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Blender 3D: Morphing Objects
If you have any comments or suggestions for this tutorial or future tutorials, please visit the forum athttp://www.forum.darkscarab.com 
The main reason for having shape keys is so that you can take one shape and manipulate it withoutlosing the original shape. That's why it's great for facial expressions. However, another use for shape keys canbe in an animation where you have an object that is constantly changing from one thing to another and backagain (Transformers comes to mind). All you have to do is model the first object, save it as a shape key, thenedit your first object to something different and set another shape key. Then you can flip between the twothroughout your animation. You can even add a third, fourth, fifth, and more if you like.For an example, I have an animated GIF (a couple of images if you are reading the PDF) belowdepicting an fictional idea I came up with for crates that can morph to whatever size you like, then they canmorph back to it's square shape for easy storage. The animation you see there was made with shape keys.For that animation, I only show two states (cube and stretched cube), but I could easily make many moreshape keys, allowing to crate to become many different shapes.To keep things here a simple as possible for you, we will just use the default cube and make a coupleof changes with it, using the morphing crate idea. To get started, let's open up Blender. If you have the defaultcube, that's great, this is one of the few times we will actually use it. If you don't have it, be sure to add a cubeto your scene so we can get started. Normally, you will want to start modeling your object at this point, to makeyour first basic shape. However, since our initial state is just going to be a cube, we can already set the Basicshape key.Open Blender;Add --> Cube (If it's not already there) 
 
For this tutorial I will have the worded directions along with the exact keystrokes it takes to getthe step done. If you are fluent enough with Blender you may not have to look at the keystrokesline. Each step within the keystrokes line will be highlighted like this: Example. Arrows will indicate that you should be following a menu path.
 
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To set the basic key, which is the initial shape of your object, you will want to go to your Editing Buttons(F9) and find the Shapes box. Mine is in a tab in the same box as the modifiers. The only button you shouldsee in that Shapes box should be a button that says 'Add Shape Key'. Make sure your cube is selected andclick on it. A new shape key will be created with the name of 'Basis'. This is your basis shape.F9;Click the 'Shapes' tab to open the shapes box;Select your Cube;Click 'Add Shapes Key'; Now we want to set the altered state of our cube. Before we start editing our cube and creating thesecond key, there is one rule you should follow. You cannot add or remove any vertices, faces, or edges. Thereason is that shape keys keeps track of the positions of the vertices. If you add or remove vertices going fromone key to the next, Blender has no idea when it is supposed to add or remove those vertices. So, whatBlender will do is alter that Basis shape so that it will work with the new (or removes) vertex, edge, or face.Typically you don't want this to happen. So, in summary, everything must stay intact.
 
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Let's start out by stretching our cube, like in the animation at the beginning of this tutorial. Go into EditMode and select all of your vertices. I'll skew my cube by 2 along the X-axis, you can do anything you want, aslong as your do not break the aforementioned rule. Once you are done editing your cube, go down to yourShapes buttons and click on 'Add Shape Key'. This one should be named 'Key 1', you can change the name ifyou like.Edit Mode;Select All;S;X;2;Click 'Add Shape Key'; We have our two keys set up and ready to go. Let's make sure it's working. Go back into Object Mode,as this will not work in Edit Mode, and you should see you shape snap back into the Basis shape, the cube.This is a good sign. If you go into the Shapes box you should still see 'Key 1' there. You should see a sliderbelow that currently at a setting of '0.00'. This is the Key value. As you pull that slider to the right, you shouldsee your cube morph into the shape we made for 'Key 1'.Object Mode;Move the Key Slider;
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delightfulmasqu

Thanks. Great tutorial mate... Here's the Video Tutorial: http://bit.ly/cXQPGN - If you prefer video like myself. Don't get me wrong, I still like ur tutorial!

reply04 / 18 / 2010
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