TO be honest I was going to skip this one, since seen through the lens of the nightly news I was a bit bothered by what someone might try to do with it. But then I read Whiterabbit's comment about how he thought it could be fun, & dove in thinking that AV Webcam Morpher doesn't have to be used for bad purposes, but rather the opposite. It took a little while as I puzzled over why their chroma keying didn't work with the included Helen video clips [that's in the pack's xml file] and so on, but FWIW this is what I came up with & posted to the Coments, though I doubt very much it'll show up this weekend.
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I think it might be easier to start with what AV Webcam Morpher is not... It's not a full fledged Green/Blue screen app. You've probably seen TV shows, "Making Of ..." features for whatever movies etc. where they film in front of a background that's all green or blue. Software then selects everything that matches that green or blue, & replaces it with whatever you choose -- when you watch the weather on TV the weather person is normally standing in front of a green screen, & software puts the weather map in its place [that's why the person's movements are often a bit vague, because they're not really pointing at something they can see, but glancing at themselves in a TV monitor]. AV Webcam Morpher doesn't do motion Avatars based on your image as seen by the camera -- there is software that will, varying in sophistication from cartoonish to almost a bit scary real. Lots of the latest apps/research focus on Microsoft's Kinect, since it can distinguish you from the background so you don't have to set up a special backdrop &/or have to deal with Color or Chroma Keying issues.
What AV Webcam Morpher does is 1) provides special audio/video FX, 2) lets you use prerecorded video clips, & 3) provides some limited Chroma Key features so you can use a replacement background image. If you download extra video clips [they call them Nickfaces] with a blue/purple background, AV Webcam Morpher will replace the background with whatever image you've chosen -- 5 are included or load your own image. Replacement video can work with background replacement in AV Webcam Morpher, but it would be difficult -- you can mimic/replace an existing clip package, but there's no easy way to set the background color you want to drop out if using live video. And while there are controls available under Settings, this isn't by any means a great Chroma Keying app.
You might think the video FX are neat, especially if you're using your webcam for something beyond regular video chat etc., but the area that got the most work in AV Webcam Morpher is using canned video clips rather than anything coming from your webcam. Downloadable as packages with an .xml file listing background color key settings, which clips to use & their behaviors, you activate one of these Nickfaces, then click an one of several icons in another window as you feel appropriate -- clicking the dance icon for example brings up one of a few brief clips showing the actor dancing in their chair, then goes back to the main video loop. Obviously this works better with lower bandwidth, 320 X 240, lower fps video -- the worse the video looks, the less likely anyone is to notice the transitions from one clip to the next, artifacting from background replacement etc.
Installation isn't bad for AV Webcam Morpher itself, but the optional Virtual Webcam driver is a different story -- besides the potential compatibility issues whenever you add a driver, I recorded ~1k new registry entries, plus several changed entries having to do with networking... while I don't see any definite problems you'd probably want to do some sort of backup first, then check out networking & related apps afterward. AV Webcam Morpher uses VFW [Video For Windows], Direct Show, & D3D, but I suspect it won't work with some more recent webcams & their BDA drivers, especially in win7. The "AV WebCam Morpher" program folder holds 258 files, 44 folders, ~28 MB, plus you get a new Avnex folder under User App/Application Data. Included in the roughly 30 new registry entries is a WebCamHelper service. Adding the driver as mentioned results in about 1k new entries, many having to do with video in Windows rather than the driver itself, & while adding the driver adds just one file, I recorded a baker's dozen worth of new Windows video handling files, with another 9 being updated.
Watching TV I'm used to seeing "Viewer Discretion Advised", & I think that discretion part sums up how I feel personally about AV Webcam Morpher... I'm so conditioned by the news to think of only the nastiest uses for something like this, that it took Whiterabbit's comment about playing gags on friends to see it might have any worth at all. I can't help it, can't shake my 1st impression though, so I'd definitely put this dual use app in the to be used properly category where it might be a fun toy. I'm afraid before I spent any money on it though I'd want to look at all the other apps that are currently available... There is some really nice blue or green screen stuff out, Logitech for example offers free avatar software that works with some of its webcams using face tracking, schools & individuals have been experimenting for some time mapping facial movements to 3D heads, & since Microsoft opened up the SDK for the Kinect, all sorts of stuff happening there -- here's a quick Microsoft video [may want to jump to ~1:30]: http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/emerging-tech/2011/02/23/microsoft-shows-off-3d-talking-head-avatars-40091906/
