affinity photo 'Pixel Stretch' in Affinity Photo

[DelN]

Hi,

I've tried to create a 'pixel stretch' using an image I found online (attached below). I didn't even know that it was called 'Pixel Stretch' when I first came across the images I had seen. I just liked the cool effect...

So I masked out the man dancing (below) so I had him on a separate layer, then removed the shadow...

I thought the Image Brush might have been the best way to achieve this, but when you create a strip of the man jumping...

...then create an image brush from it, the image brush does not paint the way it should on the curves because you cannot get the 'Spacing' close enough (the smallest is 1). When you paint a curved stroke using the image brush, it is missing segments on the curve.

Frustrating...

NB. I wish they would make a 'negative' spacing in the Image Brush Settings so that when you painted a curve with the Image Brush those jagged holes on the curve would be eliminated... 

But graphic design is all about finding ways to achieve something that you see (and like) or that a client wants, but you don't know how it was done, so...

I duplicated the strip and created vertical and horizontal guides, then set the centre of rotation of the strip and rotated each new instance of the strip around this point (see screengrab below)...

I created the strip of image until I had a quarter circle of them (rotated around the point you see above. I moved the object's centre point), then I grouped them and rasterised the group so that it was one layer. Then I duplicated it three times until I had a full circle. Then I grouped them and rasterised them too so that it was one layer...

...then I placed this circle layer beneath the man jumping and masked out the area of the circle to achieve the 'pixel stretch' effect I was after. I created a shadow (I didn't like the shadow on the original image) and then created a straight line using the original strip of the image by stretching it.

Then, using the Mesh Warp Tool, I dragged the line across itself and manipulated the nodes until it had the effect I was after.

This is how I did it. There may be easier ways. I just don't know them...

It's all in the Affinity Photo file (with layers), which I attach. You can open it and check out the layers.

Try one for yourself. It's quite time-consuming, but if you've seen pixel-stretch images and wondered how it was done, then this is how I did it (cos I wondered too 😶)... 

DelN

Man Jumping Pixel Stretch.afphoto

[NotMyFault]

Nice job.

some of you assumptions are not true.

• you can use a image brush to get perfectly stretched strokes, and you can use the „dynamics“ control in brush settings set to rotation to even get rotation variations during brush strokes, and using e.g. keyboard or pressure to control rotation.
• a brush stabilizer and smooth hand helps to avoid the gaps. You may need to stretch the source image to get it wider. It must be rotated 90 degree (x axis) before creating the brush
• to get the circle effect, simply make a full canvas brush stroke (quadratic area) and then use rectangular to polar distortion filter to get perfect circle.

[DelN]

Thanks, NotMyFault. I tried the Rectangular to Polar distortion filter but I didn't get what I was hoping for. And I used a mouse, so I couldn't use a lighter or heavier stroke as you can with a pen...

But it was fun doing it... 😃