Technical Slop

Cannify with Displace

This is how to Cannify with Displace. This is the goal that I had set for myself that fine spring day: cannify a texture with Displace. Since I couldn't do it right away, I set upon my Displace journey. I read everything I could on the subject and did *tons* of experimenting.

One day the final piece fell into place in the form of Curves (ctrl + m). Before then I actually said something like, "I still need to get over the linearness of Gradients." Almost prophetic, eh?

After getting to know how Curves and Gradients can be used effectively in a D-Map, I sat down to cannify a texture. I had it done in 15 minutes. I would almost call it over-kill.

So now I'm left with all this knowledge on How to Build a Better D-Map, and I'm passing the savings on to you. I'm such a nice guy.

Okay, so let's begin.

Time to add a Curves Adjustment Layer. In that Curves Ad-Layer, modifications will be made only to the Red and Green channels.

The curve in the Red channel will take care of the Squish Factor. (I'm working on writing a tutorial to explain this.)

The curve in the Green channel will take care of the vertical profile, so to speak. See Curve It Skew for more details. The rest of that tutorial is still under construction, so it is a bit broken.

This is what the D-Map now looks like. Save that bad boy and let's get busy.

Now, I'm using that boy with all the Alpha channels and all that. However, I'm not going to be showing all that jazz. I'm not even going to be finishing these examples. Instead, just some quick examples of what this D-Map does.

Here is what it does with
Horizontal: 30%
Vertical: -25%

Not bad. A little too much Squish Factor (expanding) in the middle, but that can be a good thing.

Here is what it does with
Horizontal: -30%
Vertical: -25%

Notice that Horizontal is negative and how it affects Squish Factor in this example. Spiffy!

As if that weren't enough, here is fiddle example.

For this, I went back to the D-Map and messed with the Curve in the Red channel. Saved it and Displaced again. Very interesting. Almost like a swizel stick. If I had taken the time to cut & paste the Red channel into the target, then I could have used that for a better lighting effect. Using the D-Map, or parts of it, for lighting effects can go a long way in suggesting depth.

Chances are that you've noticed that the Veritical motion is really that great. I know I wasn't happy with it. So I did a little more experimenting.

In this one, I messed with the Red channel again. Then, after I ran Displace, I used Spherize on it with Horizontal Only.

Woo! Look at that! Much better. Nothing like fiddling and mixing ideas and techniques. I don't know about you, but I would call it very cool.

As if that weren't enough, there is more to this.