.FLYINGHEAD EXPLORING PHOTOSHOP
.TITLE Photoshop CS5’s great new Puppet Warp feature
.AUTHOR Scott Koegler
.SUMMARY Sometimes, arms, legs, trees, or other items are just not arranged in the shape or location we would have liked them to be.
.TIP
Photoshop CS5 is chock-full of great new features. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be exploring five of our favorites. Here’s the third one, Photoshop CS5’s great new Puppet Warp feature:
.H1 Great feature #3: Puppet Warp
Sometimes, arms, legs, trees, or other items are just not arranged in the shape or location we would have liked them to be. With Photoshop’s Puppet Warp function, it’s pretty simple to change the position of an appendage.
In Figure A, Mac’s tail is straight, but I would like to show it as curled.
.FIGPAIR A The tail is about to wag the dog.
I selected the Edit, Puppet Warp menu function, and applied pins, shown in Figure B as yellow markers, where I wanted his tail to bend.
.FIGPAIR B First, define where the tail will flex.
I was then able to simply drag the pins into the positions C wanted, and Photoshop took care of the warping, shown in Figure I.
.FIGPAIR C Now, Mac’s tail is curled.
This is another of those "way too easy" functions that let us manipulate our images to look like something they never were in real life. But again, Adobe has made the process easy to do and graphically effective.
Next week: High Dynamic Range imaging (it’s cool!)
.BIO Scott Koegler explores digital products and writes about them from his home in the foothills of North Carolina, and from his camper (as long as he has an internet connection. He has acted as CIO, editor, publisher, photographer, and wine taster, and enjoyed each role.
