4
shear GenIus
One of the features of poor-quality VHS is the way the
colors don’t quite blend together properly. It’s similar
to the chromatic aberration seen from wide-aperture camera
lenses, when different wavelengths of light aren’t brought to
precisely the same point of focus. Select the top-most layer that
isn’t the text, and open the Shear filter from “Filter > Distort.”
This provides a line you can drag to bend your image from left
to right, with the option of it wrapping around (the “Repeat Edge
Pixels” box, which we’ve left unchecked). We don’t want too much
of a bend, so have made a meandering line with points that only
go around halfway across the grid squares. Hit “OK,” and check
the effect by toggling the top layer on and off using the eye icon.5
advanCed blendInG
To get the color glitch, you need to open the Layer Styles
window for the layer you just used Shear on. Double-click
the layer, and under “Blending Options” you’ll find “Advanced
Blending,” with “R,” “G,” and “B” boxes to represent the three
colors being mixed to provide the full color image. Unchecking
one of these prevents that color from blending—so uncheck the
“R” and “G,” and see what happens. If, like us, you went a bit too
far with the Shear filter, you can edit it by double-clicking its
entry under Smart Filters. The Shear workspace is annoyingly
small, so it may take some precision mouse work [Image b].6
more layers
Rename that layer B, as that’s the only active channel, then
duplicate your original layer two more times. One of these
will be R, the other G. Repeat the Shear effect on them—it has to
be a slightly different adjustment on each layer, otherwise they
blend back together perfectly—and use “Advanced Blending” to
leave one with the R channel, and the other with the G channel.7
blur and dIstort
Create another duplicate of your original layer and
move it almost to the top of the stack, just below the textElayer. Open Shear again, and create a heavy distortion
[Image C]. Staying on this layer, click the “Add Layer
Mask” icon at the bottom of the palette and, using the
Rectangular Marquee tool, create a narrow band across
the full width of the image near the top, and fill it with
black using the Bucket tool.8
more masks
It doesn’t fill with black, but creates a hole through
which the layer below, which hasn’t been distorted
as much, shows through. Create more such masks,
using the same method, of differing heights but always
full width. This is one of those tasks where learning the
keyboard shortcuts—M and G—saves time. We’ve edited
the Shear filter, because it was too strong, and added a
Gaussian Blur filter to this layer, too [Image d].9
sCan lInes
Finally, add some old-school NTSC realism by
putting scan lines over the image. Use the “New
Layer” button at the bottom of the palette to add a
Pattern layer, and position it at the top, above the text.
When the pattern options appear, choose the second one
from the left—horizontal lines. This covers the image
[Image e], so blend it back in by changing the Blend
Mode to “Multiply,” and the Opacity to around 25%.10
brInG baCk the text
Unhide the text layer using the eye icon to its
left, and the final glitched image is revealed
[Image F]. We may not be able to read the secrets they’re
discussing—our tiny spy camera isn’t good enough—but
we’ll send an agent to photograph it on to microfilm.D FSmart Objects preserve the source file’s contents, using it
as a reference, which means you can mess around with it
all you like without actually losing any data. For example,
you could shrink a Smart Object, then later make it bigger
again without a loss in quality. This isn’t too much of a
consideration here, where we’re setting out to ruin an
image, but it can save a lot of work on composition where
you unexpectedly need to alter a layer you thought was
finished with. Creating Smart Objects makes your files
bigger, but it’s good practice to create them nonetheless.
Storage is cheap, graphic designers’ time is expensive.Like objecTs,
buT smarTer
maximumpc.com aug 2019 MAXIMUMPC 69