Morphing

Morphing
Morphing is a special effect in motion pictures and animations that changes (or
morphs) one image into another through a seamless transition. Most often it is
used to depict one person turning into another through technological means or as
part of a fantasy or surreal sequence. Traditionally such a depiction would be
achieved through cross-fading techniques on film. Since the early 1990s, this has
been replaced by computer software to create more realistic transitions.
Early examples of morphing
process was used a year later in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade to create
Walter Donovan's gruesome demise. Both effects were created by Industrial Light
& Magic using grid warping techniques developed by Tom Brigham and Doug
Smythe (AMPAS).[1]
In 1985, Godley & Creme created a primitive "morph" effect using analogue cross-
fades in the video for "Cry". The cover for Queen's 1989 album The Miracle
featured the technique to morph the four band members' faces into one gestalt
image. In 1991, morphing appeared notably in the Michael Jackson music video
Black or White and in the movies Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Star Trek VI:
The Undiscovered Country. The first application for personal computers to offer
morphing was Gryphon Software Morph on the Macintosh. Other early morphing
systems included ImageMaster, MorphPlus and CineMorph, all of which
premiered for the Commodore Amiga in 1992. Other programs became widely
available within a year, and for a time the effect became common to the point of
cliché. For high-end use, Elastic Reality (based on MorphPlus) saw its first feature
film use in In The Line of Fire (1993) and was used in Quantum Leap (work
performed by the Post Group). At VisionArt Ted Fay used Elastic Reality to morph
Odo for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Elastic Reality was later purchased by Avid,
having already become the de facto system of choice, used in many hundreds of
films. The technology behind Elastic Reality earned two Academy Awards in 1996
for Scientific and Technical Achievement going to Garth Dickie and Perry
Kivolowitz. The effect is technically called a "spatially warped cross-dissolve". The
first social network designed for user-generated morph examples to be posted
online was Galleries by Morpheus (morphing software).
In Taiwan, Aderans, a hair loss solutions provider, did a TV commercial featuring a

morphing sequence in which people with lush, thick hair morph into one another,
reminiscent of the end sequence of the Black or White video.
Modern morphing techniques
Computer-animated morphing was used in the 1974 Canadian animation Hunger.
In the early 1990s computer techniques that often produced more convincing
results began to be widely used. These involved distorting one image at the same
time that it faded into another through marking corresponding points and vectors
on the "before" and "after" images used in the morph. For example, one would
morph one face into another by marking key points on the first face, such as the
contour of the nose or location of an eye, and mark where these same points
existed on the second face. The computer would then distort the first face to have
the shape of the second face at the same time that it faded the two faces. To
compute the transformation of image coordinates required for the distortion, e.g.
the algorithm of Beier and Neely can be used.
Later, more sophisticated cross-fading techniques were employed that vignetted

different parts of one image to the other gradually instead of transitioning the
entire image at once. This style of morphing was perhaps most famously
employed in the video that former 10cc members Kevin Godley and Lol Creme
(performing as Godley & Creme) produced in 1985 for their song Cry. It comprised
a series of black and white close-up shots of faces of many different people that
gradually faded from one to the next. In a strict sense, this had little to do with
modern-day computer generated morphing effects, since it was merely a dissolve
using fully analog equipment.
Present use of morphing
Morphing algorithms continue to advance and many programs can automatically

morph images that correspond closely enough with relatively little instruction
from the user. This has led to the use of morphing techniques to create
convincing slow-motion effects where none existed in the original film or video
footage by morphing between each individual frame using optical flow
technology. Morphing has also appeared as a transition technique between one
scene and another in television shows, even if the contents of the two images are
entirely unrelated. The algorithm in this case attempts to find corresponding
points between the images and distort one into the other as they crossfade.
While perhaps less obvious than in the past, morphing is used heavily today.
Whereas the effect was initially a novelty, today, morphing effects are most often
designed to be seamless and invisible to the eye.

Morphing

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Morphing

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Morphing

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Morphing

Early examples of morphing

In Taiwan, Aderans, a hair loss solutions provider, did a TV commercial featuring a

Modern morphing techniques

Computer-animated morphing was used in the 1974 Canadian animation Hunger.

Later, more sophisticated cross-fading techniques were employed that vignetted

Present use of morphing

Morphing algorithms continue to advance and many programs can automatically

You might also like