XMORPH(1)XMORPH(1)NAMExmorph - image warping and dissolving (morphing) for X
window system
morph - command line interface image morphing program
SYNOPSISxmorph [-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]
DESCRIPTIONxmorph 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 inter
face. 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 sig
nificanly speed up the image processing. morph can run on
machines which have no display whatsoever, and is there
fore 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 destina
tion 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 destina
tion image. Negative values indicate that a sig
moid 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 visu
ally acceptable. Default value is 0.
MAKING MOVIESxmorph 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 mak
ing 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/multime
dia/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, War
wick 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 ALSOX(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 chan
nel); 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
WEB SITE
http://colorado-research.com/~gourlay/
http://colorado-research.com/~gourlay/software/
http://colorado-research.com/~gourlay/software/Graphics/
http://colorado-research.com/~gourlay/software/Graph
ics/Xmorph/
XMORPH(1)
