Adobe Photoshop CS5 One-on-One

Applying Free Transform to Scale and Align Perspective

As powerful as Photoshop is, little about the program is

obvious. For instance, how do you rotate a layer? Sure,

we’ve seen the Rotate command way back in Lesson 2,

but that feature turns the entire image, so it doesn’t solve

the problem of rotating and scaling one layer to make it

fit into the rest of a composition. For this common prob-

lem, the solution is the Free Transform command, which

allows you to rotate and scale one layer independently

of the rest of the image in one encompassing operation.

Case in point: I was creating an opening graphic for a

lesson in this book’s little brother, Photoshop Elements

8 One-on-One. The sign-toting robot in Figure 8-3 was

the perfect subject for the scenario I wanted to create,

but his sign was blank in the original image. My goal was

to create some robot-appropriate text that would make

this charming little automaton the perfect ambassador

for a discussion of the auto commands in Elements. In

the following lesson, I’ll show you how the Free Trans-

form command let me and my little robot friend express

ourselves appropriately and proportionally.

1. Open the robot image. Navigate to the
   Lesson 08 folder inside Lesson Files-PsCS5
   1on1 and open the file called Automation
   Boy.psd. The model in this image is a charming 3-D
   illustration from Fotolia.com artist Leo Blanchette.
   Our green-and-white representative of robot-kind
   has a blank sign that is just waiting for the appro-
   priate message to be displayed.


2. Turn on the text layer’s visibility. I’ve already cre-
   ated a layer for you with the message I want to dis-
   play on the robot’s sign. In the Layers panel, click
   the space to the left of the I ♥ Automation layer
   to turn on its and make it visible. The robot
   mantra flashes across the screen. As you can see
   in Figure 8-4, it’s not going to fit its intended des-
   tination in its current state. We need to change the
   angle, size, and distortion (perspective in faux 3-D)
   of the text to match the sign.

Figure 8-3.

Figure 8-4.

262 Lesson 8: Transform and Distort