805 Applying distortions as Smart Filters

In the meantime, I'm going to show you how to augment that technique by applying Photoshop's old school Distort filters so that we can see that we have a Smart Object with one dynamic filter applied to it, Radial Blur. Alright, we're going to add to that by going up to the Filter menu, choosing Distort, and then of course, you can play around with any of the filters you like. But the one we'll be applying is ZigZag. Now, notice that the ZigZag filter has a preview inside of it that's actually pretty darn accurate. So I've gone ahead and zoomed out by clicking on this minus icon. You can zoom in by clicking on a plus. And so notice if I were to increase the Amount value that the center's going to start bending in on itself like so. We can also increase a number of ridges, and we get this kind of 3D relief pattern over here in the bottom right-hand corner. You also have other styles, such as a round center, for example. And so, if I were to crank the Amount value up to 90, let's say, then I'll just take the Ridges value up to 10, what we're seeing inside of this preview is pretty accurate. Now, we're not previewing the effect out here in the Image window. If you want to do that, then you actually have to apply the filter by clicking OK. And you can see that we get a pretty wild effect. It doesn't happen to be what I want, however, which is so great that I can modify the effects of my Smart Filter just by double-clicking on the word ZigZag here inside the Layers panel. And that is going to once again, bring back that dialog box. I'm going to take the Amount down to 10. I am looking for a Ridges value of 10, but I want to stick with the default style which is Pond Ripples. And the I'll go ahead and click OK in order to apply that effect. And you can see that it makes a big difference, But for now, I'm going to go ahead and click OK to accept that effect. And then, you can drag this center to a different location if you'd like, such as right about there, or I'll just leave it up at a different location. Notice how scary this hole is without the highlight. But you can also, by the way, at least in the newer versions of Photoshop CC, you can click on this Reset Alignment button, and that's going to go ahead and center that highlight at which point, go ahead and click OK to accept the effect. It's pretty bright right now, and that's partially a function of this topmost Gradient layer right here. Notice if I turn it off, the hole darkens a bit, and when I turn it back on, it brightens up. In any case, that's going to do it for now. I'll just go ahead and press Shift + F in order to switch to the Full Screen mode. And then I'll zoom on in and just so you can see how much we were able to accomplish with so little effort, this is the before version of the artwork, and this is the after version. Thanks to your ability to apply distortions this editable Smart Filters here inside Photoshop. Okay, so like usual I got half the way there, which is why if you're a member of LinkedIn Learning, I have a followup movie in which we complete the project by combining dynamic distortions with Blend modes to create this mind-altering piece of artwork. I shouldn't show it to you for too long. You could get hooked. If you're looking forward to next week, new topic, I'll show you how to draw a seamlessly repeating pattern that I'm calling 24-Sided Stars Surrounded By 12-Sided Voids, pretty catchy, in Adobe Illustrator. Deke's Techniques, each and every week! You can't not watch, you're hooked.