displacement maps

[pjstaley]

Apologies if this is the wrong forum. I need a displacement map that will conform an image to look like drapes. Please advise.

[philbach]

Well they are fun to fiddle with and there are a number of good references across the web: Click(1) , Click (2) , Click (3)

But I would also recommend you post the photo you want to be displaced on this site and let various people fiddle with it. All of us could look at the results of various renderings and learn from it.

[Swampy]

You can get some nice "drape" effects with the Filter -> Render-> Fibers in PhotoShop. May require CS1 version.

[philbach]

A quick way to start on drapes is to Make a new document. Use default b&w colors. Select the gradient tool. Select foreground to background gradient. Use difference for the blending mode on gradient options. Then with the gradient tool go part way across your picture and fiddle with it. You can use the skew command to shrink the top of the drapes some.

Its easy and a good way to start on drapes or make a displacement map.

You can colorize the drapes; place a pattern on a higher layer and use multiply blending mode to blend the pattern into the drapery.

[pjstaley]

The problem I'm running into is that when I create the displacement map and apply it to the image, you can barely tell that it's there. Please advise.

[philbach]

Well I displaced your rainbow. I opened your photo "rainbow" and selected the red channel first and ran a gradient foreground to background with default colors and difference mode and then did the same with the green channel. I then saved this file as displacement map.psd.

I then reopened the rainbow file and copied it to a new layer. To make room for the displacement I increased the canvas size. I then ran filter/distort/displace and used the settings enclosed in the screen dump.

If you don't have enough extra room to displace the image it won't displace.

[Stroker]

Ah, the good ol' days...

Technical Slop > Table of Contents
Curve It Skew
Curve It Squish

And don't forget lighting. Lighting is *very* important.
Intro: Theory I
Finishing Touches

[Bill M]

This image shows your rainbow thing displaced by Phil's curtain (curtain resized to be slightly larger than the rainbow). You can see the strange effect it has, an effect that doesn't really look like a curtain. But if you overlay it on the image that was used for the displacement map, it all makes sense.
Bill

[pjstaley]

Thank you all so much for all your input. It was extremely helpful! B-T-W Bill, the overlay blending mode was a key factor in achieving the excellent results. I was able to create a custom displacement map by dragging multiple short gradients across my canvas in "difference" mode, then adding the rainbow jpeg as a layer in overlay mode. Perfect! Exactly what I was trying to achieve.

[Marthig]

Well I ran into the same problem as Pjstaley the displacement map I prepared was a real curtain --a photo found with Yahoo! search-- converted to monochrome fixed it a bit to make it easier to adjust the levels to almost black and white, saved it as a displacement map then applied it to a copy of Pjstaley's image, modified the resolution to 150 dpi then, filter-distort-displace and all I got where some dark bluish stripes.
So I just copied and pasted on the image. Duplicated the curtain and the base image and made a sandwich. At the bottom placed the coloured image, next layer, the curtain, blend mode colour burn, opacity 75 fill 59%. Next layer coloured image, blend mode vivid light, opacity 100% and last layer the curtain again, blend mode pin light, opacity 75% fill 59%. I am posting below the result.
Hope it helps - Regards
Martha

[Kraellin]

ok, for us uninitiated yet, what is a displacement map? i sorta get that it's another picture that is used to alter a first one according to some rules or paramters, but not sure. little help here? i dont need a full 'this is what it is and how you use it' explanation, just a broad 'it's used to do ____".

Craig

[Marthig]

Hi Craig !

From the explanations and the tutorials FOUND HEREin the Tutorials Forum, it is like you say an image used to "transmit" its characteristics to another --sort of a symbiosis type of thing

What I find tricky is how to make a displacement map. It is not simply use an image and convert to black and white. It is well described in the tutorials I mention above. Perhaps is similar to the "apply image" in Photoshop. I don't know if PSP has a similar function.

Hope it helps ?

Regards - Martha

[Kraellin]

thanks martha

yes, that's basically what i wanted to know.

and i do believe the later versions of psp do have this; i just havent gotten that far in the manual yet

Craig

[Racc Iria]

Kraellin

A displacement map is a grayscale image that is used in the Displace filter in order to displace (shift) the pixels in the target image. White displaces pixels toward you and black displaces pixels away from you. The horizontal and vertical direction of the shift can be adjusted in the filter.

It's the equivalent of using a bump map in a 3D app.

In Photoshop it's useful for making images appear more realistically applied to an irregular surface like rock, old wood, a wrinkled shirt, etc. When you just use a blend mode on the image you want to apply to such a surface you don't get the kind of distortion that an image would really have if it bent around folds or dipped into cracks and crevices. Using a displacement map accomplishes this.

--Racc

[Kraellin]

racc,

sounds a lot like when we used to use grayscale images to make height maps, only a different application now.

thanks

Craig

[realaqu]

I learned dmap from Steve and do love his tutorial about curve and Dmap.

http://www.thegoldenmean.com/technique/displace1.html

Realaqu

[Cameraken]

Realaqu

Just a note to say

Thanks for the link.

I have been to that site before but never noticed that excellent tutorial (Or Maybe I just was not ready for it)

I did google searches for displacement maps but did not find this one.

This will keep me busy for the next couple of weeks.

Thanks

Ken

[realaqu]

My pleasure, Ken, and Stroker's tutorial is also a very nice one, check it out on techslop.


realaqu