23. Feature - Morphing: The effect to grow in seconds

Mark in this pics how the image of  the Former President of USA George Bush changes to the image of the ruling President Barack Obama by applying the special effect 'Morphing'

Have you seen in the silver screen the effect where a man seen to grow from his childhood to a youth or to an old man within seconds? You must have also seen the effect of a human being turning into an animal, or a man transforming into a girl.

This magical effect is called Morphing. This effect or this special effect is a latest technology invented in the eighties to be used in motion films.

Morphing is a special effect applied in motion pictures and animations that changes or morphs one image into another without a cinematography jerk. The transition here is so cool that if one will apply pause the video and observe the picture at the middle part, here the picture will resemble both the earlier face and the target face.

American fantasy film 'Willow' in 1988 directed by Ron Howard is the first film to use morphing properly. Industrial Light and Magic had created this effect using grid warping techniques developed by Tom Brigham and Doug Smythe.

The morphing effect was also used in the famous album Black or White of the Pop Sovereign Michel Jackson.

Famous Hollywood films where morphing effect has been used are - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Now this technique is widely used.

How Morphing works - The process is about distorting one image at the same time that it faded into another through marking corresponding points. Means the programme will recognize a key point (physically), it may be one eye, the top of the nose or another place and place the same point of the later image through a process of transition. In this way the former image will be completely transformed into a purely different image. However gradually technique developed and now not only one point of the face but it recognizes multiple points to transit  in such a soft way that it never comes across with a sight jerk for the viewers.

Morphing has also appeared as a transition technique between one scene and another in television shows, even if the contents of the two images are entirely unrelated.

Watch this video of M.J. to feel the magical and illusionary effect of Morphing.