XMORPH(1)XMORPH(1)NAMExmorph - digital image warping (morphing) for X window
system
SYNOPSISxmorph [-start srcimgfile [-finish destimgfile]]
DESCRIPTIONxmorph is a digital image warping program, also known as a
"morphing" program. It runs under the X Window System.
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.
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.
However, morphing is fun for some people who don't already
have the means for making movies, so here is a brief
explanation of how to make a movie from the images gener-
ated by xmorph:
xmorph uses the TrueVision Targa (TGA) image file format.
You can use PBMplus or netpbm or ImageMagick to convert
Targa to other still image formats. (This will be neces-
sary if, for example, you use the Berkeley MPEG encoder.)
See ftp://ikaros.fysik4.kth.se/pub/netpbm/.
Use another program, such as Berkeley's mpeg_encode, or
SGI's dmconvert, to turn the sequence of images that
xmorph created into a single animation. See ftp://mm-
ftp.cs.berkeley.edu/pub/multimedia/mpeg/encode/.
Use another program, such as mpeg_play, or movieplayer, to
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view the animation. See ftp://mm-ftp.cs.berke-
ley.edu/pub/multimedia/mpeg/play/.
There are plenty of other programs available for doing
that, and many of them are excellent.
AUTHOR
Written and Copyright (C) 1994-1996 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.
SEE ALSOX(1), ppmtotga(1), (netpbm or PBMplus), tgatoppm(1),
(netpbm or PBMplus), mpeg_encode(1) from U.C. Berkeley,
mpeg_play(1) from U.C. Berkeley, ImageMagick, dmcon-
vert(1), (under Silicon Graphics IRIX). movieplayer(1)
(under Silicon Graphics IRIX).
Adobe Premier, Art Department Pro Professional Conversion
Pack (under Amiga).
BUGS
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.
Report bugs to michael.gourlay@colorado.edu
WEB SITE
http://ucsub.colorado.edu/~gourlay http://ucsub.col-
orado.edu/~gourlay/Software/Graphics/xmorph.tar.gz
http://ucsub.colorado.edu/~gourlay/Software/Graph-
ics/xmorph.README http://ucsub.colorado.edu/~gourlay/Soft-
ware/Graphics/xmorph.txt
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