Compositing Software for Combining Photos

Morpheus Photo Mixer - Frequently Asked Questions

Basics

  1. What is Morpheus Photo Mixer?
  2. How do I get started using Morpheus Photo Mixer?
  3. What are beginner mode menus?
  4. Why are some of my dots the same color?
  5. What is the best way to view my photo mix when I am finished?
  6. What formats can I render my photo mixes in? Which is the best?
  7. What do I do with my completed photo mixes?
  8. How can I email my photo mix to a friend?
  9. I have another question not asked here. How can I contact Morpheus Software?

Manipulating Pictures

  1. How do I turn one person into another?
  2. How do I distort a picture of somebody?
  3. How do I put somebody's head on somebody else's body?
  4. Why do my pictures look squished in the Preview window?
  5. What are the best size pictures to use?
  6. Can I add dots to just one picture individually?
  7. I closed the picture windows. How do I get them back?

Features and Options

  1. What is the difference between a morph, a warp, and a photo mix?
  2. How does the Fade Selected Dots button work?
  3. How can I keep transparency in my rendered files?

Placing Orders, Trial and Activating

  1. Is Morpheus Photo Mixer compatible with Windows 7 or Windows Vista?
  2. What do I get when I order Morpheus Photo Mixer?
  3. I just placed an order and have not received a receipt email. Where is it?
  4. I purchased Morpheus Photo Mixer in the past, how can I get it back now?
  5. How can I get an educational or quantity discount when ordering?
  6. How can I get assistance placing a purchase order for Morpheus Photo Mixer?
  7. It asks me to purchase but I already have. What do I do now?
  8. I purchased an upgrade but it still looks like the old one. Where is my new download?
  9. When I try to activate it says I need to be online, but I am. What do I do?
  10. The trial let me use a certain feature which is no longer available. Why?
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*1. What is Morpheus Photo Mixer?

Morpheus Photo Mixer is an award-winning graphics program that lets you create mixes of characteristics from two photos. Morpheus Photo Mixer lets you create photo mixes in JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and other popular formats. It is easy, fast, and fun to use for both beginning and advanced users. There is a beginner mode and tutorial to help you get started quickly. Sample photo mixes come included as well, which can be used as another way to quickly learn the program.

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*2. How do I get started using Morpheus Photo Mixer?

You can view the tutorial first (recommended) or just start using the program and play around with the sample photo mixes. Morpheus Photo Mixer has a very intuitive interface which is fairly easy to learn. Make sure you leave the beginner mode menus option on while learning how to use Morpheus Photo Mixer.

For more detailed information on the program's features, please see the help files. If you have trouble using the program after reviewing the tutorial and the help files, feel free to visit our support forums and we'll do our best to help you understand the program better.

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*3. What are beginner mode menus?

By default, Morpheus Photo Mixer will use beginner mode menus, which will hide all but the bare essential menu choices needed to create a simple photo mix. For most users, we suggest starting out by leaving the program in beginner mode and moving up to normal mode once you are comfortable with the program. For power-users and/or image professionals, you might want to use normal mode right away.

You can easily use the normal mode menus by unchecking the beginner mode menus checkbox from the layout wizard which appears when you first start Morpheus Photo Mixer. You can also set this option in the program's preferences window, available under the Edit menu. Normal mode will show all available menu options needed in order to use more of the program's features and to create more complex photo mixes.

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*4. Why are some of my dots the same color?

In the normal mode of Morpheus Photo Mixer, you can change the color, style, and size of the dots under by selecting Customize Dot's Default from the Morph menu.

There are a number of different schemes to choose from, which provide a variety of colors, let you pick a solid color for all of the dots, or even inverse the picture underneath the dots. The color, style, and size of the dots are up to you, but they will be easier to see if you pick a color scheme where the dots have more contrast to the pictures you are working with.

In beginner mode, you are fixed with the default color scheme, which cycles 8 basic colors across the dots. Note that the 9th dot you add will therefore be the same color as the 1st, the 10th the same as the 2nd, and so on. To tell the dots apart and to correctly locate their partner dot, simply move your mouse over one to highlight it. Its partner dot will then glow as well.

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*5. What is the best way to view my photo mix when I am finished?

When you have finished creating your photo mix you can view it for yourself right inside the program in the preview window.

In order to use your photo mix in other programs, put it on a website, or email it to a friend, you must first render it to a file. Rendering your photo mix creates a standard file type which can be displayed in other programs, but it cannot be edited in Morpheus Photo Mixer in the future. Select the Render Timeline option from the File menu and you will be able to render your photo mix to a variety of picture formats such as JPEG, PNG, or TIFF.

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*6. What formats can I render my photo mixes in? Which is the best?

You can save your photo mix to any of these picture formats.

  • PNG: Perfect quality images, small file size, and supports full translucency.
  • JPEG: Very small files good for webpages, but quality poor at higher compression settings.
  • TIFF: Perfect quality images, large like bitmaps.
  • BMP: Perfect quality shot of every frame, but very large files.
  • TGA: Perfect quality, large, but supports translucency in more programs.
  • XPM: Larger than all other formats, but useful for importing to Linux systems.

Which file type is the best depends on what you want to do with your photo mix. If you are unsure, you can try each of the formats and see how they work with the other programs you might want to use your photo mixes with. While Morpheus Photo Mixer can create any of these standard file types, not all third party applications will be able to display files in every one of the available formats.

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*7. What do I do with my completed photo mixes?

Use your photo mixes to grab people's attention or to have a good time - create web graphics and enhance your web site, email photo mixes to friends and family to make them laugh, create a unique online greeting, post your photo mixes on the Internet, add more life to your presentations, or use your photo mixes in countless other great ways!

If your photo mix is unique and exciting, and you want to share it with other Morpheus Photo Mixer users, you might consider submitting it to us for display.

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*8. How can I email my photo mix to a friend?

Render your photo mix to a file of any type, and remember the location where you created the file. Attach that file to an email in your regular email program just like you would any other file you wanted to send. It is recommended that you render a file type which will be small in size so the emails can be sent quickly, such as JPEG.

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*9. I have another question not asked here. How can I contact Morpheus Software?

Please run through the tutorial, read through the help files, and play around with the variety of sample photo mixes that come included with Morpheus Photo Mixer. After trying those options, if you are still unable to resolve your issue, please visit our support forums and we will do our best to assist you in making your experience with Morpheus Photo Mixer a great one.

Be sure to let us know how we can further improve Morpheus Photo Mixer for you also - Thank You!

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*10. How do I turn one person into another?

Creating an animation of one person transitioning into another is called a morph, but this is not the focus of Morpheus Photo Mixer. In order to create morphs, you would need the functionality of Morpheus Photo Morpher or Morpheus Photo Animation Suite.

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*11. How do I distort a picture of somebody?

Creating an animation which distorts a picture of a person is called a warp, but this is not the focus of Morpheus Photo Mixer. In order to create warps, you would need the functionality of Morpheus Photo Warper or Morpheus Photo Animation Suite.

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*12. How do I put somebody's head on somebody else's body?

Creating a picture which uses features from two different pictures mixed together is called a photo mix, and mixing is exactly what Morpheus Photo Mixer is designed to do. Please see the tutorial for step-by-step directions on creating a photo mix.

Regular photo mixes create a composite image of the feature of the two pictures blended together. If you want to use entire parts from one image and entire parts from another image, you would need to use the Fade Selected Dots tool available in the Professional edition or higher of Morpheus Photo Mixer.

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*13. Why do my pictures look squished in the Preview window?

Morpheus Photo Mixer automatically sizes your timeline based on the sizes of the pictures you load. It is not a problem to load pictures with different dimensions, but if you load two pictures with different aspect ratios, or manually set a different size for your timeline, then some pictures may look squished in the Preview window. Morpheus Photo Mixer will stretch all pictures to fill the timeline size and since it does not cut off any of the edges of the pictures, some may appear squished vertically or horizontally in order to fit.

It is recommended to use pictures of similar aspect ratios by cropping them to the portions you want.

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*14. What are the best size pictures to use?

It is recommended to use pictures of the largest dimensions you can, since you can easily zoom in and out to place dots at precise locations better when there are more details with which to zoom. Keep in mind the aspect ratio of your pictures though. If, for example, one picture is 1000x1000 pixels, but another is 1000x800 pixels, then the second picture may look stretched in order to match the aspect ratio used by the entire timeline. Larger picture dimensions also allow for more clarity when parts of your photo mix are stretched larger.

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*15. Can I add dots to just one picture individually?

Every dot you add to one picture will automatically get a corresponding partner dot on the opposite picture. Dots only come in pairs, because the purpose of a dot is to match up key features in each picture to tell Morpheus Photo Mixer how the starting picture will mix with the ending picture.

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*16. I closed the picture windows. How do I get them back?

In the Timeline window, simply doubleclick on any of the picture thumbnail buttons to open that picture window so that you can adjust the dots on it. The photo mix buttons just above the picture buttons will open both pictures for that photo mix side by side when doubleclicked.

If you do not see the Timeline window, it may be hidden. Select Timeline from the View menu to toggle showing and hiding the Timeline window.

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*17. What is the difference between a morph, a warp, and a photo mix?

A morph is an animation of one person transitioning into another. A warp is an animation where one picture is stretched or distorted. A photo mix is a still picture which is created using parts taken from two other pictures.

Morpheus Photo Mixer is used to create photo mixes. In order to create morphs, you would need the functionality of Morpheus Photo Morpher or Morpheus Photo Animation Suite. In order to create warps, you would need the functionality of Morpheus Photo Warper or Morpheus Photo Animation Suite.

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*18. How does the Fade Selected Dots button work?

By default, in a photo mix the entire mix is a blend of both the starting and ending picture. Each dot can be set to use the picture colors entirely from one picture by selecting start or end from the Fade Selected Dots button when you have one or more dots selected. Morpheus Photo Mixer automatically creates smooth mixes by blending between each dot set with different fade settings.

If, for example, you wanted to blend the head from the starting picture onto the body from the ending picture, you would select all of the dots placed around the head on the pictures and select Start from the Fade Selected Dots button, then select End for the dots around the body. Some dots in between the head and the body on the pictures, such as around the neck, can be set to Blend if you want a smoother transition.

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*19. How can I keep transparency in my rendered files?

Morpheus Photo Mixer by default only renders 24bit truecolor images for each frame, but if you check the "Morph the alpha channel" option in the Timeline Options window, then a 32bit image with alpha channel will be rendered for each frame. If you wish to keep the entire alpha channel information in tact, you should set the "Transparent threshold" to 0.

PNG is the best format for keeping the alpha channel in tact, and with the proper web page, it can be shown in all major web browsers and blended properly with the background.

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*20. Is Morpheus Photo Mixer compatible with Windows 7 or Windows Vista?

Yes, Morpheus Photo Mixer runs just fine under either Windows 7 or Windows Vista.

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*21. What do I get when I order Morpheus Photo Mixer?

When you order Morpheus Photo Mixer on our website, you will receive an email which is sent instantly and automatically. This email contains important information about your order such as a link to download the software and your activation code which is required to unlock the program. If you order the CD backup option during the checkout process, you will receive the software burned onto a single CD in a plastic sleeve. CDs are typically sent the next business day and may take 7-10 days to arrive. Note that you will not receive a boxed software product, all box graphics on our website are for illustrative purposes only.

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*22. I just placed an order and have not received a receipt email. Where is it?

Order receipt emails are sent automatically the instant you complete your order online. If you have not received it after ten minutes or so, please check your bulk or junk folders as some email providers and email software can be overzealous with their filtering. You can have a duplicate order email sent to the original email address you used when purchasing by using our locate order tool. If you do not receive any of our emails, it is possible that you or your ISP are simply blocking them.

If you use a type of spam filter which requires the sender to verify emails by clicking on a click, please note that since order receipt emails are sent automatically by a computer, there is nobody there to fulfill these requests. You will need to manually add morpheussoftware.net to your list of allowed email senders and request a new email using the locate order tool.

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*23. I purchased Morpheus Photo Mixer in the past, how can I get it back now?

If you purchased a program from us on our website, you can use the locate order tool to retrieve a duplicate copy of your original order receipt email. Unfortunately, if you purchased from a reseller, even online, we may not have your records in our database, and you would need to contact that reseller directly. Please note that past versions of Morpheus Photo Mixer may not always be available for download in the future and newer versions will not always accept past activation codes for a free upgrade. It is your responsibility to save a copy of the appropriate download or obtain a CD of the original installer.

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*24. How can I get an educational or quantity discount when ordering?

Volume and educational discounts are applied automatically when you enter a large quantity on the order system. Simply add the item to your cart, then on the next page adjust the quantity and press Update Total. Discounts will be applied automatically. For even larger orders, you may direct your inquiry to our sales department.

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*25. How can I get assistance placing a purchase order for Morpheus Photo Mixer?

Purchase orders can be placed on our order system by selecting the Purchase Order option on the product list page. Simply fill out the order form and you will receive an invoice by email with directions on where to mail your payment. Once the payment is received, an order receipt email will be sent containing the details of your completed order. For special information such as our tax ID, you may contact our sales department with your request.

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*26. It asks me to purchase but I already have. What do I do now?

The download for Morpheus Photo Mixer is the same installer regardless of if you are using the free trial or have recently purchased. If you do not enter your activation code, the program will continue to function as a trial. Select Activate Morpheus from the Help menu and enter the activation code you received in your order receipt email. You will need to be online in order to activate, but Morpheus Photo Mixer will not otherwise need Internet access again.

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*27. I purchased an upgrade but it still looks like the old one. Where is my new download?

The download and installer for Morpheus Photo Mixer is the same, regardless of the edition you purchase, such as Standard or Professional. If you simply downloaded the same installer and reinstalled the program, it will not prompt you for a new activation code because it was already activated as your old edition. Check Help/About Morpheus to see the current program name, version, and edition information. If you have a new activation code, all you need to do is enter it at Help/Activate Morpheus and the additional features will be unlocked.

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*28. When I try to activate it says I need to be online, but I am. What do I do?

This is typically caused by firewall, proxy, antivirus, or system security software which blocks Internet access on a program-by-program basis. Even if your web browser is able to visit our website, your computer may still be blocking Morpheus Photo Mixer from reaching the very same site. Some of these firewall programs which block access may continue to do so even when they look like they are no longer running, so you may have to specifically allow Morpheus Photo Mixer from inside of the firewall program in order to activate. Morpheus Photo Mixer will need to make a single normal web request on port 80 in order to complete the activation.

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*29. The trial let me use a certain feature which is no longer available. Why?

The trial version of Morpheus Photo Mixer lets you try all of the features found in both the Standard and Professional editions of the program. Toolbar buttons and menu items from higher editions may remain after you enter your activation code but they will not be accessible unless you were to upgrade. You can hide all of these features which are not available by selecting Preferences from the Edit menu and checking the "Hide upgradable menu options" box.

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