I haven’t done one in a long while - are there any new tips/tricks?? Or is distort node the way to go?? It’s a full morph face not a fluid morph
TIA!
I don’t think the old Morph node exists. The technology of extended bicubics has pretty much taken it’s place. (being able to move vertices and UV’s together) The distort node is “superior” in that it can be customized and manipulated to a finer degree, but it is cumbersome and buggy. my 2 cents.
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Crazy thought: if you are on 2022, try the ML fluid morph between faces.
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Distort is the tool for the job but it burnt me bad on 2018 and I have been leaning on extended bicubics since then. There is an expression that I use to blend from one shape to another.
FXPHD Flame Masters II ran an excellent tutorial on morphing where I got this expression from. I modified it for blending tracks but the LOGIK is the same. Just replace TrackOne.possition with Extended Bicubic shape1. It takes one animation curve and fades to another. Really useful.
Blending tracks. Maybe you want to smooth a camera track but then fade back to the original. Use a control axis to blend from TrackOne to TrackTwo.
((TrackOne.position*(1-Ctl.position.x))+(TrackTwo.position*Ctl.position.x)
See FXPHD FlameMastersII part 2
I hope it makes sense.
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I believe the free form splines in Distort is still superior than any grid based surface.
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oh was this Sams??
thanks a lot!
oh - ML TW just saved my A$$ last week! thats an interesting idea!! will try - thanks!
Hey MB,
I think I did an FX PhD where I morphed with extended bicubics.
I prefer them to the distort node because you can place a pixel precisely. In the distort note you can shove them in the right direction, but the control just isn’t there.
Extended bicubic is pretty amazing. You can track the source in the UV’s and still have an animatable shape channel on top, with it’s own key frames. So if your tracks have tiny bumps, you can correct them.
Then you use the vertices to place the pixels where you want them. Again, you have a separate track and shape channel, so you can map where you want things to go.
For my morph shot in Avatar, I used the old desktop morph. Has true pixel level control, which always seems necessary to finish something well. I also love the subdivide feature, where you can split a box in two. It allows you to have control where you need it without adding unnecessary splines where you dont.
If you want I can give you a 10 minute run through on my approach.
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Yeah @SamE I took that FXPHD class you did and found it amazing. Thanks for that insight.
So true about the two levels you get with Extended bicubic, one for track and one for shape animation.
That expression you use to transition from one shape to the next has been so useful for lots of other things.
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That’s a great class! I think the description FxPhd has is something like “Sam tries to break the new extended bicubic workflow.” That always gave me a little laugh. I also get a kick out of the “explicit content” warning for when you stabilize and clean up the modesty garment on the woman walking down the runway. Wasn’t explicit before the cleanup haha
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Yes I have it (Sam’s tutorial) and that’s was going to be my starting point - just wondered if anything new was around with all the new cool tools - trying to see if fluid morph will help as well but having issues getting it to work in 2022 - thanks for all the feedback!
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You are very brave @Mbemigh, jumping straight onto the latest and greatest version but then listening to you talk on the Logik Live #53: Stories of Old Flame you have never shied away from being on the frontier.
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haha thanks - it wasn’t so much I was “bold” but rather to naive to know better!!
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