Liquify

Liquify warps the pixels of a layer in six different ways to create mind-bending effects.

Discover six different ways to distort your image.

Expand your top toolbar with the ellipsis then tap Adjustments → Liquify to enter the Liquify interface.

Rather than using a simple drag motion to apply effects, Liquify works like a brush. Liquify lets you ‘paint’ your effects onto the canvas using your finger.

Liquify offers eight different modes. Combined with each other or with different tools, they create an endless variety of useful and unusual image effects.

Liquify Interface

Tap and drag across the canvas to add the liquify effect to that area.

Liquify defaults to the 'Push' mode, which pushes pixels along the path that you lay down with your finger or stylus. To access the other modes, swipe upwards from the grey handle at the center of the Liquify readout at the botttom.

Liquify Modes

Apply Push, Twirl, Pinch, Expand, Crystals, and Edge effects to your art.

Once you have brought up the expanded Liquify Interface, tap on the button on the top left of the view to see your different Liquify mode options.

Tap on any of these to select it, then tap the back arrow on the left to return to Liquify Settings. Swipe the grey handle down to return to the contracted Liquify view.

1. Push is like a powerful smudge. It moves your pixels in the direction of your stroke.

2. Twirl has a left and right setting, and twists your pixels around your stroke.

3. Pinch sucks surrounding pixels in towards your stroke.

4. Expand pushes surrounding pixels away from your stroke, creating a ballooning effect.

5. Crystals pushes surrounding pixels away from your stroke unevenly. This creates a similar effect to small sharp shards.

6. Edge sucks surrounding pixels inwards to a line rather than a point. This creates the effect of folding two halves of the image together.

7. Reconstruct is a little different. Paint using this effect to restore the original artwork under the current Liquify effects. This is useful when you’ve Liquified one part of your image too much. Reconstruct lets you restore that area without losing the rest of your effects.

Touch Controls

Using Liquify with a finger will always apply the maximum effect set on the Pressure slider.

In many ways Liquify is like a standard brush, which gives you a lot of control over how it behaves.

The sliders along the bottom of the screen offer options for your Liquify tool. Expand the Liquify interface by dragging the grey swipe handle upwards to access your Liquify Settings.

Liquify Settings

Tap Settings to adjust the options available in Liquify.

Controls the overall effect of the Liquify action → if this is Maximum, all the sliders below will have a 1:1 effect based on their value.

Controls your ‘brush’ size, determining how much area Liquify will affect.

Determines how strong the effect will be depending on how hard you press.

Introduces chaotic elements into your effects to make them more twirly, jagged, or twisted.

Keeps your Liquify effect continuing after you lift off the canvas. With Momentum, your Liquify will behave as though the effect has ‘overshot’ your stroke.

Reset and Reconstruct

Reduce and Reset your Liquify action.

With Reconstruct active, swipe across areas of your image that you have already applied liquified effects to → this will use your current settings and remove those effects based on the values of your parameters.

Tapping here completely resets all the Liquify actions you have taken while in this instance of the mode.

Commit Changes

Commit all changes with one touch.

To commit your changes and leave Adjustments, Tap the Adjustments icon again.

To commit to changes and stay in Liquify, Tap the canvas to invoke Adjustment Actions and Tap Apply.