Morphing software!

RaeTracer · 24-03-2003, 01:34 PM

Hey all!

Got kind of a weird technical problem here at work, and I'm hoping you can help me out.

I'm doing a few animations that represent the history of the earth in various ways, and for one of them, I need fairly realistic continental drift. I have a cd of maps of the earth, but I need a way to transition between them. I'm hoping to make a movie of animating continents that i can then apply as a texture to a sphere in Maya.

So my thought is to download some morphing software, and use that to animate between the maps. But i'm having a hard time finding something i can use, especially for Mac. (I have a PC at home I can work on, too, but generally we use Macs). Does anyone have any experience with this?

Here's one of the maps, just so you can get an idea what i'm trying to do. I may have to repaint it a little, just for more realism.

Serial Killer · 24-03-2003, 04:42 PM

I got a little idea not sure if can work or if it's what you need:

In flash you can animate the textures and save'em as .mov file and texture your sphere, how? just take the textures to flash cut it into pieces and put each in a diferent layer and make'em move, that easy, you culd do that to in after fx too

RaeTracer · 24-03-2003, 05:28 PM

Hm... can you change the shape of the pieces, too, or just move them around?

kuman · 24-03-2003, 07:56 PM

hmm this is a tough one man

what i would do is probably first make an animated texture that was flat. so like a rectangular map where i'd have the ocean as an object (plane) and each continent also on planes and then i would make textures for each specific time frame and as i moved the continent planes i'd probably fade the new textures in as they were moving. also this layered approach might let you add some cool things like water shifting on a layer between the ocean and the continents. it should be easy enough to animate planes moving around, however this process could be very painting intensive as the more intermediates to fade into you make the better the overall animation will look. you can also consider painting some bump maps (or displacement) for moutain regions so that there would be some depth as well in the lighting of the surfaces. finally after that animated texture was done i'd render it out to an ifl and then texture it onto a sphere for the planet surfaced animated continent moving animation. good luck dude.

-k

oh yeah rae, i got your pm, let me know when's a good time for you. there's a great little bar/restaurant in kendall square, the cambridge brewing company. let me know if you're interested. later

RaeTracer · 25-03-2003, 03:21 PM

Thanks, Kuman! That sounds like it might work. I'm going to try this in the next couple of days, see what happens.

Cambridge brewing company sounds cool, i'll PM about it later!

24-03-2003, 01:34 PM	#1
RaeTracer Registered User Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Cambridge, MA, USA Posts: 40 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Morphing software! Hey all! Got kind of a weird technical problem here at work, and I'm hoping you can help me out. I'm doing a few animations that represent the history of the earth in various ways, and for one of them, I need fairly realistic continental drift. I have a cd of maps of the earth, but I need a way to transition between them. I'm hoping to make a movie of animating continents that i can then apply as a texture to a sphere in Maya. So my thought is to download some morphing software, and use that to animate between the maps. But i'm having a hard time finding something i can use, especially for Mac. (I have a PC at home I can work on, too, but generally we use Macs). Does anyone have any experience with this? Here's one of the maps, just so you can get an idea what i'm trying to do. I may have to repaint it a little, just for more realism. Attached Images

24-03-2003, 04:42 PM	#2
Serial Killer I'm coming for you!! Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Hell Posts: 77 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	I got a little idea not sure if can work or if it's what you need: In flash you can animate the textures and save'em as .mov file and texture your sphere, how? just take the textures to flash cut it into pieces and put each in a diferent layer and make'em move, that easy, you culd do that to in after fx too __________________ ==========================

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24-03-2003, 05:28 PM	#3
RaeTracer Registered User Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Cambridge, MA, USA Posts: 40 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Hm... can you change the shape of the pieces, too, or just move them around?

24-03-2003, 07:56 PM	#4
kuman Fishscale Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Venice Beach Posts: 831 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	hmm this is a tough one man what i would do is probably first make an animated texture that was flat. so like a rectangular map where i'd have the ocean as an object (plane) and each continent also on planes and then i would make textures for each specific time frame and as i moved the continent planes i'd probably fade the new textures in as they were moving. also this layered approach might let you add some cool things like water shifting on a layer between the ocean and the continents. it should be easy enough to animate planes moving around, however this process could be very painting intensive as the more intermediates to fade into you make the better the overall animation will look. you can also consider painting some bump maps (or displacement) for moutain regions so that there would be some depth as well in the lighting of the surfaces. finally after that animated texture was done i'd render it out to an ifl and then texture it onto a sphere for the planet surfaced animated continent moving animation. good luck dude. -k oh yeah rae, i got your pm, let me know when's a good time for you. there's a great little bar/restaurant in kendall square, the cambridge brewing company. let me know if you're interested. later

25-03-2003, 03:21 PM	#5
RaeTracer Registered User Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Cambridge, MA, USA Posts: 40 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Thanks, Kuman! That sounds like it might work. I'm going to try this in the next couple of days, see what happens. Cambridge brewing company sounds cool, i'll PM about it later!

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