Tutorial, part 1…
I created this using Gimp, Pitivi, and Audacity. I also used VLC Media Player, and Newpipe on the BlissOS Android emulator inside VirtualBox.
First I downloaded the original video from Youtube using Newpipe which is an Android app. I’d tried downloading it using the Firefox addon Video DownloadHelper, but that didn’t work for this video. Newpipe does a fantastic job every time. The only limitation of Newpipe is that Youtube updates will temporarily break the app at which point the developers update it with a fix, and after upgrading, the app will work again. Not ideal, but the entire thing is a workaround. Newpipe cannot be found on the Google Play store. Instead, get the alternative app store Fdroid and install from there. If you aren’t familiar with Newpipe, Fdroid, or “side loading” apps onto Android, just Google it (or DuckDuckGo it). I run Newpipe on my phone, but I also have it available on my computer. Using VirtualBox, I have an Android emulator called BlissOS installed. When I can’t download videos using the Firefox addon Video DownloadHelper, I’ll use Newpipe in my BlissOS install to get them.
Once I had the video, I played it in VLC Media Player and took a screenshot of Lindsey flexing.
Next, I opened the screenshot in Gimp, first enhanced the sharpness to compensate for video blur, and then used the IWarp filter tool to enhance her arm muscles. I Frankensteined in the pec muscles of Pavla Brantalova and used IWarp to further enhance the pec muscles. Along the way I also had to do various color correction mostly using the Brightness-Contrast and Hue-Saturation tools. Everything is done in layers, and multiple layers are created during the process to preserve various incremental changes which can be a life saver if at certain steps something needs to be done over. Other tools are used in the process as needed. The eraser, blur, smudge, rotation, scale, sheer, and perspective tools are commonly used. Less often, I might use the clone, healing, and dodge/burn tools. There’s no formula that I can describe for which tools or filters to use, or when. The tools and filters mentioned here aren’t a complete list, they’re just some of the more common choices. Each step is a new decision that is often a combination of experience, but is often still trial-and-error.
Once I had my muscle enhanced photo manipulations, of which I often create several versions each of differing muscle size or features, it was time to create morph tweens. Anyone that pays attention, has seen me tirelessly distinguish between manips and morphs. Morphing has become a popular misnomer by laypersons talking about photo manipulations. The problem is, when someone like myself that uses ACTUAL morphing tries to say they did a morph, people misunderstand and confuse the technical term as I intend it for the misnomer of the layperson. Morphing is the use of computer software to generate transitions between images. The in-between transition frames are called tweens, which is simply short for in-betweens. I created the morph tweens using the Video plugin for Gimp. The Video plugin doesn’t come in the default install and must be added. The plugin has it’s own menu option named Video. Under the video menu is the sub-menu Morph in which I selected Morph (Video>Morph>Morph). That opens a new dialog window for which I’d already created a new file with only 2 layers. One layer of the original screenshot, and one of the muscle enhancement I’d created.
The starting image should be on the left, and the ending image on the right. Use swap if you need to change the order. The first thing to do is click the shape button. That places a border of fixed points around the edge of the image. Points inform the program of relationships between the two images. When creating points for a morph, no matter which software you use, begin by creating static (unmoving) points. It’s important to begin with static points because once you begin creating transient points, the program begins making educated guesses and automatically shifting things. Create static points to tell the program which parts should remain unaltered. Transient points create relationships between the parts that will move. Don’t rush your transient points. Take them one at a time. Set a transient point on the starting image, and then move the point to it’s new location on the ending image. It can be tempting to set multiple points on the starting image with the intention to move everything on the ending image afterwards. Don’t. Go one point at a time. You’ll get much better results. Once you’ve created all your points, be sure to save them to a file. Morphs nearly always require several attempts until you refine the transition into what you’re wanting. If you don’t save your points to a file, you’ll be starting over when it doesn’t come out right. Depending on which program you use for morphing, the file extension may differ. In the Video plugin for Gimp, there isn’t a predetermined file extension. I’ll name my points file the same as the image file and change the file extension to “.pnt”. Set “steps” to the number of tween frames that you want. Don’t create too many tweens. Aside from taking longer to generate, too many tweens could crash the program. I’ll usually create between 3 - 12 tweens. Click morph, wait for the tweens to be generated and then preview them as an animation by selecting Filter>Animation>Playback from the menus. The better your morph points, the better your morph. It takes a good eye, some experience, and experimentation and cleanup. You’ll probably have artifacts that need removing. Many artifacts can be reduced or eliminated by adding or moving points. Some require manual cleanup. Overlapping points tend to create the most trouble. For example, Lindsey’s bicep peak crossed the line of the sofa’s backrest. That required manual cleanup using the smudge and eraser tools. See the attached image below for a look at the points dialog window.