Puppet Warp is a useful Photoshop tool that lets you distort the image by dragging points. You can use it for shaping hair, changing the shape of objects, and even repositioning body parts in an image. Jesus Ramirez from Photoshop Training Channel shows you how to master this tool and all it has to offer in only a couple of minutes. Even if you’ve worked with the Puppet Warp before, you will discover some useful tricks to make the best of this tool.
In his tutorial, Jesus works with two layers and he places a jumping man in a garage. He uses Puppet Warp to reposition his limbs and head and make the jump look completely different.
Getting started
When you’ve selected your layer, go to Edit> Puppet Warp. You’ll have the mesh visible over the object, but you can turn it off by clicking inside the “Show Mesh” checkbox.
Then, add pins to the parts you want to move. Click on the pin and drag to distort the pixels. It takes some practice, but you can always delete the pins, add new ones and change positions in order to get the best results.
If you want to remove a pin, right-click on it and select “Delete”. Another way is to hold Alt/Option key and click on the pin to delete it. When you’re done with the adjustments, you can tap the checkmark to accept the changes, or just press Enter. You’ll see the Puppet Warp in the Layers panel, so you can always double-click on it to adjust the changes further.
Changing pin depth
In Jesus’ photo, he can choose whether he wants the right leg to be in front or behind the left one. He changes it by clicking on the pin, and then on the “Move Forward” icon.
Fine tuning
You can fine-tune the rotation by clicking on the pin and going to the Rotate info box. If you press Up and Down arrow keys, you’ll fine tune the mesh and it will rotate in values one by one. If you hold down the Shift key and press Up and Down arrows, you will adjust the rotation in greater values, ten by ten. Another way for fine tuning is: go to the “Rotate” drop-down menu and select “Fixed.” Then, hold the Alt/Option key and hover near the pin you want to change. Click and drag to rotate the pin.
Selecting the pins
You can select all or individual pins with a couple of shortcuts. If you press Ctrl/Cmd + A, you will select all pins. Pressing Ctrl/Cmd + D deselects them all. If you want to make the selection manually, click on a single pin, and then hold the Shift key and add individual pins to the selection.
Mode, Density and Expansion
You can set the mesh depending on the results you want to achieve. First, you get to select between three Modes: Rigid, Normal and Distort. “Distort” gives you a really “stretchy” mesh, while Rigid gives the opposite result. You can select “Normal” for the optimal results.
Density specifies the spacing of the mesh, i.e. the number of points. You can select between Fewer points, Normal and More points. “More points” feature gives you more precise results, but it increases the processing time.
Expansion expands or contracts the outer edges of the mesh. When you increase it, the outer edge will be bigger. You can even go to the negative value, and you’ll see the mesh and your subject shrink. To cancel all the changes you’ve made to the Puppet Warp, just press Esc.
I’ve just recently started playing with Puppet Warp, and it takes some time to get accustomed to it. My boyfriend uses it when he needs to turn something shaped as an imperfect circle into a perfect one, so it’s another of the possible uses. Anyway, if you are into photo manipulation, you will definitely find the uses for this tool and apply it to your photographic creations and digital art. [How To Use The Puppet Warp in Photoshop – Photo Manipulation Tutorial | Photoshop Training Channel]
