Changing free flowing image dimensions: Illustrator vs Photoshop

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Illustrator 10, Photoshop7

I have an image of a human hand. Which I need to re-shape.

This was from a picture, than was then pulled from the background via the magnetic lasso tool in Photoshop, with a stroke next applied, etc, and other effects. The image is shaded.

It was saved as a .psd, brought into Illustrator, and I tried applying the bloat and pucker tool but these barely affect this image. Creating small staggering jumps here and there, apparantly based on the grid that comes up.

How are shaded shapes having curvy borders best modified, for expanding and contracting?

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There are various tool in Ps like Warp that may work better.

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I am not clear as what you have done. But note that AI filters work on the vector element and not the raster inside. I you are trying to warp a raster image … you are better off staying in PS. separating the hand onto its own layer then using a wave filter. Depending on your goal, an image map and displace may give you more control ( of course you will have to create the map manually… that WILL be time consuming)

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Photoshop liquify worked beautifully, thanks for both responses.