NAME
xmorph - image warping and dissolving (morphing) for X window system
morph - command line interface image morphing program
SYNOPSIS
xmorph [-start srcimgfile [-finish destimgfile]] [-src srcmeshfile
[-dst dstmeshfile ]] [-help]
morph [-start srcimgfile [-finish destimgfile]] [-src srcmeshfile [-dst
dstmeshfile ]] [-out outimgfile ] [-mt morphtween ] [-dt dissolvetween
] [-help]
DESCRIPTION
xmorph is a digital image warping and dissolving program, also known as
a "morphing" program. It runs under the X Window System. The primary
use of xmorph is to generate and modify meshes which control the shape
of an image. xmorph also has the capacity to dissolve images together,
and to generate a sequence of warped and dissolved images. When this
sequence is made into a movie, it is called a "morph".
morph is a morphing program with no graphical user interface. morph
performs image warping and dissolving but provides no means to create
or modify meshes. The intent is to use morph after meshes have already
been generated with xmorph. Since morph has no GUI, it can be run as a
background job and can be distributed over many machines or processes.
This parallelization of the task can significanly speed up the image
processing. morph can run on machines which have no display
whatsoever, and is therefore very portable.
Both xmorph and morph use a library called libmorph which can be used
separately in the creation of other morphing programs.
If imgfile names are provided on the command line, then those images
are loaded in. Otherwise, xmorph generates images to be used in lieu
of images provided by the user. Images may be loaded from menus within
xmorph.
xmorph has built-in help pages that answer questions about the details
of its use. Run xmorph and look at the online help for more
information.
OPTIONS
-start srcimgfile
Read the srcimgfile as the "source" image.
-finish destimgfile
Read the destimgfile as the "destination" image.
-src srcmeshfile
Read the srcmeshfile as the "source" mesh.
-dst destmeshfile
Read the destimgfile as the "destination" mesh.
-help Display command line options.
MORPH OPTIONS
-out outimgfile
Write the the output image to outimgfile .
-mt morphtween
Use morphtween as the warping tween parameter. Values are from
0 to 1. 0 means that the shape of the output is according to
the source mesh. 1 means that the shape is according to the
destination mesh. Default value is 0.
-dt dissolvetween
Use dissolvetween as the dissolve tween parameter. Values are
from 0 to 1. 0 means that the image of the output is according
to the source image. 1 means that the image is according to the
destination image. Negative values indicate that a sigmoid
sharpening function is to be applied to make the dissolving more
concentrated to values near 0.5. The idea is that the
dissolvetween value should be the negative of the morphtween
value in order to have the dissolve be more rapid during middle
values of the warp tween parameter, and less rapid otherwise.
This makes the morph more visually acceptable. Default value is
0.
MAKING MOVIES
xmorph is NOT a tool for making movies. xmorph is intended to be used
with OTHER tools for editting movies in the digital domain. I do not
intend to add movie making abilities to xmorph.
Here is a brief explanation of how to make a movie from the images
generated by xmorph:
xmorph uses the TrueVision Targa (TGA) image file format. You can use
PBMplus, netpbm, ImageMagick or some other program to convert Targa to
other still image formats. (This will be necessary if, for example,
you use the Berkeley MPEG encoder or want to make an animated GIF.)
See, e.g., ftp://ikaros.fysik4.kth.se/pub/netpbm/.
Use another program, such as Berkeley’s mpeg_encode, or SGI’s
dmconvert, or whirlgif to turn the sequence of images that xmorph
created into a single animation. See, e.g., ftp://mm-
ftp.cs.berkeley.edu/pub/multimedia/mpeg/encode/.
Use another program, such as mpeg_play, xanim or movieplayer, to view
the animation. See, e.g., ftp://mm-
ftp.cs.berkeley.edu/pub/multimedia/mpeg/play/.
There are plenty of other programs available for viewing movies.
AUTHOR
Written and Copyright (C) 1994-2000 by Michael J. Gourlay.
Help came from many places, including Andy Thaller, Warwick Allison,
and Mike Hoefelein.
The original morphing algorithm is presented in ‘‘A Two-Pass Mesh
Warping Algorithm for Object Transformation and Image Interpolation’’,
ILM Technical Memo #1030, Computer Graphics Department, Lucasfilm Ltd.,
1990.
Mesh-based digital image warping is discussed in detail in Digital
Image Warping by George Wolberg.
Xmorph is a GNU program.
SEE ALSO
X(1), ppmtotga(1) (part of netpbm or PBMplus), tgatoppm(1) (part of
netpbm or PBMplus), whirlgif(1), mpeg_encode(1) from U.C. Berkeley,
mpeg_play(1) from U.C. Berkeley, ImageMagick, dmconvert(1), (under
Silicon Graphics IRIX). movieplayer(1) (under Silicon Graphics IRIX),
xanim(1), GIMP(1).
NOTES
The only image file type currently supported is Truevision Targa (TGA)
but xmorph will load any type of Targa, such as 8-bit, 15-bit, or
16-bit colormapped or grayscale; 24-bit or 32-bit true color (with or
without alpha channel); run-length encoded or uncompressed.
Some versions of the program "xv" can not read xmorph’s TGA image
files. This is a bug in "xv", not in xmorph.
Use image conversion programs (such as those listed in the SEE ALSO
section) to convert to and from TGA image files for use with xmorph and
morph .
Report bugs to gourlay@colorado-research.com or mennucc1@debian.org
WEB SITE
http://sourceforge.net/projects/xmorph
http://colorado-research.com/~gourlay/
http://colorado-research.com/~gourlay/software/
http://colorado-research.com/~gourlay/software/Graphics/
http://colorado-research.com/~gourlay/software/Graphics/Xmorph/