From: bobl@bobsbox.rent.com (Bob Lindabury - SysAdmin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.graphics
Subject: Re: ASDG Morph effects in AmigaWorld
Date: 12 Aug 92 16:01:49 GMT
Organization: Raven Enterprises -- Piscataway, NJ USA
X-NewsSoftware: GRn 1.16e (7/4/92) by Mike Schwartz & Michael B. Smith

In article <63798@cup.portal.com> pk-asdg@cup.portal.com (Perry S Kivolowitz) writes:
>
> You  are absolutely correct in saying that most morphs done in professional
> environments  are  performed  over  monochromatic  backgrounds.  The morphs
> contained in this ad were early tests which we had laying about when it was
> decided  to throw that ad together (which was done in a day - not exactly a
> practice I like to employ regularly).

Good. I imagine we will be seeing a new add in the next 3 months then.
<grin>

> You  say ``a little morph thrown in'', perhaps the small size of the images
> in the ad obscure what's really happening in them.  In the girl/baby morph,
> the  baby's  head  rotates  considerably  with a lot of motion in the eyes.
> Also,  both  the  upper and lower lips individually track.  Also, although
> the  girl's hair may look like it is simply dissolving in (in these stills)
> it  is  actually  growing out from the baby's head (this can be done better
> now, remember these morphs were early tests).

I was very interested in the fact that there *was* movement in these
morphs.  Morphing from one image to the next is fine but for any paying
work, we must morph a sequence of video frames and this is something we
are looking for at a reasonable cost.  Hopefully the interface to
achieve this will be as good as the final output suggests.  Future ads
should probably show at least a single screen shot of the interface.

> In  the  bear/baby  morph, each nostril individually tracks.  And, the left
> eye rotates completely as it moves (we did that to see if we could do it).
>
> Each of the morphs were computed at 768 by 482 and took under a minutes per
> warp (...under two minutes per finished frame) on a stock A3000.

This is great.  Finally someone with an idea of production timeframes.

> Pricing will be announced immediately before shipping.  Shipping will begin
> shortly.  ADPRO owners will have an opportunity to purchase MorphPlus for a
> considerable discount.

I guess that the new ideas gleaned at Siggraph will be incorporated into
this first release?

> BTW:   Any  comments  on any of the high quality other effects shown in the
> (hasty) ad? These were a few of the *other* effects contained in MorphPlus.

Sure do have a few!  The Rotate/Twirl effect looks like a winner.  I
like the idea of only affecting a *portion* of the frame.

Perspective Scale should provide us with a reasonable programmable DVE.

Warp.  Will that be able to be used in conjunction with Perspective
Scale for page turn effects?  The effect in the ad reminds me of
the shrunken heads in BeetleJuice. <grin>

--
 Bob Lindabury

InterNet: bobl@bobsbox.rent.com                | Raven Enterprises
    UUCP: ...rutgers!bobsbox!bobl              | 25 Raven Avenue
  BitNet: bobl%bobsbox.rent.com@pucc           | Piscataway, NJ 08854
  Home #: +1 908/560-7353                      | +1 908/271-8878