Welles…
Do you mind if I copy your message to the Photoshop Lounge Resource Repository?
Phosphor,
Please do! I’ve put it on the Adobe PS Window’s side as well as several other sites.
Great !
I have looked at all this, very interesting.
But the Displace filter PULLS the pixels.
Did anybody find a way to have the pixels PUSHED instead ? I have been looking for this feature all this time – seems simple – cant find it.
Henri…
I’m not sure how you’re thinking, and if you’re expressing your thoughts well.
Push? Pull? Those terms are relative to a particular point.
On the other hand, "Displacement" values are a better, more absolute way of describing what happens when a DMap is applied to an image.
Read and work through the tutorials Welles listed and you’ll get a better handle on how DMaps work. I think you’re asking the correct question, but using incorrect terminology.
The first page of Steve’s tutorial, under the "What Is It?" subheading should go a long way toward answering the question I think you’re asking.
Here is the point, I hope I will be simple about it :
– <Displace>, for a given coordinate (x, y) looks at the grey level on the grey-scale map at the same place. According to the grey level, it will go and search a pixel outside and bring it to the coordinate of the particular point. This I call pulling.
What I am looking for is the same type of filter that would, according to a grey level, move the pixel that is at the particular points x&y towards the outside.This I call pushing.
OK, this needs a drawing to be really clear, I will prepare this, please drop along tomorrow.
What about pulling all the other points, so it’ll look pushed?
Hello folks, so here is the drawing.
In fact, I am convinced 95% of the Displace filter users truly believe they are pushing the pixels according to the grey-scale map, and are not aware they are in fact pulling pixels into place : in many cases, the difference will be very slight. But oddities occur on the edges, like here where the pattern is repeated over again, instead of being simply displaced.
I also think when working, it is easier to anticipate the result in your mind when pushing the pixels, rather than pulling them. Could this be some day an alternative box to check in the Displace menu ?
Henri,
I’m hardly an expert in D-maps but as far as I understand you couldn’t get from the upper left image to the lower right image with displacement maps. What you are showing is easily accomplished by using a marquee on a floating layer and nudging the selection, then moving the selection to the lower second placement and nudging that area. What’s the point of using the Displace filter at all?
I don’t share your conviction that 95% of the Displace filter users truly believe they are pushing the pixels simply because any instruction I’ve ever seen describes accurately what is going on and it isn’t pushing pixels. It seems as though just don’t want to understand how it actually works. I must say that Stroker’s PDF takes you on an excellent tour of how the filter works from simple steps to more complex two channel maps.
Forgive my temerity but I think you could benefit from learning what the filter actually is rather than trying to make it fit your pre-conceived notions of what it should be.
Welles, you dont get the point.
Of course, when I use this Displace filter (and in fact I use it quite a lot , I’m more than familiar with it) I never use just plain marquees with one-level greys like here. This is just a freak example to show out the problem ! When I work, of course I build grey maps which are hand-made, airbrushed and/or gradient-constructed.
So its really the Displace filter which is needed, not nudging selections ..; The problem is presently I see no way to avoid these side-effects issues : when the displacement map shows strong black to white changes, or you need to apply an important %, then you always get these freak effects.
These issues would be solved if we could have a Displace.2 filter that would push instead of pull … Or does anybody know of the existence of some neighbor filter that would perform this ?
I understand perfectly, Henri. You are correct: Displace doesn’t work the way you need (but you already know that).
The only way you are going to get what you want is to write your own plugin or similiar. Even if you manage it, I’m not sure how well it would work. What if two different pixels push to the same spot? Which pixel takes precedence? If you aren’t careful, you could end up with some funky over-lappipng.
The only other solution I can think of is to make your D-Maps "backwards". In the PDF look for Power Distort. While Power Distort can do what you want, it takes a bit of math and some brain power.
Good luck with your search.
Whew! Thank goodness Stroker caught this thread.
So, Stroker, I was right with my suggestion? in this case, he’ll need a fully black dispmap with a grey ractangle on top, then another one fully white with a grey rectangle in the bottom?
Henri, I remember that question form another place, where was it, again?
Yes, Pierre, I have been looking for this for quite a while now, and we had already run this over on a preceding message on the Forum, I forget the date. But nothing came out of it, some I’m still searching.
I really NEED this "Displace.2" filter, it will enable new features impossible with present way of functionning of the Displace filter.
Stroker, thank you, I’m going to plunge into that Power Distort, haven’t met that yet. I have thought over the evident case when two pixels push to the same spot, as this will happen all the time : program must give priority to a density, for instance a clear grey must overpass any darker grey instruction.
By the way Welles, love your animation. Its fun, could make a nice lenticular animation.
Yes, But I’m afraid to be accused of spamming… My intent is often to share the threads that I find the most intersting, and I often put links at PST to here. Phos, have you tried it? I’d liek to see what you could come with.
I doubt that Markzebra is an earthling 😉 cheers!
Pierre…
I just discovered that PST.com thread in the wee hours (5:00am, my time) of this morning, so I haven’t had time to try it yet.
I have worked through MarkZ’s original "striped-teardrop-animation" displacement tutorial, though, back when he first presented the technique (what, 2 years ago or more?)
Shoot, I even grabbed and saved that whole AOL webpage for fear that it wouldn’t remain there for long. Last time I checked, though, it’s still there.
