Dragonball fusion applied to the 2021 Giro d’Italia: an algorithm

Last year (here) we had fun finding similarities between cyclists at the last Tour de France.

The 2021 Giro d’Italia at the moment doesn’t need any further animation, but since they say it’s the tour of couples, we decided to apply the フュージョン Fyūjon effect, which is nothing more than the fusion in Dragonball.

From two characters one is born. From two cyclists we have thus created super champions.

To do this we used an algorithm able to find the main points of a face.
The faces were then fragmented into small triangles using the extracted points as vertices.
The triangles of each photo pair were matched to be transformed one into each other. Halfway through the transformation we found the fusions we are showing in the next pictures: a little transparency on both sides and the process is done.

First of all we wanted to see Mikel Landa smile, despite the Basque’s chronic bad luck. That’s why we merged him with the most cheerful of the bunch, three-time world champion Peter Sagan.

For the Italian fans, we have instead thought of a fusion between Vincenzo Nibali, the established star, and Filippo Ganna who, especially in the last two years, has won great affection in his homeland. A ‘Gannibali’ that could be the dream of public TV commentators.

To challenge Giaelia Vivianizzolo (Elia Viviani + Giacomo Nizzolo) in bunch sprints, on the other hand, we thought of a fusion between little Caleb Ewan and big Dylan Groenewegen: thus Calan Groenewan was born.

The competition for the pink jersey has perhaps one big favourite: the terrible kid Remco Eganepoel. When the phenomenal Remco Evenepoel and Egan Bernal come together, it is over for everyone else.

To challenge him in the general classification, we chose to help Simon Yates in the time trials. With the merger with Remi Cavagna comes a rider who is very strong on all terrain: Simi Yatevagna.

When the climbs get tough we opt instead for two crooked but effective riders: Hugh Carthy and Daniel Martin, for a sympathetic Danugh Marthy.

Do we need someone in the breakaway? No problem: we rely on Thomas De Marchi (Thomas de Gendt meets Alessandro de Marchi). He always brings something home, this year even a well-deserved pink jersey (congrats Alessandro De Marchi!).

For more information on image processing algorithms (or to chat about cycling) contact us at info@eliflab.com