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. Head over to the effects panel. (If it doesn’t show up in your window by default, go to Window > Effects.) Search for “wave warp”. Use Command T/Ctrl T to enter Free Transform mode, and adjust the size of the flag so it fits onto the existing tape attached to the flagpole. Don’t perform any more distortions yet. All we’re interested in here is the approximate size. 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. According to 17 USC Section 105, the American flag is public domain. (Using a different flag? Most flags are free for anyone to use.) This means that you can use its image in your video projects and you don’t have to pay or credit anyone.

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.) 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.

Hoisting

Continue to work around the flag, adding more loops with the Burn tool below and above the original. In the corners, just match the direction and shape of the original loops. Niche maritime history doesn’t easily lend itself to lavish coffee-table style publishing, so hats off to Four Corners Books and the National Maritime Museum Greenwich for taking a punt and producing this quite dashing catalogue of house flags. Without changing anything, wave warp is pretty aggressive. It has fast, short waves and can feel pretty chaotic. To calm the effect to a gentle flap, I lessened the height to 6, the width to 142, and the speed to 1. You can adjust the effects in the timeline or in the effect controls to suit your video and intention. 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.

Word History

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.