Problem with Transform/Warp tool

[Jirafche]

Hello! 🙂
I have a small problem with warp tool in Photoshop CC 2021.
I am trying to warp the smart object over the surface of a book page, but I am having issues warping the smart object around the page. I have some distortion every time when I try.
What is the best way to do the warping correctly by following the curves of the page?
Best regards,
Teodora

[Mylenium]

You will have to accept some inaccuracies. Paper isn't just deforming at the edges, it also has deformations within the page that in turn cause the surface area to change its curvature. If you want to be super academic about it of course you could spend hours and hours perfecting it not just with a warp but also with other distortion tools like Puppet, but it's usually not worth the effort. And of course if you need to create this as a reusable mock-up the answer would have to be to just model the page in a 3D program and apply your graphic as a texture...

Mylenium

[Trevor.Dennis]

Can you share the unwarped rectangular image?   With all those squares, you have a job on your hands, because they are going to show any errors.  You have done the right thing splitting the image, but doing so exactly on the vertical edges of a column of squares is going to be easier to match.  Share the original image and I am sure people will try and find the best approach.

[JJMack]

Without the full book view it will be hard to warp the right  page  for the image to be flat with the page contour. 

Here are two mockup templates for your book. One has one smart object the other two smart objects. You may need to copy and paste the links into you browsers address filed to download.

http://www.mouseprints.net/old/dpr/2PageMockup.psd 

http://www.mouseprints.net/old/dpr/DupePageMockup.psd 

[Jirafche]

Thank you very much! I will try with the default warping.
Regards,
Teodora

[JJMack]

If you have a problem post a link to your PSD file. I will download it and see what I can do with it..  Your Book Page has portrait Aspect Ratio near 2:3  the smart object you use for your mockup template should be an object that has a 2:3 Aspect ratio to start with so when  you warp the object for the page the distortion will look reasonable for the image.

Looking at the grid lines  I overlaid on the images with you can see I did not do the best possible warping of the image's bottom  area.  However, the human eye's brain is forgiving most will  notice the distortion is not correct.

It can be also be edited and improved on.