Stretching a Photo in Illustrator
Submitted by deke on 20 August 2008 - 12:57am.
dekePod Episode 004: Photoshop, Photoshop, Photoshop. Don't you sometimes get sick of Photoshop? Me neither, but still, it's time for a change. In this episode, we stop obsessing about Photoshop (uh, kinda) and start obsessing about Illustrator. Why Illustrator? Well, first, the program rocks. Second, it provides something Photoshop doesn't: An expertly rendered envelope-style distortion function that lets you--get this--transform a horizontal photograph into a vertical one without harming the foreground image. Here's the official marketing description:
Have you ever wanted to stretch a photo's background but leave the foreground unchanged? Or turn a horizontal photo into a vertical one without making a mess of it? You can't do it in Photoshop CS3, but you can in its companion program, Adobe Illustrator. Deke shows you how in a way that'll make you so happy, you'll think you're on drugs. And wait till you see the new look! Deke is dreamy.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the new look. In this latest dekePod, I could pass for a real human being. (Just effects, of course. I'm still a wooden puppet.) If you're interested in downloading this delightful humanizing, pro-happy video, try one of these links:
- For a high-quality QuickTime movie, right-click here and choose Save Target or Download Link or the equivalent.
- For an M4V file that you can play on an iPod, right-click here and choose one of those same commands.
- Or you can subscribe to dekePod via RSS or iTunes.
You can also check out the page at my book publisher O'Reilly Media.
This is a fairly elaborate technique. Which is why I promise to share more in my weekly dekeStuff column, coming at you next Monday, every Mondays, and sometimes more frequently than that. (Or less.) Take care, and don't let the vectors stretch you!
. Tagged with:
Comments
Really appreciate this post.
It’s hard to sort the good from the bad sometimes, but I think you’ve nailed it!
a real wood
By the way nice video. I saw most of its content in Illustrator cs4 one-one-one series but there was some extra on this film. My question isn't about this video thought.
I would want to know how to imitate the shape of the wood. I have been trying to make a real looking log or snag but the final result wasn't what I wanted. If somebody knows how to do that in Illustrator or Photoshop I would be so happy. If there is some help (that I haven't noticed) in Illustrator cs4 one-one-one series from Deke and would point the chapter, that would also help. I know my question can be very wide but I would just want to know a good working method. I have seen so awesome shapes and I envy them. :(
If there is help in Deke's Photoshop cs4 one-one one series, please let me know. I am going to buy those DVDs at some point, for sure.
Ps. I don't want to take the shape from photo and attach it, its not what I want.
Thanks for your help.
I found a way to get a really nice effect. :P I am pleased now.
Thank you, Deke
I'm a photo retoucher and many of my clients ask me to change a photo background or to make a vertical photo from a horisontal one. So your Illustrator lesson was very helpful. This technique helps me to save a lot of time.
----------------------------------
Marta Miles
Very informative
Very informative video.
Thank you deke.
24 inch bar stools
web hosting
Marvellous Showman
This man is genius of marketing. I love his videos because He uses a lot of funny photos.
Da Pods
Just want to say thanks for being a photoshop freak, i love the style of the pods, it frees the mind in the most scariest of ways (don't worry nothing unnatural happened).
Watermark
Hi Deke..
Shall we include watermark in the images(.jpg) by using Photoshop CS4 and is there any scripts to do something like that..Please help me out of this..
sarvanr
Re:
It's good to see that there isn't one, because I just assumed I didn't know where the heck it was. Love the podcast, definitely lots of stuff going on there. I'm guessing your not a right-winger ha ha.
______________________
funny and informative!
Thanks for the info.
I'm in desperate need of this kind of information PLUS i have no money for an illustrator book.
Cheers and please keep it up.
INdesign CS$ one on one
Just got the CS4 suite and the book 'Indesign CS4 one on one'. I am trying to install the disc and having trouble installing the dekekeys keyboard shortcuts.
I am using vista sp1. I get down to the \en_us but then there is no InDesign Shortcut Sets.
there are three folders. 1. composite font > empty 2. Scripts > empty 3. workspace > has three files a. advanced_current workspace.xml b. essentials_current workspace.xml c. getting started_current workspace.xml
please advise.
thanks,
Flippin' spirals
Hey Deke,
Any way to flip a spiral tool on-the-fly from clockwise to counter-clockwise and vice-versa?
Also, for future tutorials (this one drove me nutz 'till I figured it out an hour later), you might want to note that for those of us on Wacom Tablets, there is a bug in Illustrator when trying to change on-the-fly values for spiral tool, arc tool, rectangular grid and polar grid tools, as well as various polygon tools (star tool, etc...): when an arrow key is pressed while the Wacom mouse is on the tablet, the values increase/decrease by dozens at once. The same happens with a regular mouse, but only when you drag the mouse while pressing an arrow key.
Perhaps it may be worth a mention on how to avoid it in future tutorials - up to you. I'll also send a word to Adobe team.
That's on Illustrator CS3, Vista 64, with a Wacom Intuos 3, but something tells me it's probably on other configurations as well.
Thought you'd like to pass along before someone passes out.
Cheers!
-iVan
P.S. Hope the Martini Hour question I sent today is not taken the wrong way; I had a Photoshop question and thought I'd have some fun with a new audio editing program I just got recently.
Horizontal vertical rotation
Hello Deke,
Do you prefer to turn the horizontal image into vertical with
Illustrator or do you rather use use picture award scale. I've seen
you use both on same picture and as you said Adobe paid good money for
it but for you as a pro, is it really what does the job???
Yes, but no, but yes
Here's the story:
I and Colleen (who runs teleprompter) and a few others finished recording this episode of dekePod on Monday, June 9. That's how long ago some of these movies happened. On Tuesday, June 10, we took off for Adobe offices in San Jose, where John Nack and Bryan O'Neil Hughes proceeded to show us content-aware scaling.
Which is when I started to beat my head against the table. B/c they were showing me that feature that made obsolete the dekePod I had recorded less than 24 hours earlier.
But in the clear light of day, not so much. CS4's content-aware scaling function does a great job of automating the stretching process. But its controls are scarce and you are ultimately at its disposal. Which means, when it works its works well. And when it doesn't it fails miserably.
By comparison, Illustrator's envelope distortion gives you all the controls you could possibly want. But it takes some effort to pull off.
So I ask you, which would you prefer? Automation with unexpected results? Or control with laborious process?
Me, I'll always say "both!"
I prefer control myself, and
I prefer control myself, and it's definitely a worthy trick to know especially if you don't have access to Photoshop CS4. That's kind of funny that CS4 released content aware scaling just the day after you filmed this tutorial. Anyway nice tut, as well as entertaining. I learned something that I'll surely find a use for even if there's a different way of doing it.
Josh
Transform Selection
excuse me if I missed something, but why couldn't I just transform a selection inside of photoshop instead of sending the photo to illustrator?
I want to be like Deke
Deke,
I just posted my first video on my website: http://www.photographyandthemac.com It's from the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk last week. I tried to think, what would Deke do? OK, I don't really have the budget for a high class movie.
I think my next one will be, "Finding Deke in Vegas." Sounds better than finding Deke at Photoshop World.
Thanks for the great work.
Robert
Stretching a Photo in Illustrator
Stretching a Photo in Illustrator (and Elsewhere). The things you see here in dekeStuff are accessible only to registered users. Sign up for a free account. ...Wii Fit
Nice work!
These are the first images I've seen from any of the walks. (Been kinda in a bubble here.)
We don't have the budget for high class movies, either. My guys are just magicians.
;-)
Love it!
I started out with Illustrator, and am only really getting into photoshop now, so it's good to see some illustrator stuff that PS can't do. I've attempted to mess with some text in PS using the warp text function, and I longed for a little envelope filter. It's good to see that there isn't one, because I just assumed I didn't know where the heck it was. Love the podcast, definitely lots of stuff going on there. I'm guessing your not a right-winger ha ha.
Keep 'em coming!
-Stuart
Who needs drugs?
Honestly, Deke, who needs drugs when I've got you?
Your videos are whacked-out, entertaining, and educational. And your command of language is impressive.
Thanks for all the great info you have provided me through the years. Your Sharpening in Photoshop CS3 video techniques have made my pictures immeasurably better.
So, do you really talk like that in your daily life? Must be interesting for the wife and kids. Kinda reminds me of Robin Williams back in the coked-up, early days of his career. LOL
Gotta go take a Xanax now—I just finished watching your latest DekePOD.
Cheers,
Karl-Franz
http://karlfranz.com
Sadly, that dekePod guy
Is nothing like me. In real life, I sport a pencil-thin mustache, I have tape on my glasses (even tho they're not broken), my thorax is emerald in color and engorged with larvae, and I have a pumpkin for a head.
But you'll recognize me b/c I'm the one pushing a grocery cart full of Adobe products down Sunset Blvd.
Look for me. I have a cup. (This deke.com thing is a money pit.)
I prefer control myself, and
I prefer control myself, and it's definitely a worthy trick to know especially if you don't have access to Photoshop CS4. That's kind of funny that CS4 released content aware scaling just the day after you filmed this tutorial. Anyway nice tut, as well as entertaining. I learned something that I'll surely find a use for even if there's a different way of doing it.
-----------
film izle Oyun
I like the description
I like Deke's description of himself - is that after you have used photoshop to alter what you look like? :)
Cheers,
Jimmi.
Fun..
Need little trick.... great podcast.. thanks for the laugh.
Thnx for the Integration Goodness
Now that is cool. I appreciate the integration stuff.... lookin forward to all the gory details on Monday.
If I may add to the " Illustrator can do what Photoshop can't " list, I like to use Illustrator to process and unlock the power of Open Type font text used in Photoshop (because of the marvelous Open Type pallettes/panels found within Illustrator). I wonder how much can be added to such a list.
Keep on keeping on :-)
Thomas
Thomas Benner
Austin, Texas
http://www.masteradobe.com
p.s. I found no discussion of Open Type in your terrific Photoshop CS3 1 on 1 book (checked the Index and Lesson 10 and, yes, I see you used Adobe Caslon Pro). I am curious as to whether it appears in the new Illustrator 1 on 1 book similar to what you did in lesson 3 of your InDesign CS3 1 on 1... there's lotsa Open Type goodness there..... guess I'll have to wait and see.
no singing?!?!
Great stuff! I actually had a suggestion regarding what can you (or anyone) do with a photo in Illustrator in my comment that received the "Self-imposed censorship" cut. Some of it's on my blog here http://www.campphotoshop.com/Moving-from-Ringling-Bros-to+Cirque-du-Soleil so I guess it's not totally gone. You're way ahead of me on the whole Illustrator can do something Photoshop can't creative-turn-the-world upside-down thinking.
I missing the rap singing from Pilot #2. You talk so damn fast that you should just sing rap this stuff anyway. Photoshop tips mixed with a bunch of other crap must be hard-cross-wired in your head.
One question, did I miss the joke that related to Rush Limbaugh's picture or are you making a political statement? I think it was a oxycontin reference? Or viagra?
Roger
Head Camp Counselor
Camp Photoshop
http://www.campphotoshop.com
Oh, I have a list...
You know me -- forever standing up for Illustrator. Start reading here....
http://rwillustrator.blogspot.com/2007/10/oh-snap-you-did-not-just-say-that.html
and then read here....
http://rwillustrator.blogspot.com/2007/10/illustrator-vs-indesign-smackdown-oh.html
Mordy Golding
http://rwillustrator.blogspot.com
The RL photo
Was a gag that the Flying Moose guys threw in at the last minute that made me laugh water out my nose. Rush wasn't busted on anti-depressants or uppers or anything that quite fit the logic I had constructed, so after cleaning up my screen, I vacillated on whether it made good humorous sense. There's the obvious hypocrisy of him railing against illegally acquired drugs, and then developing an addiction and acquiring drugs illegally, and then returning to railing against illegally acquired drugs. And in that regard he's a kind of self-appointed pro-drug/anti-drug poster boy. Then I thought, he's a self-appointed expert as well, so there's an nice layer of me mocking myself for being a self-appointed expert, right after setting myself up as being a pro-drug and anti-drug poster boy.
Then I decided the image made me laugh water out my nose and I should stop overthinking it. So there he is.
water out of the nose ...
OK, water out of the nose ... that's a good reason.
Roger
Head Camp Counselor
Camp Photoshop
http://www.campphotoshop.com
I can see clearly....
I can see clearly now, but unfortunately not all the colors come through.
The monitor battle goes on. I need your help, gang.
Which is the best monitor for serious color correcting, a CRT or LCD? We have both in our studio, and I have to be honest: the Apple Cinema is a thing of beauty, as far at the extra workspace goes, and the ease of eyestrain. But trying to get it to display certain colors (most notably F5F5F5), even after calibrating to within an inch of its life, is an exercise in futility.
Maybe it's just me, but my outdated, energy sucking, eye straining, multiple resolutions, clunky old LaCie ElectronBlue IV is still one of the best displays for the money. Geez, do I sound bias or what?
Has anybody out there found a LCD comparable to the color display on a CRT?
Thanks,
steve_zimmer