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Morphing is aspecial effect inmotion pictures andanimations that changes (or morphs) oneimage orshape into another through a seamless transition. Traditionally such a depiction would be achieved throughdissolving techniques on film. Since the early 1990s, this has been replaced by computer software to create more realistic transitions. A similar method is applied to audio recordings, for example, by changing voices or vocal lines.
Long before digital morphing, several techniques were used for similar image transformations. Some of those techniques are closer to a matched dissolve - a gradual change between two pictures without warping the shapes in the images - while others did change the shapes in between the start and end phases of the transformation.
Known since at least the end of the 16th century,Tabula scalata is a type of painting with two images divided over a corrugated surface. Each image is only correctly visible from a certain angle. If the pictures are matched properly, a primitive type of morphing effect occurs when changing from one viewing angle to the other.
Around 1790 Frenchshadow play showmanFrançois Dominique Séraphin used a metal shadow figure with jointed parts to have the face of a young woman changing into that of a witch.[1]
Some 19th century mechanicalmagic lantern slides produced changes to the appearance of figures. For instance a nose could grow to enormous size, simply by slowly sliding away a piece of glass with black paint that masked part of another glass plate with the picture.[2][3]
In the first half of the 19th century "dissolving views" were a popular type of magic lantern show, mostly showing landscapes gradually dissolving from a day to night version or from summer to winter. Other uses are known, for instance Henry Langdon Childe showed groves transforming into cathedrals.[4]
The 1910 short filmNarren-grappen shows adissolve transformation of the clothing of a female character.[5]
Maurice Tourneur's 1915 filmAlias Jimmy Valentine featured a subtle dissolve transformation of the main character from respected citizen Lee Randall into his criminal alter ego Jimmy Valentine.
The Peter Tchaikovsky Story in a 1959 TV-series episode ofDisneyland features a swan automaton transforming into a real ballet dancer.[6]
In 1985,Godley & Creme created a "morph" effect using analogue cross-fades on parts of different faces in the video for "Cry".
In animation, the morphing effect was created long before the introduction of cinema. Aphenakistiscope designed by its inventorJoseph Plateau was printed around 1835 and shows the head of a woman changing into a witch and then into a monster.[7]
Émile Cohl's 1908 animated filmFantasmagorie featured much morphing of characters and objects drawn in simple outlines.[8]
In the early 1990s, computer techniques capable of more convincing results saw increasing use. These involved distorting one image at the same time that it faded into another through marking corresponding points and vectors on the "before" and "after" images used in the morph. For example, one would morph one face into another by marking key points on the first face, such as the contour of the nose or location of an eye, and mark where these same points existed on the second face. The computer would then distort the first face to have the shape of the second face at the same time that it faded the two faces. To compute the transformation of image coordinates required for the distortion, thealgorithm of Beier and Neely can be used.
In or before 1986, computer graphics company Omnibus created a digital animation for aTide commercial with a Tide detergent bottle smoothly morphing into the shape of the United States. The effect was programmed by Bob Hoffman. Omnibus re-used the technique in the movieFlight of the Navigator (1986). It featured scenes with a computer generated spaceship that appeared to change shape. The plaster cast of a model of the spaceship was scanned and digitally modified with techniques that included areflection mapping technique that was also developed by programmer Bob Hoffman.[9]
The 1986 movieThe Golden Child implemented early digital morphing effects from animal to human and back.
Willow (1988) featured a more detailed digital morphing sequence with a person changing into different animals. A similar process was used a year later inIndiana Jones and the Last Crusade to create Walter Donovan's gruesome demise. Both effects were created byIndustrial Light & Magic, using software developed byTom Brigham andDoug Smythe (AMPAS).[10][11]
In 1991, morphing appeared notably in theMichael Jackson music video "Black or White" and in the moviesTerminator 2: Judgment Day andStar Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. The first application for personal computers to offer morphing wasGryphon Software Morph on theMacintosh. Other early morphing systems included ImageMaster, MorphPlus and CineMorph, all of which premiered for theAmiga in 1992. Other programs became widely available within a year, and for a time the effect became common to the point ofcliché. For high-end use,Elastic Reality (based on MorphPlus) saw its first feature film use inIn The Line of Fire (1993) and was used inQuantum Leap (work performed by the Post Group). AtVisionArt Ted Fay used Elastic Reality to morphOdo forStar Trek: Deep Space Nine. TheSnoop Dogg music video "Who Am I? (What's My Name?)", where Snoop Dogg and the others morph into dogs. Elastic Reality was later purchased byAvid, having already become the de facto system of choice, used in many hundreds of films. The technology behind Elastic Reality earned two Academy Awards in 1996 for Scientific and Technical Achievement going to Garth Dickie andPerry Kivolowitz. The effect is technically called a "spatially warped cross-dissolve". The first social network designed for user-generated morph examples to be posted online was Galleries by Morpheus.
In Taiwan, Aderans, a hair loss solutions provider, did a TV commercial featuring a morphing sequence in which people with lush, thick hair morph into one another, reminiscent of the end sequence of the "Black or White" video.
Morphing algorithms continue to advance and programs can automatically morph images that correspond closely enough with relatively little instruction from the user. This has led to the use of morphing techniques to create convincing slow-motion effects where none existed in the original film or video footage by morphing between each individual frame usingoptical flow technology.[citation needed] Morphing has also appeared as a transition technique between one scene and another in television shows, even if the contents of the two images are entirely unrelated. The algorithm in this case attempts to find corresponding points between the images and distort one into the other as they crossfade.
While perhaps less obvious than in the past, morphing is used heavily today.[citation needed] Whereas the effect was initially a novelty, today, morphing effects are most often designed to be seamless and invisible to the eye.
A particular use for morphing effects is modern digital font design. Using morphing technology, called interpolation ormultiple master tech, a designer can create an intermediate between two styles, for example generating a semibold font by compromising between a bold and regular style, or extend a trend to create an ultra-light or ultra-bold. The technique is commonly used by font design studios.[12]
