A few days ago, Dan Brennen, of Elk Grove, California, posted a very nice animation in the UnmannedSpaceflight.com forums and we are delighted to share this below. Dan sent us a description:

The animation was created using the sequence of 5 images located here which were scaled down to 1/5 size. A simple morphing program was utilized to create the intermediate images which allow for the appearance of motion. Approximately 30 control points were identified to tell the program where the limb had changed shape and key features on Phobos had moved between images. Each transition from one image to the next contained 200 steps, which was later compressed to 8 frames per second to create the final image file.

I'm sure you can guess that the quality would improved with more control points and more precise placement of those control points. But it's quite time consuming, especially with five images. So I did this with less time and effort in order to quickly create an interesting feature for our forum in just an hour or two while I had my Saturday morning coffee.

 Thanks, Dan, for some great work! -- Daniel 

Original animation via UnMannedSpaceFlight.com Original HRSC images: Copyright ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum). Animation credit: Dan Brennan, Elk Grove, California