Distorting images

Several tools in the Liquify dialog box distort the brush area when you hold down the mouse button or drag. The distortion is concentrated at the center of the brush area, and the effect intensifies as you hold down the mouse button or repeatedly drag over an area.

To distort an image:

1. Select the layer you want to distort. To change only part of the current layer, select that area.
2. Choose Filter > Liquify.

Note: If a type layer, or a shape layer is selected, you must rasterize the layer before proceeding, making the type or shape uneditable. To distort type without rasterizing the type layer, use the Warp options for the type tool.

3. Freeze areas of the image that you don't want to alter. (See Freezing and thawing areas.)
4. In the Tool Options section of the dialog box, do the following:
• Specify a brush size and brush pressure. Using a low brush pressure makes changes occur more slowly, so it's easier to stop them at exactly the right moment.
• Specify a Turbulent Jitter to control how tightly the turbulence tool scrambles pixels.
• (Photoshop) Select Stylus Pressure to use pressure readings from a stylus tablet. (This option is available only when you are working with a stylus tablet.) When Stylus Pressure is selected, the brush pressure for the tools is the stylus pressure multiplied by the Brush Pressure value.
5. Use any of the following tools to distort the preview image:
• The warp tool pushes pixels forward as you drag.
• The turbulence tool smoothly scrambles pixels. It is useful for creating fire, clouds, waves, and similar effects.
• The twirl clockwise tool rotates pixels clockwise as you hold down the mouse button or drag.
• The twirl counterclockwise tool rotates pixels counterclockwise as you hold down the mouse button or drag.
• The pucker tool moves pixels toward the center of the brush area as you hold down the mouse button or drag.
• The bloat tool moves pixels away from the center of the brush area as you hold down the mouse button or drag.
• The shift pixels tool moves pixels perpendicular to the stroke direction. Drag to move pixels to the left, and Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) to move pixels to the right.
• The reflection tool copies pixels to the brush area. Drag to reflect the area perpendicular to the direction of the stroke (to the left of the stroke). Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) to reflect the area in the direction opposite to that of the stroke (for example, the area above a downward stroke). Usually, Alt-dragging or Option-dragging gives better results when you have frozen the area you want to reflect. Use overlapping strokes to create an effect similar to a reflection in water.

Shift-click with the warp, shift pixels, and reflection tools to create the effect of dragging in a straight line from the previous point you clicked.

6. After distorting the preview image, you can use the reconstruct tool or other controls to fully or partially reverse the changes or to change the image in new ways. (See Reconstructing distortions.)
7. Do one of the following:
• Click OK to close the Liquify dialog box and apply the changes to the active layer.
• Click Cancel to close the Liquify dialog box without applying changes to the layer.
• Hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) and click Reset to revert all distortions to the preview image.

You can use the Edit > Fade command to create additional effects. (See Blending filter effects (Photoshop).)