The Glass Distortion effect creates the kind of distortions you would see if you were looking at your image through a sheet of glass. You can make your image appear as if it is behind the pebble glass of a shower door, or you can distort your image beyond recognition.
Glass Distortion works by relocating the pixels of the image based on a displacement map. The map is created by combining displacement information from a source with a preset map type.
Before (left) and after (right) applying Glass Distortion
There are five sources of displacement information:
| • | Paper uses the information in a paper texture to displace pixels. More displacement is applied to light areas of the texture, and less to dark areas. Paper texture is good for creating the pebbled glass effect. Unless you want frosted glass, you’ll probably want to increase the scale of the paper. |
| • | 3D Brushstrokes uses the difference in luminance between the brushstrokes applied to the clone and the current document |
| • | Image Luminance uses the light and dark areas in the current document to determine the intensity of distortions |
| • | Original Luminance uses the clone source’s luminance. Use a tessellation as the clone source to produce a bumpy glass effect. |
| • | [Alpha channel] or [Layer mask] uses the luminance of a channel or layer mask. More distortion appears in the light areas of the channel. You must have a saved alpha channel or layer mask to use this source. |
| To apply glass distortion by using paper luminance |
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| 1 . | Do one of the following: |
| • | On the Brush tool  property bar, click the Grain flyout button  . |
| • | Choose Window  Media Panels Papers to open the Papers panel. |
| 2 . | Click a paper texture swatch in the Paper Textures area. |
| 3 . | To apply the effect to: |
| • | The canvas — Click the Canvas in the Layers panel. |
| • | A selection — Click a selection tool from the toolbox, and drag in the document window to select an area. |
| • | A layer — Click a layer in the Layers panel. |
| 4 . | Choose Effects Focus Glass Distortion. |
| 5 . | Choose Paper from the Using list box. |
| 6 . | Adjust any of the Glass Distortion controls. For information, see Glass Distortion controls. |
| To apply glass distortion by using 3D brushstrokes |
|
| 1 . | Open an image. |
| 2 . | Choose File Clone. |
| 3 . | Apply brushstrokes to the clone. |
| 4 . | To apply the effect to: |
| • | The canvas — Click the Canvas in the Layers panel. |
| • | A selection — Click a selection tool from the toolbox, and drag in the document window to select an area. |
| • | A layer — Click a layer in the Layers panel. |
| 5 . | Choose Effects Focus Glass Distortion. |
| 6 . | Choose 3D Brush strokes from the Using list box. |
| 7 . | Adjust any of the Glass Distortion controls. For information, see Glass Distortion controls. |
| To apply glass distortion by using image luminance |
|
| 1 . | To apply the effect to: |
| • | The canvas — Click the Canvas in the Layers panel. |
| • | A selection — Click a selection tool from the toolbox, and drag in the document window to select an area. |
| • | A layer — Click a layer in the Layers panel. |
| 2 . | Choose Effects Focus Glass Distortion. |
| 3 . | Choose Image Luminance from the Using list box. |
| 4 . | Adjust any of the Glass Distortion controls. For information, see Glass Distortion controls. |
| To apply glass distortion by using clone or pattern luminance |
|
| 1 . | Perform a task from the following table. |
|
In the Clone Source panel (Window
Clone Source), choose Embedded Image from the Source list box.In the Embed Source Image dialog box, do one of the following:
Click OK.
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| 2 . | To apply the effect to: |
| • | The canvas — Click the Canvas in the Layers panel. |
| • | A selection — Click a selection tool from the toolbox, and drag in the document window to select an area. |
| • | A layer — Click a layer in the Layers panel. |
| 3 . | Choose Effects Focus Glass Distortion. |
| 4 . | Choose Original Luminance from the Using list box. |
| 5 . | Adjust any of the Glass Distortion controls. For information, see Glass Distortion controls. |
| To apply glass distortion by using layer mask or channel luminance |
|
| 1 . | Do one of the following: |
| • | To use a layer mask, choose Window Layers, and click the layer that contains a layer mask in the Layers panel. |
| • | To use an alpha channel, choose Window Channels, and click the alpha channel in the Channels panel. |
| 2 . | To apply the effect to: |
| • | The canvas — Click the Canvas in the Layers panel. |
| • | A selection — Click a selection tool from the toolbox, and drag in the document window to select an area. |
| • | A layer — Click a layer in the Layers panel. |
| 3 . | Choose Effects Focus Glass Distortion. |
| 4 . | Choose Original Luminance from the Using list box. |
| 5 . | Adjust any of the Glass Distortion controls. For information, see Glass Distortion controls. |
| Glass Distortion controls |
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| • | Softness — controls the transitions between displaced colors |
| Increasing the Softness setting creates more intermediate steps, which produces a smoother distortion. If you experience aliasing in a glass distortion, try increasing the Softness setting. |
| • | Refraction (Map type) — displaces pixels in the same way that an optical lens bends light. This is the best map type for creating distortions that you’d expect from looking through glass. |
| • | Vector Displacement (Map type) — moves pixels in a specific direction |
| • | Angle Displacement (Map type) — moves pixels in different directions. Increasing the Softness value by a small amount (from 0 to 0.1) with this map type produces dramatic changes in the glass distortion. |
| • | Amount — controls the degree of displacement. Moving the slider to the right increases the distortion. |
| • | Variance — creates multiple variations in the neighborhood of the displacement. The result of increasing variance depends on the type of image and other settings. |
| • | Direction — controls the direction of displacement. The 3 o’clock position corresponds to 0°. The Refraction map type is not dependent on direction. |
| • | Inverted — inverts the selected source |
| • | Quality — changes the quality of the distortion |
