Today, there was a new Photoshop editing action all over facebook: The Twirl! As awesome as the resulting images look, the fact that everybody and their mothers used it throughout the day while posting their final images forced many to tire of it quickly. Though it may be a short-lived online fad since all the images have the same general look to them, I think the method can come in handy for some very practical purposes.
The basics behind the twirl are simple: a few distortion and blur layers on top of one of your images and “Voila!”, you’ve made abstract art. It’s so simple, a caveman can do it. What I did was the following:
1) Go to the website where I bought the area rug (majority of color source in room)
2) Copy & Paste that image into Adobe Photoshop
3) Twirl it
Next thing you know, you have a piece of abstract art that matches the room decor perfectly, and for a great price.
Here is the general method with the specifics settings that I followed:
1) Start with any photo
2) Filter>Pixelate>Mezzotint>Medium lines
3) Filter>Blur>Radial blur (slider = 100, blur
method = zoom, quality = best)
4) Repeat step 3 up to 5X, as desired
5) Duplicate layer
6) Remain on original layer. Filter?Distort>
Twirl (angle value = +200, but you can use any)
7) Select new layer. Filter>Distort>Twirl
(angle value = -200, negative of step 6)
8) Alter new layer’s blending mode (many choose
‘lighten’, but I used ‘soft light’ – try them all)
9) Merge layers
Have fun.
-Rick
(disclaimer: I get nothing if you buy that groupon)
UPDATE 8/6: If you plan on buying the groupon, use “MYCITY20” to get an additional 20% off. Don’t know how long that code will be good for, but hey, save’s you $8. That’s like a nice (free) craft beer!
Thanks for posting this, Rick!! Excellent use of the technique!
I’m glad you like it, Michelle! It really worked out well for me (especially since I had no idea what to print for the wall and I was running out of time to use my Groupon).