Several unique terms and phrases describe the features of software we review on this site, some easier to grasp than others. This list briefly defines terms relevant to Morphing Software.

Ratings

Feature Set

The Features Set is the morphing software's tools and abilities. We define morphing features below and show you how to use features in our morphing reviews and articles.

Ease of Use

Morphing software should be simple for beginners and experienced computer users alike-features and instructions should be easy to find and use-this is one of the most important features to look for in morphing software.

Ease of Installation

This rating is based on whether the morphing software is easy to install and set up, whether there are installation errors and whether those errors are easy to correct.

Help/Documentation

This rating shows if the morphing software has convenient support, if the documentation is useful and descriptive, whether there are tutorials to explain difficult concepts and the degree of knowledge the product's technical support can provide.

Features

Real Time Playing

View your morph effects immediately without saving or exporting the morph to a file. This morphing software feature saves time and headaches by giving you the ability to see what you've done and quickly review changes. We feel this is a major feature every quality morphing program should have.

Real Time Preview

Time-saving feature-instantly see how edits affect your morph. Preview individual frames of your morph without saving and opening a separate view file. Real Time Preview lets you test settings or spot mistakes quickly.

Morph 2+ Images

Connect several different morphing projects in one continuous morph. To do this, you must create and save each morphing project individually. Each new morph uses the previous morph's target image as its source image. This feature allows you to connect each project in order, so you can produce a single morph sequence that flows through several images.

Supports Multi-Languages

Change the software language to a language other than the default language, English.

Deform/Distort Feature

Automatically alters your images with a preset effect-just click and drag and the program will do the rest (i.e. stretching, twisting, or spinning an image).

Warp Feature

Allows you to manually deform a portion of your image, giving it the illusion of movement. With anchor points (dots), you control the amount of distortion the image achieves (i.e. making an image of a face grow a longer nose, wink an eye or wiggle its ears).

Add Text to Object

Lets you overlay text on images.

Tools

Morphing Speed (Frames per Second)

Sets the number of frames played per second-the fewer frames per second, the longer the morphing sequence will take to finish.

Set Number of Frames per Sequence

Sets the number of frames it takes to complete the morph-the more frames per sequence, the smoother and more subtle the morph will be.

Swap Source and Target Images

This feature switches the source image with the target image, which allows you to start your next morph with the final image of your previous morph sequence. Remember to save your first morphing project before using this feature, as it can only store one project at a time.

By creating and saving several projects like this, you can create a morph that connects several morphing sequences into a single long morph.

Auto Loop Sequence

Continuously loops the morphing sequence until it's manually stopped.

Auto Reverse Sequence

Once the morphing sequence ends, it automatically reverses and morphs back to the starting image.

View each Frame Forward and Backward

Watch your morph change frame-by-frame, forward or backward. You may also set the number of frames in a sequence.

Print Individual Frames

Prints out an individual frame of a morph sequence.

Editing

Resize Image

Resize the images on your screen so that they're easier to work with; you can resize the source, target and preview screens in order to see all three simultaneously.

Crop Image

Crop out (get rid of) unwanted edges on your image (i.e. borders or tilted pictures).

Add Foreground Image

Overlay an image on the morph to make a photo frame, text caption or similar effect.

Add Background Image

Blend your morph with a single color or another image to create a background element. (The images may need to be in a specific format.)

Add Mask

A mask is an effect that allows you to add more layers of color to your morph. The mask can be used to put a border around the images you are morphing and can appear translucent for greater effect.

Rotate Image

Rotates your image up to 360 degrees for varying effects.

Flip Image Horizontally

This feature flips the image sideways, which is especially handy for photo editing. For example, if a source image facial photo is facing left and the face on the target image is facing right, you can flip one image so both face the same direction, allowing the morph to be smoother and more realistic.

Flip Image Vertically

Flips images up or down. (For interesting results, try morphing a person's face that's upright into another's that's facing upside down.)

Add a Border

Adds a border around your finished morph project.

Importing

Import Source Image

This feature loads an image into the source or starting image position of your morph. To import successfully, the file format must match one of the program's compatible file formats.

Import Target Image

This feature loads an image into the target or ending image position of your morph. To import successfully, the image file format must match one of the program's compatible file formats.

Import Foreground Image

Loads a different overlay image or color, such as a title.

Import Background Image

Loads a different underlay image or color, such as a colored background.

Exporting

Export Current Frame

Saves individual frames of a morphing sequence to a file; use any individual morph frame in creative projects just as you would use photos.

Export Movie

This feature allows you to save a morphing sequence as a movie file, making it easy to share it with others in different forms (such as email).

Export Formats

Image Sequence

Basic morph format; individual frames make up the sequence from the first source image frame to the final target image frame.

AVI Movie

AVI is a common, high-quality video format for Windows platforms. AVI is good for importing images into movie editing software, such as Power Director 3. To avoid oversized files, you can use a video codec (such as the MPEG-4 codec from www.divx.com) to compress movies into smaller files.

Animated GIF

A good format for displaying morphs on web pages; all browsers can view them. The quality is lower because GIFs support only 256 colors.

Flash Movie

Flash (SWF file) is the most useful animation format available. It boasts small file sizes, coupled with good quality. All major computer platforms support this format.

Web Page

Export morphed images as an html file, including a flash movie that can be easily played in Internet Explorer.

Light and Color Controls

Brightness

Adjust the brightness of your images-the brightness of an image or selection is usually measured as a percentage from 0% (black) to 100% (white).

Contrast

Adjust the contrast of your images.

Red

Adds or minimizes the red color tone of your images.

Green

Adds or minimizes the green color tone of your images.

Blue

Adds or minimizes the blue color tone of your images.

Light and Color Effects

Smooth

Produces a softer image.

Blur

Reduces detail while creating soft edges.

Sharpen

Focuses soft edges to increase clarity.

Emboss

Makes an image appear raised or stamped by converting its fill color to gray and tracing the edges.

Negative

Makes a color image appear as a black-and-white negative; contrast is reversed (dark areas are light, light areas are dark).

Gray

Removes the hue and saturation information from the pixels, leaving just contrast. Every pixel of a grayscale image has a brightness value ranging from 0 (black) to 255 (white). Grayscale values can also be measured as percentages of black ink coverage (0% is equal to white, 100% to black).

Technical Support / Help

eMail

Manufacturer support is provided by email.

Telephone Support

Morph software support provided through a regular phone number-these phone calls can be expensive.

FAQs

A list of the most commonly asked questions and answers about the morph software.

Online Tutorials

Support provided by the manufacturer via online tutorials that walk a user through the Morphing process step by step.

How-To Articles

Support provided by the manufacturer in the form of "How do I do this" type of articles.

Online User Forum

Some morph software manufacturers provide a webpage for users to post questions. Use forums to learn tips, tricks and techniques from other users.

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