Belgian Amiga Club - ADF Collection/BS1 part 60.zip/BS1 part 60/Imagemaster d4.adf/apa.lzh/morph_tut6

Text File | 1993-08-30 | 9KB | 167 lines

\ApAssist
\: - This is the Quick Help for the special effects warp morph panel -
\: ---------------------------------------------------------------------
\:   Written by David E. Patterson
\: ---------------------------------------------------------------------

\font topaz.font 8
\tc 1
\wr
\lj
\dd "imh_descriptor"

\node "morph_comp"
\title "Compose Morphing Tutorial"
\next "morph_tut7/morph_ctools"
\prev "morph_tut5/morph_wmm"
Dual image morphing is available as a \{ \ts i \tc 10 Compose \} operation.
In order to access it, you need to have two images loaded, one as the primary
buffer and one as the secondary buffer. As always, if no secondary buffer has
been specified, then the compose control panel will be inaccessable.

To work through this tour with us, you'll need two images, each of a
different face. They can be similar, like brothers, or they can be quite
different, like a cow and a dog - just so they are faces viewed from the
front. Note that we are assuming that you have already worked through the
warp morphing tour - if you have not, please go back and do that first.

\{ \ce \ts b \tc 15 \link "Press Me to go Back" "morph_tut2/morph_warp" \}

Once you've loaded two images of a face, one as Primary and one as Secondary,
the \{ \tc 10 \ts i Compose \} button in the main panel becomes available.
Press it; then press the \{ \tc 10 \ts i Morph \} button. You are now located
in the Morphing control panel.

The working area again consists of two displays; one of both your images on a
full-size \{ \ts i Amiga \} screen, and one of controls, on a "short" \{ \ts
i Amiga \} screen.

Looking at the image display area, you will see two greyscale images, one of
your primary buffer and one of your secondary buffer.  These images are used
to guide you in placing your control points and edges.

Begin by clicking on the \{ \tc 10 \ts i Set Controls \} button. When the new
panel opens, you'll see a text entry field marked \{ \ts b Total Frames\} .
If it does not read 15, then click in this field with your left mouse button
and replace whatever was there with 15.  Now press \{ \ts i \tc 10  Done\} .
For the best results when testing a dual image morph, you should always have
an odd number of frames; this is so that there is a frame number that is
exactly in the \{ \ts i middle \} of the sequence.  For instance, an 8-frame
morph has frames 4 and 5, neither of which is in the middle; there is no
middle frame.

Back in the main morphing control panel now, click on the Mode button (at the
top left of the control panel) until it reads \{ \ts i \tc 10 Add Points\} .

Let's zoom in on the area where we'll be working, the left eye.  To zoom,
first click on the button with the legend \{ \ts b \tc 10 Zoom\} .  Now point
about 1/2 inch above and to the left of the left eye on the left (starting)
image, click the mouse and drag down and to the right.  A box will appear;
keep pulling until the box entirely encloses the eye (about 1/2 inch below
and right) and then let go of the mouse button.  The image will now be zoomed
in. If the result is not to your liking, click on the Zoom button again and
the zoom will be turned off.  Repeat these steps, beginning with re-
selecting the zoom button, to get a better zoom around the eye.  When you
have the eye nicely centered in a zoomed image, continue.

Now, because you are working with two completely different images, the image
in the right (ending) frame may not be properly centered around its left eye
after the zoom; we need to get it well-centered before we proceed. It's
really very easy to do. First, press the \{ \ts b R \} key on the keyboard.
This tells \{ \ts b Imagemaster R/t \} to limit zooming and panning
to the right (ending) frame only. Now, using the cursor key pad, pan the
right frame around until the left eye of the ending image is entirely
visible. If the eye is too large, you can press the \{ \ts b < \} key on the
keyboard to zoom out a bit; if it is too small, you can press the \{ \ts b <
\} key on the keyboard to zoom in a bit. When the right image's, left eye is
well centered, continue.

Click on the mode control button until it reads \{ \ts i \tc 10 Add Points\} .
Now, point at the left image's eye and drop points all around the edge of
the eye, just as we did in the warp morph tour.  And again, about 8 points
should be just fine  When we do this, we place the points as follows; one at
each corner of the eye; one directly above, and one directly below the pupil;
and the final four, one at a time between the corners of the eye and the
points by the pupil; The final placement looks somewhat like this:

\{ \image "Clips/girlfrogsim.pic" c \} \flushimage

Looking at the right image, the same points will be visible, but they won't
be correctly arranged around the right image's eye - that's because these are
different eyes, unlike the warp morph, and \{ \ts b Imagemaster R/t
\} can't know exactly what you're trying to do. So, it's your job to get
those points arranged in just the same manner around this other eye.  It
should be very obvious what needs to be done - the points should be in the
same relative positions as they are in the left frame.  You can point and
move the points in the right frame now, even though you are not in \{ \tc 10
\ts i Move Points \} mode; \{ \tc 10 \ts i Add Points \} works such that the
left frame adds points and the right frame moves points.  By the way, if you
need to adjust any of the points in the left frame, change the mode button to
read \{ \ts i \tc 10 Move Points \} and you can do it easily.  When you have
the points arranged around both left eyes to your satisfaction, continue.

\{ \image "Clips/girlfrogeye.pic" c \} \flushimage

Now we're going to add edges, again, just as we did for the warp morph tour.
Point at the Mode button again and click on it until it reads \{ \ts b \tc 10
Edges\} .  In the left image, beginning with any point you like, click on each
point in turn all the way around the eye.  As you go, you'll see blue edges
appear between each point.  Continue until the eye is completely surrounded by
edges.  When you get to the last point, click on it twice to de-select it.
Looking over at the end frame, you'll see the edges are there as well.

\{ \image "Clips/girlfrogeyeedge.pic" c \} \flushimage

When you've got the entire group of points connected with edges, click on the
\{ \ts b \tc 10 Arc Vectors \} button and take a look at the vectors and the
edges. Remember that you can use the right mouse button to hide the control
panel and reveal the entire image.  Note that there is a new control in the
Arc Vectors window which allows you to set the amount of the start and end
images visible called \{ \ts i Show Through\} . Play with the control until
you can see a nice mix of both images. The vector format view may help you
imagine what the results of the morph will be.  When you're done looking at
the vectors, click on \{ \ts i \tc 10 Done\} .

Now, click on the \{ \ts b \tc 10 Zoom \} button to turn off the zoom, then
click it once more to allow you to zoom in a new area.  This time, zoom the
right eye of the left image.  Once you have it positioned properly, press \{
\ts b R \} on the keyboard and pan the right image so it's right eye shows
also.  Now, simply repeat the process of adding points to the left image's
eye, moving the points on the right image's eye to match up, and then adding
edges.  You should be familiar with the methods needed to do this; if you have
problems, refer to the preceeding paragraphs for more detail on what controls
to select, and when.  When you have the right eye set up, continue.

Now in the main morphing panel, press \{ \tc 10 \ts b Do 1 Frame\} , and \{
\ts i \tc 10 Proceed Without Saving\} . Make sure the \{ \tc 10 \ts i Preview
\} button here is selected. If it is not, click on it once to select it. Now,
you need to pick the middle frame of the total number of frames. The panel
should indicate there are 15 frames, click in the text entry field, type the
number 8, and press return. When you press return, the morph is generated.

When the preview completes, you should have an image of the two faces mixed
together, with the eyes tied perfectly together. You'll note that the rest of
the face(s) are not perfectly matched up; that's because you don't have
control points specified for the various matching features. The more features
you tie together, the better the overall morph will look.

More complex morphs are usually made up of several regions such as the ones
you just created around the eyes. As is the case with many things, even the
most complex morph is the sum of a series of simpler operations.

To continue learing, we suggest that you work to make the rest of the
features match up. You should be able to get the morph completely matched
just using the techniques we've gone over - have fun!

\{ \image "Clips/stop.pic" c
\flushimage\}

\{ \ra \image "clips/q_mark.pic" l 10 \cap \} \flushimage
\{ \ts b \tc 15 Have any Problems?\}

If you didn't get the results described here, we suggest you go back and
go through the tour again. Most likely, you've missed a step somewhere.

\endnode