66
IMAGE: FRESH HEALTHY VENDING LLC
W
ITH SO MANY
distortion methods
available to the Photoshop
artist, the hard part can be
deciding which one to use.
This job was a commission
for Businessweek magazine, to
accompany a story about a
vending company dedicated
to selling healthy produce.
The art editor wanted me to
take the shot of the vending
machine, above, and wrap a
tape measure around its waist.
The first problem, of
course, was to make the waist.
1
It might seem that Image Warp would be the
best approach, as it gives smooth, curves. But I
didn’t want to distort the whole object.
2
Making a selection sometimes helps – such as
the middle of the machine. But this produced
hard corner joins top and bottom.
5
I drew three versions of the tape
measure using a technique similar
to the clock face (see page 42).
6
Before distorting the tape, convert
it to a Smart Object (see page
400). This allows easy editing later. Use
Image Warp with the Flag distortion to
create the basic shape.
7
One of the great things about
Image Warp is that you can
switch between it and regular Free
Transform without committing yourself.
Changing to Free Transform (Ct
Lt) allows you to add a perspective
distortion to the whole tape.
8
It’s now possible to switch back to
Image Warp mode by pressing its
button on the Options bar. Change the
mode from Flag to Custom, and you can
adjust the handles for a more natural-
looking curve.
Choose your distortion
2
Transformation and distortion
SHORTCUTS
MAC WIN BOTH
67
3
It turned out that the Liquify filter (see page 232) produced the
smoothest, most controllable distortions. Using a large brush, it’s
possible to push the pixels exactly where they need to be.
4
This is the machine after the Liquify process.
It has a natural-looking waist, the curves
bending in smoothly from the straight sides.
12
The finished illustration, with the same process
applied to the two other pieces of tape, and shadows
added onto and beneath the machine.
9
When we tuck
the tape behind the
machine, we need it to be a little out of focus. Add some
Gaussian Blur to the tape layer – about 2 pixels should do.
10
Because
the tape is a
Smart Object, we can paint
on the filter’s mask to hide the effect,
so bringing the front of the tape into sharp focus.
11Adding an
edge to the tape, with color
and shading, completes the process.
HOT TIP
As well as allowing
us to use Smart
Filters, turning
the tape into a
Smart Object
means we can edit
the Image Warp
effect at any point,
and the handles
will reappear
exactly where we
left them. Turn a
layer into a Smart
Object using Layer
> Smart Objects >
Convert to Smart
Object.
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How to Cheat in Photoshop CC
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