Chapter 2: Distorting with the Liquify Command

In This Chapter

Checking out the Liquify window

Understanding the options

Liquifying an image

Liquify is the only Elements filter that garners a chapter of its own. That’s because Liquify is not your run-of-the-mill filter. Truth be told, it’s the ultimate distortin’ fool, with a bevy of tools, modes, and options that make it a good deal more complex than most of its kin on the Filter menu.

The Liquify filter lets you push and pull on parts of an image; twist, turn, and pinch other parts; and bloat and reflect others. You can basically manipulate an image as though it were pliable saltwater taffy. And, although these actions would create worthwhile entertainment on their own, you can use the Liquify filter to perform some productive tasks.

If you pick up any fashion magazine, we guarantee you that many of the images of models and celebrities you see there have made their way through the Liquify filter for nips and tucks and overall body sculpting. Yes, even people blessed with natural beauty are given a dose of digital beautification for good measure.

Exploring the Liquify Window

At first glance, the Liquify window is a little daunting. It’s a little daunting on second, third, and fourth glances, too. But when you quit glancing and dive into using this versatile filter, you find that the tools and options make a lot of sense.

Open the Liquify window by choosing Filter⇒Distort⇒Liquify. The Liquify Tools panel appears on the left, as shown in Figure 2-1. The other options available with Liquify appear on the right side of the window. The Tools panel includes a handful tools that you can use to paint and distort an image.

©istockphoto.com/svera Image #2741294

Figure 2-1: The Liquify window is quite user-friendly after you become familiar with its tools and settings.

As on the main Elements Tools panel, you can activate each tool by pressing a keyboard shortcut letter associated with its name.

The distortion painting tools

You use the first group of tools in the Tools panel to paint distortions on an image. The following list describes each tool, with its keyboard shortcut in parentheses. To see what the tool icon looks like, refer to Figure 2-1. To see what each tool does to pixels, check out Figure 2-2.

  Warp (W): This tool is faintly reminiscent of the Smudge tool but doesn’t obliterate details in the pixels quite as much as it pushes them forward while you drag, creating a stretched effect. Use the Warp tool to push pixels where you want them to go, using short strokes or long pushes. This tool is the main one to use when you want to body-sculpt the person in an image.

  Turbulence (T): This tool adds a random jumbling effect to pixels when you click and hold down the mouse button. It acts similarly to the Warp tool when you click and drag. Adjust how smooth the effect is by dragging the Turbulent Jitter slider in the Tool Options area. The higher the value, the smoother the effect. You can use the Turbulence tool to create maelstroms of air, fire, and water with clouds, flames, and waves.

  Twirl Clockwise (R) and Twirl Counterclockwise (L): Place the cursor in one spot, press the mouse button, and watch the pixels under your brush rotate like a satellite photo of a tropical storm. Or drag the cursor to create a moving twirl effect. Pixels move faster in the center than along the edges of the brush.

Try this technique with the other tools we describe in this list. (With some tools, the effect is more obvious than with others.) Simply hold down the mouse button. The longer you hold it down, the more prominent the effect becomes.

  Pucker (P): This tool is the equivalent of the Pinch filter, squishing pixels toward the center of the area covered by the brush while you hold down the mouse button or drag. To reverse the pucker direction, which essentially applies a bloat, hold down the Alt key (Option key on the Mac) while you hold down the mouse button or drag.

  Bloat (B): Think of this tool as a kind of Spherize filter, pushing pixels toward the edge of the brush area while you hold down the mouse button or drag the mouse. To reverse the bloat direction — doing so applies a pucker — hold down the Alt key (Option key on the Mac) while you hold down the mouse button or drag.

  Shift Pixels (S): This odd tool moves pixels to the left when you drag the tool straight up. Drag down to move pixels to the right. When you drag right, pixels move up; when you drag left, pixels move down. Drag clockwise to increase the size of the object being distorted. Drag counterclockwise to decrease the size. To reverse any of the directions, hold down the Alt key (Option key on the Mac) while you hold down the mouse button or drag.

  Reflection (M): This tool drags a reversed image of your pixels at a 90-degree angle to the motion of the brush. Hold down the Alt key (Option key on the Mac) to force the reflection in the direction opposite the motion of the brush (for example, to the left of a brush moving right, or above a brush moving down). This tool is a good choice for making reflections on water.

©istockphoto.com/svera Image #2741294

Figure 2-2: The tools in the Liquify filter transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.

The other tools

Three tools in the Liquify Tools panel help with undoing distortions you may no longer want and also help with navigation. These tools (shown here with their keyboard shortcuts) are

  Reconstruct (R): This tool is a variation on the old standby, Undo. It lets you reverse or alter — completely or partially — the distortions you’ve made. You can retrace your steps if you went overboard in your distortion activities.

  Hand (H): The Hand tool works exactly like the standard Elements Hand tool. Click and drag the image to move it around within the Preview window. You can find more about the Hand tool in Book I, Chapter 2.

  Zoom (Z): This tool works exactly like the Elements Zoom tool, which zooms images in and out. Just click the image to zoom in. Hold down the Alt key (Option key on the Mac) and click to zoom out. You can also zoom by selecting a magnification percentage (from 6 to 1,600 percent) from the pop-up menu in the lower-left corner of the dialog box. Or, if you like buttons, click your way to magnification by using the +/– zoom control buttons. See Book I, Chapter 2, for more on using the Zoom tool.

The Options Area

On the right side of the Liquify window (refer to Figure 2-1), you can find some menus and buttons that let you specify options for the tools. We point them out to you here and cover how to use them in the rest of this chapter:

Brush Size: Specifies the width of the brush.

Brush Pressure: Specifies the speed at which you distort while you drag. The lower the value, the slower the distortion is applied.

Turbulent Jitter: Determines how tightly the brush jumbles pixels. When you use the Turbulence tool, this option gives the stroke a more natural, organic look.

Stylus Pressure: Selects the pressure of the stylus when you click it, if you have a graphics tablet and stylus. Clicking this option then controls the width of your brush stroke.

Distorting an Image with Liquify

Liquify is as easy to apply as finger paint after you play with it a little. Here’s a step-by-step scenario of the things you might do to apply some distortion to an image of your own:

1. Select and open in the Photo Editor an image that you want to distort, in either Expert or Quick mode.

2. In the Layers panel, select a layer.

If you don’t want to distort the whole layer, you can select part of it. For more on selections, see Book IV. For information on layers, see Book VI.

3. Choose Filter⇒Distort⇒Liquify.

The Liquify dialog box appears with the image in the preview area, as shown in Figure 2-3.

©istockphoto.com/deliormanli Image #10994979

Figure 2-3: The Liquify dialog box is where the magic happens.

4. Choose a distortion weapon of choice.

For a detailed description of each tool, see the earlier section “The distortion painting tools.” To see what each tool does, take another gander at Figure 2-2.

5. Specify options in the Tool Options area.

Remember to adjust the brush size and pressure to get the exact coverage you want. For a description of each option, see the previous section.

6. If you take the distortions a little too far, select the Reconstruct tool to partially or fully reverse or modify your distortions.

Note that the reconstruction occurs faster at the center of the brush’s diameter. To partially reconstruct an image, set a low brush pressure and watch closely while the mouse drags across the distorted areas.

7. Apply the distortion to the image by clicking OK and exiting the Liquify dialog box.

If you mucked up and want to start again, click the Revert button to return to the original, unaltered image. This action also resets the tools to their previous settings. Figure 2-4 shows the Before (and the Extreme After) of our image.

©istockphoto.com/deliormanli Image #10994979

Figure 2-4: Perform a digital nip and tuck using Liquify.