#Morphing for video
15 messages in this thread
I have an opportunity to land a small project for a local car dealer that will
most likely involve morphing an old car into a new car (in 2 dimension). I've
heard mention of Elastic Reality or something like that, are there any other
suggestions? It will be a video morph most likely. Does anyone have any
suggestions as to what would be the best method in taping an environment so
that an old car would drive into the scene and stop, then morph into a new car?
I was thinking of taping an area, then taping an old car driving in separately
and manually erasing the background so the car can overlay the original
background, then doing the same with the new car (only having it drive off, or
even just sitting there), then morphing the two cars over blue, then placing
the whole thing over the original background. Is there a better way to do
this? Thanks.
Hi James. I'd suggest picking up Elastic Reality for your project. It's a very
nice package. Easy to use and surprisingly fast for a Windows program. Unless
of course you can get the SGI version.<g> The morph itself will be easy and
shouldn't take you long. Registering the background might be a little tougher
depending on how precise you need it to be. But, since a morph is really just a
cross-fade, if you shoot the cars in the same spot chances are the BG will turn
out great. In ER you can protect parts of an image from being affected by the
morph – the result is just a pure crossfade then. Doing it with live video
wouldn't be too much harder except you need to get the images off of tape. I'd
try to move-morph-move instead. Good luck, sounds like a fun project.
DM
James,
Pick up Elastic Reality! You can "cookie cut"the foreground out,morph it,
and put it back. Not quite that simple butit really
works great.
PS
>> Pick up Elastic Reality! <<
Thanks Paul. How do I get information on it? Who sells it?
>> Pick up Elastic Reality! <<
Thanks Paul. How do I get information on it? Who sells it?
James,
Try Egghead, that's where I bought mine. Good luck!
PS
Elastic Reality will do all that you want (and more) quite nicely — it's a
program for morphing that I consider the "3D Studio" of morphing. The only
drawback — the version I have doesn't field render (I don't know if a newer
version does, but you might check on their forum).
If I were doing this I'd just videotape the old vehicle driving onto the lot,
leave the tape running (because I wouldn't want to rock the picture even to
turn it off) and drive the new one right into the same place (well, you'll have
to drive the old one off first, or they'll be hell to pay!). Elastic Reality
will even handle motion morphing, so you can even have the vehicles changing as
they move into view, and it will handle the "cutout" problem for your
background (although you'll have to do some detail work, you shouldn't let it
throw you).
Elastic Reality will do all that you want (and more) quite nicely — it's a
program for morphing that I consider the "3D Studio" of morphing. The only
drawback — the version I have doesn't field render (I don't know if a newer
version does, but you might check on their forum).
If I were doing this I'd just videotape the old vehicle driving onto the lot,
leave the tape running (because I wouldn't want to rock the picture even to
turn it off) and drive the new one right into the same place (well, you'll have
to drive the old one off first, or they'll be hell to pay!). Elastic Reality
will even handle motion morphing, so you can even have the vehicles changing as
they move into view, and it will handle the "cutout" problem for your
background (although you'll have to do some detail work, you shouldn't let it
throw you).
BTW, I replied to you once but WinCIM apparently is eccentric at times and
didn't seem to post the message (I guess — I never know. My information
highway has a lot of ruts).
>> Elastic Reality will do all that you want (and more) quite nicely <<
Thanks Mike.. How do I get purchasing information on Elastic Reality?
>How do I get purchasing information on Elastic Reality?
You can order ER from almost any of the PC houses — I actually bought my copy
at a Windows convention. I'd just call PC Connection, or MicroWarehouse if I
were you (you can save 30% over the usual other channels).
I think ER has a forum here as well — I need to check it out myself. ER is
quite an amazing program — it's the 3D Studio of the morph world.
>> I'd just call PC Connection, or MicroWarehouse if I were you (you can save
30% over the usual other channels). <<
Sorry if this is bothersome, but I am unfamiliar with PC Connection, or
Microwarehouse. Do you have a number for either? Thanks.
PC Connection: 1-800-800-0004
PC Zone: 1-800-258-8088
I don't have a number handy for MicroWarehouse, but you can always call the 800
operator and get their number (they all have 800 numbers). I do like PC
Connection (how can you possibly buy software and not know about these places?
I'm not trying to be rude — maybe you're not in the country — but I must get
at least three or four of these company catalogs each month).
>> how can you possibly buy software and not know about these places? I'm not
trying to be rude — maybe you're not in the country <<
🙂 Thanks for the information! Yeah, sometimes I'm not in the country, I'm
not even sure when I'm in the same universe! When is someone going to create a
virtual vacation, I need to get outta' this hole.
-James Franssen
Microwarehouse is online right here on CIS, too!
Dave
Hi,
Just happened to pop by…and saw the tail end of this thread. Elastic
Reality does indeed have a forum here on CIS…GO ELASTIC will get you
there. It's in ANVENA.
Thank you for the kind words, and if there's any questions you folks
might have, I'll try to pop back here every few days.
Jason
ERI Technical Support