Displacement /textures / distor-tions for Photoshop ®Installation of displacements maps

Please place the displacement map (* . PSD) files in the ‘displacement maps’folder in the plug-ins folder.

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop ...\Plug-ins\Displacement Maps

HD:Applications:Adobe Photoshop...:Plug-ins:Displacement Maps

Access the displacement map PSD files via the displace filter

or glass filter

or texturizer ...

Serial numbers

Please store the serial numbers for reference, for future updates, for replace-ment CDs. This is generally stored in a folder marked as keep for reference orstore

Displacement maps installation issues

If you have problems installing or using this product, please e-mail our techsupport at support@graphicxtras.com

Comments

If you have any suggestions to how we can improve our products or manual,or if there is something that is hard to understand or badly stated, please con-tact us and we will try to correct any errors or misunderstandings in the nextrelease of the manual. It is always great to hear your feedback.

Other items

We also have a number of other items for Photoshop such as plug-ins and cus-tom shapes and brushes.

System requirements

Applications supported - Photoshop ® 6 7 CS1 CS2 CS3 CS4, Elements, Win-dows 98, NT, ME, 2000 XP Vista (they can be used on OS 9 but they need tobe converted to OS 9 PSD files), the files can be used on OS X

Other applications

Applications that fully support the PSD format (though these applications arenot supported) such as Paint Shop Pro ® Photo X2 X1 X etc

Minimum requirements

At least 64 MB of memory, though some operations might require a lot more.

Trademarks

The displacement maps were designed by Andrew Buckle, and copyright 1999-2009 (depending on the set), Andrew Buckle and Abneil Software ltd

All products mentioned in this manual are trademarked or probably trade-marked by their respective owners. Illustrator and Photoshop and Adobe andAfter Effects are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. PaintShop Pro is registered trademark of Corel Corporation

We have no connection whatsoever with Adobe or Corel

We have no connection whatsoever with Adobe.

Adobe product screen shot(s) reprinted with kind permission from Adobe Sys-tems Incorporated.

Company contact details

Telephone / Fax: UK 01622 688 375

http://www.graphicxtras.com

support@graphicxtras.com

Displacement map hints and tips

Displacement maps are PSD files, Photoshop format and grayscale (in mostcases)

They can be used throughout Photoshop (as well as other applications by ex-porting to a format such as TIFF for maximum compatibility)

Displacement maps and filters

The PSD files can be used in the displace filter, glass, canvas and texturizernative plug-ins. In the latest version (Photoshop ® CS 1 / CS 2), the glass fil-ter and others are now accessible via the filter gallery. The filter gallery allowsmultiple layers of glass filters (or texture) using different distortion displace-ment maps in one single application of the filter

Displacement maps / settings

Sometimes the effect can be achieved by a high displacement, blasting theimage or text, but more subtle distortions can be achieved by applying lowervalues and re-applying the displacement

The filters can be action-ed so you can save this for future.

Filter->Distort->Displace

Horizontal Scale / Vertical Scale / stretch or tile / wrap around or repeat edgepixels. The displacement maps are not displayed, you have to select them fromthe displacement maps folder (best to select them using the thumbnails dis-play option in XP). You can use a variety of scale and stretch / tile settings tocreate totally different distortion effects.

Filter->Distort->Glass

Distortion / Smoothness / Texture (select a displacement map via the rightarrow menu option) / scaling / invert option. Again, using a variety of settingsand combinations of glass displacement maps, many different glassy effectscan be created.

The glass can be re-applied within the same filter gallery, so add multiple glasseffects. Below, three glass effects have been added. They all use the sameglass PSD file but they could use different files. The distortion and smoothnessand scaling vary for each effect

The glass effect can be re-applied again and again by using the repeat lastcommand instead (top item in the filter menu)

The file used by the glass / filter gallery is modified via the texture setting(frosted etc, you will find a little dropdown beside the frosted etc texture list-ing)

The glass effect can also be added to an action

Displacement maps / layers

The displacement maps can also be applied on a new duplicated layer and re-blended with the image, great for grungy effects etc

Create a duplicated layer as below

Apply the displace (or glass etc) filter to the top layer

Change the layer blending mode as required

Displacement maps and other color modes

The displacement maps filter ‘displace’ can be used in other color modes otherthan RGB (glass etc are disabled). The distortion can be applied to a CMYKdocument as well as a LAB document but not currently (?) to 16 bit images

Displacement maps / channels

Displacement maps can also be applied to a channel, either an actual channelor new channel (use the calculations command to create a selection from thenew channel's displacement map) and use as a source for a new layer and ap-ply layer effects etc

Below, select the Red channel

Go to the displace filter

Apply displace filter to red channel (or equally the blue or green, or perhapsdifferent settings for each channel) Go back to the RGB channel for the finalresult.

The same can be done with the cyan of the CYMK mode etc

History brush and maps

A useful tool to use in combo with the displacement maps is the history brush,apply the effect, and use the history palette and then apply the history brushto paint on the displacement effect to certain parts of the image.

Seamless / displacement mapsThe displacement maps are generally seamless, though some of the seamlessmaps might work well as displace files but not so well as glass distortion fileswithout tweaking the smoothness and tiling settings

Starting point / create new maps

The displacement map PSD files are only starting points and they can be re-edited and using tools like the Tile Maker (via ImageReady), new tiles can becreated. Try and avoid modifying any of the edges of the displacement map

The displacement maps can also be modified and made seamless via 3rd partytexture plug-ins such as Terrazzo (and others)

The displacement map can also be distorted as long as you don’t distort to theedges, (create a selection to preserve the edges). Modify the center of the dis-placement map, perhaps by applying a pinch filter command or a warpingbrush. Below shows a displacement map with a pinch effect filter applied, thepinch effect does not modify the edge of the displacement.

To save the displacement map, simply save the displacement map as a newPSD or overwrite the original displacement map if so desired.

The displacement maps can also be inverted to create different distortions ef-fects, you can then save an inverted image as a new displacement map

Define as a pattern, use in layer effects

By using the define pattern (on the displacement map) you can also load thedisplacement maps in as textures (you can of course, also color the displace-ment maps) and then use as a texture in layer effects (texture / bevel / pat-tern overlay) or as a brush texture in PS 7 and CS and CS2 and CS3 and CS4as well Elements brushes palette.

Brush stroke source / displacement maps

The displacement maps can also be used as a source for brush strokes, simplyopen the displacement map file in Photoshop and then go to the edit->definebrush menu option.

If the PSD file is greater than the brush file size limit, the define brush com-mand will be grayed out. The brush is then defined, but to save the brush youmust save the current brush palette via the preset manager options at theright of the brush palette.

The brush can then be dabbed, spaced, applied with multiple colors, and moreto great effect.

Displacement converted to custom shapes /distress images

The displacement maps can also be converted to custom shapes. Open thedisplacement maps file and use the selection commands to select the black /white areas and then use the path palette to convert to a path. Once the dis-placement map is a path, the path can be converted to a custom shape andsaved as such. The displacement map can then be re-applied, warped, distort-ed, overlay and more. The shape can be re-applied repeatedly, changingcolors, varying opacity. As the shape conversion often results in a rougher ver-sion of the original displacement map, the shape tool can be used to createdistressed and grunge effects easily; designs far removed from the clean vec-tor origins of a normal shape.

Actions and displacement maps

Displacement maps are also useful combined with actions as well as batch ac-tions and scripting (where the name of the map can be randomized or the scal-ing or the direction or the method of displacement or the glass distortionsmoothing altered.

Many amazing scripted effects can be created such as creating smeary rand-omized paint effects.

Bump maps / materials in Paint Shop Pro ®

The displacement maps can also be used as bump maps etc and textures inPaint Shop Pro ® and any other application that supports PSD file format ofPhotoshop. Add the displacement map PSD files to the Paint Shop Pro folderscontaining patterns, bump maps, textures, etc. These are generally found inthe corel_01 etc folders in recent versions. Paint Shop Pro file locations canalso be set via the file preferences settings panel.

Once the displacement map PSD file has been located, the displacement mapwill appear in the materials / bump map etc dropdown along with the nativetexture / pattern files. Once selected, the displacement map application can bemodified by the palette controls, such as smoothness and depth and size

The displacement map can be used in fills via the materials palette in PaintShop Pro, either as a pattern or a texture for the fill. Same with brush strokesand other areas of Paint Shop Pro

Exporting PSD files

The files can also be exported for use in 3D applications such as Carrara. Byconverting the the PSD format to BMP or TIFF or JPG the displacement mapscan also be used as textures in frame plug-ins or in third party plug-ins suchas [ Spheroid designer ] plug-in from Corel / KPT

Displacement maps and selections

The displacement map cannot be used as a selection directly (though it can,the displacement map size is fairly small and perhaps limited as a direct selec-tion). You can always open the displacement map and use the define pattern

command to add to the pattern palette. Create a large document (say 2000 x2000) and then fill the document with the generated pattern and then use theselection command [ color range] to create a selection from the pattern.

Drag the selection from the pattern filled document to another image and useselection to apply effects etc to the displacement selection

Displacement maps and use in their own right

The displacement maps are fairly small files, so to use them in their own right(and not as a displacement or distortion), it is probably best to convert thedisplacement into a pattern via the define pattern command and then fill alarge document (say 2000 x 2000) with the pattern. The displacement file islike any other file and can then be manipulated, effects applied, used as a lay-er and much more

Here the displacement map initial layer has been duplicated and then the layersetting has been set to lighten. The background layer has been blurred and agradient applied.