Using the distort tools

Several tools in the Liquify dialog box distort the brush area when you hold down the mouse button or drag. The distortion is concentrated at the center of the brush area, and the effect intensifies as you hold down the mouse button or repeatedly drag over an area.

Forward Warp Tool

Pushes pixels forward as you drag.

Shift-click with the Warp tool, the Push Left tool, or the Mirror tool to create the effect of dragging in a straight line from the previous point you clicked.

Twirl Clockwise tool

Rotates pixels clockwise as you hold down the mouse button or drag. To twirl pixels counter-clockwise, hold down the Alt key (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) as you hold down the mouse button or drag.

Pucker Tool

Moves pixels toward the center of the brush area as you hold down the mouse button or drag.

Bloat Tool

Moves pixels away from the center of the brush area as you hold down the mouse button or drag.

Push Left tool

Moves pixels to the left when you drag the tool straight up (pixels move to the right if you drag down). You can also drag clockwise around an object to increase its size, or drag counter-clockwise to decrease its size. To push pixels right when you drag straight up (or to move pixels left when you drag down), hold down the Alt key (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) as you drag.

Mirror tool

Copies pixels to the brush area. Drag to reflect the area perpendicular to the direction of the stroke (to the left of the stroke). Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) to reflect the area in the direction opposite to that of the stroke (for example, the area above a downward stroke). Usually, Alt-dragging or Option-dragging gives better results when you have frozen the area you want to reflect. Use overlapping strokes to create an effect similar to a reflection in water.

Turbulence tool

Smoothly scrambles pixels. It is useful for creating fire, clouds, waves, and similar effects.