RE:Flex Tutorial File: Motion Morph

This project has 1 composition that demonstrates how to accomplish a moving morph using RE:Flex Motion Morph. RE:Flex Morph can only morph from still image to still image, so RE:Flex Motion Morph is the tool for this job.

1) PeteHeadTurn Comp and 2) RichardsHeadTurn Comp.

These are precompositions for the source footage. We would apply any enhancements to the imagery here (brightness, noise reduction, etc.) In this case we've increased the brightness and contrast on each piece of source footage.

3) Motion Morph This composition creates a motion morph between the two movies. By animating the Global Warp % and Global Blend % from 0 to 100% 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 yellow Pete features and the green Richard features. The Pete features were drawn with Display 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 beend warped. Do the same with Display 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 the ear on the right. To help clean up the double exposure, 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.

4) Motion Morph, variable warp

In this composition we've animated the hair into the "to" shape by frame 4, instead of moving into shape over the whole animation.

To notice and do:

- The Use Global Warp % has been unchecked.
- As such, the Mask Expansion for each "from" mask has been animated. Each mask has a key of the Mask Expansion set to 0 at frame 0, and a key set to value 100 at frame 23.
- In order to animate the hair into shape faster, a key of value 100 has been created at frame 4 for the Mask Expansion for the mask "TopHairLine P." Note that the hairline animates into shape by frame 4. Compare to the animation in 3) Motion Morph.
- Render the animation with Display set to Control Image to view the feature line animation used for the warping at each frame.

5) Motion Morph, var dissolve

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

To notice and do:

- The Use Global Blend % has been unchecked.
- As such, the Mask Opacity for each "from" mask has been animated. Each mask has a key of the Mask Opacity set to 0 at frame 0, and a key set to value 100 at frame 23.
- In order to blend the hair into the animation faster, a key of value 100 has been created at frame 10 for the Mask Opacity for the mask "TopHairLine P." Note that the hair becomes complete Richard's by frame 10. Compare to the animation in 3) Motion Morph.
- Render the animation with Display set to Control Image to view the amount of blending used for the morph at each frame.

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