I one time saw...

One of the template/clothing/skin gurus say that the Liquify filter in Photoshop was invaluable for...something. Looking at the templates, I might guess that it's somehow related to the way the skin and clothing stretch over the av when mapped onto it inworld, but I'm wondering if there's a trick that goes with the templates to make it easy to use the Liquify filter to its maximum potential.

Thanks for any tips.

No tricks, just practice When photosourcing, the liquify filter is invaluable for warping the source material to fit the template. When painting by hand, liquify is great for nudging things around to fix details that don't correctly match across the seams.

Hey, thanks for the info, Chip. I'd thought it might be something like that ... but wouldn't it be sweet if there was a way to set up the grid of the liquify filter to match the template grid (since you can save as a liquify.file) . Seems like that should be possible some way, but I haven't quite grasped how yet.

It wouldn't be all that useful unless what you were warping was the same every time

But it always wraps to the foot, right? So it seems like if you had the mesh matched to the template, it'd always wrap the right way to cover the foot the way you'd expect it to.

If you happen to have CS2, it's even easier than that.

Use the Warp transformation on a Smart Object, and just double click on the smart object to open it, and paste in a different picture to change what's on the map.

In other words, take the picture you have ready of the toe of a shoe (for instance) and make it into a Smart Object. Then Transform, and click the Warp button. Shape the toe so it conforms to the foot on the map, and save.

When you want to make another shoe, double click that Toe Smart Object, and it will open a file with that toe. Paste your new toe on top of it, which will make another layer. Match the two of them up, so that the same parts are in exactly the same place, delete the old layer, and Save.

The old toe will be instantly replaced, in the image, with the new one!

How easy does it get?

And yes, the toe will always map to the toe; but the saved Liquify filter will match anything that is in the same place in the document to that toe; not necessarily the new toe you've drawn. If the new toe isn't exactly the same size, and in exactly the same position relative to the top left corner of the document, it won't be placed correctly.

Which is where the Warp is easier, because you can match 'em up more easily.

Hope this helps!

Hey hey, another (easier) way to do it! Thanks for the help, Robin.