Wrapping objects with Displacement Maps Photoshop Tutorial

Displacement maps see like such strange and difficult animals until you learn to tame them. In this long overdue tutorial, I will teach you what you need to know about displacement maps in plain English, so that you can take advantage of the stunning effects that can only be created by using these maps. INGREDIENTS

by Colin Smith

Rock texture Channels Displacement maps Lighting effects Filters Layer Blending modes

Difficulty 7/10

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This is the technique that will wrap your art around objects and (seemingly) magically make it hug every contour

Begin with a texture, you must be in RGB mode. I have another tutorial under textures that shows you how to create this rock surface. You can also just download it if you wish. Download Rock here.

Click on the Channels palette and click on each channel until you find the one with the most contrast (dark to light). In this case it is the Red channel.

We need to make a new document out of the channel. Either right click/Control+click on the channel area of the channels palette, or click on the top right arrow to open the drop down menu. Choose "duplicate channel." Under destination>document, choose new. Click ok

You will now have a new document. This will become our displacement map. Apply a 0.7 Gaussian blur (Filter>blur>Gaussian blur) to lower the sharp detail a bit. This will make for a smoother image in the end.

Save the document as a .psd, Any name will work, just remember it and the location. I put mine on the desktop. We have now created our displacement map for use later on.

On our original document, click on the "RGB" to restore the default channel display.

Open the layers palette and add your artwork or text on a new layer. This is the content that you want to warp. Make sure you have everything you want to warp on one layer. If you have text, rasterize it now. (Right click on the layer palette next to the name and choose "rasterize layer" from the pop up menu.

Now lets apply the displacement map... Filter>Distort>Displace

Use the settings shown here when the Displace palette opens. Click ok

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You will now see a browser asking you to choose a displacement map. Navigate to the desktop and load the image we created at the beginning of this tutorial. Click open

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You will now see your artwork distort to hug the texture of the rock. Lets jazz it up a bit.

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Choose Overlay mode to add some realistic blending. Duplicate the distorted layer to add a bit more strength to the effect.

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Here is the result on the blending mode. See how the color blends in with the texture.

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Here is exactly the same image but with a variation. I added an inner shadow layer style to the top layer and dropped the opacity of the second layer to 30% I hope you had fun with this tutorial and learned a lot.

See you at the cafe

Reflective Liquid type Photoshop Tutorial

Tutorials on creating metal type abound online, as do variations on simple liquid effects. Most are fairly short, offering a good foundation for the reader on how certain effects are achieved but fail to take that extra step (or few steps) to make the piece really shine... INGREDIENTS

Guest Tutorial by by Al Ward

Layers Lighting effects Levels Curves Type Liqufy

Difficulty 6/10

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Reflective Liquid Type by Al Ward

(UPDATED MARCH 2010) ActionFx.com: Home of 50,000+ Photoshop and Elements Presets Tutorials on creating metal type abound online, as do variations on simple liquid effects. Most are fairly short, offering a good foundation for the reader on how certain effects are achieved but fail to take that extra step (or few steps) to make the piece really shine. Once you have an idea of how different techniques fit together in a piece, it is fairly easy to combine, say, the process to create metal and the process to create liquid to create something that exists in both sides of the FX map.

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Create a new image with the following attributes:
Width: 11 inches Height: 11 inches Resolution: 300 ppi, 8bit Background Color: White Color Mode: RGB (Important or it won'r work)

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Since the desired effect is to appear liquefied, a font that appears to have been made with a crayon or round brush will work perfectly. Select the Type tool and open the Character palette from the Options bar. The font Ive chosen is called WallowHmkBold if you do not have this installed on your system just use the font of your choice. The attributes for the characters are seen below:

Note that the color is gray in the #666666 range and NOT stark black. Type a word across the face of the image.

Rasterize the type layer, then paint a few additional gray dots around the type.

Open the Channels palette and duplicate a channel the Blue channel will work fine. Go to Image>Adjustments>Invert.

Open the Filter menu and select Blur>Gaussian Blur. First, blur the channel at a 25 pixel radius. Blur the channel again at a radius of 15 pixels.

Turn on all the other layers (Click the eye to the left of RGB)

Turn off the Blue copy channel, but dont delete it youll need it in a moment or two. Click on the letters RGB to make sure that th RGB channel is active.

Go to Filter>Render>Lighting Effects. Set it up as outlined in the image below be sure to select the Blue copy channel as the Texture Channel.

Make sure you change the light angle and shape on the left by dragging the 4 dots

The result of all that is a pretty basic bevel, and yes, you could do pretty much the same thing with a layer style. Some habits die hard, however, and I like the end result better when channels come into play. What can I say? Ive been doing it this way since at least PS 6, and if it aint broke, dont fix it!

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Duplicate the text layer and go to Filter>Sketch>Chrome. Set up the reflections as seen in the dialog box below:

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Now you can play with Layer Styles a bit. Open the Layer Styles dialog box and select Bevel/Emboss. Enter the following settings note that the Shadow color is again gray in the #666666 range and not black. Make sure the Gloss Contour is changed to cone.Once done click OK.

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Make a Curves adjustment layer and Levels adjustment layer with the settings seen here:

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Against a black background the shine really comes out.

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Turn off the background layer or layers (if you added the black separately) and merge all the others together.

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To give the type an enhanced liquid quality, go to Filter>Liquify. Use the Bloat tool to expand or otherwise warp areas of the text as seen here. Once you are happy with the distortions, click OK.

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You can now throw the text into any image you so choose. In the following example, Ive blurred a tech-style background, placed the type in that document, then placed a duplicate of the blurred layer above the text. The Blend mode of the top layer is changed to Soft Light to serve as reflections off the type, or making the type appear transparent allowing you to see the background through it. Ill let you decide what is actually happening.

Thats it for now. Until next time, Ill see you at ActionFx.com. Take care!