Day 8 - Dispersion Effect (1/2) - The Basics

What I did:
                Today, I decided to learn the dispersion effect. The dispersion effect is used to make a fading/pixelating/explosion effect on an image. I used a picture of Noctis from Final Fantasy 15 as a subject for this project. I ended up doing it but it did not turn out how I wanted it to. I will also continue this project for the next few days to improve my abilities and learn more about it.

                                                               Before:
                           

After:

              

          I do not like how this final product turned out because it doesn't look as natural as I would have liked it to look. However, through this experience today, I learned a lot about dispersion and even learned some new techniques.

What I learned:

      I learned many new things today in Photoshop. The general thing I learned was the dispersion effect and the dispersion effect isn't a tool in Photoshop. It is something you have to create by using a lot of things in Photoshop.

              First, I learned about the lasso tool. The lasso tool can be used to outline and isolate the background. That is exactly what I learned and used it for.

                                     

Then filled it in to get rid of it from the background.

Next, I learned about the layer mask tool which allows me to liquefy and move the image to a different area by warping it around. The liquify tool is used for the effect in that when you use your brushes, it takes the liquefied area to add to the effect. The layer mask tool lets you hide the liquefied area behind your regular image.

Finally, I learned about the brushes and how they work. You have to select the brush you would like to use and have your foreground colours be white and black. Then you take the your brush that you want to use and on the top layer, you need to select white while on the lower layer with the liqufied image you need to pick black so it shows bits and pieces of the liquefied image to give it that dispersion look. Then all you do is, brush where you want it to have the effect (eg : right or left of the image)

Then on the bottom layer, it gave me this final product :

What I plan to learn tomorrow:

     Tomorrow, I plan to continue with the dispersion effect. However, I want to learn about making a pixelated fade rather than just a fade that I did today. The pixelated fade looks a little more complex but it seems like it would like better and it different steps than the one I did today. That is my goal for tomorrow.