Displaced Capes by dperceful

I seem to have Displaced my cape, has anyone seen it?

Application: Photoshop

Level of Difficulty: Working knowledge of Photoshop (tools are not explained in depth)

If you haven't looked at B's tutorial on capes...please take a moment to head over there and check it out. That way is really the best way to make a cape, as it offers you more control over the flow of your cape (it is the same method I use). With that said, maybe you don't have the time or your cape is not a major element (perhaps it's for a background character) or...well I'm running out of other things to say. What I'm going to show you is not just for a cape, it can also be used to conform a logo to a suit, we will be using a technique called Displacement.

Here we go.

I'm going to use a Superman logo as my cape. Any basic shape works, everything we are doing here can be applied to any element you wish to displace.

So I start out making a copy of my logo (Ctrl+ J), and name the new logo layer Cape. I need a little extra room to work so I'm going to extend out my canvas a touch, Image>Canvas Size. Now if you were working on something within an existing project, you wouldn't have to do that....again, this is an example on how to use the displacement method to achieve a flowing cape.

So I've redone my canvas size, now I'm going to put a layer of white between the 2 logos. I'm going to name that new layer Waves. Also drop the opacity of Cape layer, you want to be able to see what your doing for this next step. Now with a soft edge brush I'm going to paint some black waves on the Waves layer. You want it to be kind of flowing and wavy so keep that in mind when painting. Also notice that I changed my brush size and added some little waves in some areas, not necessary...but something you can do. Now our waves our a little too much, so we are going to use the Gaussian Blur filter (Filters>Blur>Gaussian Blur) to knock them down a little. You want a setting that doesn't totally wash out the wavy lines, but also you don't to leave it too sharp....so this is one of those areas that is going to be on what you think looks best.

Okay once you have blurred we are going to copy our Waves layer into a new document. With the Waves layer active press Ctrl+A to select all, now copy (Ctrl+C) the entire selection. Press Ctrl+N (New Document) and create a new document...don't worry it will automatically create itself at the right size. Now paste (Ctrl+V) your selection into the new document. Now flatten the image (Layer>Flatten Image) and set it's image mode to greyscale (Image>Mode>Greyscale). Now save the document as waves.psd, it is very important you save it as a .PSD file because the Displacement filter only reads maps in *.psd format (Photoshop's native format). You can close out this new file you have created once you saved it, we will be going back to finish off the cape.

Congrats, you have just made a Displacement Map. We will use the data from the map we just created to distort our logo and make it wave.

First thing I am going to do is make a copy (Ctrl+J)of our Cape layer, since I am going to be doing some distortion to the image, I want a backup just in case. I place the copy above the Waves layer, and now it's time to apply our Displacement Map. With the Cape Copy layer active I go to Filters, Distort, Displace. Once you click OK you will need to browse to the map you created (waves.psd if you names it like mine), once you do that it will apply the map. Below you can see my settings and the end result. Sometimes you might use smaller or larger numbers, it usually depends on your image.

Now that we have the image distorted per our map, we need to add some highlights and shadows. Simple. Remember our Waves layer, move it above the Cape Copy layer and set the layer mode to Hard Light. That takes care of our highlights, to add some shadows, make a copy of the Waves layer and set it's layer mode to Multiply. You might find that the highlights and shadows are too rich, if so do what I did and apply a low Gaussian Blur to both of the Waves layers. In the image on the far right you can see I've cut out the shape of the cape on the Waves layers and added a layer of black to get a good look at the cape.

Congrats you are done. This method can be applied to all sorts of things not just capes. Conforming a texture to an object, bingo...here you go. Capes, yes this will handle that. Need to make some digital curtains...well yeah you could do that to.

I will say if you are using this method to create a cape, this is not the only option out there. B's tutorial proves that, and his method is one that many artists use. This is just another way to get to the final result.

That about covers it. Thanks for taking the time to try out this tutorial. If you have any questions look me up on the forum boards and send me a private message, I will be happy to get back with you.