As the tide flows

October 9, 2010 7:15 AM

Philip Scott Johnson does morphing
Van Gogh self portraits
60 years of actresses
60 years of actors
women in film
Women In Art here previously; 500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art now with links to original artwork.
posted by adamvasco (14 comments total)

Didja know MetaFilter's own StickyCarpet invented morphing?
posted by nickyskye at 7:24 AM on October 9, 2010 [10 favorites]

This is awesome. Thanks for sharing.
posted by Fizz at 8:31 AM on October 9, 2010

I like that they morphed Archie Bunker into George Jefferson.
posted by notsnot at 8:31 AM on October 9, 2010

60 years of actresses

60 years of women looking like they're terribly interested in what I'm saying.
posted by Faze at 8:31 AM on October 9, 2010

10 Years of Glamour Shots, please.
posted by rageagainsttherobots at 9:11 AM on October 9, 2010 [1 favorite]

I really like the smoother interpolation of the actors/actresses ones. Watching these really reminded me of how much of the human brain must be devoted to recognizing facial features, as even the slightest changes seemed to result in totally different faces.
posted by Rhomboid at 10:08 AM on October 9, 2010 [1 favorite]

Funny you say that, Rhomboid. I thought the exact opposite while watching Van Gogh's self portraits. He varies the facial features a lot but retains his likeness.
posted by yaymukund at 10:16 AM on October 9, 2010 [1 favorite]

I ended up mostly watching the eyes and noses.
posted by stilist at 10:22 AM on October 9, 2010

I really liked how, in the Van Gogh one, left-to-right and right-to-left morphs sometimes yielded an extremely strong sense of convexity. It was like the face was coming out of the screen!
posted by tickingclock at 10:42 AM on October 9, 2010 [1 favorite]

same here, I almost always track on the noses and eyes. I thought is was interesting how similar many of these people look.

I;ve always liked software morphing - ever since seeing this many years ago.
posted by archivist at 10:44 AM on October 9, 2010

I was very disappointed that his El Greco film in the sidebar wasn't a morph. I loved the Van Gogh one, though.
posted by immlass at 10:46 AM on October 9, 2010

Ditto, yaymukund. I spent the time wondering if his actual face metrics could be deduced from all that data, despite the fact that they were so true to form visually* that one could pick him out of a crowd. With earmuffs on.

*As evidenced by how similar the many, many portaits were over the years.
posted by IAmBroom at 10:50 AM on October 9, 2010

Having just sampled everything from Cezanne to Baroque Art I must say that the Van Gogh one is truly the best experience.
posted by The Lady is a designer at 11:55 AM on October 9, 2010

Yes, it's the eyes and noses (and mouths) that are most important to work with when morphing. I did a few so long ago that they're hosted on tripod.
posted by MrMoonPie at 12:15 PM on October 9, 2010