StereomorpherPlus
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Purpose of the program
The program is intended for generating new views basing on a stereo pair, that is, in-between and outer views. Sequence of views is used for creating lenticular images.
StereomorpherPlus uses the basic principle of usual morphing applications: drawing of identical shapes in left and right images, and transformation of the left shape into the right shape. But there are some essential particularities:
The images must be in Greyscale, RGB, CMYK colour mode. The program reads files in BMP, PNG, TIFF, JPEG format, and writes in TIFF. The program doesn't support compressed and multilayered TIFF.
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Requirements to computer and system
Windows 98/NT4/2000/XP.
Display resolution not less than 800x600 pixels.
128 MB RAM or more
In the beginning, open left and right images using top buttons Open... Don't mix up left and right images.
Buttons 
and 
are used for increasing and decreasing the images.
Left tools are used for manual polygons creation. See details here.
Check on button 
fix vertices numbers in polygons, you can't add/remove the vertices in a polygon.
This button opens the dialogue Automatic polygon creation. See details here. This dialogue is used as parameters setting for Lasso tool.
Down buttons Open... is used for loading polygons. In the left the polygon filename apears. Button 
removes the selected polygon. Button Clear removes all polygons. Save as... saves the polygons in a new file, Save saves the polygons in the current file.
and 
flip the polygons to other side using copying and shifting or stereo matching. See details here.
This button opens the views generation dialogue. See details here.
Choose in top menu File-Save project... to save project settings, choose File-Load project... to load a project.
Help in the top menu is for Read Help... and About...
Q - for removing the vertices drawn with the Pen or Lasso tools for the left polygon.
W - for removing the vertices drawn with the Pen or Lasso tools for the right polygon.
A - for consequent selection of left and right identical polygons (with equivalent numbers). Herewith, polygon number is increased, and unselected polygons are hidden.
SHIFT-A - for consequent selection of left and right identical polygons (with equivalent numbers). Herewith, polygon number is decreased, and unselected polygons are hidden.
S - for consequent selection of left and right identical polygons (with equivalent numbers). Herewith, polygon number is increased, and all polygons are visible.
SHIFT-S - for consequent selection of left and right identical polygons (with equivalent numbers). Herewith, polygon number is dencreased, and all polygons are visible.
Delete - removes selected left and right polygons. Be careful.
Arrows - for shifting the right selected polygon.
SHIFT-Arrows - for shifting the left selected polygon.
Z - shows selected left and right polygon in the full screen.
Move the mouse to the viewing area and click its right button, a context menu will appears:
Command names correspond to their functions.
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Basic functions for polygons:
The application has a function of automatic polygon creation for the left image. Click to open this dialogue:
First step is Segmentation - uniform painted fragment image. By decreasing Colour tolerance, you get greater number of segments, increase Colour tolerance to decrease the number of segments.
After the segmentation click Make polygons. Vertices tolerance defines the distance between the vertices. It's better to set 1 or 2, 3 is for a large image, 0 is for very small image.
Value Minimal segment defines the minimum size of segment, smaller segments will be removed. Minimal segment is the linear pixel size of a minimal segment.
After this click Cancel to close the dialogue. Button Set parameters saves the current parameters without any action.
Use this tools for manual polygon creation:
- polygons editing mode;
- Pen tool;
- Lasso tool;
- Magic wand.
Click a buttons to choose the necessary mode.
In polygon editing mode you can create new polygon using the context menu and command Add polygon, three vertices polygon appears, and you can add new vertex by mouse double-click. Drag and drop a vertex using mouse. Button 
must be checked off. This is not very suitable method to create new polygons. Better to use other tools.
- Pen tool works usually, click the mouse to add new vertex. Press Q-key for left polyline and W-key for right polyline to remove last vertex. Then use the context menu and command Add polygon to transform this polyline to polygon. If you don't want to add this polyline, remove this polyline using the context menu and command Delete selected polygon or button .
- Lasso tool works usually. Drag and drop the polyline. You can release the left mouse button and then press again to continue this polyline. You can choose Pen and continue the polyline using Pen tool. Then choose Lasso again. Press Q key for left polyline and W key for right polyline to remove last vertices (press and don't release).
Then use the context menu and command Add polygon to transform this polyline to polygon. If you don't want to add this polyline, remove it using the context menu and command Delete selected polygon or button .
Before using the command Add polygon set Vertices tolerance in the dialogue Automatic polygon creation. Click to open this dialogue:
It's better to set Vertices tolerance to 3. Shift the slider and click Set parameters and Cancel.
Move the mouse cursor inside polygon, then click the right button, a context menu will be shown:
Click command Select polygon. This command is inactive if the mouse cursor is outside of the polygon or the polygon is selected.
S and A keys are used for the polygons selection too. Press S key to select the polygons with number incresing, SHIFT-S to select the polygons with number decreasing. Press A key to select the polygons with number increasing, SHIFT-A to select the polygons with number decreasing. If you use A key, unselected polygons are hidden.
S and A keys select left and right identical polygons (with equivalent numbers). Better to use A key to find stereo matching errors and to correct it.
Arrows keys are used for shifting right selected polygon. SHIFT-Arrows are used for shifting left selected polygon.
Use the context menu and command Delete selected polygon to remove the selected polygon:
You can use the button to delete the selected polygon.
Delete key removes selected left and right polygons simultaneously.Use Delete key with S and A keys, because these keys select the left and right identical polygons. If you delete non-identical left and right polygons, you destroy the correspondence between polygons. Be careful!
Click the button Clear to remove all polygons. The question Do you want to delete all polygons? appears, click O. K. to proceed.
Click button to choose the polygon editing mode. Move the mouse cursor to the edge and double-click, new vertex appears. Attention, button must be check off. If check is on, you can't add/delete the vertex, the number of the vertices will be fixed. This option is used for stereo matching errors correction. Polygons number and vertices number in the polygon for left and right images must be equal.
Click button to choose the polygon editing mode. Move the mouse cursor to the vertex and double-click, this vertex disappears. Attention, button must be unchecked. If is checked, you can't add/delete the vertex, the number of the vertices will be fixed. This option is used for stereo matching errors correction. Polygons number and vertices number in the polygon for left and right images must be equal.
Click button to choose the polygon editing mode. Drag and drop the vertex using the left mouse button. Press SHIFT key and the vertex will be moved horizontally only. Press CTRL key and the vertex will be moved vertically. Most of stereo pairs have a zero vertical parallax, so move the vertex with SHIFT key for stereo matching errors correction to avoid the vertical parallax.
Button Save as... is used to save the polygons at the new filename, Save saves the polygons in the current file. Polygon file has PGN extension. Click Save every times as you make some changes in the polygons.
Click the lower button Open... and choose the necessary PGN-file to open polygons. Button Open... combines several polygons sets with different filenames. For example, you want to combine three polygon sets: 1.pgn, 2.pgn, 3.pgn, open this files, all three polygon sets appear in the same window. Then you can save new file, for example, new.pgn. If you don't want to combine the polygon sets, Clear button must be used.
Stereo matching is the algorithm of finding the identical polygons of left and right images. Click button to find identical right polygons for left polygon. This dialogue appears:
If you set the parallax to zero, the polygon will be copied without change.
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| Analyzed fragment | Horizontal parallax | Vertical parallax |
Options Source image analyse and Gradient image analyse determine what images will be analysed, the source ones or their gradient images.
Most often you need to use the option Source image analyse.
If the left and right images differ by colour or lighting, it will be better to analyse only gradient images. In this case choose Gradient image analyse. If the image's content is determined by outlines, use Gradient image analyse too.
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| source stereo pair | gradient images |
Option For all polygons is used, if you want to make the stereo matching For all polygons, For the selected polygon option makes the stereo matching For the selected polygon only.
If the right segment is a deformation of the left segment, it's better to use the stereo matching with some parallaxes and analyzed fragment values. You can choose these values by selection.
If the right segment is a result of left segment shifting, set the parallaxes is equal to zero, the segment will be copied without deformation, then you shift it using Arrows keys. If some segment is overlapped by fore segment the polygons must be crossed.
Click the button to open this dialogue:
Enter the number of views in the field Number of source and in-between views. This value is number of in-between views and source images. If Number of source and in-between views = 2, the number of in-between views will be zero.
Enter the number of outer views in the field Number of outer views. This is number of outer left and right images. So total number of views will be:
Total number of views = Number of source and in-between views + 2*Number of outer views You can do a morph using the morph transition, or by using two warp effects. This works because a morph is actually done by warping both the images in opposite directions and fading one into the other. If you want to customize your morph with other effects, you can try doing it by separating it into two warps. Draw the shapes in both images/videos separately, and then copy the shapes of one to the other and associate them properly to create the warps.
Option Warp and Warp and fade define two morph effects. Warp and fade makes the warping of both images in opposite directions and the fading one into the other for in-between views generation. Warp option makes the image warping without the fading. Outer views are warped without fading in any cases.
Click button Proceed and generate new views.
Button Set parameters saves the current settings.
The polygons correspondence errors leads to the image garbling. Easy to see these errors by generation of two in-between views with the Warp and fade option. Set the Number of source and in-between views is equal four, the number of in-between views will be two. Set the Warp and fade . If in-between views are twinning in the some fragment, it means the polygons are wrong corresponded or need to draw a additional polygons in this place. Image smearing indicates the wrong corresponded polygons. Find and correct these polygons.
Open left and right images in StereomorpherPlus using the top buttons Open.... Don't mix up left and right ones. Use and to increase/decrease the images.
Now we begin to draw the polygons for one image (better for left image). Try to make the polygons automatically, click button to open the dialogue Automatic polygon creation. If the result is not satisfactory, click Clear to remove all. You can correct the polygons using the A-key (the polygon number increases) and SHIFT-A (the polygon number decreases). You can draw the polygons manually using the Lasso and Pen tools.
Don't forget to click Save to save your current work.
After polygons creation check on to fix the number of vertices in polygons.
Now we create the corresponding polygons in the right image. Click this button to open the dialogue Stereo matching. Set the maximal vertical and horizontal parallaxes and analyzing fragment size. Choose the For all polygons option. Then choose For the selected polygon to make the corresponding for certain polygon.
Now press S and SHIFT-S keys to find and correct the corresponding errors. Click button to choose the polygon editing mode, you can move the vertices. Most of stereo pairs have a zero vertical parallax, so move the vertex with SHIFT-key to avoid the vertical parallax.
Attention!!! Be careful, if you delete the some polygon. Delete only identical left and right polygons. Use Delete-key with S and A-keys.
If you want to copy some polygon again, click , set For the selected polygon, set zero parallaxes and click Proceed, this polygon will be copyed instead of old polygon, then you can shift it by Arrows-keys.
Don't forget to click Save.
Polygons will be used for new views generation. Click File -> Save project.... Later you may load this project file, set the new number of outer and in-between views generation and create new views set.
Click to create new views.
Software don't support Indexed colours image, don't load multilayered and compressed TIF.
In the find some bugs please contact the developer.
All copyrights to StereomorpherPlus are exclusively owned by the author Evgenia Wassenmiller, © 2004.