Fantamorph

[munickster]

Thank you for that tip, Cheryl. I've only been testing things so far, so I'll buy it before I start the real thing.

Dick

[momoffduty]

Bumped because of a question on another thread.

Rusty, if you need any help just post. Jamal works with this program too.

The real work is the prep in PS. Start with your last picture first and work backwards. Cut out the last picture and place on a transparent file where you want it. The next layer is cut out of the next pic. Match up the eyes. Continue with all pics. Then save each layer as its own file and can delete the extra layers for each. May want to save one file as a complete set for adjustments if needed later.

[rusty]

Awesome. Thanks Cheryl. Muvipix is the BEST!

[Wheat King]

Just finished two 15 picture morphs a couple of weeks ago. What kind of morph are you doing?

[rusty]

Hi Jamal,

I'm planning to do a 13 picture morph of K - 12 school photos of my daughter for a graduation video I am starting to think about for June, 2010. I guess I need the Pro version of Fantamorph, correct? It will be an SD project as many photos will be scanned and most of the video is old and SG, so I am assuming that exporting to 16 bit AVI is sufficient? Many thanks.

[momoffduty]

To morph a sequence of pics you need the pro version. Name your files in sequence to bring into Fantamorph. TIFF files, I believe. It has been awhile since I worked with the program. Jamal may have some tips to add.

[Wheat King]

I'd recommend getting the pro version for the reason Cheryl mentions. You could probably do a bunch of separate morphs with the standard version and edit them together but I find that it's nicer to have everything contained in a single project and I don't think the cost is significantly different between the two. (20 bucks?) Not to mention there are other advantages. (forget what they are right now...)

Anyway. If you do go with the pro version you are going to want to set up a multimorph project. BUT (here's a tip I discovered with my last project...) DO NOT use the wizard to add all your photos when you first start the project. There's a timesaving advantage I'll try to explain below.

In the wizard, simply grab your K and G1 pics and bring them in for your first sequence. plot your points on K and then move the points on G1 to match the same logical location on K. (corner of an eye to corner of an eye, etc) Once you've got the sequence looking smooth, press the add sequence button in the sequence list to add the Grade 1 pic for the second sequence. Here's the kicker... Fantamorph will automatically add the G1 picture with the plotted points from the first sequence! This does not happen if you've already added the sequence at the beginning. Note= You can copy and past your points but they don't always line up perfectly. I prefer to use the newly discovered method as then I know the points in Sequence 1 match sequence 2 more precisely. You save time because now all you need to do is add the second picture in Sequence 2 and then maneuver the points to the same logical location on G2. repeat until done.

Sequence List for a multimorph will look something like this...
Sequence 1 = K - G1
Sequence 2 = G1 - G2
Sequence 3 = G2 - G3
Sequence 4 = G3 - G4
...

FYI these morphs can have a real emotional impact especially if you've got the right music with it.

Keep us posted on your project rusty and of course we're here if you have more questions!

[momoffduty]

Amazing Jamal! Your Wizard discovery has saved many hours of labor. Thanks, added your notes to my notebook. Have a project coming up and will try this.

Rusty, yes please keep us posted on your graduation project. Would like to see the morphing, if possible.

[rusty]

Thanks guys - yes, I will definitiely keep you updated. I really appreciate the time-saving tips, and have printed off the pages of this thread as a reference. I think I'll get Fantamorph on the weekend and start fiddling with it now, even though the rest of the project will be worked on over the winter. No doubt I'll have questions, so I'll be back!

Thanks again...oh, and Jamal...GO CANUCKS!

[Chuck Engels]

Thanks again...oh, and Jamal...GO CANUCKS!

Now you've done it, the rivalry begins

[rusty]

Bring it on! It should be an intresting season with Heatley leaving the Senators and the Canucks with a number of new faces too. Being in different conferences, they only play each other twice. Would be nice if they both ended up in the Stanley Cup finals, but if it has to be one or the other, I'm with the Canucks...I can always dream. Nice smiley's Chuck!

[Chuck Engels]

Ron just added some new ones for us



and my favorite

[Wheat King]

Love the smilies! Thanks Ron!

I'm really excited to watch the sens this year... lots of depth... however as always goaltending is a question mark going into the season (unlike vancouver) If Ottawa had a Roberto Luongo over the past 10 years we woulda won at least one cup by now! ah well. I think the canucks have a great defence and goaltending but they lack punch up front. That being said they have a good coach that will make it work. I say canuck s will be in the top 5 in the West this year. I think the Sens are going to do be a surprise to most this year and will challenge the bruins for tops in the division.

Hope the morphing goes well!

[rusty]

This is for Jamal and Cheryl, and anyone else who has worked with Fantamorph. I've started my project referred to above. I scanned in the 13 photos of my daughter (K - 12) but decided to experiment with just the Grade 11 and 12 ones by bringing them into PSE7 as layers and matching up the eyes, selecting the head area on each and saving each selection with transparency as aTIFF's and then bringing them into Fantamorph as image 1 and 2. I added a whole bunch of dots and previewed the result - it looks really good, amazing actually. In the preview, the tranparency seems to still be there as the head is floating in a gray and white checkerboard while it morphs from one image to the other very smoothly, but when I export the movie (all 2 seconds of it) as an .avi, the result is on a black background. Thinking this might still be transparent, I brought that .avi into a PRE7 project on video track 2, with a still photo on track 1 as a background. However, the morph on track 2 is on a black background, not a tranparent one, so the black blocks out most of the background still photo on track 1. How do I get just the head shot to appear so I can put the morph sequence on a background? Thanks as usual guys.

PS Here's the morph sequence (don't blink - it goes quick!):

[wmvvideo]http://muvipix.com/cpg/albums/userpics/11563/Grade_11_to_12_Morph.wmv[/wmvvideo]

[Wheat King]

Hi Rusty, You're just about there. The way I used fantamorph to maintain transparency was to export an image sequence (instead of a movie file). In Premiere Elements I imported the photos and then used the create slideshow feature where the duration was set to one frame.

Hope this helps get you started post back if you have questions.