Transforming a layer in Photoshop by simply dragging the cursor
Hey everyone. We continue our mastery of Photoshop, with the help. Today's lesson is about free transformation. As always, we will conduct preliminary preparation and , into which another image would be formed.
What is free transformation? Free transformation is a change in the size of an object and its transformation in plane and space. To cause the transformation of an object, you need to go to the second fold of the menu Editing / Free Transform or use a hotkey combination CTRL +T. I most often use a hotkey combination, it's quick and convenient.
When transformation is activated, markers appear at the edges of the transformed layer, with the help of which the image parameters are changed. When you point at a marker or edge of an object, a double-sided arrow is formed, and while holding down left key mouse, we can change the height or width. Corner markers perform two functions at once: transforming height and width.
To complete the transformation just click key ENTER, and your transformation will be applied to the layer. You can take a step back and apply the previous transformation using keys ESC.
The function of maintaining image proportions during transformation is performed by SHIFT key.
Transformation - Rotation
If you move the cursor outside the object transformation, you will notice how the arrow has changed from double-sided to circular. To rotate the image, just rotate the mouse in the desired direction. The transformation itself is carried out around the transformation center, which can be moved to any place and even taken outside the object.
Let's go in order. A square with dots allows you to set 9 center positions for the transformation object.
Since Photoshop also has its own coordinate system, which starts in the upper left corner, then using the coordinate settings x And y You can set the location of the image on the main background.
Adjustable width and height, allow you to set right size, which is known in advance. In other cases, it is better to select by experiment. The chain icon will help maintain the proportions of the original image.
AND last setting, tilt angle. Specified in degrees up to 180 0
As you can see, all the settings of the transformation panel are simple and intuitive.
1 Scaling. I think this function speaks for itself.
2 Turn. Rotating an object.
3 Incline. Here, too, I think everything is clear.
4 Perspective. Transforming the image proportionally to the middle of one of the sides
5 Distortion. By moving the corners of the markers in space, you can distort the object.
6 Deformation. Using this function, you can change the shape of an object beyond recognition or create a new one.
Transforming part of an image
To transform not the entire image, but a certain part of it, you need to select it using the rectilinear lasso tool and call the transformation function.
Good afternoon, my dear friends and readers. How are you feeling? Are you ready to do a little Photoshop? Today I want to show you how to transform an object in Photoshop for various purposes. Today's topic was not pulled out of thin air. I just remembered how a few years ago I was making fun of a friend. The gist of the joke was that I photographed him sitting at the computer and doing something on the Internet.
And I decided to put a frame (screenshot) or just a photograph (I don’t remember) from... a porn film on the monitor. Yes, such a scoundrel. And despite the fact that the monitor was at an angle, I superimposed this frame so that it stood clearly on the monitor. It all turned out quite funny and very similar. My friend also appreciated it.
I performed all these actions using scaling and transformation. Therefore, in today’s article I will clearly show how this can be brought to life.
Let's open our Photoshop and get started. We will mock this picture; besides, it is in the format PNG and is located on transparent background, and that’s exactly what we need. Open this image in Photoshop so that it opens on a separate layer.
Free transformation involves increasing and decreasing an object, expanding and narrowing it, as well as rotating the image. In general, this is any distortion of the picture from it original form. Therefore, in a good way, this is the most common type of transformation.
How to scale an image?
- If you pull on the corners, the object will grow, shrink, flatten and expand.
- When you pull on the sides, the object will only contract and expand from the side.
- If you pull on the top or bottom, the object will either be flattened or stretched from the top or bottom.
And by the way, if you hold down the key during transformation SHIFT and pull from the corner, the transformation will be smooth, i.e. maintaining all proportions. This way you won't lose the shape of the object. And if you hold down the key ALT and perform a transformation, it will go either towards the center or away from the center, depending on where you drag.
In general, now try to do everything yourself and you yourself will understand how it works. It's actually very simple.
How to rotate an image?
Zoom and Rotate
This is absolutely the same as in free transformation. But free transformation implies both of these things at the same time. You can call up both scaling and rotation separately. True, I personally don’t see the point of calling each type of transformation separately if everything can be done using one function.
But if you want to use each function separately, then activate them in the menu "Editing" — "Transformation" — "Scale/Rotate". But I would recommend that you use free transformation in Photoshop.
Incline
Of course, you can transform objects in Photoshop not only using free transformation, but using each function separately. If you want to make a tilt effect then this function will be indispensable to you. To do this, go to the layer with the object and select the menu item "Editing" — "Transformation"- "Tilt".
After this, you can drag the mouse on any corner, and in the meantime the other three corners will remain motionless. For example, if you lower your right hand slightly while using Tilt top corner and lift the bottom one, it will create the effect that the TV is slightly rotated.
And if you move the upper corners to the right and left, it will turn out completely different interesting effect. You can experiment for yourself and see how this happens in life. Well, in the same way, if you hold down SHIFT, then the entire tilt will occur at the same level.
The cool thing is that you don't even have to go directly to the tilt menu. You can press CTRL+T to trigger Free Transform in Photoshop. And when you point at any of the corners, hold down the CTRL key, and this will be similar to what I described above.
Distortion and perspective
The distortion feature can simulate an object turning the other way, as if the TV was standing straight and then turned 45 degrees. This thing is called exactly in the same place as the other functions. That is, we go to "Editing" — "Transformation"- “Distortion”.
Try the same thing by lightly tugging the upper left or right corner of the object to see how it changes after that.
“Perspective” is located exactly there. Only unlike her colleagues, she works from all angles. That is, if you pull the upper left corner, then the right one will move in a mirror image relative to it. See for yourself how this feature works in action.
By the way, nothing prevents you from transforming the text in Photoshop in the same way. After all, in essence, this is exactly the same object, which is subject to all the laws of this wonderful graphic editor.
Let's look at one living example so that you can better understand this whole situation.
Frame overlay on monitor
Well, now, as promised, I’ll show you how, using our today’s tool, you can superimpose any frame on the monitor. Let's say we have 2 photographs: a man at a computer and a still from a film. Let's put this frame on the monitor. We open both of these images in our graphic editor.
Go to the tab with Dr. Brown and transfer the entire image to the tab with the image of the girl at the computer using .
Now our shot with the doc on the shot with the girl. Great. Now let's select a tool "Free Transform" and reduce the frame with the dock to approximately the size of a monitor. Accuracy is not important here.
Well, now let’s select “Distortion”, which is located where? Yes, you already remember where) If not, then go back higher. And when the image is framed, start pulling its corners so that they coincide with the corners of the screen.
The process is simple and very interesting. It's as if we are stretching a new image. Well, you see for yourself.
After all the corners have been adjusted and done correctly, press enter. It should look something like this.
You can make it even more similar to reality, but we will talk about this in the next lessons and use other tools.
Well then. I'm done for today. I hope you enjoyed transforming objects and images in Photoshop. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. I also highly recommend watching the wonderful video course on mastering photoshop. Thanks to this course, you can master Photoshop in 2-4 weeks. Everything from start to finish and in video tutorial format. In general, it’s a piece of candy, not a course. Highly recommend!
Don't forget to subscribe to my blog updates, then you will be aware of the most latest news, articles and competitions the very first! I won't spam, honestly. Well, we'll see you in the next articles. Bye bye!
Best regards, Dmitry Kostin.
Several layers can be linked together to perform any kind of work on them. general actions. For example: to move them or transform them as a whole or to align them or distribute them evenly horizontally or vertically. To link multiple layers together, select one of them, and then click in the link indicator on all the layers you want to link to it. The chain images will appear there. To unlink a layer, simply click in this indicator again.
You can create several such chains of connected layers. But in this case, you can get confused about which layer is connected to what. To solve this problem, you can combine layers into a set. Sets are stored in the palette in closed, so you don't even see the names of the layers that make them up, just the name of the set. By clicking on the name of a set, you select the entire set. Then you can treat it like a layer. And only when it becomes necessary to change something in one of its layers, you expand the set and already deal with the individual layers.
To combine related layers into a set, select one of them and execute the “Set layer from related” command in the “Layer” “New” menu.
To align objects on linked layers, select one of those layers and select Align Linked Layers from the Layer menu.
Duplicating layers and sets.
Layers and layer sets can be duplicated within the same document and copied into other documents. To duplicate, select the “Duplicate Layer” command from the “Layer” menu. In the Documents dialog box, you can choose which document to duplicate into or select new document. In the How box, enter a name for the new layer.
More quick way Duplicating a layer or set in the same document without giving it a name, simply drag the layer name onto the create new layer button in the Layers palette.
Merging layers.
Adding each layer increases the file size. Therefore, after some layers have become unnecessary, you need to merge them into one layer or delete them.
You can use different methods to combine layers.
To merge a layer with the bottom one, just select the “Merge with Bottom” command in the “Layer” menu.
To merge multiple layers into one, you first need to link them and make sure they are all visible. Then execute the “Merge Related” command from the “Layer” menu. You can also merge all layers included in one set. To do this, just click on the name of the set and execute the “Merge set to layer” command.
Also in the “Layer” menu there is a “Merge Visible” command, which combines all visible layers into one layer.
Setting layer effects.
To set effects, only one, but very large dialog box is used. Each of its tabs is designed to work with the attributes of one effect. Tabs are listed in the list on the left, and the active one is highlighted. To set an effect, just check the box next to its name in the list. To proceed to editing the effect, you need to click on the desired list item.
To open the effects window, you need to select the desired layer and select “Layer Style” from the “Layer” menu or click the button at the bottom of the layers palette and select an effect from the drop-down list.
More details about the effects are discussed in Appendix 3.
The tool is used to transform the size and shape of an image. The tool can be activated using the command Editing > Free Transform (Edit > Free Transform) or using hotkeys Ctrl+T. A transformation frame with square markers will appear around the image.
By selecting the Free Transform tool, you can rotate, enlarge, reduce, display in perspective, distort, tilt, and flip the image vertically and horizontally. Transformation can be applied both to the whole image and to a separately selected part of the image or object. Let's look at the transformation tool in more detail.
Tool settings panel.
Just like any other Photoshop tool Free Transform has its own settings panel.
In parameter group 1, you can change the position of the central marker (by clicking on one of the white squares on the tool icon), around which the transformation frame with the image rotates.
In group 2 you can set the exact transformation scale in width and height. If the button in the form of a chain is pressed, changes will occur while maintaining the proportions of the image.
In parameter group 3 you can set the image rotation angle. If you enter a positive angle value, the image will rotate clockwise, if you enter a negative angle, it will rotate counterclockwise.
In group 4 you can tilt the image by specified angle in horizontal and vertical planes.
Working with the tool.
1. To resize the image, drag one of the markers located around the perimeter of the transformation frame.
2. To resize the image while maintaining the proportions, hold down the key Shift and drag one of the corner handles.
3. To rotate the image around the center point, move the cursor outside the frame (the cursor will appear as a curved arrow in two directions) and move in the direction of rotation. You can change the coordinates of the rotation axis by moving the center point to the desired location.
4. To hide the frame and see your changes better, click Ctrl+H(press again and the frame will appear again).
5. To apply the transformation and finish working with the tool, click Shift.
Transformation.
By placing the cursor inside the transformation frame and clicking right button mouse, a submenu will open Transform.
1. Scale. Resize an image or selected object. We discussed this function above (working with the tool).
2. Rotate. Rotate the image around a central point. You can change the coordinates of the rotation axis by moving the center point to the desired location.
3. Skew. Tilts the image horizontally or vertically. Move the cursor to the side transformation frame and it will turn white and an arrow will appear next to it, right-click and drag the frame to the side to tilt the image. The sides will remain parallel, but the angles of the image will change. If you hold down while resizing Ctrl+Alt, the center point of the transform frame will remain in place, but the corners will change position.
4. Distortion. Curves the image in any direction. The corners move independently of each other. When a key is pressed Alt, the central point remains in place, and all distortions occur around it. The function is well suited if you need to stretch or create a perspective distortion of an object.
5. Perspective. If you want to create the impression that an object is located at some distance, the Perspective command will help you. Using this command is intuitive. When you drag a corner marker, the opposite marker moves to reverse direction. In other words, he behaves like mirror reflection draggable marker. The difference between the Distort and Perspective commands is that the former applies only to one edge of the object, while Perspective automatically changes the location of two handles when you drag only one of them.
6. Warp. This feature has been available since CS2. When you select this function, a grid appears on the object. By clicking on any point of the grid and dragging the mouse, we can deform objects randomly. For example, overlaying an image on objects.
Everything is clear with the following functions, I will only give their translation:
7. Rotate 180°.
8. Rotate 90° CW.
9. Rotate 90° CCW.
10. Flip Horizontal.
11. Flip Vertical.
Tool hotkeys.
1. Scaling relative to the center point: Alt + drag corner handle.
2. Symmetrical image tilt: Ctrl + Alt + drag side handle.
3. Image distortion: Ctrl + drag side handle.
4. Image distortion along a certain axis: Ctrl + Shift + drag side handle.
5. Perspective: Ctrl + Shift + Alt + drag side handle.
I hope now you can easily transform any image, separate object or selected area.
- Move a layer to Adobe editor Photoshop
To move the entire layer or its fragment, use the tool Move from the Toolbar.
So, to move a layer you need to do the following:
- Step 1. If you need to move not the entire layer, but only some of it fragment, then use any selection tool and select a fragment of the layer.
- Step 2. Select a tool from the Toolbar Move.
- Step 3. Move the cursors inside the selection to move a fragment or to any point on the layer to move the entire layer.
- Step 4: Perform drag and drop. To do this, click left button mouse and, while continuing to hold the button pressed, move the mouse cursor.
- Converting a Layer in Adobe Photoshop
To transform a layer or its selection, you can use one of the commands in the submenu Edit - Transform.
These include following commands: Scale, Rotate, Skew, Distort, Perspective, Rotate 180°, Rotate 90° CW, Rotate 90° CCW, Flip Horizontal, Flip Vertical.
Or you can use the command Free Transform on the menu Edit, which will allow you to perform all these transformations in one operation. After choosing a team Edit - Free Transform the layer or layer selection will be surrounded by a border with eight handles, and the Options panel will display whole line parameters whose values can be set directly in the Options panel.
Scale- to scale the image inside the area you need to drag one of the eight square markers. To perform proportional scaling, you must drag the corner handle while holding down Shift key. Or you can directly set values for the parameters in the Options panel W And H as a percentage of original size. In order for the dimensions to change proportionally, you need to click on the link icon, which is located between the parameter values W And H.
Flip- to flip the image you need to move one of the markers beyond the marker opposite it. If, for example, you drag the left marker to the right of the right marker, the image will rotate horizontally. Although, if you only need to flip the image, it’s easier to use the Flip Horizontal and Flip Vertical commands from the Edit - Transform menu.
Rotate- to rotate the image, you need to move the mouse cursor to the corner marker so that the mouse cursor takes the form of a rounded double-sided arrow, press the left mouse button and, while continuing to hold the button pressed, drag the cursor. In the Options panel, you can set the rotation angle using the Rotate parameter.
Skew- to bevel an image, you must drag the side, top or bottom handle while holding down the Ctrl key on Windows or Command on Macintosh. In the Options panel, the bevel is set using the H and V parameters.
Distort- The image can be distorted by dragging the corner handle while holding down Ctrl on Windows or Command on Macintosh.
Perspective- to create a perspective, you need to drag the corner marker while pressing Ctrl keys+ Shift on Windows or Command + Shift on Macintosh. If you want to move two points simultaneously, then drag the corner handle while holding down the Ctrl, Alt and Shift keys on Windows or Command, Option and Shift on the Macintosh.
To accept the transformation you must click Enter key on Windows (Return on Macintosh) or double-click inside the area.
You can also click the button in the Options panel.To cancel the conversion, press the Esc key or click the button on the Options panel.
