Assessment criteria for 2D shape transformations in animation

The assessment of 2D shape transformations (or morphing) for animation is a difficult task because it a's a multi-dimensional problem. Existing morphing techniques pay most attention to shape information, interactive control and mathematical simplicity. This paper shows that it is not enough to use shape information only and we should consider other factors such as structure, dynamics, timing etc. The paper also shows that an overall objective assessment of morphing is impossible because factors such as timing are related to subjective judgement, yet local objective assessment criteria, e.g. based on shape, are available. We propose using ''area preservation'' as the shape criterion for the 2D case as an acceptable approximation to ''volume preservation'' in reality, and use it to establish cases in which a number of existing techniques give clearly incorrect results. The possibility of deriving objective assessment criteria for dynamics simulations and timing under certain conditions is discussed in the paper.