Here’s a really simple morphing technique in AfterEffects CS3 that I developed after seeing some other tutorials online.

Okay, so we’re going to morph ths image here:

To this:

 

Here’s the finished result so you can see where we’re going:

 

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Bit of a beauty and the beast thing going on there… too bad we had to do that to such a beautiful chimp…

Download the AfterEffects Project here: morphproject

Start by making a new composition (CTRL-N or APPLE-N for our Mac friends). Use whatever size you want but set the duration to 5:00 (that’s 5 seconds – not 5 minutes).  Bring in the two pictures you want to morph and layer them so that the image that you want to end on is on TOP of the image you begin with.

Select the top layer in the timeline and hit “T” to bring up the Opacity property. Set to opacity to around 50% – this makes the top layer an “onion skin” so you can see the layer beneath it.

At this point we want to line up the pictures so we have an anchor from which the morph can happen around. I like to line up the eyes on the pictures because the viewer usually focuses on the eyes.

** if you’re doing a morph with several different images you’ll want to keep one part of the image consistent.

Use the Position, Scale, and Rotation (hit “P” followed by “SHIFT-S” ”SHIFT-R” on the keyboard to bring up the properties) or use the handles on the image (the little boxes at the corners of the picture) to line up the images by their eyes. Move both the top and bottom layers to get the right framing and match.

Notice the eyes aren’t exacly the same but the basic size of the head is about the same between the two pictures.

Now lets go back to the time line and set up our morph.

These next two steps are not entirely necessary but they make things more organized.

Move your cursor on the timeline over to 1;15 (or click on the ”current time” and type 115). I want the morph to start here.

Select the top chimp layer and press “ALT-[".

This tells AE to start this layer right here at 1:15.

I want the morph to last 2 seconds so now I'm going to move the cursor over to 3:15 (or type in 315 in the current time). Select the bottom layer and hit "ALT-]“. This ends the bottom “chump” layer right at 3:15.

Okay, enough housekeeping. Select the Chimp layer and hit “T” to bring up the Opacity Properties. Your cursor should be at the time 3:15 (if it’s not move, the cursor to 3:15). Click on the stop watch to create a keyframe here at 3:15.  Now change the value of the opacity to 100%.

Scroll back to 1:15 and change the Chimp Image opacity to 0%.

Your timeline should look like this:

Congrats you just made a simple dissolve.

Now the fun part…

Select the Chimp layer. The opacity properties should still be open. At 1:15 change the keyframe to something other than zero – anything you want so long as you can see both layers. I like something in the range of 70%… don’t worry what it is, we’re just using this to make adjustments – when we’re done it will go back to zero.

With the Chimp layer still selected, go to Effects->Distort->Mesh Distort.

This creates a mesh over the chimp layer. When you move an intersection point on the grid, it distort the image underneath it.

By manipulating the grid, we’re going to “Force” the chimp to look like the chump. It may be hard to see the chimp so feel free to change your opacity settings so you can see both layers at once.

Below I’ve manipulated the grid to make the shape of the chimp fit the shape of my face. If you do it correctly, it’ll look like a hybrid between the two images – this is exactly what we’re going for:

Here are some tips when working with the mesh warp tool:

If you open the mesh warp properties (either in the timeline by press “E” or in your Effects Control Panel “F3″) you see you have four parameters you can adjust.

If you increase the number of rows and columns you’ll have more points to work with which will give you more precision in getting your pictures to match.

The great thing about this tool is the grid is non-destructive. This means I can make very fine detailed changes with a high number of rows and columns, reduce the number of rows and columns and not loose any of those fine details. I can start wit big macro changes with a few number of rows and columns and then go in and make finer changes with a more detailed grid.

Each intersection on the grid has handles which allow you to “pull”, “push” and “twist” the distortion for even more control over your distortion.

It’s hard to explain how to work with this grid – the best way to do it is to dig in and just start tweaking the grid and experiment.

Last tip – if you loose your grid, click on the Mesh Warp filter in the Effects Panel or in the timeline to bring it back.

Once you’re happy with your distortion – click on the Distortion Mesh Stop Watch (this is found either in your effect control panel or in the time line under Mesh Warp. This creates a key frame at 1:15 and locks in your changes:

Now scroll over to 3:15 and hit the “Reset button” on the effects filter.

If you preview your work – you’ll see the chimp morph into shape – we’re halfway done. We got the chimp to look like the human, now we have to get the human to look like the chimp.

Move your cursor to 3:15 and lower the Opacity of the Chimp layer to something like 30%

Select the bottom “chump” layer and apply the mesh warp filter. Now make the human look like the chimp using the mesh warp tool.

 

Jeez… good thing you’ll really never see that shot… it’s the in-between shots that make the morth – not the end result.

With the bottom “chump” layer selected, click on the “Distortion Mesh” stopwatch in the Mesh Warp filter to create a key frame and lock in our changes.

Just as we did with the chimp layer, scroll to 1:15 and hit “Reset” to reset the mesh at 1:15.

Now select the Chimp layer. Reset the opacity at 1:15 to 0% and the opacity at 3:15 to 100%

There it is… your morph. Now you’ll see the edges get messed up – we need to crop this file to get the edges clean.

On the timeline select both layers and hit CTRL-SHIFT-C (APPLE-SHIFT-C on Mac) and create a new pre-composition. Give it a name and accept the default values. This creates a new composition layer on your timeline which we can scale and move about to get rid of the missing edges. You can even animate a zoom in if you want.

That’s it folks!

Enjoy!

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