The Puppet Warp Tool Was Introduced in Photoshop CS5

The Puppet Warp tool was introduced in Photoshop CS5, with which this tutorial was made.
As far
as possible, this is the only tool I will discuss here, so I'm starting with an image of a Flamingo that
I've already masked, copied, and added a solid background layer.
The selected layer can be changed to a Smart Object prior to using the Puppet Warp tool, to nondestructively distort the image. I haven't done that here, but I wanted to mention it as something to
consider, depending on the situation.
Also, Puppet Warp can be used on layer and vector masks and Text, using the same methods used
on image layers here.
(click on any of the images below to open a larger version)
Photo credit: Robert Claypool
[Edited by User on 12/10/2012 7:31:40 PM]

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I'm a fan of everyone who tries.
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12oakhill said 1 year ago
Puppet Warp is a transform and distort tool, like "Warp" and "Liquify" but it has its own place in the
CS5 menu.
Go to Edit>Puppet Warp
[Edited by User on 12/9/2012 11:59:00 AM]

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The two main components of the Puppet Warp tool are "mesh" and "pins". The mesh covers the
object to be distorted, and the pins are the handles to move it with. The pins also allow the creation
of a "layer within a layer" effect, which is something unique to Puppet Warp.
As soon as Puppet Warp is applied, the mesh appears on the entire active layer (or a smaller
selection, by using any of the selection tools prior to applying Puppet Warp). First, we'll discuss the
mesh, then later discuss the pins.
(1) Here, I lowered the opacity of the Flamingo layer to 50% to make the mesh easier to see.
(2) There are a few ways to modify the mesh to alter its properties. This shows the options for
making the mesh more or less flexible, depending on the desired result. For now, we'll stay with
"Normal".

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Go to "Density" to create a mesh with more or fewer points.

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We'll use normal density on the mesh now.
To make the overall size of the mesh larger (or smaller) go to "Expansion". Click and use the slider
where the arrows indicate. This image shows a mesh expansion of 80 pixels.
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We'll use an expansion value of 2 pixels for now.
It's possible to hide the mesh completely by unchecking the next box "Show Mesh". If we uncheck it
now, though, it will just look like the original image, so I'll wait until later to work on another example
with a hidden mesh. I prefer to hide the mesh while working because it's easier to see the results of
the transformation, but the pins will still be visible.
Whether the mesh is visible or not, while in Puppet Warp mode, the cursor arrow changes
appearance to look like a push-pin.
Clicking it within the mesh will create a new pin.

Each new pin will be a yellow circle with a central black dot. This will now be the "active" pin. When
the next "new pin" point is selected, the previous pin becomes just a yellow circle and becomes an
"anchor" pin. (It is possible to change the order of the active pin within the anchors, and to have
more than one active pin, but more on that later.)
We'll start with a very simple transformation, by straightening out the Flamingo's curved neck.
In the next image, the pins were created in the numerical order shown. Pins 1 and 2 are anchors
while the transformation is applied to active pin 3, by clicking and dragging it in the direction shown
by the white arrow.
The next image shows the result. Notice that all the unanchored portions of the image are shifted
along with the active pin.

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The next three steps are similar to the last step, so I've combined them into one image.
By adding new pins and performing sequential transformations shown in the next image as 1-2-3,
we get the following result. To save the changes, click on the check mark shown in 4.

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Puppet Warp is no longer active and the mesh and pins disappear. I've turned the opacity of the
Flamingo back to 100%. It could use some cropping at the bottom and some lighting adjustments,
but we'll leave it at that and continue the tutorial.
This simple transformation could probably have been done just as well with Liquify or even Warp, so
why bother with Puppet Warp? Well, the previous exercise was just an introduction to the various
aspects of the tool itself. In the next example we'll look at something that is unique to Puppet Warp
and can't be done with any other tool (in CS5, at least) that is, the creation of a "layer within a layer"
effect.
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Pressing Alt (pc) or Option (mac) then clicking directly on a pin will delete that pin. However,
pressing Alt (Option) and clicking anywhere other than the pins will produce the "rotate pin"
mechanism around the active pin, which is shown in the image below. (I'll be working without a
visible mesh from now on.)
Clicking and dragging will cause rotation around the active pin of the unanchored parts of the
image.
To show this, the original image is turned down to 50% opacity, underlying the rotated image, which
is at full opacity. Notice that the active pin and the anchor pins are at the same positions in both
images. The unanchored parts of the image, I have rotated -76 degrees around the active pin.
The information about the rotation (red oval) changed automatically as I performed the rotation, but
it is also possible to type in a number here to get the desired rotation.

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I'll get rid of the original image and keep the rotated one. (I also changed the mesh expansion from
+2 to -1 to get rid of a dark edge.)
First, notice that by default, the bill (which was less anchored and rotated more) overlapped the
neck (which was more anchored and rotated less). Remember that this is happening on a single
layer.
Also, it is now possible to change the relative positions of the overlapping parts of the layer by using
the "Pin Depth" controls. The white arrow shows the control to make the bill overlap the neck. As I
said, this happened by default when we made the transformation, but we will need to click here to
return to this position after we have made the neck overlap the bill. And we do that by clicking on
the control shown by the red arrow.
Notice that, in this case, there are no actual pins on either part of the bill or neck that overlap.
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And now the neck overlaps the bill, and we can toggle back and forth all we want. This is the "layer
within a layer" effect. Try doing that with the Liquify tool.
Hmmmm....maybe Puppet Warp might come in handy for making ani-gifs, too.
Again, these images could benefit from some additional changes to lighting and shading, etc, but
instead, let's do something else with Puppet Warp!

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It is possible to have multiple active pins. Go to any anchor pin and press Shift-click, and it becomes
active, in addition to the already existing active pin.
Another useful shortcut is to right click on any pin to get this drop down menu for various functions.

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The Puppet Warp tool was introduced in Photoshop CS5, with which this tutorial was made.

[Edited by User on 12/10/2012 7:31:40 PM]

[Edited by User on 12/9/2012 11:59:00 AM]

[Edited by User on 12/9/2012 3:33:09 PM]

[Edited by User on 12/9/2012 5:05:42 PM]

Clicking it within the mesh will create a new pin.

[Edited by User on 12/12/2012 7:31:59 PM]

[Edited by User on 12/11/2012 7:02:53 PM]

[Edited by User on 12/10/2012 10:39:38 PM]

[Edited by User on 12/10/2012 10:51:11 PM]

[Edited by User on 12/11/2012 3:19:04 PM]

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