Hi. This is a Photoshop quick tip from Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
If you have version CS5 or later, I'm going to show you how to use Puppet Warp.
This feature lets you drastically distort specific areas of an image, while leaving
other areas intact.
It's great for re-positioning arms, legs and other parts of the body.
This is an update of a tutorial I did many years ago on an earlier version of Photoshop.
In this tutorial, I'll be moving a bit faster for more advanced users.
I've already prepped the image by cutting out the figure from the background and then,
used Content-Aware Fill to replace the background pixels.
I’ve covered these techniques in many of my tutorials, so to save time, I won't be
going over them here.
Once we have our subject on a separate layer, we'll convert it into a Smart Object, so we
can modify it non-destructively.
To do this, make sure your subject is active and click the icon at the upper right.
Click "Convert to Smart Object".
Go to Edit and "Puppet Warp".
I'll click "Show Mesh" to show you how Puppet Warp analyzes the image and creates a mesh.
I generally like to increase this to "More Points" for a finer transformation.
Right now, the mesh is 2 pixels wider than the actual subject.
I'll decrease the Expansion to "0" to make the mesh hug the shape we're going to warp.
Let’s un-check Show Mesh”, so we can better see the figure under it.
Now, we'll add pins to define the warp.
The pins act as anchors or hinges.
To illustrate this, I'll click on the neck and the navel.
When I drag from the navel, it rotates the figure from the point on the neck.
By dragging it up or down, it stretches the figure from the navel.
By pressing and holding Ctrl or Cmd + Shift as I drag the point side to side, it drags
the figure at the navel from side to side.
I'll click on the point on the neck to make it active and drag the point.
The figure reacts in similar fashion as it's anchored to the point on the navel.
You can delete an anchor point by Alt-clicking or Option-clicking it.
I'll undo the last step by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + z.
If you bring your cursor close to an anchor point and press and hold Alt or Option,
you'll see a circle outline appear surrounding the point.
When you rotate the circle, your shape will also rotate centered around that anchor point.
I’ll undo the last step.
If you have parts of your figure that overlap, I'll show you how to make them go in front
of or behind other parts.
I’ll make an anchor point on both wrists and at the top of the head.
I'll drag one of the wrists up and around and do the same with the other wrist.
It's not anatomically precise, but this example is only meant to show you this overlapping feature.
To make this arm go in front of the other arm, I'll make sure that the correct anchor point is active
and click this Pin Depth button that has the arrow pointing up.
Notice our arm is now in front of the other one.
I'll rotate the ring straps, so they're approximately vertical by clicking on the wrists and rotating them.
To accept the warp, click this check-mark or press Enter or Return.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!