Maya's Metamorphic Movie Mania :-)

In my opinion, the producers of Space: 1999 were pretty gutsy in creating a fully metamorphic character — Maya — with only mid-Seventies technology. Yet, it was still the mid-Seventies. Nowadays, we have morphing programs that you can pick up for your own computer. Indeed, I have just such a program that came with a software package, and couldn't think of a more appropriate use then to make Maya morph, mid-Nineties style! It's just a small PC program, not a full-blown professional special effects house, but the results are still fairly cool, IMO.

Transformation			Time, Frames, Pixels; Episode Based On	Download Formats		Extras
Brief Des- cription	Half-Sized 'Thumbnails'			Quick- Time Movie	Micro- soft Video
	Start Image	End Image
Hawk to Maya			4 seconds 34 frames 320 x 240 01/26/97 "The Metamorph"	4MYA 4HWK .MOV 373K	4MYA 4HWK .AVI 335K	[none]
Maya to Dog			4 seconds 34 frames 320 x 240 09/18/96 "The Metamorph"	4MYA 2DOG .MOV 440K	4MYA 2DOG .AVI 485K	Hilarious Goofs
Maya to Helena			4 seconds 40 frames 312 x 218 02/28/98 "The Exiles"	4MYA 2HEL .MOV 630K	4MYA 2HEL .AVI 680K	Other Images From Scene + "Goofs" + FadeForms

In my opinion, the producers of Space: 1999 were pretty gutsy in creating a fully metamorphic character, Maya, with mid-Seventies technology. They did it in a few different ways, which I have analyzed on a separate page: Analysis of Filming Techniques Used to Transform Maya in Space: 1999. Though effective (to varying degrees) at conveying the point and sometimes in a visually-startling way, the ability to "morph" someone's image has come a long way. When I found a piece of hardware I purchased in the mid-1990s came with some software bundled, including a "morph" program, I couldn't think of a more appropriate use than to make Maya "morph."

I think the results turned out pretty nice for the time, given some of the limitations I had (some detailed elsewhere on this page), and I ended up completing three of them and starting another (which I would still like to dig up and finish at some point, even though I know morphing has progressed even further now).

So without further ado, I present the first Maya (meta)morphing movies. More will follow.

Okay, the begin/end pictures are fuzzy, the perspectives are a bit different, and the dog looks a little too big. (Another snapshot of Maya wasn't as fuzzy, but worsened the size scale problem.) I had remembered the scene a bit differently than it actually was, so I ended up dealing with a less than ideal situation. So while these problems affect the movie, I was pleasantly surprised that the results were still pretty cool. Give it a try!

There are two format choices:

• 4MYA2DOG.MOV (Quicktime Movie), 4 seconds of video, 440K
• 4MYA2DOG.AVI (Microsoft Video), 4 seconds of video, 485K

Oh, and I have three snapshots of some hilarious disasters, originating from mistakes I made using the software. I post them anyway with some humorous captions, for the fun of it.

A little better in some ways than the first; but I'm still learning. It's still great fun; so again, why not give it a try!

Two format choices:

• 4MYA4HWK.MOV (Quicktime Movie), 4 seconds of video, 373K
• 4MYA4HWK.AVI (Microsoft Video), 4 seconds of video, 335K

Here, I took some absolutely lovely video snapshots of Maya and Helena, fixed the pictures up a little, just enough to make a better morph; and ended up with a stunning transformation! I think you'll enjoy this one.

Two movie format choices:

• 4MYA2HEL.MOV (Quicktime Movie), 4 seconds of video, 630K
• 4MYAHEL.AVI (Microsoft Video), 4 seconds of video, 680K

I also, just for the fun of it, made some 'Caricatures' and 'Warps'

Plus, I added a bunch of other snapshots of Maya, Helena, and John from the same scene.

FadeForms

Just on a comparative basis, I also generated a simple "fade in/out" version of the Maya-to-Helena transformation. This is not morphing, but is instead a computer-generated equivalent (somewhat) to the camera trick that was used at least once for Maya in episodes (though not in the Maya-to-Helena scene).

In my opinion, this method have been used more often in the episodes, rather than that focus-on-Maya's-eye bit that got annoying after awhile. I guess even this trick was too expensive to use on a regular basis in 1976 ("morphing" as we know it didn't exist at the time).

The video specifications are the same for these, except they have half the number of frames (20; I didn't see the need for 40 for this less impressive comparative transformation).

Again, these are not the morphs, but simple fade in/outs for comparison. There is one movie, but in two different movie formats:

• 4MYA~HEL.MOV, QuickTime Movie, 315K
• 4MYA~HEL.AVI, Microsoft Video, 340K

On hold. Planned for... eventually. No ETA. (Last Updated: M-09/03/07)

Maya "Morph" Movies From Other Fan(s)

I am aware that at least one other artist has used a 1990's or later morph program to make a Maya transformation movie. Any listed sites are external and not affiliated with this page. (Last link check: M-08/27/07)

• Andi Combs
  • The Maya Morphin' Movie!

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All original content is © Copyright, 1996-2007, David M. Welle.

1-09/18/96, 1-03/01/97, 2-01/26/97, 2-07/21/97, 3-1998; rpr/frmt 2007/08/17