RE:Flex Tutorial Files: Motion Morph

We now demonstrate how to accomplish morphs between moving image sequences using RE:Flex Morph.

1) Moving Morph (movingmorph.shk) This composition creates a motion morph between the two movies. By animating the Global Warp % and Global Blend % from 0 to 1.0 over the course of the sequence, the Pete footage starts out in the Pete shape, and slowly warps towards the Richard shape while slowly dissolving from the warped Pete sequence into the warped Richard sequence (and vice-versa).... while moving!

To notice and do:

- There are two sets of geometries, in pairs: the main part of the rotoshapes represent the "from" or "Pete" features and the edge part of the rotoshapes represent the "to" or "Richard" features. The Pete features were drawn with DisplayImage set to UNWarped "From" and the Richard features were drawn with Display set to UNWarped "To"
- Render the animation with Display set to Warped "From" in order to see how the Pete footage has been warped. Do the same with DisplayImage set to Warped "To" to view the warped Richard sequence.
- Richard's hairline touches the edge of the frame. In order to match Richard's hair to Pete's hair, the edge of the Richard image does not stick to the edge of the frame. To get a better result we have checked Smart Blend. Uncheck Smart Blend and notice the unsatisfactory blend in the areas where the Richard image comes away from the edge. The other option to try and fix this is to click "Hold Edges"... but this will cause Richard's hair to streak to the edge... also unwanted. As such, checking Smart Blend gives the best result.
- We have not paid much attention to aligning all the edges of both faces. To help clean up the double exposure (like inside the ear), we have checked Auto Align. This helps clean up the ear edge (however, it doesn't complete clean up the double exposure, because our hand-drawn features at the ear and hairline tell RE:Flex to stretch the ear in a way that does not match up, even with Auto Align checked). To do: uncheck Auto Align and view the resulting animation.

2) Moving Morph, variable warp (movingMorphPerShapeWarp.shk)

In this composition we've animated the hair into the "to" shape by frame 5, instead of moving into shape over the whole animation.

To notice and do:

- The UseGlobalShapeControl has been unchecked.
- Because UseGlobalShapeControl has been unchecked, the ShapeBlendAmount for each rotoshape must be animated. A local variable 'ZeroToOneOver25Frames' has been created that goes from 0 to 1 from frame 1 to 25. Each shape's ShapeBlendAmount has been set to this local variable.
- In order to animate the hair into shape faster, we have created a local variable 'ZeroToOneOver5Frames' that goes from 0 to 1 over frames 1 to 5. The hairline shape's ShapeBlendAmount has been set to this local variable. Note that the hairline animates into shape by frame 5. Compare to the animation in the previous example.
- Render the animation with DisplayImage set to Control Image to view the feature line animation used for the warping at each frame.

3) Moving Morph, var dissolve (movingMorphPerShapeColor.shk)

In this composition we've dissolved Richard's hair in completely by frame 7.

To notice and do:

- The UseGlobalColorControl has been unchecked.
- As such, the UseGlobalColorControl for each rotoshape must be animated. A local variable 'ZeroToOneOver25Frames' has been created that goes from 0 to 1 from frame 1 to 25. Each shape's ShapeBlendAmount has been set to this local variable.
- In order to animate the COLOR of the hair into Richard's color, we have created a local variable 'ZeroToOneOver5Frames' that goes from 0 to 1 over frames 1 to 5. The hairline's ColorBlendAmount has been set to this local variable. Note that the color of the hair is completely Richard's by frame 5. Compare to the animation in the previous example.
- Render the animation with DisplayImage set to Control Image to view the amount of blending used for the morph at each frame.

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