Latest revision as of 04:13, 12 March 2020

MORPH SHAPES TUTORIAL

Prequisites

You are expected to have installed Unity and a valid Editor Pack installed correctly ( called SDK on Unity’s Asset Store).

Unity version used for tutorial: 2017.4.36f1. [Download here.]

Editor Pack/SDK: 14.415.8463-nightly (shows as "Intended for Unity Version 2017.3"). [Download here.]

Or you can use the Unity Hub application to easily manage multiple Unity installations. [Download here.]

Creating the Morph Shape

You will be using our avatar model in your 3D modelling tool of choice. You will find it included in our Editor Pack.

Here we use Blender which is free to use. This is the default start scene in Blender.

Delete cube, lights and cameras - we don't need those.

Go to File and Import, then pick FBX.

Here is the import window.

You should see this. Click off and on the model and click the Collections icon here:

Now delete the existing Morph Keys.

We now add two morph keys - clicking the plus sign. The first will be our 'Basis' and the second our new morph.

While on that new morph, double click to rename

Now ensure the value is set to 1.

Now switch to Sculpting mode.

After my changes here is our face morph.

That's it for the Blender part. Now we export to FBX.

Export FBX From Blender

Go to File then Export then FBX.

Make sure your export settings are the same as this. Do ensure !Expermintal! Apply Transform is checked and Bake Animation is unchecked.

Then click Export.

Import FBX into Unity

Now we switch to Unity. Here we have an empty scene ready and a work folder created called "Morph Tutorial Folder".

You of course, should use your own recognisable name.

With this folder selected, right click in the empty right hand pane of your project and select Import Asset.

Locate your folder where you exported the modified 2017 Male into. First go to Assets.

Then go to your work folder and import the model.

Here our model is now imported into the project.

Checking Our Morph Has Imported

Drag the model into the scene/hierarchy and expand the model to see its child objects. Check the mesh has a skinned renderer and that you

can see your morph name.

Dialling this to 100 will reveal your morph. Leave it set at 100.

Creating the Vertex Displacement Map

Open the menu item: Sinespace->Tools->Custom Shapes->Create Body Morph Texture

Now click into the Assets folder and then into your work folder.

You will now see the Create Morph Map dialog box.

Drag the mesh (from the project) into the top slot.

Put a checkmark into Preview and Overwrite Silently then click Bake Map.

Type the name of your morph into the "Original Blendshape" field.

Uncheck Incorporate Normal.

Set preview options.

In your project search box, type 2017 and drag the 2017 Male file into the Alternative Avatar slot.

The reason we do not use the Base Avatar for preview is that this defaults to the Male version and cannot be used for

a Female morph. Therefore it's better to get into the habit of locating the individual 2017 Male/Female avi's manually.

Click on your work folder in the project and then click Bake Map.

A preview of your morph will show in the scene. Move the original out of the way to compare that they are the same.

Now click on the new displacement map in your project work folder. Ensure sRGB is off, Read/Write is enabled, Generate Mipmaps off, Wrap Mode is Clamp,

Filter Mode is Point. No compression.

Then click Apply.

You might see some very subtle pastel RGB shadings but Unity cannot show the preview properly for the morph map generated.

Here's what it looks like in Krita.

Creating The Virtual Good

Now we get to the final step - creating the virtual good. Right click an empty part of the hierarchy and create an empty game object.

Rename your game object to something recognisable. Add a Clothing Item Settings component.

Tick and expand Body Slider. Then drag the generated morph texture into the Vertex Displacement Map slot. Ensure the skeleton is set to Base Male.

Add a virtual good component.

Set the type to Clothing and the category to Clothes / Body / Morphs.

After completing that, drag your item from the hierarchy to your project. Right clik it then select Upload to Sinespace.

The Result

Here's the finished item in world, called "Morph Tutorial" and is available free in the shop.