Russel Preston Brown has a new video on YouTube showcasing a new upcoming feature in Adobe Photoshop CS5 that brings the old “Free Transform” warp to a whole new level: Puppet Warp.
Many people use Photoshop to bend and twist images in unique ways. Russell Brown, senior creative director, delivers a new take on warping images and image elements in this early glimpse into Photoshops Labs. CS5 is coming on April 12 – www.adobe.com
The effect itself is a bit difficult to describe, but essentially you map a 2D Grid or Mesh over your shape and then define pivot points. Using these pivot points you can “click and drag” to create some type of spline-interpreted rubbery shapes, or create more rigid transforms with wheel-type controls on each pivot.
The technology looks impressive, but seems to be heavily restricted to working on Transparent Backgrounds. I would personally love to see someone using it on a photograph of a person against a real background, combined with the Content Aware Fill to fill in the holes.
See the video below.
The Puppet Warp Tool coming in Photoshop CS 5. Adobe Photoshop CS5 has several ‘wow’ factor new features. While it may appear cool, but a little too weird for most Photoshop users, this new technology can actually be used effectively by photographers.
If you want to move a real person on a real background, use the Extract tool to separate the person from the background. You could then use the various healing tools to recreate the background. Then Puppet Warp would presumably work.