Basics of Warping and Morphing

Basics of Warping and Morphing

What is warping?

The process of distorting/modifying an image using a set of reference points or lines is called warping. The reference points/lines are called Control Points or Control lines.

Initially, you specify the reference points/lines in the original image visually. Then you specify the new position of the control points/lines and the image will be warped according to the correspondence between the source and target control points/lines.

In WinMorph, you use a set of lines called control shapes to specify this reference.

What is morphing?

Morphing is the process of transforming one image into another smoothly. The user specifies the correspondence between the two images using a set of control lines/points, which are used for mapping pixels in the source image to the target image.

The underlying principle of morphing is to warp and dissolve. The source image is warped to the target image, and the target image is warped to the source image, and both these intermediate images are dissolved pixel-by-pixel to give that smooth transition from the source to target.