Here's how I created the Wormhole effect for Future Glimpse 6.
Page 1 : Displacement
The effect I used for wormhole is easy to do and has many uses from rippling water to warping the fabric of space-time. 1. Start off with the image you want to poke a hole in, and create another blank image at the same size and resolution, but in grayscale (Image - Mode - Grayscale).
Page 2: Making the Warp
Working on the blank image, create a new Gradiant Fill, alternating dark gray and white. The more stripes you create, the more waves your wormhole will have. For a mild ripple, use a lighter shade of gray. For a really warped look, alternate between black and white. You'll also notice I got farther apart as I moved from left to right - this detail makes the outer waves larger than the inner waves, a characteristic of rippling water. I chose a medium gray below:
Page 3: Twirl it!
Next, you're going to apply a Twirl filter to the gradiant (Filter - Distort - Twirl). Play around with the amount to get the effect desired. It doesn't have to be perfect, there will be plenty of time for editing. I used -450 here:
When you're happy with how it looks, save it as a PSD file, such as WARP.PSD.
Note: Instead of the twirl filter, you can apply the gradiant as a radial (it will have a bullseye-type effect when applied). This gives you a slightly different look. Experiment!
Page 4: Setting Up
Back to your source image. First, make a copy of your source onto a new layer (Ctrl-J or Layer - Duplicate Layer). At this time, you can also place your "destination" image between the source and the duplicate, as shown below. Note that my "destination" is much smaller than my source, sized to fit in the "hole" we're going to make later. We can resize and reposition this layer as necessary once we make the hole.
Page 5: Warp Reality
With the top (duplicate) layer selected, apply a Displacement Filter (Filter - Distort - Displace). In this example, I used a horizontal and vertical scale of 50, Stretch to Fit, and Repeat Edge Pixels (which aren't important since the displacement map we created on page 3 is the same size as our source image). Apply the filter, specifying the warp file you saved in step 3 as the displacement map. Your image should now look like this:
Page 6: Restore Some Reality
Now you're going to define the wormhole. Apply a Layer Mask to the displaced layer. Set your foreground color to black, background to white, and select a soft-edged brush. Now, simply "paint" around the outside of the warp to expose what's underneath it. Remember, painting with black will Mask the area you're painting, painting with white will Reveal the area you're painting. Simply press X to toggle your foreground/background colors, painting in and out until you achieve the look you're going for:
Page 7: Poke the Hole
You could use the soft-edged brush to paint in the center hole to expose your destination, but I prefer the Ellipse Marquee Tool. Still in the Layer Mask, use the tool to make an ellipse in the center of your warp (you'll see how to best fit it to match the warp's waves), then feather it (Select - Feather) about 8 - 15 pixels (varies based on the resolution of your images - experiment!), and with your foreground set to Black, press Alt-Delete to fill the selection with black, exposing the center hole of your warp. You'll end up with something like the following:
Page 8: Getting Things Just Right
Now's your chance to move and resize your "destination" (the Alaska layer in this example). Play around with positioning, size, levels, all that good stuff. You can also return to your Layer Mask and touch up the Masked and Exposed areas of the Warp layer.
Page 9: Finishing Touches
To round off the image, I use the Smudge tool to smooth out any areas that seem to be too pixellated from the Displacement filter. I also use the Burn tool to darken slightly the opening of the hole, adding just a bit of depth. For some really cool effects, try the Liquify filter on the warp layer before starting your Layer Mask. You can also change the perspective of the displacement map (step 3) for an angled appearance to your wormhole. I hope you find this tutorial helpful, and I'm sure you'll find many cool uses for this effect. Please Message me with any questions or comments.
