Flag Waves: House Flags From The National Maritime Museum

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Search online for a vector of the flag. I ended up creating my own in Adobe Illustrator and saving it as a .png, just so I could ensure it was high quality. (I also diluted the colors a bit to make it less jarring than the true red and blue.) The Burn tool darkens the image; the Dodge tool brightens it. You can hold Alt or Option to temporarily access the Dodge tool. Drag another loop just above the original Burn loop, to add the highlight to the flag. Continue to add highlights above each fold. You should set the Dodge tool to about 50% strength, to avoid burning the gray of the Hard Light layer to pure white.

There’s only one handle on the Flag distortion, about a third of the way along the top edge. Grab it and drag it to create a more traditional flag shape. You can choose to wave it up or down; I’ve chosen to go up first. Now it’s time to adjust the rest of the flag so it’s waving more effectively. You can drag the handles, or the corner points, or the four interior intersections in Image Warp to move it around. Try to make it look less stiff by waving the edges in a more realistic, organic way. When you’re satisfied, hit Enter.Press the Image Warp button on the Options Bar, and choose—naturally enough—Flag as the distortion preset from the pop-up menu (the menu will default to reading Custom). The initial effect is a little extreme, but it’s a start.

Wave warp can be used for things other than flags, but that’s where it gets a bit more complicated. You might want to pin the edges so they don’t warp! You might want to have it start and stop waving! To learn about those, see this guide to wave warp and other distort effects. Here’s the result of the work so far. The flat artwork we started with now looks much more like a real rippling flag—so much so that you barely notice that the design of the flag itself isn’t really rippling. Express the pride you have for your community with symbols and elements that truly represent it. Explore our rich media library of images, icons, illustrations, and vectors to add to your custom made flag. Colors play a significant part in making your flag distinct and eye-catching from a distance. Easily match your brand and community colors by utilizing Canva’s color palette feature. With Brand Kit on Canva Pro, you can effortlessly upload your brand colors to use on your flag and other designs. Fly your flag with pride The flag needs to be adjusted so the left side matches the tape that’s already attached to the pole. Drag the adjustment handles until it fits the shape. It doesn’t need to be exact. Here’s our starting image: a flagpole and a flag, on separate layers. I’ve chosen the flag of Sweden to begin with, because it’s a simple design that will allow us to see the distortion and shading process clearly. We can change the design to whatever we want later.Before you start distorting, turn the flag into a Smart Object. You can do this by choosing Layer > Smart Objects > Make Smart Object. You won’t see any initial difference, other than the fact that the icon in the Layers panel now sports a tiny Smart Object logo in the bottom right corner.

Switch to the Burn tool, set to Highlights at 100% opacity. Using a soft-edged brush, drag from the top left of the flag to the top right, performing a loop downwards in between.The folds created so far can look a little lumpy. So use the Smudge tool to smear the ends into more precise, tighter folds. Use a small brush, with a strength of around 90% for best results.