Liquify is a solution, thanks for offering that, but it is also not working very well at all. When I try to use the reconstruct tool after making some warps, it just hangs and I have to force-quit Photoshop.

this is killing me.

If I had a mesh-distort tool that could provide a parametric distortion based on curves, this problem would be solved.

I'm working in CMYK because my comp is for print and the source image was provided in CMYK. I don't want to mess with the color settings.

I'm using CS 5.5 with all current updates. I have also already altered my performance settings.

I think I may have found a solution (I'm still in the middle of workign with it).

1) I make a low-resolution version of the image (like 1200px wide)

2) I make my edits to the image using Liquify

3) before committing the Liquify changes, I "Save Mesh" in the Liquify tool

4) I open my high-resolution image

5) I use liquify, but I do not use any brushes, but in stead load my saved mesh from the low-res

6) profit.

  This appears to be working, buit I have not tested it with large brush sizes yet. The brush size in Liquify tops out at 1500px, which is still waaaay too small for the nice, smooth curve I have to create over a 10,000 pixel area. I'll post with results of my tests.

  This appears to be the solution (at least, it is for me). I can apply my changes to the low-resolution proxy by saving the mesh and then applying that same mesh to the high-resolution image. The large brush sizes (in comparison to the image resolution)  that I am afforded in the low-res version are brought across to the high-res because the changes are not applied as brush strokes, but rather as alterations to an overall mesh. the changes to the mesh are what is transferred when I export and import.

  Applying the mesh is pretty slow, and it requires a few tweaks at the high-res level, but it gets me 95% of the way there. I think this is workable.

To recap - here are the steps:

1) I make a low-resolution version of the image (like 1200px wide)

2) I make my edits to the image using Liquify

3) before committing the Liquify changes, I "Save Mesh" in the Liquify tool

4) I open my high-resolution image

5) I use liquify, but I do not use any brushes, but in stead load my saved mesh from the low-res

6) profit.

thanks for the help folks!

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