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• BlobMesh: Creates a metaball object that flows from one object to the next like water.

• ShapeMerge: Lets you embed a spline into a mesh object or subtract the area of a spline from a mesh object.

• Boolean: Created by performing Boolean operations on two or more overlapping objects. The operations include Union, Subtraction, Intersection, and Cut.

• Terrain: Creates terrains from the elevation contour lines like those found on topographical maps.

• Loft: Sweeps a cross-section shape along a spline path.

• Mesher: Creates an object that converts particle systems into mesh objects as the frames progress. This makes assigning modifiers to particle systems possible.

• ProBoolean: Replaces the original Boolean compound object with the ability to perform Boolean operations on multiple objects at a time.

• ProCutter: Cuts a single stock object into multiple objects using several cutter objects.

Note

When two or more objects are combined into a single compound object, they use a single object material. The Multi/Sub-Object Material type can be used to apply different materials to the various parts. •

Morphing Objects

Morph objects are used to create a Morph animation by interpolating the vertices in one object to the vertex positions of a second object. The original object is called the Base object, and the second object is called the Target object. The Base and Target objects must have the same number of vertices. One Base object can be morphed into several targets.

Caution

To ensure that the Base and Target objects have the same number of vertices, create a copy of one object and modify it to be a target. Be sure to avoid such modifiers as Tessellate and Optimize, which change the number of vertices. •

To morph a Base object into a Target, select the Base object and select Create⇒Compound ⇒Morph. Then click the Pick Target button in the Pick Targets rollout, shown in Figure 27.1, and select a Target object in the viewport. The cursor changes to a plus sign when it is over an acceptable object. Unavailable objects (that have a different number of vertices) cannot be selected. Pick Target options include Copy, Instance, Reference, and Move. (The Move option deletes the original object that is selected.) The Target object appears under the Current Targets rollout in the Morph Targets list.

Each Morph object can have several Target objects. You can use the Pick Target button to select several targets, and the order in which these targets appear in the list is the order in which they are morphed. To delete a Target object, select it from the list and click the Delete Morph Target button. Beneath the list is a Name field where you can change the name of the selected Target object.

FIGURE 27.1

A Morph rollout lets you pick targets and create morph keys.

Creating Morph keys

With a Target object name selected in the Morph Targets list, you can drag the Time Slider to a frame and set a Morph key by clicking the Create Morph Key button found at the bottom of the rollout. This option sets the number of frames used to interpolate among the different morph states.

Note

If the Morph object changes dramatically, set the Morph Keys to include enough frames to interpolate smoothly. •

If a frame other than 0 is selected when a Target object is picked, a Morph Key is automatically created.

Morph objects versus the Morph modifier

Max includes two different ways to morph an object. You can create a Morph object or apply the Morph modifier to an existing object. The Morph object is different from the Morph modifier, but the results are the same; however, some subtle differences exist between these two.

A Morph object can include multiple Morph targets, but it can be created only once. Each target can have several Morph keys, which makes it easy to control. For example, you could set an object to morph to a different shape and return to its original form with only two Morph keys.

The Morph modifier, on the other