Alright, so I thought I would post a tutorial on using and understanding the “displace” filter in Photoshop CS2 and CS3. Since the steps haven’t really changed with the recent improvements in CS3, I’ll be referencing CS2 for this tutorial, seeing as how there are still a lot of people who aren’t using CS3.

If you’ve noticed some of our posters, and or websites, you may have noticed us using ornamentation effects, fractals, as well as aged / grunge effects that help give the design some depth.

For now I’ll just be covering the “displace” filter which produces an effect like this:

If you’ll notice the background, and how chaotic it is… that’s the “displace” filter working.

In today’s tutorial I’ll be covering step by step directions on how you may achieve this same effect for your work. Regardless if you’re interested in using this effect for web, or for print, the process is the same with the exception of canvas preparation regarding the resolution you’ll be working in.

Anyway, if you’re ready to brave this tutorial, then please read on:

If you’re interested in using this effect for print than you’ll want to set your canvas resolution to 300 dpi or higher. If you’re planning on using this effect for the web than you’ll want to set your resolution to 72 dpi.

For now I’m going to stick with a 72 dpi resolution for web. You’re welcome to follow along verbatim, or you can mix it up along the way to make it your own.
Please remember as well, the effects I’ll be using in this tutorial aren’t the only effects to use to achieve the displace filter effect. You can use any photoshop filter effects, and apply it to the displace filter. If you’re savvy with creating ornamentation either in photoshop, or illustrator, you can apply those as your displace effect as well. As long as they’re in black and white, and saved with the file extension of “.psd”, you’re set.
Anyway… to start off, let’s prep our “digital canvas.”

Go to “File”, and select “New…”

You should now see your presets for your canvas.

I’m going to set my Width to 464 pixels, then I’m going to set my Height to 717 pixels. Now I’m going to set my resolution to 72. Before you select “OK”, make sure the “Color Mode” is set for RGB. An important note to remember is that when you’re trying to produce this effect, you have to set your color mode for RGB, (regardless if you’re producing this effect for web, or for print) otherwise a lot of the filters we’ll be referencing to produce this “displace” effect wont’ become available to you. One more step before you select “OK.” Make sure your “Background Contents” is set for White.

Now press “OK.”

You’ll notice that your canvas is set for portrait instead of landscape, and that’s alright. If you’re using this effect for web, or print, it can be set for landscape, or portrait. It all depends on the dimension of the image or document you want to use the displace effect with.

Alright, now let’s move on to our color palette.

If your color palette is already set to Black and White then leave it alone. If it is not then simply press the “D” key on your keyboard and it will default to black and white.

Now that we have our color palette ready, let’s move onto our layers.

If you don’t see your layers palette, simply go to the “Windows” tab located in the upper horizontal menu bar. Select the “Windows” tab, then scroll down to select the “Layers” option.

This should produce your “Layers” palette, and should look something like this:

Now let’s create a new layer by holding our fingers down on the Apple icon, the “Shift” key, and then the “N” key in that order. If you’re using a PC, the key commands are relatively the same. Simply hold the “Ctrl” key, the “Shift” key, and then the “N” key in that order.

This should produce a window, prompting you to name your new layer, and should look something like this:

Simply name it “disaster”, or “Jackson Pollock”, or whatever suits you best.

Press “OK”, and that should produce your new layer.

Now let’s fill the color of that new layer we just created.
Make sure that the layer we just created is selected in the “Layers” palette.

Now simply press and hold the “alt/option” key, then while holding that key, press the “delete” key. If you’re using a PC, the process is pretty much the same. Press and hold the “Alt” key, and while holding that key, press the “Backspace” key.

This should fill your new layer that you created with black, and should look like this:

Now before we move on, let’s save our document.

If you’re using a Mac simply press the “S” key while holding your finger down on the Apple icon. If you’re using a PC, than simply press the “S” key while holding your finger down on the “Ctrl” key.

This will produce a “Save As” option with a default file extension of “.psd”
Simply name the document “displace effect.” Be sure to keep the file extension “.psd” as this is important to be able to use the elements we’re creating for the displace effect later on. Also, be sure to save this document in an area where it won’t be forgotten. I’m going to save it to my desktop, but you can save it where you like.

Now select “Save.”

Alright, now we’re ready to destroy our canvas.

With the “disaster” layer selected I’m now going to proceed to the “Filter” tab, located in the upper horizontal menu bar.

After selecting the “Filter” tab, scroll down to the “Render” filter option, then from there select “Clouds”.

This should cause your canvas to look hazy like this:

Now let’s go back to the Filter tab, scroll down to the “Noise” filter option, and select “Add Noise…”

This should pull up a window, previewing what this filter will do to your canvas.
I have my “Amount” set to 21%, the “Distribution is set to “Gaussian”, and I have “Monochromatic” selected.

Now select “OK.”

You’ll notice that your canvas looks speckled:

That’s alright. The more noise the better.

Now we want to go back to the “Filter” tab again, scroll down to the “Sketch” filter option, and from there select “Torn Edges…”

Again, this will preview what your canvas will look like with the “Torn Edges…” filter we’re about to use.

I have my “Image Balance” set to 33, my “Smoothness” set to 13, and my “Contrast” set to 18.

Now select “OK.”

This is probably a good time to save our document again so we don’t lose the progress we’ve made.

Let’s go ahead and try to save our document using the quick key commands.

Just hold your finger down on the Apple icon, and while holding that icon, press the “S” key on your keyboard. If you’re using a PC, then hold your finger down on the “Ctrl” key, and while holding that key down, press the “S” key on your keyboard.

After our document has been saved, let’s go back to the “Filter” tab, scroll down to the “Brush Strokes” filter option, and from there select “Spatter…”

Again, this will preview what your canvas will look like with the “Spatter” filter we’re about to use.

The settings for the “Spatter” filter should be set by default to “Spray Radius” 25, and “Smoothness” 15.

I’m going to leave them set that way, but you can mess with the settings if you don’t like the way it looks.

Now select “OK.”

Your canvas should now look something like this:

Alright, we’re almost finished.

Let’s go ahead and save our document one last time using the key commands for saving.

After your document is finished saving, close your document.

Now let’s open a new document by going to the “File” tab located in the upper horizontal menu bar. Select “New…” and let’s set our dimensions exactly the same way we had them set for the image we just finished creating.

If you’ve been following along then your dimensions should be automatically set to this:

You’ll notice a white canvas. This time we’re not going to fill the canvas with black. Instead we’re going to select our color palette:

Select the black color on the color palette. This should pull up your “Color Picker” preview.

I’m going to set my color to red, but you can set yours to any color you like.

Now select “OK.”

Now I’m going to create a new layer using the quick key command by holding the apple icon down, then while holding the apple icon down, hold the “Shift” key, and then while holding the “Shift” key, and the apple icon, select and hold the “N” key. If you’re using a PC, than you’ll want to hold the “Ctrl” key, then while holding the “Ctrl” key down, hold the “Shift” key, and then while holding the “Shift” key, and the “Ctrl” key, select and hold the “N” key.

This will produce a window to prompt you to name the new layer we just created.

Go ahead and name it “brush”, or whatever suits you best.

Now select “OK.”

Now, while your “brush” layer is selected:

press the “B” key on your keyboard.

This will convert your mouse into a brush tool.

Now go to the “Brush” tool bar, located underneath the main horizontal menu bar.

select the “Brush:” drop down menu, and set your “Master Diameter” to 85 px.

Now make sure your “Mode” is set to “Normal”, your “Opacity” is set around 70%, and your “Flow” is set around 50%.

Now let’s go crazy with our brush…

Don’t go too crazy though. We want to create the illusion of chaos without covering our entire canvas.

This is how mine looks:

Now it’s time to use the “Displace” filter.

With our “brush” layer selected, let’s go to “Filter”, and then go down to the “Distort” filter option, and from there select “Displace…”

You’ll notice the default settings for the “Horizontal Scale”, and the “Vertical Scale” are set to 10 and 10.

You can leave it set for default, but it’s usually a good idea to mess with the scale of the filter, just to get the best results.

I’m going to set my “Horizontal Scale” to 30, and my “Vertical Scale” to 45.
I’m also going to set my “Displacement Map” to “Tile”, and my “Undefined Areas” to “Repeat Edge Pixels.”

You don’t need to set it exactly like mine, but with this particular scenario I find these settings to be the best. In the end it all depends on how you’re using the “Displace” filter.

After you’ve modified your “Displace” settings, select “OK.”

After you select “OK”, a window will appear, prompting you to open any file with the file extension of “.psd”. Let’s open the “displace effect.psd” we made previously.

Find the “displace effect.psd” file, and select “Open.”

The paint brush we used to muck up our canvas should now look a little something like this:

That’s it. You’re all done. Yay!!!!!

The great thing about the “Displace” filter effect is that you can not only use it on simple highlights, or shapes, but you can use it with photographs as well. You can use it on photographs of people’s arms, legs, eyes, nose, lips… the possibilities are endless.

You can also use it to add texture to paper. It’s a great way to create a surrealistic, and vintage / aged illusion.

I hope you’ve found this tutorial useful.

Christy and I will be sure to update our blog with more tutorials in the coming weeks.

Peace,

- m / Colorcubic™

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 12th, 2008 at 12:47 pm and is filed under Design, Print, Tutorials, Web. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.