Easy Morph Reviewer's Comments
Easy Morph, our #8-ranked product, lets you create all kinds of morphs, but because of problems we experienced, we can't call the program "Easy"-using Easy Morph is actually a challenge.
Easy Morph features include:
- Morphing Setup Wizard - walks you through loading your Source Image and Target Image, and sets up the number of frames used during your morphing sequence.
- Flat Morphing - smoothly transitions one image into another.
- Image Warping - distorts a single image.
- Dual-Window Interactive - allows you to view your Source, Target and Results Images on the main screen simultaneously.
- Image Magnify - zooms in on your Source and Target Images, making it easier to place control points (dots) accurately.
- Polygon Arc Controls - a multi-sided control element used to place reference points on images. For example, you would use it to draw a line around the left eye on the Source Image to select it as the part of your image to be morphed.
Ease of Use:
We had problems with Easy Morph from the beginning. Easy Morph repeatedly displayed an error message as we loaded the Source and Target Images. Through the FAQs section we learned that there are several JPEG file variants Easy Morph does not support, including those we were trying to load. The FAQs help file offered suggestions to make our images compatible, after which we were able to load the images we wanted.
Right out of the box, Easy Morph is far from easy-the program was challenging to navigate and work with. Perhaps with time, navigating becomes easier.
Ease of Installation:
We had no problems installing Easy Morph.
Help/Documentation:
Easy Morph comes with online tutorials, a FAQs section, an index and a glossary.
Though Easy Morph has plenty of help options available, applying that support caused us problems. For example, the fourth step of the Getting Started file directed us to open the "Windows Standard Load Dialog Box" to load our Source and Target Images. Instead, a different version of this window than what you find in the User's Guide tutorial popped up. Also, in step 11 where it explains the use of polylines which are the control elements for your morphs, there are no instructions as to where the polyline feature is found. Scenarios like this may seem trivial to someone with computer experience, but to a novice these situations can be difficult and frustrating.
Summary:
Easy Morph can create high-quality morphs, but the difficulties we experienced while using it gave us reason to rank Easy Morph relatively low. At $19, Easy Morph is a fair program for someone with experience, but for morph and computer beginners, we recommend you spend a little more on an intuitive morphing program like FantaMorph.
