control what I just stated above, as animations function, but this would be morphs. Well.. one morph, but not one, but actually one.

Arg, too late to keep rambling... I am confusing myself now. This was a simple thing made hard... Sounds familiar...

You should see the letter I just sent Asobo Studio's... Wish I could share it, but it would not be entirely welcome... I'll post the ending... (Totally late-night postings... Funny to me, not sure if they are to others.)

QUOTE: Me (Jason D'Angelo)

P.S. If you expect nothing and accept everything, you will never be disappointed with what you get, even if you get nothing, as you expected that to begin with.

P.P.S. Reality is looking in the mirror, pointing to your reflection and saying, "I don't live in your world, you live in mine." Unfortunately, you are both wrong... Reality is nothing more than a perception from a micro-second ago, in the past... Both of you lived there, and you are both gone once you close your eyes.

P.P.P.S. You are grown-up when you grow-out of things you grew-into. Now what... Nothing fits, you wish you were younger, and you start growing-down more, every year... Just can't win...

P.P.P.P.S. All the above are original thoughts from the twisted mind of me... and my reflection... Accept it, because I expect that noting will let me grow-up to become more than the simple reflection of a prior me...

P.P.P.P.P.S. This is the last one... from me, and me too... xD. "Dreams are the foundation we all rest upon." And they wonder why I like to sleep all day long! I am building a foundation, for a future, for when we are gone, so others have something to lay on, to create foundations for others to lay on... It's all a lie... The dreams are all in your head, like your reflection, like everything you see around you, from the past... You will never see the future, because you can only see a reflection of the light, which came from the past, as it took time to get to your eye, be processed by your brain, and turned into a thought of the past, called a memory. Good-night, time to sleep. I am tired of looking into the past, and dreams are the only gateway to the future, because reality is all in the past and no-one can ever see the present. Expected, no, accepted, yes... I always accepted presents in the past.

Richard Haseltine

You can set up a kind of keyed relationship using the ERCKeeyd - set up the sequence you want on the timeline, the relation between control slider and controlled, and use ERC Freeze as normal but then check the Keyed (extract from play range) box.