Polar coordinates
Ivan | Mon, 2005-04-04 18:56One of the generally neglected functions in PhotoShop is the Distort filter called Polar Coordinates... You can use this filter to create a cylinder anamorphosis - art popular in the 18th century - in which the distorted image appears normal when viewed in a mirrored cylinder. Check out this video for a self portrait made with this technique of a Hungarian artist Istvan Orosz.
There is a much more practical use for this filter as well. The other day I was watching my friend meticulously creating concentric circles using rulers and transform calculations. When he finished, with an evil grin on my face I showed him how he could've done the same thing in a few clicks. Draw parallel horizontal lines of color. Top line will be the center. Than go to Filters /Distort /Polar Coordinates... and choose the Rectangular to Polar option. Also, with vertical lines using the same filter you would be able to create a star. I use this filter all the time to create backgrounds with rays of light for example.
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Do you guys work with something or what?
=)
i don't get you. can you expand?
btw, you've got some nice colors going on your website.
i always wondered what it could be used for as i only managed to create banana-like forms with it ;o)
Keep in mind... with this particular filter you always want to start out working larger than you plan to output. Due to the formula used to produce this effect, certain areas of the image will be interpolated, just as if you were scaling an image up in size.