Image morphing is a technique used to smoothly transform one image into another by generating intermediate frames. It involves blending the pixels of the source and target images to create a seamless transition between the two.

  The basic steps involved in image morphing can be summarized as follows:

  1. Feature extraction: The first step is to identify corresponding features in the source and target images, such as key points or landmarks. These features act as control points for the morphing process.

  2. Triangulation: Triangulation is used to divide the source and target images into a set of non-overlapping triangles based on the corresponding features. Each triangle contains three control points - one from the source image, one from the target image, and one intermediate point.

  3. Warping: Warping involves transforming the triangles in the source image to match the positions of the triangles in the target image. This step is accomplished by linearly interpolating the pixel coordinates between the source and target points of each triangle.

  4. Cross-dissolve: In this step, the pixel intensities of the source and target images are blended together using a weighted average. The weighting factor is determined by the position of the morphing point within each triangle.

  5. Morphing sequence: The previous steps are repeated for a set of intermediate frames between the source and target images. By adjusting the positions of the control points over the morphing sequence, gradual transformations can be achieved.

  6. Anti-aliasing: To smooth out any jagged edges or artifacts resulting from the warping and cross-dissolve steps, anti-aliasing techniques are applied to improve the visual quality of the intermediate frames.

  Overall, image morphing combines geometric and pixel-level transformations to create a visually convincing transition effect between two images. It is widely used in various applications such as animation, special effects in movies, facial expression manipulation, and more.