IMAGE METAMORPHOSIS WITH SCATTERED FEATURE CONSTRAINTS

This paper describes an image metamorphosis technique to handle scatte red feature constraints specified with points, polylines, and splines. Solutions to the following three problems are presented: feature spec ification, warp generation, and transition control. We demonstrate the use of snakes to reduce the burden of feature specification. Next, we propose the use of multilevel free-form deformations (MFFD) to comput e C-2-continuous and one-to-one mapping functions among the specified features. The resulting technique, based on B-spline approximation, is simpler and faster than previous warp generation methods. Furthermore , it produces smooth image transformations without undesirable ripples and foldovers. Finally, we simplify the MFFD algorithm to derive tran sition functions to control geometry and color blending. Implementatio n details are furnished and comparisons among Various metamorphosis te chniques are presented.