New image-manipulation software makes morphing quicker

October 13, 2010 | Source: PhysOrg.com

A new type of image-manipulation software has been developed in Germany that will considerably speed up the process of manipulating images in movies to make actors seem slimmer, more muscular, taller, and so on.

The MovieReShape software was developed at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Saarbrucken by Christian Theobalt and colleagues, and enables movie-makers, both amateur and professional, to dramatically change the appearance of people on video without computer editing each frame. The software can quickly and easily manipulate parameters such as muscularity, body bulk, height, waist and hip girth, and length of legs.

It will no doubt find application in movies in which at the moment actors must lose weight or put it on for particular roles.