: Why isn't displacement map working as expected I'm working on a product mockup and I thought it would be relatively simple to use a displacement map to get the contours of the packing to match

@Murray976

Remove transparency from your Map. Maps need to be opaque black and white (greyscale mode) images. The transparency is throwing the displacement off.... resulting in just an image shift and no actual distortion.

Your map does work once you remove transparency. The displacement is very subtle due to the low contrast of the map. Bumping the map contrast will show the displacement more.



Note the red lines indicating the displacement. Still quite subtle even after I boosted the contrast of the map a bit.

I would however agree with others. In this instance a displacement map may not be the best choice since you are dealing with a single solid shape. Displacement maps are best suited for adding texture or warping entire fields, and not really for pseudo 3D rendering. Using warp functions on the package design itself may provide a better end result - squeeze the interior.... sphere-ize the entire thing slightly, etc.....

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@Cody3331749

The displacement map shifts the pixels of your image an amount that is proportional to the brightness % in the displacement map at the same position. Repeating your blank package is not a proper map. Worse: The displacement map moves the image pixels not in 2d, only in the direction of your maximum movement vector that you give in the dialog where you set the map.

Do as the commentators suggest. Use warping to distort the artwork. Use the blank package image to make the shades and highlights by using it in blending mode hard light. Be sure that the average brightness is 50% grey.

If your artwork does not cover the whole package, have also the blank package under your artwork or add a background.

See an example:



Warping has been used to compress the edges like they were bended downwards. Sorry for low resolution. Jobs like this really cannot be done with screenshots if some sharpness of the result is expected.

Where to use the displacement map?

Imagine the following scenario: you have an image of canvas, leather, waving and shimmering water surface or other material with dense texture. You should embed text, a photo or artwork to that texture having also an illusion of depth.

See an example:



The general curvature of the surface is made by warping and shading, but the graininess of the text is made by using the underlying greyshade texture as


displacement map
light (blending mode= hard light)


Warping is impossible (=too complex) to force something flat to sit into a fine 3D-like texture, but using the texture as a displacement map can well distort the image so that it seems to have the same 3D texture. Altough the effect is mathematically false, the appearance still can be plausible. For it the texture must be used also for light and shades.

Another use is to make weird cuts and shifts to an image:

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