How to use Liquify Tool in Photoshop

[ProBaal]

I am a beginner at using Photoshop. I was trying various filters to get effects. During one such research I found a filter by name liquify. I tried using it but couldn’t understand how to play with its attribute value to get a good effect. I need help understanding what its attributes do when their value are changed.

[Adrut]

Liquify filter lets user create distortions in part of image to create an artistic effect. Using Liquify filter user can push, pull, reflect, rotate, distort or bloat areas of an image. liquify filter can be found under Filter tab. Shortcut for Liquify filter is Shift+Ctrl+x. Liquify filter can be used in face retouching. It can also be used to push in the unwanted bulges on an object.

[Character]

The Liquify filter has many attributes which can be manipulated to achieve artistic effects on an image. The attributes of an Liquify filter areŞ

1) warp: this works similar to smudge tool. It pulls or pushes the pixels in which user wants. This may cause loss in sharpness of the affected part of an image.
2) Turbulence: This attribute creates a distortion in selected area. Not much useful unless used for abstract art.
3) Twirl: This attribute creates swirls of pixels in selected area. It has values to create twirls in clockwise and Anti-clockwise direction.
4) Bloat: This attribute works like the spherize filter. It enlarges the area by spreading the pixels at the center of selected area. This can be used to give a spherical effect to the image.
5) Shift Pixel tool: It relocates blocks of pixels in selected area. It works similar to warp.