Image Morph Pgm
20 messages in this thread
John: Thanks for your comments on Morph. My copy just arrived
today. I'll let you know if I duplicate your findings. I haven't
heard from HSC yet. I guess they still arn't shipping. <<The most
irritating thing: rescaling an image or simply scrolling a little in
an image takes *15* *SECONDS* on my 486/66 machine. >> I'll be testing
on the new Metheus card at 1024x768x24 bit S3 928, 486/66. Don
Landis
Dangerous Div'n Don,
I called the Glyphon people about the crash glitches. (I talked to Mike Peay,
also at 73140,3010)
Item 1) Slow redraws: the program defaults to a "Better Quality" dither from
24 bits (even when using 8-bit files). Setting View/Dither to "Low Quality"
changes the 15 seconds into about 2 seconds for a 514*486 image. Much more
tolerable but still on the slow side. ("But it takes a lot of processing to do
all that dithering," says he; "But if Photostyler can do the same thing in 1/4
second…" says I; "Oh…," says he) They added the Low Quality dither option
late in the development and didn't have time or think to preserve your
preference as a default in the .INI file, so you have to set it each time you
start something new.
Item 2) Windows crash: Mr Peay thinks a clue from their Mac experience may
be a "slight" problem with placing a morph key too close to the lower right
corner. I had keys low in each image to force a smooth morph on the bottom
edge where the subjects extended off the border. I moved the keys and it
didn't crash this time, but I haven't had time to attempt to isolate and
reproduce the crash to prove that was the problem.
They also have a small problem with not properly responding to a Windows paint
event when zoomed in: If Image1 is zoomed in and you select a key on Image2
that corresponds to a key that is not currently visible on Image1 (off the
edge), the program will shift the target key so you can see it. All the other
keys shift too, but unfortunately the image doesn't! It appears that your keys
are suddenly misregistered. Forcing the window to repaint by minimizing then
restoring will fix the image.
If they fix these and a few other minor bugs, I think it will be real useful.
Unfortunately, I don't have time to do any volunteer post-Beta testing for them
right now. If they don't update within the 30 day refund period, I may send it
back and try out the Blackbelt. (I like the name… maybe I'll get it anyway
<g>).
JKJ
PS. I used the Morph today to change my ugly face into my little Paul's angelic
smile over 40 frames. A big hit around here! I think this will be a great
add-on for 3DS fun.
I had some time late last night to load the Gryphon Morph.
I installed it on my 486-66 with the new Metheus 928 S3 4 meg VRAM on a stacker
IDE drive. I'm using Windows for Workgroups with QEMM DBF=2, RAM, EMB=31000 +
X='s, (I've eliminated stealth because it slows my system by 3-5%).
I zipped through the first sample files trying out the president files with a
microsoft compressed movie. I wasn't impressed! I didn't like the low rez
graphic display even with "better" selected. Screen redraws were instant, less
than a second. I believe you reported 2-15 seconds. I experienced no crashing
with the program even with several morph keys on the bottom corners of the
image window.
Next I tried a solo morph without the manual. I scanned in at 75 DPI two
photographs adjusting the picture area to set a 512X486 pixel scan. This
resulted in two 24 bit targa files of exactly the specs of a 3D studio targa
animation frame. I booted Morph and set about 60 morph keys. The photos were
of my daughter at age 4 and age 11. The rendering took about 30 seconds per
frame or one hour for a four second series of sequentially numbered targa
files. (120) 3/4 meg each. I think I'm going to need a bigger HD soon. <g> I
spot checked the TGA's and they looked good quality. Since it was 2 AM I
didn't record the TGA's to tape yet but it should look OK.
Running at 1024×768 24 bit windows is sure nice as I can put two full display
image windows at targa 512×486 rez. side by side.
The program works, I didn't experience the problems you had except for the zoom
limitation(needs work). I thought the learning curve was very fast, the manual
got me up and on my own very fast. The quality of the morphs in the targa 24
bit files I checked looked excellent and the speed of rendering is fast enough
comparable to 3Dstudio time. I would like to try a 4k morph next to test the
speed I'll have to use 3Dstudio renderings as my scanner only does 600 dpi <g>
Now I have to call HSC and see what their delay is. I ordered their product
too. Is the Blackbelt product you mentioned also $75 ;-)?
WinImages:morph is $199.95 retail. You milage may vary depending on your
dealer. :^)
–Ben
…via AutoPilot
Just what I need, another fun program to take up my time! <g> RE the disk
space… The tendency to make long sequences seems to be worse than with 3DS
since the rendering time is quicker. My last little morph was about 20 MB and
it was a FLIC. Now what can I sell to get an optical drive…
I haven't had any more crashes (keeping the keys off the bottom). To take care
of tearing at the edge I put the last flic into AniPro and cropped the edges.
I checked again on the screen redraw times. It takes 2 seconds to redraw when
clicking on the scrollbar in the FERRARI sample; 13 seconds on a 512×486 targa.
Is this just on my system? What were your screen redraw times with the 512×486
images with dither set to Better?
I envy you guys with single frame video. I'll bet the targas to tape will be
fantastic.
What I want to try next is using it with 3DS to do one of those impossible
morphs between two dissimilar objects. However, unless I glossed over
something, this software doesn't seem to be set up for morphing a moving image
(i.e. take a flic or set of targas as the source or destination image.) Might
take hours of manual labor. Now that I think of it, a 2D morph module would be
a great feature for some deranged programmer to add to Video Post!
JKJ
PS. Great ideas on the cloud stuff. Keep us posted? Better yet, write an
article!
JKJ:
PMJI, but FYI, JKJ, (whew!) Blackbelt's Winimages:Morph does do animated
2D morphs, as well as standard still morphs and warps.
Greg Pyros
Sequential targas or just flics for animated morphs?
Don:
>> Sequential targas or just flics for animated morphs?
Winimages:Morph does both, any size targas, or flics for either morphing one
still into another or a true morphing of an animation.
Runs under Windows, lists at $199.
Greg Pyros
>>Blackbelt…
Hey, you can JI anytime! I feel honored. I think you just added the final
straw – the Blackbelt looks better all the time!
JKJ
Benchmarks:
Ferrari set to full screen windows at 1024X768X24 Bit mode using the Metheus
4Meg card was much less than a second in the "Better". It was slower as I kept
zooming in but maxed to just under a second with five zooms. Maybe you need a
faster video card, John<g>
2D morph of an animation would be nice but I would want it only if it would
handle targa frames. I wouldn't be interested if it generated just Flic 8 bit
quality.
I discovered that Morph is critical on the key placements and number of keys.
The more the better and the slower the program renders. Same old same old:
quality is inversely proportional to speed.
Morph speed…
Now I'm prepared to become unconfused. Did you time a 512×486 image in a
default window? I'm runnin 1024x768x8 bit Windows – I think the extra time it
takes my machine is all in the dithering, just as the Gryphon man tol' me. The
actual redraw zips – the time I was referring to was the calculation time
before the window starts to paint. Good reason to break down and get a 24-bit
card? Does the new Metheus work with everything?
Anyway, just got the Blackbelt flyer in the mail. Its specs, along with
commendation from Pyros and others, just convinced me to order it (as soon as
I'm solvant again – post-Siggraph days, I suspect <g>)
JKJ
John,
what is the Blackbelt flyer?
I called Blackbelt at 800-852-6442 and they sent out a flyer on their
Winimages:Morph program. Looks good on paper!
I'll have to reconfigure windows for 8 bit mode to check out the speed now that
I fully understand what you did. The Metheus is working with windows ani
PROand 3DS fine. I had to use the Panacea driver (downloaded) because their
driver was real flakey. The only problem is their feature connector doesn't
seem to work. I use this with my Magni VGA Producer Pro.
The HSC Morph appears to have the full motion morph and many other features not
included in Gryphon. Supposed to ship end of the month. Same price as the
Gryphon product.
Don,
You might be interested to know that WinImages:morph does not have a very
high complexity<->speed relationship; adding more detailed control
information doesn't slow the morphs down much, if at all. The morphing
speed is essentially dependant only upon the image size. Just FYI.
–Ben
…via AutoPilot
Blackbelt,
is WinImages:morph available through retail outlets like CompUSA, Egghead,
Priceclub, Weight Watchers etc. (ignore the last one <g>)
You can special order it thru Egghead; it'll be in there "officially"
shortly, according to the head eggs, but it takes a little while to get
all the paperwork etc done. The others will be getting it as it gets into
distribution. We're working up a campaign that describes the advantages
over the Gryphon product, when that goes out I expect there will be some
significant attention paid to it. :^) Our only problem is that there are
so MANY things that we can offer beyond Gryphon's product, we can't fit
them all in a full page ad. have to pick and choose, I guess. :^))
–Ben
…via AutoPilot
Ben "Blackbelt" Autopilot,
good deal! Thanks for the info.
Hi there,
I need to know something, do you guys offer more than one morphing program?
If so, which is the best one?
Thanks
Alex.
On the Amiga, we offer Imagemaster, shortly to upgrade to Imagemaster R/t.
Under Windows 3.1, we offer WinImages:morph. We offer no other morphing
packages.
The Amiga software is just very slightly more capable at this time with
regard to morphing.
Since the PC software _only_ does morphing, and the Amiga software does
just about anything you can think of and a whole bunch you probably NEVER
thought of, the Amiga software offers more functionality by a large margin
at this time.
We will be introducing a VERY powerful image manipulation package for
Windows 3.1 before the year is out, which will bring the rest of the
functionality of the Amiga software to Windows.
WinImages:morph is $199.95. Software upgrades are free at this time to
registered users, we expect that to remain the case for at least several
months. We're still adding features and so on, and our intent is that when
you buy the package, you get those features as soon as we release them.
For instance, a new upgrade begins shipping tomorrow, and that upgrade is
free to all registered users of earlier versions.
On the PC, the only competition at this time is from Gryphon, who has
ported over their Mac product. We do not consider it serious competition
from any standpoint.
We take M/c, VISA, American Express, and Discover, ship COD within the US
and (of course) will be happy to take cash or cash-substitutes. :^)
(800) 852-6442.
–Ben
…via AutoPilot