Morphing between two different curves or meshes via shapekeys

Question

I've imported two .svg's from illustrator to blender that I would like to be able to morph between with shapekeys. There's a screenshot of the .svg's below. Blender imports each letter as an individual curve and I've tried to convert these curves to meshes and use the shrinkwrap modifier to morph one letter into another. This hasn't really yielded any usable results though. So my only other idea was to export the text from illustrator as a .png and apply it to a square as a texture and then morph that square to a circle via the shrinkwrap modifier. I'd much prefer to do it all with the imported .svg's though, as nothing would pixelate when zoomed in for example. So if anyone has an idea how this could be achieved I'd really appreciate your input!

Cheers folks, thanks.

Answer 1

If you have your text transformed in blender curves, you can animate it using the add-on "AnimAll", which lets you animate directly every control point of your curves. You'll have to go to preference window, add-ons, search for AnimAll, activate it and save your user settings.

Of course you will use only the first svg, and you'll have to remodel it following the shape of the second, but everything remains in vector mode, without any pixelation.

Then, if you want a single control to move the morphing, you can use an action constraint.

Answer 2

I see your question has been answered already, and you probably no longer need help with this issue, but you (and others) may want to know that there is a very efficient way to create text like that in your reference image.

(The following instructions assume your text reads from the Top View)

Give the Curve or Text object some thickness

If it is a Text object, this can be done in the Text Context. Look for the Extrude slider.

If it's already a mesh, that's okay too - just Extrude E in Edit Mode. The point of giving it some volume is so that it will register with the Remesh Modifier.

You'll want the Object Origin to be in the center of the text. You can do this while it's a Text object by center-aligning and Y-offsetting the text, or re-set the Origin after converting to a mesh ShiftCtrlAltC.

Convert to Mesh

AltC

Add a Remesh Modifier

We need the text to deform evenly, and this quick retopology method will do just fine.

(Thanks to kaiware-daikon for these settings)

Apply the Remesh Modifier.

Re-flatten it

We don't need it to have volume anymore now that the retopo is done. You can delete the bottom vertices. From the Front View, Box Select B and Delete X.

Then flatten all the remaining verts back to 0 on the Z axis. (Found in the Transform Panel N)

Add an Empty

World Coordinates should be as follows: X:0 Y:0 Z:-0.5

We will use this in a moment.

Add a Cast Modifier

This Modifier can distort spherically or circularly. Here are the settings:

The End Result

(Animated example)