More Imaginary Politicians

[firstfrost]

So, I took several people's suggestions for "a more random politician" or "someone we won't know what they look like already", and threw some more faces at him.

I still can't predict well which faces will clash horribly. Substantial differences in angle can blend out, as can facial shape - the guinea pigs in my morphman demonstration have very different shape, and for all that this one combines someone looking forward and someone looking over their shoulder, the face itself isn't bad. But of the five below, all picked to be basically the same straight-on shot, three look (to me) like plausible people, one looks a little off, and one looks like a morphing accident gone horribly awry, and I have no idea why.

I'm not sure this is still an Experiment, so much as a Messing Around. But it did teach me how to make just the face morph, and keep clothes and background from just one image, which makes for a much tidier picture than many of my previous examples. (Short answer: you have to physically transform the "background" image, so that it lines up with your merged image, but you don't transparentize it.)

Comments

[mijven.livejournal.com]

Who's the guy in the middle? His eyes are twinkling!

[desireearmfeldt]

These look much more like "people I know" than your other set, and I'm pretty sure I could guess the specific people you morphed with for at least half of them... I'm entertained with how much shifting of round/narrow face structure you've got going here.

I think much of the problem with the one on the far left is he can't decide whether his mouth is open or closed. :)

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

These look much more like "people I know" than your other set
I noticed that too. They're not algorithmically farther towards the other face than the first set is - I decided that maybe a familiar face is more visible when it's against a backdrop of an unfamiliar face, whereas for the Bush set, they all look *like* Bush in addition to like someone else.

and I'm pretty sure I could guess the specific people you morphed with for at least half of them
(You know all of them, for reference. :) )

Mouth closed/mouth open is a consistent weirdness with these - both the far left and far right have that issue, which also manifests as smile/not-smile and causes (I think) more oddness around the mouth, because a half-smile is a strange expression.

[desireearmfeldt]

I don't think it's because a half-smile is odd, so much as because this picture has very pronounced cheek-folds, which look natural with a broad smile, but just wouldn't be generated by a half-smile or closed-mouth smile, so the expression looks physically impossible (for the rightmost and leftmost pics).

miscellaneous thoughts

[dpolicar]

The one in the middle is brighter; this continues to affect my judgement more than I would expect.
Far right is just wrong. (This, of course, will turn out to be the only non-morphed one.
Middle reminds me of chope.
Second from left looks pretty decent.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

I want a link to what the actual guy looks like.

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

http://www.ned.org/about/board_bios/bayh2.jpg

[jdbakermn.livejournal.com]

I certainly wouldn't have picked *him* from the lineup as the person I liked most. That said, I like #2 most (and #3's brightness threw me off a bit).

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

Argh, I can't figure out #2.
I agree with dpolicar, the bright middle picture catches the eye more.

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

desireearmfelt got 3, 4, and 5 right, but I'm punting the comment so other people can guess if they want.:)

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

(oops, I can't spell her name right, either)

Apparently I'm hypnotised by this concept.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

What an excellent form of brainwashing -- have videogame bad guys 15% morphed with the face of evil politicians. No one would ever figure it out...

#3

[twe.livejournal.com]

I like #3 best. While being brighter & in the center makes it really catch my eye, I picked it out as the friendliest just going through the images one by one on your morphman page.

Second choice is number 2.

Re: #3

[desireearmfeldt]

The bright/dark thing is really alarming. In both sets, the light contrast between one picture and the next was so pronounced I noticed it consciously rather than subconsciously--but I *still* instinctively liked the lighter pix better and couldn't really squash that response completely, even having identified it. :)

#3

[baronet.livejournal.com]

I like them from the center out. Assuming we're numbering them from left to right, I like #3 best, #2, #4, #1 next and #5 worst.

All 5 of them look like real faces to me, although #5 would probably have some self-consciousness issues with his apperance.