UPDATED 26th September 2008 - added Height, Flatten and SquareCross morphs (not shown in the animation).
This is an improved version of one of my earliest freebie props, the Magic Morphin' Torus. It now matches the Poser torus closely in size (it even loads with fatness set to 0.2!) The morphs don't change the size of the prop as they used to, and the UV mapping has been made to tile so that any seamless square texture can be used.
The morphs are:
- Diameter - alters the major (overall) diameter of the ring; unlike scaling, the ring fatness stays constant.
- Fatness - alters the minor diameter, like the Poser torus.
- Height - alters the height while keeping the curvature the same.
- Flatten - makes the top and bottom faces flat.
- EllipseX, EllipseZ - makes an ellipse, with the major axis in the X or Z direction.
- Square - makes a square ring with rounded corners.
- StretchX, StretchZ - stretches the straight part to make oval shapes; also enables the square to be adjusted without changing the corner radius.
- SquareCross - makes the cross-section square.
You can combine the morphs with each other, and with scaling to make more complicated shapes if you have the time. Because it's a simple geometric shape, most of the dials can be altered way beyond the usual -1 to +1 limits.
supertorus.zip (79KB)
This is an open-ended cylindrical prop with shape morphs designed for modelling within Poser, especially "roughing out" clothing meshes. It's used in this tutorial, where I show you how to make a simple skirt with its help. There are two groups of morph:
-
Profile1 to Profile32:
When adjusted to +1, these pull a single column of vertices in towards the centre of the tube. Profile1 affects the column at the far left, and they are numbered clockwise from there. -
1zTran, 1zScale, 1xScale to 17zTran, 17zScale, 17xScale:
These affect a single ring of vertices, where 1 is the top edge of the tube, and 17 the bottom. There are no xTran morphs since clothing is normally symmetrical. For sleeves and trouser legs the overall xTran dial will do the job.
magictube.zip (29KB)
This is an open-ended cylindrical prop with various shape morphs which make it useful for things like belts, bracelets, headbands etc., and ad-hoc modelling within Poser.
The morphs are:
- Diameter - alters the diameter of the band; unlike scaling, fatness and tallness stay constant.
- Fatter - alters the wall thickness by decreasing the inner diameter.
- Taller - makes the wall taller.
- Ellipse - makes an ellipse, with the major axis in the L-R (X) direction unless you rotate it.
- Oval - makes an oval in the X direction.
- TaperX - tapers the band in the X axis.
- TaperZ - tapers the band in the Z axis.
- SlantX - slants the band in the X axis.
- SlantZ - slants the band in the Z axis.
- Twist - twists around the X axis.
- Buckle1, 2, 3 - produce a variety of bulges at the front for fitting a buckle.
The world's simplest props! A triangle and a square, but what makes them useful are the morphs. Each corner of each plane can be moved independently in the X, Y, and Z directions, making them useful for all sorts of things:
- Making simple props "on the spot"
- Repairing gaps in a mesh
- Backgrounds and floors
- Measuring things within Poser
The basic triangle is an isosceles type, 10" across the base and 10" tall. The square is 10" on a side (like the Poser square). The morphs are named x1, y1, z1, x2, y2, z2, ... etc. As you might expect, an x morph moves its vertex in the x direction and so on: a setting of 1.0 on the dial corresponds to 10" movement in that direction (0.1 obj units). The dials may be set positive or negative as required.
planes.zip (5.3KB)
The original MMT is still available here for those who want it. The morphs are:
- Diameter - alters the major (overall) diameter of the ring; unlike scaling, the ring fatness stays constant.
- Fatness - alters the minor diameter, like the Poser torus.
- Ellipse - makes an ellipse, with the major axis in the L-R (X) direction unless you rotate it.
- Oval - makes an oval in the X direction.
- Squareish - makes a square ring with rounded corners.
- Bulge left, right, forward, back - makes an egg shape with the small end in the direction indicated.
magictorus.zip (56.4KB)