Reshape

Reshape

Unfortunately, creating a morph with Reshape is nowhere
near a one-button process. This book generally steers away
from step-by-step recipes in favor of helping you solve
larger problems creatively, but in this case, it’s easy to get
confused. So here is a step-by-step, using a demonstration
of my own resemblance transitioning to that of my evil twin
:
1. Start with two elements that have some basic similarities
in their relative position of features. The subtler the
distortion required, the more you can get away with.
2. Isolate the two elements you will be morphing from
their backgrounds to prevent contamination. If you’re
working with elements shot against a blue screen, key
them out fi rst. Otherwise, mask them. In my example, I
created masks for each layer.
3. Ascertain that the two layers are the same size in the X
and Y dimensions and as closely aligned as possible. If
they are not, precompose one layer to match the other.
This step is important because it will make matching the source
and target masks much, much simpler. Name the two layers
Source and Target (as they are in the example) if it
helps you follow along.
4. Choose matching sections from your two clips for the
duration of your transition (say, 24 frames). If you
have still elements, no worries. The closer your moving
elements are to still, the more likely you’ll get a clean
result.
5. Draw a mask around the boundary that is going to
morph in both layers. Be as precise as possible, erring
to the inside if at all. This could be the
masks created in step 2, if you created masks there.
It need not be active; if you don’t need it to mask out
the background, set it to None. Rename each mask
something descriptive like outer (the name used in
my example).