Photoshop CS4 - Distort/Concave a Rectangle

[Boiler98]

Hello all.

Can someone help me out with their Photoshop mojo (or heck, I have Acorn and Pixelmator too) on distorting a rectangle. I am wanting to do two things, in the following order...

(1) Distort a rectangle to appear as if it has been glued to a concave surface.

The "Top Sites" screen in Safari 4 is a great example of what I would like to do. I would like to extend this to the up/down axis though as well; where Safari 4 only curves around to the sides.

(2) Distort, again, the result of #1 to change the viewing direction; changing the location of the camera.

I know I can accomplish this by free-handing with the Path Selection Tool, but I lack the skills to really create the results I'm going for. My hope is that Photoshop has a setting that takes pitty on my artistic ineptness and just lets me types in some angles & degrees.

If free-handing the Path Selection Tool is really the best way, does anyone have some simple tips for good results?

Thanks for your help!

 

[uuaschbaer]

If you are ok with rasterizing it, do that and then the following:

1. Filters>Distort>Pinch
2. Image>Transform>Perspective

I hope I'm right, I didn't check as Photoshop takes ages, eras, aeons, to start on this computer.

Edit: If you don't want to rasterize you could add four point-thingies between the corners and pull those stick-thingies outward; and then select a whole side of point-thingies at once and scale/transform them simultaneously. Although you may have guessed by now that I'm no expert on vector things.

 

[Kwill]

This will just about get you there...

Filter > Distort > Lens Correction

I say "just about" because sides do not remain parallel. If you try it you'll want to distort the entire grid of elements together so you won't have to try to match perspective. Options are available for vertical and horizontal perspective.

 

[Boiler98]

Thank you both!

I've been playing with the settings a little this morning. The initial results I'm getting look promising!

Thanks very much for the tips!