Devil Morph
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First off, I would like to thank my model, Heather, who allowed me to morph her into the angel of the bottomless pit. It's all in the spirit of Halloween, for crying out loud!
You can use this same technique to make aliens and monsters, and don't forget about those loveable zombies.
So use Miss Heather, or one of your best friends or foulest enemies and morph away!
Instructions
Morphing your image
- Create a new comp called "Devil" that is 320x240. I made mine 500x240, 29.97 fps and 2:20 seconds long.
- Import your photo. The image Heather.pct has an alpha channel so that you can see it better. You can use moving video for this effect too, which would probably look more interesting, but for the sake of file size, I used a still image. Drag your photo into your devil comp.
- Apply "Mesh Warp" - Effects > Distort > Mesh Warp.
- Set the amount of rows and columns. This determines how many lines will form the grid in each direction. Take a look at your image and make sure that there are cross points where you need them on the grid - chin, eyes, etc. I used 12 for both rows and columns.
- At frame one, keyframe the "Grid Values" parameter. Move into the timeline a few frames and move one of the grid points. I moved the point near the eye first. Later in your timeline move more grid points. Slight moves look better because the image isn't stretched quite as much. With some experimentation, you will get the idea. Preview and tweak to your liking. I made the eyes squished and beady, the chin long and pointy and the forehead tall.
- The other setting you have is elasticity. The setting here completely depends on your taste. Test them all and see which you prefer. I think that the still looks better for this animation, plus previews render faster than with the liquid setting. If you click off of the image to preview and you can't see your grid anymore, click on the effect name in your timeline or effects palette to get the grid back.
Tinting the skin
- Add an adjustment layer to the Devil Comp. Layer > New > Adjustment layer.
- Apply color balance to your adjustment layer. Effect > Adjust > Color Balance. You also have a Color Balance (HLS) - Don't use this one. Before you adjust anything, set keyframes at the first frame. Move into your timeline - somewhere during or at the end of the morph, and adjust your colors to a nice red (or green or blue for an alien). Your adjustments will completely depend on your photograph, as well. The reason to apply these color effects to an adjustment layer as opposed to the image layer is so that you have the option of masking. For example, if your image is of your friend next to a car, and you only want to tint your friends face, you can apply a mask to the adjustment layer to tint only his skin.
- You can also apply other adjustments to the adjustment layer. I also adjusted the levels. Try several options if you need to, until you get the optimal image.
Oh, you're just blowing smoke out your ears!
- Create
a new solid and call it "Smoke" (Layer > New > Solid).
Make it the same size as your comp, any color. Put this layer above
your adjustment layer, so you won't tint it.
Move the cannon position so that it's positioned at the right ear.
- Apply particle playground. The default is red particles, but we want our smoke to be white, so under the "cannon" setting, change the red color to a grayish white.
- Move the cannon position so it's right at the right ear.
- Change the cannon direction so that it's set to 0 x 90°. You want the smoke to float upwards, don't you!
- The other cannon settings are up to you. I set the cannon size to 5 and changed the velocity a bit.
- Apply fast blur to the "Smoke" layer. Effects > Blur & Sharpen > Fast Blur. Set the blur amount to 20.
- Repeat the above steps for the left ear, changing the cannon position and the cannon direction.