Liquify is the only Photoshop filter that gets a chapter of its own. But then again, Liquify is no ordinary filter; it’s the ultimate in image distortion tools, and therefore a good deal more complex than most of its kin on the Filter menu. What other filter has its own hefty tools palette, loads of buttons, several different modes, and more than a dozen option categories with what amounts to dozens more variations? And what’s more, Adobe reorganized and enhanced it with even more options in Photoshop CS. The Liquify command lets you push and pull on parts of your image; twist, turn, and pinch other parts; bloat sections; freeze portions in place so that they remain immune to the transformations going around them; and perform selective reconstructions if you don’t like everything you’ve done. You can perform this magic with a remarkable degree of control, too. Liquify isn’t one of those “Oops! I meant to do that!” tools.
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. However, when you quit glancing and dive into this versatile filter, you’ll find that the tools and options make a lot of sense. The Liquify tools palette resides at the left side of the Liquify window. The other options available with Liquify (which I describe later in the section appropriately named “The Options Areas”) appear at the right side of the window. The tools palette includes a dozen tools that you can use to paint and distort your image. Like Photoshop’s main Tools palette, you can activate each tool by pressing a letter associated with its name. I hope you didn’t get too attached to the keyboard shortcut letters associated with the Liquify tools in Photoshop 7, because most of them have changed.
The painting tools
The first group of tools is the group used to paint distortions on your image. Shown in this list with their keyboard shortcuts in parentheses, the painting tools are (from top to bottom):
- Warp (W): This tool is faintly reminiscent of the Smudge tool, but it doesn’t blur the pixels quite as much as it pushes them forward as 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. When compared to a tool like the Smudge tool, which tends to destroy detail, the Warp tool can preserve detail within distortions.
- Twirl Clockwise (C): Place the cursor in one spot, hold down 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 along the edges of the brush than in the placid center, just like a real hurricane. Adobe gave the Twirl Counterclockwise tool the pink slip. Now to twirl the other way, press the Alt (Option on the Mac) key as you drag or hold down the mouse button. Try this technique with the other tools I describe here (with some tools the effect is more obvious than with others). Simply click and hold down the mouse button. The longer you hold down the mouse button, the more prominent the effect becomes.
- Pucker (S): This tool is the equivalent of the Pinch filter, squishing pixels toward the center of the area covered by the brush as you hold down the mouse button or drag. To reverse the pucker direction, which essentially applies a bloat, press the Alt (Option on the Mac) key as you hold down the mouse button or drag.
- Bloat (B): Here we have an analog to the Spherize filter, pushing pixels toward the edge of the brush area as you hold down the mouse button or drag the mouse. To reverse the bloat direction, which applies a pucker, press the Alt (Option on the Mac) key as you hold down the mouse button or drag.
- Push Left (O): Formerly known as the Shift Pixels tool, this odd tool moves pixels to the left when you drag the tool straight up. Drag down to move pixels to the right. Drag clockwise to increase the size of the object being distorted. Drag counterclockwise to decrease the size. To reverse any of the directions, press the Alt (Option on the Mac) key as you hold down the mouse button or drag.
- Mirror (M): Formerly known as the Reflect tool, the Mirror 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 producing shimmery reflections.
- Turbulence (T): This tool adds a random jumbling effect to your pixels. You can use the Turbulence tool to re-create maelstroms of air, fire, and water with clouds, flames, and waves.
The other tools
The remaining tools on the palette perform different functions. Continuing down the Liquify tools palette, these tools are (shown here with their keyboard shortcuts):
- Reconstruct (R): This tool lets you completely or partially reverse or alter the distortions you’ve made, letting you retrace your steps if you went overboard in your warping activities.
- Freeze Mask (F): Use this tool to protect areas from changes. It paints the frozen area with a red overlay, just as the Quick Mask mode does.
- Thaw Mask (D): This tool unprotects areas by erasing the red protective “freeze” tone. This is a lot like erasing areas you’ve painted in Quick Mask mode.
- Hand (H): The Hand tool works exactly like the standard Photoshop Hand tool. Click and push the image to move it around within the preview window.
- Zoom (Z): The Zoom tool works exactly like the standard Photoshop Zoom tool. Indeed, you can also zoom in and out by using the spacebar+Alt+click (spacebar+Option+click on the Mac) and spacebar+Ctrl+click (spacebar+Ô+click on the Mac) shortcuts to zoom in and out.
Separate from the Liquify tools palette and in the lower-left corner of the Liquify window is a magnification box with a pop-up menu that you can use to select magnifications from 6% to 1600%. You can also type in a specific value to zoom the image to that size. In addition, Photoshop has now given you +/- zoom control buttons to let you click your way to your desired magnification.
The Options Areas
At the right side of the Liquify window are some menus and buttons that let you specify options for the tools, for reconstructing and freezing, and for viewing.
- Load Mesh and Save Mesh: Liquify lets you show or hide a criss-cross area called a mesh. The mesh provides a visual map of the distortions you’ve applied. The mesh starts out as a checkerboard-like set of squares and changes as you apply distortions. The mesh lets you clearly see exactly what you’ve done to the image, and, even better, provides a way to save those distortions on your hard drive so that you can load and reapply them to the same or a different image later.
- Tool Options: You can use the Tool Options area to apply parameters to the painting tools. You can specify the following options:
Brush Size: Specifies the width of the brush.
Brush Density: Specifies how fast the brush effect levels off at its edges. For example, with a feathered brush, the effect is stronger in the center and lighter at the edges.
Brush Pressure: Specifies the speed at which you distort as you drag. Lower is slower.
Brush Rate: Specifies the speed at which you distort as you keep a tool stationary, such as the Twirl tool. Again, lower is slower.
Turbulent Jitter: Determines how tightly the brush jumbles pixels. This option gives the stroke a more natural, organic look.
When you select the Reconstruct tool, you can also choose a Reconstruct Mode from the pop-up menu. If you have a pressure-sensitive stylus tablet, you can also choose to use the amount of pressure you apply to control the width of your brush stroke.
- Reconstruct Options: Here, you can select one of several reconstruct modes (again, to be described shortly). There are also Reconstruct and Restore All buttons that let you reverse all changes made on unfrozen areas (a little at a time) or revert to your last set of distortions. I show you how to use these, too.
- Mask Options: Adobe really beefed up this set of options formerly known as the Freeze area. Consider freezing and masking one and the same when you’re immersed in the Liquify dialog box. The mask options let you freeze areas from existing selections, layer masks, transparent areas, or alpha channels in your image. You can also invert the frozen area (thawing frozen portions of the image, and freezing the areas that were previously thawed), and thaw all the areas that were frozen with one click. Here is the lowdown on each option, which is indicated by a double-circle icon:
Replace selection: Allows you to freeze or mask areas of your image based on an existing selection, transparent areas, a layer mask, or an alpha channel.
Add to selection: Displays the mask in the image and then enables you to add to the frozen areas with the Freeze tool. Adds pixels to the currently frozen areas.
Subtract from selection: Subtracts pixels from the currently frozen areas.
Intersect with selection: Masks only those pixels that are selected and currently frozen.
Invert selection: Inverts selected pixels and currently frozen areas.
Click None to remove frozen areas. Click Mask All to freeze the entire image. Click Invert All to exchange frozen and thawed areas.
- View Options: You can show or hide frozen (masked) areas, the mesh, or the image. I show you why you’d want to do each of these shortly. Also, if you choose the Show Mesh option, you can choose the mesh size and color. If you select the Show Mask option, you can select the color that indicates frozen areas. For example, if your image contains lots of red, you may want to change the freeze color to blue to create more contrast. Finally, you can also apply a backdrop that makes seeing how the image being liquefied will appear when merged with other layers. To view your distorted image along with other layers, select the Show Backdrop option, and then select the particular layer you want to view, or choose All Layers from the Use pop-up menu. You can now choose whether you want the backdrop in front of, behind, or blended with the distorted image. Specify an opacity percentage for the displayed layers so that they won’t obliterate the image being distorted. The default of 50 percent allows you to see both well, allowing you to keep track of your distortions.
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. However, when you quit glancing and dive into this versatile filter, you’ll find that the tools and options make a lot of sense. The Liquify tools palette resides at the left side of the Liquify window. The other options available with Liquify (which I describe later in the section appropriately named “The Options Areas”) appear at the right side of the window. The tools palette includes a dozen tools that you can use to paint and distort your image. Like Photoshop’s main Tools palette, you can activate each tool by pressing a letter associated with its name. I hope you didn’t get too attached to the keyboard shortcut letters associated with the Liquify tools in Photoshop 7, because most of them have changed.
The painting tools
The first group of tools is the group used to paint distortions on your image. Shown in this list with their keyboard shortcuts in parentheses, the painting tools are (from top to bottom):
- Warp (W): This tool is faintly reminiscent of the Smudge tool, but it doesn’t blur the pixels quite as much as it pushes them forward as 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. When compared to a tool like the Smudge tool, which tends to destroy detail, the Warp tool can preserve detail within distortions.
- Twirl Clockwise (C): Place the cursor in one spot, hold down 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 along the edges of the brush than in the placid center, just like a real hurricane. Adobe gave the Twirl Counterclockwise tool the pink slip. Now to twirl the other way, press the Alt (Option on the Mac) key as you drag or hold down the mouse button. Try this technique with the other tools I describe here (with some tools the effect is more obvious than with others). Simply click and hold down the mouse button. The longer you hold down the mouse button, the more prominent the effect becomes.
- Pucker (S): This tool is the equivalent of the Pinch filter, squishing pixels toward the center of the area covered by the brush as you hold down the mouse button or drag. To reverse the pucker direction, which essentially applies a bloat, press the Alt (Option on the Mac) key as you hold down the mouse button or drag.
- Bloat (B): Here we have an analog to the Spherize filter, pushing pixels toward the edge of the brush area as you hold down the mouse button or drag the mouse. To reverse the bloat direction, which applies a pucker, press the Alt (Option on the Mac) key as you hold down the mouse button or drag.
- Push Left (O): Formerly known as the Shift Pixels tool, this odd tool moves pixels to the left when you drag the tool straight up. Drag down to move pixels to the right. Drag clockwise to increase the size of the object being distorted. Drag counterclockwise to decrease the size. To reverse any of the directions, press the Alt (Option on the Mac) key as you hold down the mouse button or drag.
- Mirror (M): Formerly known as the Reflect tool, the Mirror 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 producing shimmery reflections.
- Turbulence (T): This tool adds a random jumbling effect to your pixels. You can use the Turbulence tool to re-create maelstroms of air, fire, and water with clouds, flames, and waves.
The other tools
The remaining tools on the palette perform different functions. Continuing down the Liquify tools palette, these tools are (shown here with their keyboard shortcuts):
- Reconstruct (R): This tool lets you completely or partially reverse or alter the distortions you’ve made, letting you retrace your steps if you went overboard in your warping activities.
- Freeze Mask (F): Use this tool to protect areas from changes. It paints the frozen area with a red overlay, just as the Quick Mask mode does.
- Thaw Mask (D): This tool unprotects areas by erasing the red protective “freeze” tone. This is a lot like erasing areas you’ve painted in Quick Mask mode.
- Hand (H): The Hand tool works exactly like the standard Photoshop Hand tool. Click and push the image to move it around within the preview window.
- Zoom (Z): The Zoom tool works exactly like the standard Photoshop Zoom tool. Indeed, you can also zoom in and out by using the spacebar+Alt+click (spacebar+Option+click on the Mac) and spacebar+Ctrl+click (spacebar+Ô+click on the Mac) shortcuts to zoom in and out.
Separate from the Liquify tools palette and in the lower-left corner of the Liquify window is a magnification box with a pop-up menu that you can use to select magnifications from 6% to 1600%. You can also type in a specific value to zoom the image to that size. In addition, Photoshop has now given you +/- zoom control buttons to let you click your way to your desired magnification.
The Options Areas
At the right side of the Liquify window are some menus and buttons that let you specify options for the tools, for reconstructing and freezing, and for viewing.
- Load Mesh and Save Mesh: Liquify lets you show or hide a criss-cross area called a mesh. The mesh provides a visual map of the distortions you’ve applied. The mesh starts out as a checkerboard-like set of squares and changes as you apply distortions. The mesh lets you clearly see exactly what you’ve done to the image, and, even better, provides a way to save those distortions on your hard drive so that you can load and reapply them to the same or a different image later.
- Tool Options: You can use the Tool Options area to apply parameters to the painting tools. You can specify the following options:
Brush Size: Specifies the width of the brush.
Brush Density: Specifies how fast the brush effect levels off at its edges. For example, with a feathered brush, the effect is stronger in the center and lighter at the edges.
Brush Pressure: Specifies the speed at which you distort as you drag. Lower is slower.
Brush Rate: Specifies the speed at which you distort as you keep a tool stationary, such as the Twirl tool. Again, lower is slower.
Turbulent Jitter: Determines how tightly the brush jumbles pixels. This option gives the stroke a more natural, organic look.
When you select the Reconstruct tool, you can also choose a Reconstruct Mode from the pop-up menu. If you have a pressure-sensitive stylus tablet, you can also choose to use the amount of pressure you apply to control the width of your brush stroke.
- Reconstruct Options: Here, you can select one of several reconstruct modes (again, to be described shortly). There are also Reconstruct and Restore All buttons that let you reverse all changes made on unfrozen areas (a little at a time) or revert to your last set of distortions. I show you how to use these, too.
- Mask Options: Adobe really beefed up this set of options formerly known as the Freeze area. Consider freezing and masking one and the same when you’re immersed in the Liquify dialog box. The mask options let you freeze areas from existing selections, layer masks, transparent areas, or alpha channels in your image. You can also invert the frozen area (thawing frozen portions of the image, and freezing the areas that were previously thawed), and thaw all the areas that were frozen with one click. Here is the lowdown on each option, which is indicated by a double-circle icon:
Replace selection: Allows you to freeze or mask areas of your image based on an existing selection, transparent areas, a layer mask, or an alpha channel.
Add to selection: Displays the mask in the image and then enables you to add to the frozen areas with the Freeze tool. Adds pixels to the currently frozen areas.
Subtract from selection: Subtracts pixels from the currently frozen areas.
Intersect with selection: Masks only those pixels that are selected and currently frozen.
Invert selection: Inverts selected pixels and currently frozen areas.
Click None to remove frozen areas. Click Mask All to freeze the entire image. Click Invert All to exchange frozen and thawed areas.
- View Options: You can show or hide frozen (masked) areas, the mesh, or the image. I show you why you’d want to do each of these shortly. Also, if you choose the Show Mesh option, you can choose the mesh size and color. If you select the Show Mask option, you can select the color that indicates frozen areas. For example, if your image contains lots of red, you may want to change the freeze color to blue to create more contrast. Finally, you can also apply a backdrop that makes seeing how the image being liquefied will appear when merged with other layers. To view your distorted image along with other layers, select the Show Backdrop option, and then select the particular layer you want to view, or choose All Layers from the Use pop-up menu. You can now choose whether you want the backdrop in front of, behind, or blended with the distorted image. Specify an opacity percentage for the displayed layers so that they won’t obliterate the image being distorted. The default of 50 percent allows you to see both well, allowing you to keep track of your distortions.
Distorting with the Liquify Command
![Distorting with the Liquify Command]()
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