BCIS 3615 The Visual Display of Business Information

1. BCIS 3615 The Visual Display of Business Information Computer-Based Morphing Carolco

2. Rose is Rose Morph

3. Today’s Topics • Definitions & development • Morph Man • Morph construction

4. Morphing Morphing is tweening between different images. Morphing derives from “metamorphosis,” an ancient Greek word meaning “transformation.”

5. Tweening Tweening isinterpolation. Tweening algorithms create mathematically the intervening series of images (or frames) between two similar “key” images (or frames) drawn by an artist. Tweening derives from “in-betweening,” a cartoonist term.

6. Example of Tweening Anderson (1993)

7. Pre-Computer Morphingexamples • Nature: caterpillar to butterfly • Ancient Greek myths: Medusa, Actaeon • Opera: Alberich the man-dragon, from Das RheinGold (1869) • Film: The Wolf Man (1941)

8. Traditional Morphing in Film • Immobilize actor in special chair • Shoot a few frames • Add some makeup • Shoot a few more frames, repeat • Was a-g-o-n-y for actor

9. The Wolf Man (1941) Lon Chaney, Jr. “Larry Talbot” “The Wolf Man”

10. Computerized Morphing • Uses mathematical techniques • Shifts pixels from one image to another • Mixes the corresponding shades and colors from one image to another • Offers 2D and 3D types of morphing

11. Some Notable Morphs • 1982: ACM SIGGRAPH -- demonstration of a woman morphing into a lynx • 1988: Willow (first film use) • 1990: Plymouth Voyager (first ad use)

12. Willow (1988)goat to ostrich to turtle to tiger to woman

13. Some Notable Morphs, 2 • 1991: Exxon car into running tiger • 1991: Terminator 2, Star Trek VI • 1991: M. Jackson’s Black or White • 1992: Explosion of use

14. Exxon Car-Tiger (1991)

15. Terminator 2 (1991)

16. Star Trek VI (1991)

17. Morphing Involves Two Types of Algorithms • Warping (creates distortion morphs) • Dissolving (creates transition morphs)

18. Warping Algorithms • Are mathematical formulas for stretching or squeezing (pushing or pulling) part or all of an image, similar to a carnival house of mirrors • Can also map or intermix textures and colors between images

19. Sample Warp Holsinger (1994)

20. Essentials of Warping • Same images • Key points (X, Y pairs) only around target feature • Control points (also called a mask) to anchor rest of image

21. Building a Warp

22. Mona Lisa Warp Demo Gryphon Software Corporation

23. Dissolving Algorithms • Are mathematical formulas for blending or fading one image into another • Involve averaging the two images’ color palettes unless a “true color” (“millions of colors”, 24-bit pixel depth) system

24. Dissolve Morph Processsample key frames Holsinger (1994)

25. Essentials of Dissolving • Different images of identical size (if possible) • Key points as with a warp • No control points / mask unless tight control required

26. Sample Morph: ViewSonic

27. Advanced Morphing Methodsinclude • Dynamic morphing • Adjust key points during the morphing process • Used, ex., for very slow morphs • 3D morphing • Is very CPU-intensive • Is not suitable for some tasks (ex., transforming a doughnut into a cube)

28. 3D Morphing Example #1pyramid to cylinder

29. 3D Morphing Example #2Merlin (1998)

30. Some Morphing Software create AVI files to use within PowerPoint • Morph Man(PC) • Elastic Reality(PC, Mac, SGI)

31. Morph Man: Source File Types • Bitmapped still images (ex., BMP, PCX, JPG, GIF) • Individual frames captured from video source • Individual frames from AVI, MOV, FLC (crop with, ex., Graphic Workshop) • Other sources (see documentation)

32. Morph Man: Preprocessing • Use images similar in size • Use images with similar backgrounds • Cut features present only in 1 image • Use a graphics package to alter, ex., • Graphic Workshop • Adobe Photoshop

33. Morph Man Workspaceuses four main windows

34. Morph Man Terminology • Source – image file morphing sequence starts with • Target – image file morphing sequence ends with • Morph project – .MPJ file containing source and target file names, window positions, settings, etc.

35. Morph Man Terminology, 2 • Marker – a key point, paired with second key point on the other image. Selected pairs display in RED. • Simple shapes -- Markers describing a line, circle, polygon, etc; used for complex control needs (masks).

36. Morph Man Source / Target Window • Selector for marker type (use “Point”) • Marker placement / editing tool (Ctrl + arrow to nudge) • Red marker current

37. Morph Man Preview Window • Base-zero frame count • Type or scroll to desired frame • Thermometer • VCR-like controls

38. Creating a Morph Movie • Edit / Output Options • Edit / Save Options • Check compression • File / Create / Movie

39. Edit / Output Options Shows size of image marked beneath

40. Edit / Save Options

41. Choose Video Compressor Dialog

42. File / Create / Movie

43. Debugging a Morph Movie • Use more key points • Consider using a mask • Try a slower frame rate

44. Quality Morphs Require • Common backgrounds • Images of same / similar size • Many key points • Good placement of key points

45. Brakes on Morphing Useinclude • Lack of industry standards • Expense • Legal concerns

46. Brief Review • Definitions & development • Morph Man • Morph construction

47. ITDS Logo / Mood Slide