Lesson 10 - Create Layer Morph

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Layer Morph is the most important feature of FantaMorph version 5. By using Layer Morph, you can 1) compose a morph with many parts, where each part can be morphed independently; 2) decorate a simple morph to create gorgeous effects; 3) make many morphs running simultaneously.

Creating a layer morph is very similar to creating a sequence morph. The difference between them is that in a sequence morph, all the sequences run one by one in sequence, but in a layer morph, all sequences run simultaneously at different layers. The first sequence is the top layer over all others, while the last sequence is the bottom layer under all others.

Assume we have a series of source images, called A, B, C, D, E, F, etc. As shown in above figure, you can create a layer morph consisting of the morph A to B, C to D, E to F, and so on. In the final morph, all sequences work simultaneously, and we see the first morph A to B at the front, while the last morph is at the back.

1. Create the first sequence that morphs A to B as introduced in previous lessons. Press F2 key or choose the View/Sequence List menu to display the sequence list.

2.  By default, the project is a sequence morph so the Sequence Morph option () is highlighted. Before create a layer morph, please choose the Movie/Project Type/Layer Morph menu or directly click the Layer Morph option () on the effects panel.

3. Choose the Sequence/Add Sequence menu to start to create a new sequence. Note, for layer morph, using the Add Sequence menu is the same as using the Add Blank Sequence menu. Also, on the sequence list panel, the new sequence appears over the others.

4. Repeat Step 3 to create other sequences. In this tutorial we simply create two duplicated layers. Now we have total 3 sequences, but we can only see the first one because it is opaque and covers up the others.

5. If you use 32-bit transparent morphs for upper layers, they will overlay on lower layers. But when you use normal opaque morphs for upper layers, you have to use Camera or Mask to show up the lower layers. In this example as shown below, we use the Camera tool to place different layers at different positions, so now we can see the stack of layers clearly and how they work simultaneously.

6. You can use the sequence list panel to adjust the layer order, change the layer visibility, copy source images from one sequence to another, etc. Learn more about How to Use Sequence List.

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