Just a few days ago another student was also interested in making a better deformation tool:
https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gimp-developer-list/2013-March/msg00049.html I think it's would be useful if you two wanted to do different things :P. He already has experience in this area.

On Sun, Mar 17, 2013 at 9:00 AM, Sashi Kumar wrote:

Hi,

Does implementing Sketch based Deformation tool in Gimp be a good idea? Cage Transform tool is pretty slow. But I think it would be better if a sketch based interface is used for deformation and it would be more efficient to use.

This tool is based on the project - http://igl.ethz.ch/projects/image-deformation/ I would like to implement this tool as GSoC project this year.

Regards, K Sashi Kumar.

El 17/03/13 04:00, Sashi Kumar escribi:

Hi,

Does implementing Sketch based Deformation tool in Gimp be a good idea? Cage Transform tool is pretty slow. But I think it would be better if a sketch based interface is used for deformation and it would be more efficient to use.

This tool is based on the project - http://igl.ethz.ch/projects/image-deformation/ I would like to implement this tool as GSoC project this year.

As a user, I'd say the "puppet deform" took (the one that creates a triangulated mesh from the selection and allows to add arbitrary points to "rig" the deformation) seems more useful than this.

I think that having the cage deform tool already and having the possibility of adding the puppet deform tool we have enough. What I would like to see is a precision tool for bending images or creating shaped envelopes.
For instance, sometimes you need to fake a decal or label on a curved surface of a bottle, and you want to create an envelope that matches the curvature of that bottle.
With the cage deform or any of the other proposed tools you can make "artistic" approximations, but you don't have enough control to make symmetric or parallel envelopes.

So what about an interactive bezier envelope?

Gez.