Sqirlz Morph is a small yet interesting and funny graphics tool that allows you to combine two or more images to produce animations. The entire morphing process is fully automated, though advanced users can also enjoy a high level of customization by tweaking the fading and warping processes. The resulting animation can then be saved as a Flash (SWF) or AVI video file, as an animated GIF file, or as a sequence of individual JPEG or BMP images.
You can load any number of images for morphing. If they happen not to share the same size, you can use the program resizer to give all of them a homogeneous look. You need to identify some “control points” that can be replicated in all the images of the sequence, so that the program can use them as anchors when moving from one picture to the next. When morphing faces, typical control points can be the tip of the nose, the corners of each eye, the corners of the mouth, the chin, etc. This is important to provide a feeling of progressive change and to avoid wild jumps when moving from one image to the next. The control points defined on the first image need to be also present in the other images of the sequence, and be consistent both in number and position.
Setting up a simple morphing process will not take you longer than a couple of minutes, and you will surely find the resulting animation highly rewarding. You can use the preview window provided to help you customize some basic aspects, such as the sequence order. Those wanting to fine tune the transition between images can open the Fade and Warp Settings window, where they can define how images fade and warp when changing from one to the next, and how smoothly.
Build your own animated avatars, see how well you have aged over the years, or how the plants in your garden have grown since they were planted. Either for fun or out of curiosity, this free graphics tool is certainly worth trying.
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