Photoshop CS For Dummies

I bet you thought Photoshop couldn’t possibly give you any more ways to take your image out of the realm of reality, right? Well, hold on to your mouse.

The Liquify command lets you warp, twirl, pucker, and bloat an image. It’s downright amazing!

Pick out an image that you want to distort and follow these steps:

1. Open an image and decide whether you want to distort the whole image or just a portion.

   You can use an area selected with one of the tools described in Chapter 7. Or you can select a single layer. When you select an area, the unselected areas aren’t affected by the distortion. Save any selections as channels by choosing Selection→Save Selection. (For more about saving selections turn to Chapter 8.)

   In these steps, I’ve saved three selections — the shoulders of the man shown in Figure 11-18, a selection of the textured background behind his head, and a selection of his eyes.

   Figure 11-18: The Liquify dialog box is where you can distort your image into another dimension of reality.

   Tip

   If you want to warp text you’ve added to an image, you must rasterize the type before it can be warped with the Liquify command. Type in Photoshop is drawn using mathematical formulas called vectors. In order to warp, text it must be rasterized or turned into pixels first. After you rasterize your type, you lose the ability to edit that text. If editing is critical, then try the Warp option from the Type tool Options bar. For more about editable text and warping text, turn to Chapter 17.

2. Choose Filter→Liquify.

   The huge Liquify dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 11-18.

3. Select your desired brush size and pressure in the Tool Options portion in the top right of the dialog box.

   Enter a numeric value or access the slider via the right-pointing arrow. A lower pressure allows for less intense distortions.

4. Define any areas you want frozen.

   Photoshop CS

   If you saved selections as described in Step 1, you can use the new Mask Options portion of the Liquify dialog box (see Figure 11-19) to freeze selected areas from distortion. You can use these options to mask some of the image, all of the image, or even remove the mask altogether.

   Figure 11-19: The new Photoshop CS Mask options.

   You also can freeze an area anytime during the Liquify process even if you didn’t save a selection. Use the Freeze Mask tool, (refer to Figure 11-18) and select a brush size and pressure setting. Drag over the desired area.

   The Freeze Mask tool covers the area with a reddish tint, referred to as a mask. The amount of freezing depends on the pressure of the brush. If the brush pressure is 100%, the area is fully frozen. The varying pressure enables you to partially freeze an area so that the effect of the distortion isn’t as intense. If you make an error, press Ctrl+Z (z+Z on a Mac) to undo.

   After you have a frozen area, you can invert it by clicking Invert All, which then freezes the other portion of the image instead. Or you can choose None, which deletes all the frozen areas. You also can use the Thaw Mask tool (refer to Figure 11-18) to drag over any areas you want to unfreeze. Again, brush size and pressure settings affect the amount of thawing.

   Take the time to preview all the different effects you can create. Check out “Previewing your liquefactions” to find out how to change your View options and prepare to make your proposed effects a (sur)reality. When you’re ready to make your changes permanent, skip to “Applying your liquefactions.”

Extending distortions into frozen areas

In addition to refining the effects you applied to your image, you also can extend your distortions from frozen areas into unfrozen areas. This option is great, for example, if you want some transition between your distorted and undistorted areas. Mask all or part of the areas you’ve already distorted, or you can click on the Invert button in the Mask Options area to flip-flop your masked and unmasked areas.

Select the Reconstruct Tool, and then choose one of the following from the Reconstruct Mode drop-down list. Drag the mouse over the unfrozen area that you want to unfreeze:

• Rigid: Keeps the right angles in the pixel grid at the edge between frozen and unfrozen areas. (Check the Mesh option from the View area of the Liquify dialog box to see this effect in action.) Unfrozen areas begin to appear more like the original distorted areas.

• Stiff: At the edge between frozen and unfrozen areas, the unfrozen areas continue the distortions in the frozen areas. The closer a distortion comes to the frozen areas, the greater the distortions.

• Smooth: Continues the distortions from frozen areas into unfrozen areas. The impact is smooth and continuous.

• Loose: Similar to Smooth, but offers even more continuity and seamlessness.

You can perform reconstruction to match your distorted areas at certain points in the image. Think of this option as using a kind of warped Clone Stamp tool. (See Chapter 10 for the lowdown on using the Clone Stamp.) Choose one of these remaining options in the Mode menu in the Reconstruct Options area in conjunction with the Reconstruct Tool:

• Displace: Moves pixels in unfrozen areas to match the displacement at the reference point. You can use Displace to move all or part of the image to a different location.

• Amplitwist: Moves pixels in unfrozen areas to match the displacement, rotation, and scaling applied at a reference point. Use it to duplicate areas in an image.

• Affine: Moves pixels in unfrozen areas to match all distortions at the reference point — displacement, rotation, scaling, and skew.

Previewing your liquefactions

Check out the View Options area in the Liquify dialog box. You can select to only show the image, show the mesh, or both. You can also assign a color to the mesh so the mesh stands out when you view it superimposed on the image. The mesh is a grid of horizontal and vertical lines that hovers over your image. As you distort the image, you can see how the pixels distort based on the twisting and turning of the mesh grid. You can choose the size and color of the mesh as well.

If you only want to view the active layer in the Preview pane, keep the Backdrop option in the View Options area deselected. To show one or all layers, check the Backdrop option. Choose All Layers or a particular layer from the drop-down list and choose an Opacity setting.

In the Tool Options area, the Turbulent Jitter option controls how tightly the Turbulence tool mixes pixels. Select the Stylus Pressure option to enable Photoshop to utilize input from a pressure-sensitive tablet.

Check out “A potpourri of Liquify tools” to see the crazy things you can do to your images. When you’re ready to put make your effects final, skip to “Applying your liquefactions.”

A potpourri of Liquify tools

And now for the fun stuff. Use any one of the following tools to wreak havoc on your image. Check out the effects of each in Figure 11-20.

Figure 11-20: The various effects of the Liquify command can be downright amusing.

• Reconstruct Tool: Returns areas to their initial state. Used in conjunction with the Reconstruct Mode drop-down list box.

• Twirl Clockwise Tool: Rotates the pixels clockwise under your brush as you either drag with the mouse or hold the mouse in one place while pressing the mouse button. Hold down the Alt key (Option key on a Mac) to twirl counterclockwise.

• Pucker Tool: Moves the pixels toward the center of your brush as you drag or hold the mouse in one place while pressing the mouse button, giving a kind of pinched look.

• Bloat Tool: The opposite of Pucker — moves pixels away from the center, creating a kind of spherical effect as you drag or hold the mouse in one place while pressing the mouse button.

  Photoshop CS

  Push Left Tool: Shifts pixels to the left of the mouse cursor. Hold down the Alt key (Option key on a Mac) to shift pixels to the right.

• Mirror Tool (previously called the Reflection Tool): Stretches and pulls pixels like a funhouse mirror. Copies pixels from the area perpendicular to the direction you drag. This tool is good for making reflections on shiny surfaces such as water, an automobile hood, or patent leather shoes.

• Turbulence tool: Mixes pixels in a wavelike manner. It can be used to make flames, waves, and other elements of nature.

  Tip

  There are Zoom and Hand Tools to help you view and navigate around your preview image. These tools work exactly like they do within the Photoshop window.

When you’re ready to finalize the effects you’ve created with the Liquify tools, move on to the following section, “Applying your liquefactions.”

Restoring liquefied areas in your image

If you got totally carried away, which is easy to do with these tools, you can tone down the effects on all or part of your image by using the Reconstruct tool and Reconstruction command.

Here are some of the finer points of regaining what you just messed up:

• To get your entire image (all unfrozen areas, that is) back to its pre-liquefied, original state: Click the Restore All button in the Reconstruct Options area of the Liquify dialog box.

• To change a portion of your image (any unfrozen areas) back to its original state: Choose Revert from the Mode drop-down list box in the Reconstruct Options area. Select the Reconstruct tool and drag or hold down over an area.

• To slowly reverse the distortion you applied to the image: Click the Reconstruct button. Each time you click the Reconstruct button, the image will step back one distortion.

Applying your liquefactions

After you use the various tools to pucker, twirl, warp, and generally render your image into something resembling a Salvador Dali painting, you’re ready to apply the distortion:

1. In the Liquify dialog box, click OK if you like your crazed masterpiece and want to apply the distortion to the image.

   Up till now, Photoshop has been displaying a temporary preview. Clicking OK closes the Liquify dialog box and applies the Liquify filter to the image.

2. If you’re not ready for this kind of commitment, click the Cancel button to get the heck outta there.

   Because the preview image in the Liquify dialog box was only temporary, if you click Cancel the real image isn’t changed in any way. Any changes you made in the Liquify dialog box disappear.

   Tip

   The best advice that I can give you for understanding the inner workings of the Liquify command is to play, play, play. If you have a few spare moments, open an image and do some reality altering of your own.