Subject: Plane to sphere
From: James Jones/Nibbles and Bits <[email-masked]>
To: Multiple recipients of list <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 27 Dec 1995 00:32:21 -0500

[email-masked] said:

>Does anyone know how to manually shape a plane to a sphere for a morph?

   There's an article in the February 1995 issue of LWPro that talks
about that very subject... :)
   
   In a nutshell, you can make a subdivided plane (on the X and Y axis)
and use the "Wrap-to-sphere" macro (Amiga and Intel) to create the morph
target.
   
   A few notes:

   1. Before using the Wrap-to-Sphere macro, flip all the planes polys so
that they are facing the positive Z axis. (Otherwise the sphere will have
all its poly facing inward.)
   
   2. After saving the result of the Wrap-to-sphere macro and hitting undo,
rotate the plane 180 degrees around the Y axis (to get the polys facing the
negative Z axis AND to correct the bug/feature of the Wrap-to-sphere macro
that makes your morph source object turn "inside-out" on its way to the
sphere target object) and THEN save the plane as the morph source object.
   
   3. For a better-looking morph, first morph the plane part way to a
cylinder (use the Bend tool on each half of the plane to make a cylinder)
and then morph the cylinder to the sphere.
   
   4. If the far side of the sphere will be visible, dissolve out the sphere
morph target and dissolve in a real sphere to get rid of the seam on the 
back.
   
   -Jim
   
James G. Jones
Nibbles & Bits
[email-masked]