Main Table of Contents for Help I. Introduction II. Point Editing III. Menus Note: You can keep this help window open and continue to work with the morph. Intro Cinematic polymorphing, more commonly known as "morphing", is a technique of transforming an image, or a series of images, into another image or series of images. To achieve a realistic morph one must first be able to warp, or deform, an image into another image's shape using a geometric transformation. This is necessary as the second process the two images must go through is a controlled cross dissolve. The cross dissolve blends the color, or texture, between the two, geometrically matched, images. When done carefully this simulates a "realistic" transformation from one image to the other. When not done carefully, or when the two images are not geometrically matched properly, you get a simple cross dissolve between the two images with parts of both images showing through their backgrounds. Editing Inactive points are colored blue (or orange in some cases). To select a point, click the left mouse button once on a point. It will turn bright yellow, indicating that it is active. While holding down the left button, the corresponding point at the same grid location in the other window will be highlighted to give you an idea of how the source and destination relate. You can select additional points by holding down the shift key and selecting other points with the left mouse button. To deselect all points, click the left button somewhere where there aren't any points. To move a point, click on a point and hold down the left mouse button. While the left button is pressed, you may drag the point wherever you want. Release the left button to stop. Note that *all* selected points will be moved, so you can select a number of points and move them all at once. To select an entire row at once, hold down either ALT key and click on any point within the row. To select an entire column at once, hold down the CONTROL key and click on any point within the column. You may drag select a box (by holding down the left mouse button and drawing a box) to select all the points within that box. You may continue to select more points by holding down shift while you draw more boxes. NOTE: The morphing algorithm does not allow you to move the border points away from the edges. You can, however, move them up and down or left and right along the edges. Menus Project Settings Sequence Cell Points Window Render Morph Arexx Please select one of the above menu items to receive more information on the use of the items in that menu. These are ordered in the same fashion as the actual pull-down menus. Project uNewuu Erase everything and start a new project. uOpen...uu Open an existing project. uSaveuu Save the current project under its current name. uSave As...uu Save the current project to a different filename. uAbout...uu Display some trivial information. uCloseuu Close CineMorph. ImageFX will remain open. uQuituu Close CineMorph. If ImageFX is also running, it is also closed. Settings uModeuu Select the type of morphing project: bSingle Imageub Use this mode to "warp" a single image. bDual Imageub Use this mode to morph one still picture into another still picture. bSequenceub Use this mode for full motion morphing; ie. morphing a moving sequence of frames into another moving sequence of frames. You will be asked for the initial number of cells in the first group. Changing the morphing mode will destroy the current project and start from scratch. uSet Save Format...uu Selects the save format for rendered and 24-bit files. Enter an ImageFX file format such as "ILBM" or "JPEG" or "TIFF". uSet Save Options...uu Selects the options for the save format. uSet Load Format...uu Select a specific load format to load files that cannot be automatically detected. Normally, this will remain blank to let ImageFX figure out the type of file automatically, but in some cases (such as DataTypes) you need to specifically set the load format. uSet Load Options...uu Selects the options for the load format. uSet Anim Format...uu Selects the save format for rendered animations. Enter an ImageFX file format such as "ANIM" or "ANIM7" or "FLC". uSet Anim Options...uu Selects the options for the anim format. Typically you would specify "Keep" to build the animation in RAM before saving to disk. uDisplay Mesh Asuu Select the way Cinemorph draws the mesh onscreen: bLinesub Draws the mesh using lines (generally faster). bSplinesub Draws the mesh using splines. You may want to match the onscreen mesh display with the actual morphing method (which is chosen from the Morph Options menu below). uMorph Optionsuu Select various morphing options: bOverlay Meshub When checked, the control mesh will be drawn over the resulting morphed images. Handy for "debugging" a morph. The source mesh is shown in red, the destination mesh in green, and the intermediate mesh in blue. bUse Spinesub Use the spline method of morphing (somewhat slower). bAnti-Aliasub Enable anti-aliasing for the resulting morph images. uScreen Mode...uu If you are running Workbench 2.0 or greater, this menu item will present a screen mode requester, from which you can choose any one of the currently available screen modes for the Cinemorph screen. You may also choose the depth, resolution, and overscan settings. uScreen Depthuu Choose either an eight- or sixteen-color screen; the more colors, the better the onscreen display, the more chip memory, and the slower the display. For Workbench 1.3 only; 2.0 users should use the Screen Mode item described above. uColor Previewsuu Selects color preview renderings. You must be running on at least a 16-color screen for color previews to function. uThumbnail Requesteruu Enables the use of ImageFX 2.0's thumbnail requester for loading images. uSave Settingsuu Save your settings for later use. This includes current source and destination window positions. Under Workbench 2.0 or greater, the settings are saved in your current ENVARC: directory. Under 1.3, the settings are saved in your S: directory. Group (This menu is only enabled for Sequence morphs.) uNext Sequenceuu Advance to the next group. uPrevious Sequenceuu Go back to the previous group. uGoto Sequence...uu Go to a specific group number. uAppend Sequence...uu Add a new empty group to the end of the project. You will be prompted for the initial number of frames in the group. uInsert Sequence...uu Insert a new empty group into the current project *before* the current group. You will be prompted for the initial number of frames in the group. uDelete Sequenceuu Delete the current group and all the cells in it. Cell uLoad Image...uu Load an image into the active window. Cinemorph supports most forms of IFF ILBM files, including 8- and 24-bit IFF, EHB, HAM, SHAMs, Dynamic Hires, and Dynamic HAM. uLoad Sequence...uu Load a numbered sequence of images into the cells of the current window (source or destination). Generally only useful for Sequence morphs. You will be asked to select the name of the first image to load, followed by the name of the last image to load. The starting and ending files must have a numeric extension (001, 002, etc.). Note that you can load the sequence in reversed by selected the highest numbered frame first. uSet Frames...uu Behaves slightly different depending on the type of morph project: Single/Dual: Set the number of frames in the current cell. Changing the number of frames will destroy all global and local point curve information, so setting the number of frames should be one of the first things you do. Sequence: Set the number of frames (cells) in the current group. Changing the number of frames will completely destroy the entire group. uNext Celluu Advance to the next cell. uPrevious Celluu Go back to the previous cell. uGoto Cell...uu Go to a specific cell number. uAppend Cell(s)...uu Add one of more cells to the end of the current group. uInsert Cell(s)...uu Insert one or more cells *before* the current cell. uDelete Cell(s)...uu Delete one or more cells, starting from the current cell. uKey Celluu (This menu item is only enabled for Sequence morphs.) bNext Keyub goto the next "key" cell. bPrevious Keyub goto the previous "key" cell. bCreate Keyub create a key frame cell here. bDelete Keyub delete this key frame cell. uEdit Dissolve...uu Edit the global dissolve curve for this cell or group. The dissolve curve controls the amount of cross-fading between the source and destination images at each frame. You will be presented with a curve editor, where you can draw a new curve of choose one of several preset curves. uEdit Tweening...uu Edit the global point interpolation curve for this cell or group. This controls the "velocity" of the point movement; how far the source image warps into the destination image at each frame. You will be presented with the standard curve editor as described... well... somewhere or another. Points (This menu will become ghosted if you the project type is Sequence and the current cell is not a key cell.) uReset Pointsuu Reset the points in the current window to their default positions (a regular square grid). uLoad Points...uu Load a set of points from disk into the current window. If the grid size is different, not only will the active window change, but the other window will also change (the source and destination grid sizes must always be the same). uSave Points As...uu Save the points in the current window to disk. uAdd Rowuu Add a row of points after (below) the active position. uAdd Columnuu Add a column of points after (to the right of) the active position. uDelete Rowuu Delete the active row of points. uDelete Columnuu Delete the active column of points. uName Selected...uu Name the currently selected points. uSelect by Name...uu Select one or more groups of previously named points. uCopy To Otheruu Copy points from the active window to the other window. If you have points selected, you will be prompted to copy just the selected points or the entire grid of points. uExchangeuu Exchange points with the other window. If you have points selected, you will be prompted to copy just the selected points or the entire grid of points. uEdit Dissolve...uu Edit the local color dissolve curve for the selected points. uEdit Tweening...uu Edit the local point interpolation curve for all selected points. There are times when you might want certain points to behave differently from the rest of the points. You can control each individual point's interpolation using this function. Note that any points with a local interpolation curve will be displayed in orange, instead of blue. uDelete All Localuu Delete all existing local point interpolation curves in the current cell or group. Window uRefresh All Windowsuu Redraw the entire display. uMatch Aspectuu Resize the active window to match the aspect ratio of the buffer it represents. This depends on the aspect ratio of the buffer being correct, of course. uMatch Other Windowuu Resize the active window to be the same size as the other window. uZoom Inuu Zoom into the source and destination images. uZoom Outuu Zoom out of the source and destination images. uZoom Out Fulluu Zoom all the way back out to show the full images. uSelect Other Windowuu Activate the other window and bring it to the front (ie. toggle between the two windows). Render uLoresuu Select lores (normally 32-color) rendered images. uHiresuu Select hires (normally 16-color) rendered images. uEHBuu Select extra halfbright (64-color) rendered images. uHAMuu Select hold-and-modify (c. 4096-color) rendered images. uHAM8uu Select HAM8 (c. 262,000-color) rendered images (this is only available in Amigas equipped with the AGA chipset). uHires HAM8uu Select hires HAM8 (c. 262,000-color) rendered images (this is only available in Amigas equipped with the AGA chipset). uDCTV (3-Plane)uu Select 3-bitplane DCTV rendered images. This requires the use of the "dctv.library", which should be in your current LIBS: directory. The dither setting is ignored for this mode. uDCTV (4-Plane)uu Select 4-bitplane DCTV rendered images. This requires the use of the "dctv.library", which should be in your current LIBS: directory. The dither setting is ignored for this mode. uHAM-E (Register)uu Select HAM-E Register (256-color) rendered images. This requires the use of "hame.library" and "renderhame.library", both of which should be in your current LIBS: directory. uHAM-E (Ham)uu Select HAM-E Ham (c. 262,000-color) renderd images. This requires the use of "hame.library" and "renderhame.library", both of which should be in your current LIBS: directory. uInterlaceuu Select interlaced rendered images. uDitheruu Enable dithering on most rendered images. Has no effect for DCTV rendered images. HAM-E images will the EDD dithering method. Amiga images will use a Floyd-Steinberg dither. uPing-Ponguu When rendering an animation, enabling this option will cause Cinemorph to generate a ping-ponged animation (that is, one that goes from frame 1 up to frame N, and then back down to frame 1). This will also uUse ImageFXuu When checked, CineMorph will use the current ImageFX render module settings to generate images. uOutput Size...uu Set the output rendered image size, in pixels. Resulting morph images will be scaled to this size before rendering. The default values of 0 and 0 will not perform any scaling. uBitplanes...uu Set the number of bitplanes in Hires or Lores rendered images. Morph uPreview Single...uu Show a quick representation of one of the frames in the current cell or group. uGenerate Single...uu Generate a single frame from the morph sequence. Saves the true color result to disk in 24-bit IFF ILBM format. uGenerate Sequence...uu Generate the entire morph sequence. Saves each true color frame out in 24-bit IFF ILBM format, appending a frame number to the basename you choose (001, 002, etc.). It's up to you to convert these files into something useable. uRender Single...uu Render a single frame from the current cell or group, using the render settings as established in the Render menu. Saves the resulting image to disk as a standard IFF file. uRender Sequence...uu Render the entire morph sequence. Renders each frame using the current render settings and saves it to disk, appending the frame number to the basename you choose (001, 002, etc.). uRender Animation...uu Generate the entire morph sequence. Renders each frame using the current render settings, and packs the results into a standard Op 5 ANIM file for immediate viewing. Loop frames are automatically appended. uImageFX Commands...uu Select one or more ImageFX commands to be executed before saving each generated frame. Arexx uRun Arexx...uu Select a CineMorph arexx program to run. uOthers...uu The remaining menu items can be configured by editing the file "Cinemorph.Config". These menu items will automatically run Arexx programs.