Morphing for Enthusiasts and Pros

A morphing sequence is the smooth transformation of one image to another.

This was earlier done using cross fading techniques in motion pictures. However,

to get a convincing shot, the transforming subject had to stay absolutely still

in front of a steady background. With the development of dedicated software, it

has become relatively simple. FantaMorph is one such morphing software for

enthusiasts and professionals alike. It uses hardware acceleration to provide a

real-time preview of your morphing sequence. This allows you to see the output

instantly, thereby eliminating the need of saving the project or rendering it.

How to use



FantaMorph has a project wizard that guides you through the installation
process. By checking your computer's configuration, it informs you about the

morphing speed. You can choose the type of work you want to perform-morph, warp

or multiple morph. After importing the required images, you can crop or adjust

them as desired. You can also choose the length and display size of the output

image/movie. The green dots in the images below are called 'Key dots,' which

need to be placed on the major elements of the picture that would be morphed or

warped to define the transition. There is no limitation on the number of key

dots that can be placed on an image.

You can add, remove or scale them to the desired size. The more the number of

key dots the better the transition. Another interesting feature in FantaMorph is

real-time preview. The preview window uses hardware acceleration and displays

the preview of your completed work. On the left side of the preview window is

the effects toolbar. Using this you can add stunning effects such as background,

mask, foreground, and transition. The software comes with a small library of

these, and a whole range of other effects are available for free download from

its website.

Shown above is one example of what you can achieve using this software. You can extend this to create AVI clips, animated GIFs and SWFs for more intense professional applications

The Pro version comes with two add-in features. One is the image viewer,

which provides a thumbnail view of images in a folder; and the second one an

image sequence packer. This allows you to import various images and then save

them as a flash animation file.