Transformation Tool Part 2

This is a continuation of the first tutorial on the transformation tool, however, this time we will be dealing with the special tools such as the skew tool, warp, and rotate tools found in Edit > Transform and also moving the point in which an image rotates.

Image published with permissions by the author, Shaun Santa Cruz Photography

Click here for the Source Image

Step 1

So it's business as usual which means we need to copy our background layer my selecting the background and pressing command/control+J or by dragging the background layer onto the create a new layer icon We also want to turn our original background layer white so we can see our results. It should look like so:

Scale Tool

Go to Edit > Transform > Scale and you'll notice our friend, the translucent box with the auspicious point in the middle... Scale is pretty much steps 5 through step 8 in the first tutorial on the transformation tool. In a nutshell, the scale tool allows you to constrain the proportions, using shift, to the natural image size (pixel aspect ration is preserved) or you can choose to not preserve the aspect ration and allow the image to become "taller" (more height) or "longer" (more width).

and vice versa!!

Rotate

Go to Edit > Transform > Rotate and this allows you to rotate from any given point of the image and nothing else (this includes resizing the image). Holding shift will allow you to move the image in 15 degree increments and without using shift will allow you to rotate in single digit degrees. This is where that center point comes into play! Examples...

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The first image was rotated using shift, at 45 degrees. The second image was rotated without using shift to 16.2 degrees and the third image is a visual idea that you can rotate the image any way you want.

The Point

The point is that weird circle-like crosshair that you see every time you transform an image. Although I'm sure curiosity has gotten the best of you by now, however, in the event that is hasn't we'll be explaining it here!!!

The fist image depicts the idea that the point can move anywhere. The second image has the point in the upper right hand corner and the third image has the point in the lower left hand corner. The results!!

The first image is a 45 degree rotation from the upper right hand corner and the second is a -45 degree rotation from the bottom left hand corner. You can move this point anywhere and rotate any image at any degree from any place within the boundaries of the images itself - FREEDOM!!!

Skew Tool

Edit > Transform > Skew The skew tool has many functions that include moving the base or top of the image while the opposite side remains stationary - err... what? - here's a picture!

Start at the center point and drag it all the way to the left hand corner and you get something like this. You can also do the same thing on the opposite side.

Honestly, the skew tool has a lot of things that you're probably never going to use but they create some awesome "effects" (for lack of a better term). Example:

The first image is created by dragging the two bottom corner points toward the center and the second image (parallelogram or diamond) is created by dragging a series of points. It's best to simply play around with this tool to understand it!

Distort Tool

Go to Edit > Transform > Distort to open the distort tool. The distort tool is like the skew tool but you can drag a single point and have all other preceding and/or proceeding points follow it. It's like a free transform skew tool in other words!

Like the skew tool, we can easily create a parallelogram or diamond but we can create it anywhere on the canvas with ease. The second image looks as if the base of the image was coming out toward us and the top is going backward. This is the main advantage of the distort tool (in my opinion) but it's always best to play around with these tools to see how they work and see what it best in your opinion.

Perspective Tool

Go to Edit >Transform > Perspective to open the tool. The perspective tool is closely related to the distort tool and the skew tool so it is like the skew and distort tools combined in a way (keep in mind that each tool has its own set of properties, all of the analogies I make are for the ease of learning).

There isn't much I can say about this tool without sounding like a broken record player so just play around with it!!

Warp Tool

Go to Edit > Transform > Warp to open the tool. The warp tool is different and you do a lot with this tool...

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You can warp an image by dragging the cross section or the bezier handles (see image).

The first image are all the points in which you can warp an image and the second image deals with the bezier handle locations. Manipulation of the bezier handles could potentially look something like this:

Although this doesn't look good and you probably wouldn't ever publish something like this, you see the power that bezier handles have on an image. We will get in depth when we study the pen tool.

This concludes the second (and final!) transformation tool tutorial!!