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Library: Photoshop: Using the Displace Filter

Using the Displace Filter

This is a quick review of how to use the Displace filter to enhance your textures.  This filter can be useful to 'bend' overlying layers to match the projected depth of an underlying layer. In other words if you draw a bumpy rock wall and then paint a word on it, this filter can help that word distort to follow the bumps and spaces.

Open the image you are going to work with ...



Next we'll create a displacement map ...

• Create an exact copy of your image
• Using this copy select Image>Adjustments>Channel Mixer from the menu
• In the Channel Mixer panel select Monochrome and click Ok.

The Displace filter uses the relative light and dark values of the displacement map to apply the distortion. You can increase the contrast of the image and use dodge and burn (or paint) with shades of gray to increase the appearance of depth; lighter colors will be considered heights and darker colors depths.

• Using the displacement image you created go to Image>Adjustments>Brightness/Contrast and play with the settings. You can also darken the gaps between planks by painting or using the Burn tool. Then save the image as a PSD file (the PSD format is required by this filter).

Here is a quick displacement map



Now lets go back to our original image.

• Add a layer and draw or paste the image you will distort into this. I just painted a swirly S ...

... you can see that this graffiti doesn't look very real as it is not interacting with the underlying wood.

• Next choose Filter>Distort>Displace.

• Enter a value for the magnitude of the displacement. I used 2. In this case the displacement map is the same size as the selection otherwise you would have to specify how the map fits the image using Stretch To Fit to resize the map or Tile to fill the selection by repeating the map in a pattern then Wrap Around or Repeat Edge Pixels to determine how undistorted areas of the image are treated. In this case I left it at at Tile and Wrap Around
• Click OK. Select and open the displacement map. The distortion is applied to the image.

Here you see how the layer is displaced by the map. You can of course make it more real by using a better overlay image than I did but hopefully this gives you an idea of the effect. Other examples of possible uses are making a reflection on bumpy glass distort to match the shape of the glass or making a cactus's cast shadow follow the bumps of a sand dune.

Tip: If you need to keep the edges of the text (or whatever is on the layer being distorted) from going beyond the original shape, then select the content of the layer before applying the Displace filter. You can see how I did this to the Saloon text below.



One thing to watch out for ... since the displacement maps distort the image by shifting the layer you might mess up the edges of seamless tiles. Be sure to check. If you do have a problem you can avoid drawing all the way to the edge of the image on the layer you will distort -or leave a space away from the edge equal to the number of pixels you picked for the image to be distorted.