Displacement Map Tutorial Part 1
Read MoreQuestion/Comments related to this tutorial can be emailed to me: jesse )at( jesseascherdotcom
This tutorial will show you how to contour one image to the surface of another, making the depth of the one image control the distortion of the other.
It's called a displacement mask, and you can see what it does in this image.*Your images need to be the same size in order for this to work.
To start you are going to need 2 images. One of your main subject, and one of what you are going to use with the displacement map.
I use textures for my displacement map, and for this tutorial I am using an image of some tile I took.
Open up your subject in Photoshop.
(Convert the images to 8-bit if it is a 16-bit image by going to Image->Modes->8Bit/Channels)
We don’t want to overwrite our originals by accident, so lets duplicate the image by going to Image->DuplicateThis will let us edit/adjust the background if needed later on. A background layer has limitations that a layer does not. By converting the background to a layer, we are able to manipulate it in more ways than if it were just a background.
Now we need to copy the original image of our subject/model into the displacement image.
Lets organize our two images (the original and our new displacement map) side-by-side. Then select your Move tool. While holding down the shift key click on your original image and drag it on top of your displacement image.
Holding down the shift key automatically aligns the two new image layers up.
With your new layer selected, set the layer blending mode to Multiply. The blending modes are located in the drop down menu in the layers palette.If you haven’t been saving along the way, this is definitely a good time. Be sure to save this image as a PSD so your layers stay adjustable. This is the time to play. Change the blending modes on the layers, change opacity, just keep playing until you find something you really like. I am sure you are going to come across some amazing combos. Also, you don’t need to limit yourself to just these layers, add more if you want. Click here to move onto the second part of this tutorial.
View more of my displacement maps on my nikongear.com website! Check it out here!