Morphing

Morphing is essentially a controlled fade of one image to another. In every morph there is a starting image (often called image A) and an ending image (image B). The appearance of motion can be achieved specifying motion paths from shapes in image A to shapes in image B.

There are many applications for morphing. It is being used increasingly as a special effect on TV and in movies. The most commonly recognized application may be face morphing. My very first morph was a face morph:

Eric's face morph.

However, morphing has scientific value as a means for simulating growth or motion during development.

The Process of Development

In the examples below, microscope images were collected at different stages of development and then morphed from on stage to another to simulate the changes taking place. These morphs were done with Avid's Elastic Reality on a Power Macintosh. Adobe Premiere was used to for post-processing.
A complex of developmental genes control the development of all organisms. Several important developmental processes are now better understood as the result of studies of insect development in the laboratory of Professor Sean Carroll.

Fruit Fly Embryogenesis (QuickTime 3100K)
This morph shows the embryogenesis of a fruit fly as it would be seen through a confocal microscope.

Distal-Less (QuickTime 2900K)
This morph shows how areas within part of a butterfly embryo develop into a wing.

Butterfly disc to wing morph (QuickTime 1800K)
This morph shows how a butterfly wing develops.

SNA morph (QuickTime 763K)
This morph shows development of a fruitfly embryo.

Other Morph Examples

There are many other uses for morphs from illustrating evolution in an interesting way to creating purely visual effects.

Pterygote Evolution (QuickTime 2100K)
This morph shows how early simple arthropods developed into the diverse insects that exist today.

Butterfly wing morph (QuickTime 2100K)
This morph shows how a butterfly wing develops.

The following morphs are taken from the "Living in the Past" video that I worked on for Professor Sean Carroll. They were used as transitions between different video sequences.

Trilobyte to Fossil Morph (QuickTime 456K)
Morphs work better when the backgrounds of image A and image B are similar. In this morph, even though the morph of the trilobyte looks fine, the backgrounds are very different and the fade from image A to image B looks unnatural.

Fossil to Worm Morph (QuickTime 596K)
Unlike the trilobyte example, the backgrounds in this morph are similar and the fade between them appears smooth. For a description of how this morph was done, see below:
Morph construction example

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