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Creative Activism: Free Speech, Free Software and Free Time

by: GreyHawk

Wed Nov 14, 2007 at 21:11:47 PST        
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A picture is worth a thousand words.

Sometimes, a video is worth a lot more, whether it is simply an animated image or a full-fledged movie. Or simply an image that morphs (transforms) into another image. Over the past few days, I've been experimenting with image morphing software and posting a few examples of the results in various locations....

GreyHawk :: Creative Activism: Free Speech, Free Software and Free Time
If you are interested in checking out any the morphs I created, here's a linked list of them (I won't embed 'em again and slow down the dialup users). The source for each morph, if available, is noted and linked in parentheses:

  1. Fred Thompson as a Buffy the Vampire Slayer supervillain (concept by John Aravosis)
  2. Michael Chertoff as the other member of The Gentlemen (the taller of the two Buffy supervillains)
  3. Michael Chertoff (again!), but this time as Jim Carey's Count Olaf (concept by fraterslibertas)
  4. George W. Bush as Bigfoot (concept by Twin Cities Minnesota blog, "Messing with Sasquatch")
  5. Rudy Giuliani and his female alter-ego

The morphing software used is Sqirlz Morph (Google search string), a freeware package. Image manipulation to create the two same-sized starting images was accomplished using GIMP.

There are other good graphics programs out there, too -- some are simply for aesthetic pleasure (Sqirlz Reflections) while others allow you to create some great 3D content (Bryce 5.5, free from cNet or FaceGen Modeller 3.2). For me, programs which aren't too big and are easy to figure out and use are the best.

With a little care and imagination, you can have a lot of fun and perhaps make a statement or two without violating any laws or creating anything offensive or insulting.

Enjoy. :)

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entertainment (4.00 / 4)
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry.
-Frank Zappa

So gimp creates an animated gif as the resulting image?


My views are not necessarily spelled correctly but should be taken to represent the views of the poor sap running this site even when it is obvious that we disagree.HowOd


No -- the morphing software Sqirlz does the (4.00 / 6)
work there.

GIMP just gave me the tools I needed to properly size the two images to match so that the morphing software would work with them.

...if it does animation, cool -- I don't know, I've just started using it. ;)


[ Parent ]
fun stuff! (4.00 / 4)
I like the Bush-->Bigfoot.  Good work GreyHawk.  I want to try this Sqirlz program.      

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time. Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines.  ~ Pink Floyd

It's pretty straightforward. (4.00 / 1)
Just make sure the images you want to morph together are the same exact size.

When you go into the program, check the animation order to be sure that you're morphing image A into image B and not the reverse.

Then, just put your control points all over image A, set the "Control Points" option from "Add" to "Move" and adjust 'em on image B.

You may want to add extra frames before and after the morph, and to the overall period during which the morph takes place. You can output to AVI, SWF or GIF.

...save your control points, too, if you think you'll need to come back to adjust the morphs later.


[ Parent ]
It's lucky for certain persons (4.00 / 1)
that none of this software works on my Mac ;)

[ Parent ]
Aren't there relatively inexpensive (or free?) (4.00 / 1)
Windows emulators for most macs...?

That could get you into a fine simulated environment where you could run programs like that...or, you could check on cnet or tucows and search for mac versions of morphers...


[ Parent ]
Thanks, Greyhawk (4.00 / 1)
Maybe some day, but am pretty busy and want to learn video first :D

[ Parent ]
True enough... (4.00 / 1)
...you'll learn morphing and transitions as you go.

:)


[ Parent ]
Mmmm... (0.00 / 0)
Mebbe this is worth a look...?

[ Parent ]
 

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