Mesh warping

Mesh warping lets you distort specific areas of your image without affecting other areas. It can be used for dramatic warping effects or for more subtle focused retouching of facial features.

Before
After
Warping an image

About mesh warping

The Mesh Warp Tool and Mesh Warp live filter each provide a flexible mesh grid which can warp your image by repositioning the grid's lines, nodes, and patches; underlying pixels are transformed under the line, node or patch. The extent of warping you want to carry out is governed by the complexity of the grid.

You'll initially start with a mesh grid without lines, but adding your own lines and nodes lets you warp with ease. Position lines adjacent to areas in your image that you want to apply warping to.

Mesh Warp Tool To create a mesh:
  1. Do one of the following:
    • To apply a destructive mesh warp, from the Tools panel on the left, click the Mesh Warp Tool.
    • To apply a non-destructive mesh warp, select Layer>New Live Filter Layer>Distort>Mesh Warp.
  2. Double-click on the edge of the mesh grid—the top edge gives a vertical line; a side edge gives a horizontal line.
  3. Repeat for as many lines as you need.
To add nodes to the grid:
To select multiple nodes in the grid:

Do one of the following:

To apply warping:
  1. (Optional) On the context toolbar, use the Mode option to manipulate just the grid ('Source') or both grid and image simultaneously ('Destination').
  2. Drag a node, a node's corner handle, line or patch. Patch warping is achieved by clicking in an area contained by mesh lines and dragging the circle—this warps the entire area.
  3. Select Apply or press .

SEE ALSO: