Texture Mapping Using Displacement Map

There are various ways where you can use the displacement filter, one of which is the "mapping" of a face by a texture or pattern like the one we used here. What is really amazing in this application is that it follows the contours of the image where your texture is applied to. You can use other textures like wrinkled skin, shirt, or anything you can imagine and try experimenting for yourself which gives you the best results. In this tutorial, I hope you will learn something useful that you can apply afterwards.

Preview

What we need

• Corroded metal sheet
• Photo of Megan Fox

Step 1 : Prepare the photo

After opening the photo, go to the Channels palette and select which of the channels give the best contrast. In this case, it is the green channel that offers the best result.

Step 2 : Prepare the displacement map

Duplicate the Green channel by right-clicking it, then choose Duplicate channel. In the dialog box that appears, select the Destination as New. A new layer (Alpha 1) will be created as a result inside your channels palette.

Apply Gaussian Blur to achieve a smooth end result which will be seen later as we apply the displacement map.

Go to Filter>Distort>Displace. Save this image now as a .psd file. Name it whatever you want. This will serve as your displacement map.

Step 3 : Select the face

First, switch back to RGB to see the photo in full color again, and then, go to Layers palette. After this, duplicate the photo. Now, select the face using the Lasso Tool. When done, select the eyes, eyebrows, lips, and hairs in the face which we don't want to include in the texture-mapping. Observe the icon selected below.

Step 4 : Bring in the texture

First, we will make the texture into a pattern by going to Edit>Define Pattern of which you will select the opened texture, of course. This will then be saved to your pattern lists. Now, go to Edit>Fill and select Pattern. Select the pattern you've just saved, and presto, the selected faced has changed into a pattern!

But this is not what we'd like to achieve. At least, we've done the first step though. What we will have to do is adjust the color of the original photo and change the blending mode and opacity as well.

Step 5 : Making the color adjustments

So, first, change the blend mode from Normal to Overlay (or what is best depending on the photo you used), then set the Opacity to 50%. You can deselect the selected areas for now (Ctrl-D).

Now, we will switch back to Layer 1 (the duplicated photo layer). You can turn off the uppermost layer, if you want to. In the few next steps, we will be using the Create new fill or adjustment layer, the icon of which is located below the layers palette, that small circle with half of it shaded with black. Select first the Hue/Saturation with the following values:

Second, the Color Balance:

Third, the Brightness/Contrast:

And, fourth, Hue/Saturation once more:

As you can see, the color of the skin is more realistic now. If you want the image to have more color and hue, try experimenting with different values with lesser saturation.

Step 6 : Run the displaced filter

Go to Filter>Distort>Displace...In the dialog box that appears, set the values both to 10, then open the psd file that we have saved afterwards.

Set the blend mode to Soft Light and Opacity to 70%.

Step 7 : The finishing touches

To soften the edges of the pattern, use the Blur Tool using a soft brush; the Smudge Tool to hide the supposedly covered skin with hair; and some Burn Tool where needed. Apply the Curves in the Adjustment filter under Edit with the following values:

Finally, select the iris of the eyes and lips, then apply Hue/Saturation and check Colorize.

Here is the final result: