Bending pictures with the distort filters in Paint by Zaweba
From ripples and twirls to little planets, page curls and repeating tiles, a tour of what the distort filters in Paint by Zaweba can do.
Distortion filters move pixels around rather than changing their colour. That makes them good for two quite different jobs: playful effects that bend a photo into something new, and practical tricks such as making a texture tile without joins or turning a panorama into a little planet. Paint by Zaweba has a large Distort set, and this tour groups them by what people actually use them for.
Water, glass and ripples
Ripple, Ocean Ripple and Wave add wavy distortion, from a gentle shimmer to rolling waves. They are the obvious choice for reflections: duplicate a scene, flip it below the horizon, and ripple it so it looks like water. Glass makes a picture look as if it is seen through textured glass, good for privacy panels behind text. ZigZag makes rings like a stone dropped in a pond.
Twisting and bulging
Twirl spins the centre of the picture into a swirl. Pinch squeezes towards the centre, Bulge and Spherise push outwards, as if the picture were wrapped on a ball. Small amounts of Pinch or Bulge on a selection can subtly reshape things, while big amounts give comic, funhouse-mirror results. Shear bends the picture along a curve you set, which is a quick way to make a flag ripple or a banner bend.
Mapping and projection
Polar Coordinates converts between straight and circular layouts. Run it on a panorama and the horizon wraps into a circle. Panorama Projection does a similar job more fully, with the little planet effect, where a 360 degree view becomes a tiny round world. Map to Object wraps a picture onto a basic form. Displace by Map moves pixels based on the brightness of another image, which is how you make a logo follow the folds of a T-shirt or the texture of a brick wall: the displacement map tells each pixel how far to move.
Patterns and repeats
Kaleidoscope and Mirror build symmetrical patterns from any picture, great for backgrounds and abstract art. There is also a filter that blends the edges of a picture so it tiles without visible joins, the key step in making textures for web backgrounds, fabric mock-ups or 3D models. Perspective Tile repeats the picture receding into the distance. Droste repeats the picture inside itself in a spiral, the endless picture-within-a-picture effect. Feedback repeats it in smaller copies, like a video loop.
Away from patterns, Page Curl lifts a corner of the picture as if it were paper, a friendly touch for flyers and thumbnails. There are more filters in the set than these, and they all share the same live preview dialog, so it is easy to try them one after another.
Getting the best from distortion
Work on a duplicate layer. Distortions are hard to judge in isolation, and being able to blend or mask the result helps. Many distortions look best in moderation and on part of the picture; use a selection to keep them where you want them.
When making a tiling texture, crop to a square first, run the tiling filter, then test by tiling it in a larger document. Any remaining seam will show up straight away.
For displacement on fabric or walls, blur the map slightly before using it, as a sharp map gives jagged results. And always place the design on the surface first, then displace, then set a blend mode such as Multiply so the shadows of the surface come through.
Mistakes to avoid with distortion
Distorting text that you still need to edit is one; turn the text into a copy first, or use Warp Text, which stays editable. Another is distorting a small image and then enlarging it. Distort at the final size so the pixels do not get smeared twice.
Paint by Zaweba treats every filter, including these, as one undo step, so experimenting is cheap. Try a few on a holiday photo and you will soon find the ones that suit your work.
