From the course: Photoshop 2024 Essential Training

Using Smart Objects to transform multiple layers into one - Photoshop Tutorial

From the course: Photoshop 2024 Essential Training

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Using Smart Objects to transform multiple layers into one

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- [Instructor] Let's take a look at how we can use smart objects to warp multiple layers as if they're one, yet maintain the flexibility to edit the individual layers. On the layers panel, I'm going to make the border and the photo layer visible, and then I will select all three of the layers, right click and choose to convert to smart object. Then in the edit menu, I'll choose free transform, and I'll make sure that my constrain perspective is on, and I'm just going to transform this down so that it fits on the front of the bottle. Then I'll select the warp icon. Now if you've been following along, your warp might have a lot of grid lines, so you can check the default option here, and that'll reduce the number. There are several different warp presets that we can choose from. For example, if we wanted to create an arc, we could do so or an arch, and many of these have options here, for example, for the amount of bend, so you could increase or decrease that amount. You can also start with one of these options and then choose the custom and then continue editing from there. But for now, I'm going to use the cylinder option. Now, the corner points are going to determine the width and height of the label, whereas the center points, the top and bottom, I can use to control the position. So I'm just going to use this as a bit of a reference and just add a very, very slight warp there at the top, and then come down to the bottom and add a little bit of a warp there as well. Then this middle center point here controls perspective, so as I drag it, we can watch as the label appears to be moving around the edge of the bottle. All right, if you needed to swap back to transform this again, you could use command + T and that would swap, and then you can always click the warp icon to toggle back to warp. All right, let's apply that. But at this point, let's say I don't like where the text is and I want to reposition it on the label. In order to do that, we could choose layer, smart objects and then edit the contents, or we could simply double click on the thumbnail for the smart object in the layers panel. That will bring up the contents of the smart object. I can select the text layer, tap the V key to select the move tool, and then reposition this higher on the label. Then I'll choose file, save, and then we can close this, and we can see that it's been repositioned in the water label document. To make it look a little bit more realistic, I'm going to add a curves adjustment layer, and I'm going to darken down the curve. Then because I want the curve to only appear along the edge of the label, I'll use the edit menu and choose fill and fill the mask with black. So now we're not seeing the curve adjustment layer at all, but I can select the brush tool by tapping the B key, and making sure that I'm painting with white, I'm going to paint along the right side as well as the left side of the label, but we can see the curve affecting the background area here. So to have the curve only affect the label, I can create a clipping mask by clicking on the icon at the bottom of the properties panel. So there you go. Converting a single layer, or in this case multiple layers to a smart object, and then using the warp options is a great way to add distortions to multiple layers at once, yet have them still remain editable in Photoshop.

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