Learning Resources

Morphing

Step 1.  Create an Image Warp

You will need a jpeg image for this step.  Create a folder (warp, for example) for the project, and put the image in the folder

Create the Warp

• Open WinMorph
• Start a New Warp Project (File / New / New Warp Project)
• Navigate to your project folder (warp, for example) and open your image
• Identify a number of parts on the image you wish to warp, and following the steps in the warp tutorial (you can open it and follow the steps as you perform them)
• When you have created your 'from' lines, your 'to' lines, and connected them using the warp tool, you will need to tell the program where to save the files before you can render them.  This is a 2-step process
  • Select File / Save (or Save As)
  • Give the project a name (note it will supply the extension .mrf)
  • Click on Save
  • A new requestor window called Options will open
  • Type in a filename for the images, and end it with .jpg (warp.jpg, for example) and click on Save As.
• Render the warp.  By default it will create 24 images.
• Select Preview mode (View / Preview Mode).  You can scrub the slider along and look at the effects.

Assuming you named the project warp.mrf and the image warp.jpg, if you open the folder in Windows Explorer, you will see a new warp.mrf file, and 24 jpeg images numbered warp000.jpg to warp023.jpeg

Create a Movie from the Warp (Optional)

These steps assume you used file names warp000.jpg to warp023.jpg.  If not substitute your filenames

• Open Photo Paint
• Open the first image in the list of warped images (warp000.jpg, in the example above)
• Convert the image to a movie (it will become the first frame of the movie)
  • Select Movie / Create from Document
  • The .jpg will be converted to a .avi
  • The frame around the image will change, and movie controls will be added at the bottom, indicating this is frame 1 of 1
• Next you will need to add each image in the morph sequence to the movie, making a new frame for each one as you add it.  You may want to open the Movie toolbar before you do this, as it will save a few mouse clicks for each image.
  • Open the Movie toolbar
    • Select View / Toolbars
    • Click in the box to the left of Movie in the list and make sure it is checked
    • When it is checked, click OK and the Movie toolbar will open.
    • You will see a number of icons.  The one you need for adding images is the clapboard icon
      
       
  • Add images as movie frames
    • Click on the clapboard icon (or Movie / Insert from File)
      The file requestor should open to the folder with your warped images (if you have not opened any other folders files since you opened the first image (warp000.jpg, for example)
    • Double-click on warp001.jpg
      Double-clicking selects the file and opens it, eliminating a step in the selection process.  A new requestor window will open asking where you want to put the file.  the choices are Before or After.  After is selected by default, as is the current frame (should be 1 in this case).  Click on Ok to accept the defaults )pressing the enter key will do the same thing.
    • Continue to add images to the movie, creating a new frame each time.  If you lose track, compare the image number to the frame number in the movie window (its at the bottom of the image window).  You should end up with 24 frames (000 to 023)

Save your file frequently.  When you are done, you can click the play button in the movie toolbar to see how it looks.  Save the file when you are finished. 

Depending on the size of your jpeg images, this produces a very large avi video clip.  You may wish to make it smaller.  To do so,

• Open MovieStar and select Edit mode
• In the Media browser, add your warped video clip (bottom left Icon)
• Drag the video clip onto the timeline
• Switch to Produce Mode
• Make the following settings to the Video setup
  • Format to AVI
  • Codec to DivX
  • Width 320
  • Height 200
  • Frame Rate 30
• There is no audio, but there is no choice to turn it off, so use the lowest settings
  • Compression PCM
  • Channels Mono
  • Sample Rate 1105
• Under Saver, Click the Render button
• a Produce As window will open.  Pick a folder, give it a filename, and click Save

Compare the new file size to the original.