7.6 Morpher Material (Compound Material)

Morpher Material

The Morpher material works hand-in-hand with the Morpher modifier. You can use it to make the cheeks of a character blush, or to wrinkle a character's forehead when the eyebrows are raised. With the Morpher modifier's channel spinners, you can blend materials the same way you morph the geometry.

The Morpher material has 100 material channels that map directly to the 100 channels in the Morpher modifier. After you apply the Morpher material to an object and bind it to the Morpher modifier, 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.

Note: The mental ray renderer does not support the Morpher material.

Note: If even one sub-material has its shading set to Wire, the entire material displays and renders as a wire material.

Applying the Morpher Material

An object must have at least one Morpher modifier in its modifier stack. You can assign the material to an object and bind it to the object's Morpher modifier in either of two ways.

• 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.
• 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.

Note: You can bind a Morpher material to only one Morpher modifier.

Procedures

Example: To apply and use the Morpher material:

1. Create a sphere in the Perspective viewport.
2. On the Modify panel, right-click the sphere's entry in the modifier stack display, and choose Convert To: Editable Mesh.
3. From the Modifier List, choose Morpher.

This applies the Morpher modifier to the sphere.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. On the Morpher Basic Parameters rollout, in the Modifier Connection group, click Choose Morph Object. In the dialog that appears, click Morpher to highlight that modifier, and then click Bind.
7. On the Morpher Material Parameters rollout, click the Mat 1 slot.
8. On the Material/Map Browser choose Standard.
9. On the Basic Parameters rollout, click the Diffuse color swatch.
10. On the Color Selector, choose a bright yellow, and close the color selector. Leave the Material Editor open.
11. Turn on (Auto Key), then move the time slider to frame 50.
12. Select the sphere, and then go to the Modify panel.
13. 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.

14. Turn off (Auto Key).
15. On the main toolbar, click (Render Production).

The sphere is yellow. If you render an animation the sphere changes from a grey color to yellow.

Interface

The Morpher material interface is on a Parameters rollout in the Material Editor.

Modifier Connection group

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 drop-down list]

This list is identical to the marker list in the Morpher modifier. Markers you save in the Morpher modifier appear here.

Base Material group

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.

Channel Material Setup group

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.

Mixing Calculation Options group

3ds Max can slow down if many active materials are being blended. Options in this group allow you to control when the morph result will be computed.

• ConstantlyChoose to compute the material morph result all the time.
• When RenderingChoose to compute the material morph result at render time.
• Never CalculateChoose to bypass material blending.