Escher Animation

This paper contains a description of the process of implementing an application that can generate moving animations from still images. The application developed accepts bitmap images which have similar properties as Maurits Cornelis Eschers printed woodcut series called Metamorphosis I, Metamorphosis II and Metamorphosis III respectively and generate an animation with smooth and natural transitions between a user specified sub selection from the tessellations that are present within the bitmap image.

The application is able to automatically identify and extract tessellations from an input image through the use of two slightly different flood fill techniques, and presents the user with an easy way to make a sub selection from and an ordering of the extracted tessellations which should be present in the generation of the animation. The morphing algorithm, which will generate the smooth and natural transition between the selected tessellations, is implemented with a two-dimensional cellular automata, which allows for the fast and efficient generation of intermediate key frames.

The animation consist of the displayment of subsequent key frames. The tessellations are repeated several times over the screen to mimic the layout of Eschers Metamorphosis prints. An algorithm is used to calculate a subtle displacement of the tessellations to generate a subtle feeling of movement.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Maurits Cornelis Escher
• Metamorphosis
• Tessellations
• Generative Art
• Image Processing
• Animating
• Cellular Automata
• Morphing Techniques
• Warping Techniques

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