Photoshop 6 for Windows Bible- P33 pot

Figure A-47: Click the Make button to display this dialog box, which lets you name your filter, assign it to a submenu, and select the slider bars that you want to appear in the final di

Chapter A ✦ Constructing Homemade Effects

Figure A-45: The top row shows three different applications of

the Rotator filter with the Red, Green, and Blue slider bars set to

various positions The Distorto option was set to 0 In the bottom

examples, I added a cranked up Distorto value to each of the

rotations above That’s gotta hurt

STEPS: Creating a Filter Inside the Factory

1 Open an RGB image or convert some other image to the RGB mode This

fil-ter yields infil-teresting results even when applied to grayscale images converted

to RGB

2 Choose Filter ➪ Synthetic ➪ Factory Set all the slider bars back to 0, just in

case somebody’s been fooling around with them

3 Enter rad(d–(4*ctl(0)),m,0) into the R option box The first argument in

the expression — d–(4*ctl(0)) — subtracts four times the value of the top

slider bar from the angle variable d Why four times? Because the slider

only offers 256 increments, and the filter measures a full circle in 1,024

increments — 256 times 4 equals 1,024, thus enabling you to translate the

slider values to a full circle

R:1, G:2, B:3 R:80, G:85, B: 90 R:240, G:230, B:250

Distorto=10 Distorto=40 Distorto=140

Meanwhile, d is the angle of the current pixel from the center and m is the tance from the pixel to the center So rad(d–(4*ctl(0)),m,0) tells the filter to lift

dis-the brightness from dis-the pixel in a counterclockwise direction from dis-the PBE.The result is that the red channel rotates in the opposite direction, clockwise.Drag the slider bar and you’ll see that this is true

4 Insert the phrase –ctl(4)/2 after the m so that the expression reads

rad(d–(4*ctl(0)),m–ctl(4)/2,0) You’ll use the second and third slider bars —

ctl(1) and ctl(2) — for rotating the other two channels But I think that I’d like

to use the fifth slider bar for distorting the image Why not the fourth nel? Well, because the first three sliders are going to be devoted to rotation.The distortion slider will be logically different, so it might be nice to create ablank space between the rotation and distortion sliders Not using slider four

chan-is the way to do it

By changing the expression to rad(d–(4*ctl(0)),m–ctl(4)/2,0), you tell

Photoshop to subtract half the value from the fourth slider from the from-center variable, thus shoving the pixels outward as you drag the fifthslider bar (the top of the two labeled Map 2) Give it a try

distance-5 Copy the R expression and paste it into G Select the entire expression in the

R option box, copy it by pressing Ctrl+C, tab to the G option box, and press

Ctrl+V to paste Then change the ctl(0) function to ctl(1) and the final number after the comma from a 0 to a 1, so that it reads rad(d–(4*ctl(1)),m–ctl(4)/2,1).

Now the expression takes rotation data from the second slider bar and lifts itscolors from the green channel The result is a rotating green channel

6 Tab to the B option box and press Ctrl+V again Change ctl(0) to ctl(2) and

change the final 0 to a 2 The result is rad(d–(4*ctl(2)),m–ctl(4)/2,2) Just to

make sure that you haven’t fallen behind, Figure A-46 shows all three sions exactly as they should appear

expres-By the way, a little yellow triangle to the left of the R, G, or B option boxes isPhotoshop’s way of telling you your formula contains some sort of error — amissing parenthesis or some other faux pas

7 Click the Save button and save your settings to disk You may want to use

the name Rotator.afs to show that it’s a Filter Factory file (For some reason,

afs is the accepted suffix for settings files.)

8 Adjust the sliders to set the defaults Before you turn this sucker into its own

filter, you need to be sure that the sliders are set how you want them toappear by default Every time you open the new filter for the first time during

a Photoshop session, these slider values will appear as they do now You maywant to set all sliders to 0 so that the user starts from square one, but it’scompletely up to you

Tip

Chapter A ✦ Constructing Homemade Effects

Figure A-46: These three expressions let you rotate the three color channels

independently using the first three slider bars and distort the image using the fifth slider

9 Click the Make button to convert your code into a filter Clicking on Make

displays the dialog box shown in Figure A-47 Enter the submenu in which youwant the filter to appear in the Category option box If you want it to appear

with the rest of the Photoshop Bible filters, enter Tormentia Enter the name

of the filter, Rotator, in the Title option box Then enter copyright and authorinformation in the next two option boxes (Go ahead, give yourself credit

You’ve earned it.)

10 Select a Control check box for every slider you want to appear in your final

filter The Control check boxes along the right side represent the slider bars

inside the Filter Factory dialog box Select the check boxes for Control 0,Control 1, Control 2, and Control 4 Then name them appropriately My sug-gested names appear in Figure A-47, but they may be a little too clever foryour tastes

Watch out: The Filter Factory enables you to select any of the slider checkboxes, whether they were used in your formulas or not If you’re not careful,you can activate a slider bar that has no function

Caution

Figure A-47: Click the Make button to display this dialog box, which

lets you name your filter, assign it to a submenu, and select the slider bars that you want to appear in the final dialog box

11 When you’re finished, press Enter Photoshop displays an alert message

announcing it has successfully created the filter

12 Press Escape to leave the Filter Factory dialog box.

13 Quit Photoshop and relaunch it Open an RGB image — like the Filter Factory

itself, any filter you create in the factory is applicable to RGB images only —and choose your newest command, Filter ➪ Tormentia ➪ Rotator The dialogbox should look something like the one shown in Figure A-48 Notice the gapsbetween the Blue Whirl and Distorto sliders Nice logical grouping, huh? Feelfree to drag the controls and apply the filter as much as you want It’s alive!

Chapter A ✦ Constructing Homemade Effects

Figure A-48: The new Rotator filter complete with its four slider bars.

To see a demonstration of your powerful new filter, check out Figure A-45, in which I

applied the filter six times at various settings The top row shows the effect of

rotat-ing the channels to different degrees with the Distorto option set to 0 The bottom

row shows the same rotation values, but with the Distorto slider turned up to

vari-ous volumes It’s not the most practical filter on earth, but it’s diverting You might

even find something to do with it

By the way, those sliders have a tendency to move around after you finish dragging

them It’s very irritating If you’re interested in achieving an exact value, click at the

location where you want to move the slider triangle The triangle jumps in place

Then click, click, click to get it right where you want it

If you want practical filters, check out the ones I’ve included on the CD-ROM Most

are much more complicated than the one you created in the steps, but they all use

the variables, operators, and functions described in this chapter Open the settings

files to take a look at my code (Just click the Load button inside the Filter Factory

dialog box.)

To whet your appetite, take a look at Figure A-49, which shows all but one of the

Tormentia filters applied to that poor surfer woman whose nose I mushed back in

Figure A-45 (The one filter not shown is my Channel Mixer, which was so cruelly

usurped by Photoshop 5, as you may recall from my tearful account in Chapter 4

I guess I just don’t have the heart to show it any more.)

Cross-Reference

Tip

Figure A-49: Applications of six Tormentia filters I created in

Filter Factory, which you’ll find on the CD-ROM Each filter has between 3 and 6 sliders, so you can create all sorts of variations

Figure A-49 shows only a few sample applications, many of them using the defaultslider bar settings Obviously, jillions of other variations are possible Have loads

of fun

Color Group Crisscross Full Channel Press

Noise Blaster Ripping Pixels Super Invert

Actions

and Other

Automations

Creating Actions

If you’ve had a chance to check out Chapter D, you may be

impressed with just how many shortcuts Adobe provides

within the confines of Photoshop Although this may seem

like more shortcuts than you’ll ever need, it’s possible that

you will find yourself wanting more You still must choose

quite a few common commands from the menus Canvas Size,

Unsharp Mask, Variations, CMYK Color, and Color Range are a

few of the commands I dearly wish included keyboard

equiva-lents Frankly, I use all five a heck of a lot more often than

Show Rulers, Color Balance, and Gamut Warning, all of which

Photoshop has endowed with shortcuts

Photoshop’s answer is the Actions palette, which lets you

define your own keyboard shortcuts But the Actions palette

does more than simply let you assign a keyboard equivalent

to a command You can record an entire sequence of

com-mands and operations as a single action You can also

batch-process images, which means to apply an action to an entire

folder of files while you go off and have one of those power

lunches you’ve heard so much about If you spend a lot of

your time performing repetitive tasks, actions can help you

automate your workaday routine; then you can devote your

creative energies to something more important, such as a nap

For examples of real actions, read Chapters 10 and 17 Both

chapters contain recipes for correcting pictures you’ve shot

with a digital camera or downloaded from the Web

Creating and usingdroplets

Recording an action

Choose Window ➪ Show Actions or press F9 to view the Actions palette The iconsalong the bottom of the palette — labeled in Figure B-1 — allow you to record opera-tions and manage your recorded actions An action can include only a single com-mand, as in the case of the RGB Color and Grayscale items listed near the middle ofthe palette in the figure Or you can record many operations in a row, as in the case

of the Adjusting Focus example

Figure B-1: The Actions palette lets you record

a sequence of operations and assign a keyboard

Action

Operations

Chapter B ✦ Actions and Other Automations

If you’ve ever used a macro editor, such as QuicKeys or Tempo, the Actions palette

isn’t much different (If you’ve never even heard of these utilities, not a problem No

experience required.) Here’s a basic rundown of how you record an action

STEPS: Recording an Action

1 Select a set for your new action Just click the set that makes sense Or create

a new set by either clicking on the little folder icon at the bottom of the Actions

palette or choosing New Set from the palette menu Naturally, Photoshop asks

you to name the set

If you don’t want Photoshop to bother you with such trivialities as set naming,

Alt-click the folder icon to bypass the New Set dialog box

2 Create a new action This is very important Much as you might like to click

the record button and go, you have to first make an action to hold the recorded

operations Click the new action icon — the one that looks like a little page — or

choose New Action from the palette menu Photoshop responds with the New

Action dialog box, shown in Figure B-2

To skip this dialog box, use that Alt key again (In this case, I don’t

recom-mend it, but it is an option.) Alt-clicking on the new action icon takes you

directly to Step 8

Figure B-2: You can assign a name, function key, and color

to a new action

If you accidentally start recording and decide against it, just press Ctrl+Z to

both cancel the operation and undo the new action

3 Enter a name for your action Something descriptive, up to 31 characters long.

Tip

Tip

4 Choose a location for the action If you decide that your new action belongs

in a different set than you originally thought, choose another one from the Setpop-up menu If you’re content with the current hierarchy, proceed to Step 5

5 Assign a keyboard shortcut You can also assign a function key, F2 through

F12 (F1 is reserved by Windows for Help), with or without Shift and Ctrl Fromthen on, you can play the action simply by pressing the assigned function keycombination

When assigning function keys, it’s possible to overwrite one of the predefinedshortcuts listed in Chapter D By default, F2 through F4 choose Cut, Copy, andPaste Shift+F5, F6, and F7 are assigned to the Fill, Feather, and Inverse com-mands And of course, Ctrl+F4 closes the image As far as I’m concerned, all

of these shortcuts are up for grabs because the commands have alternativeshortcuts (You can press Ctrl+W to close an image, for example.)

But you might hesitate before assigning F5 through F9 These display palettesand there are no alternative shortcuts

6 Select a designer color The color affects the appearance of the action in the

Actions palette’s button mode, which I discuss in the “Playing actions andoperations” section later in this chapter

7 Press Enter to start recording The circular record icon at the bottom of the

Actions palette turns red to show you Photoshop is now observing your everyaction

Don’t worry too much about the choices outlined in these last four steps Youcan always modify them later, as I explain near the end of the next section

8 Perform the desired operations If you want to assign a keystroke to a single

command — such as Unsharp Mask — choose that command, enter some tings, and press Enter If you want to record a sequence of operations, workthrough the sequence as you normally would

set-But whatever you do, relax There’s no hurry and no pressure to perform Feelfree to take all day to figure out what you’re doing You can start to choose acommand and then change your mind You can even enter a dialog box andcancel out of it Like a kindly great grandmother (there’s that relative again!),Photoshop turns a blind eye to your hesitations and false starts Even if youmess up, just keep going Photoshop lets you insert, delete, and reorder oper-ations after you’ve finished recording an action

Photoshop does not necessarily record your every action Operations that arenot image-manipulation related, such as zooms, scrolls, and commands underthe View or Window menu, are ignored (However, you can force Photoshop torecord a command under the View or Window menu, as explained later in the

“Editing an action” section.) Here’s a good rule of thumb for determining whattype of operation Photoshop does not automatically record in an action: If youcan’t undo it, Photoshop won’t record it

Tip

Tip

Caution

Chapter B ✦ Actions and Other Automations

After you complete an operation, Photoshop adds it to the Actions palette

The program constantly keeps you apprised of what it’s recording If you

perform an action and Photoshop doesn’t add it to the palette, you’ve been

officially ignored

9 When you’re finished, click the stop button That’s the square icon at the

bottom of the Actions palette Or, if you prefer, choose Stop Recording from

the Actions palette menu Congratulations, you’ve now successfully recorded

an action

Photoshop not only records your operations in the Actions palette, it also applies

them to whatever image you have open (If you open an image while recording,

Photoshop adds the Open command to the action.) For this reason, it’s usually a

good idea to have a dummy image open When you’re finished recording, you can

choose File ➪ Revert (F12) to restore the original, unmolested image

If your action includes a Save operation, try to use File ➪ Save As or File ➪ Save a

Copy This way, the original file remains intact

Editing an action

If you take it slow and easy, you have a good chance of recording your action right

the first time But no matter if you flub it Photoshop offers the following options to

help you get it exactly right:

✦ Adding more operations: To add more operations at the end of an action,

select the action and click the round record icon Then start applying the

operations you want to record When you finish, click again on the stop icon

If you selected the action before recording, Photoshop automatically adds the

new operations to the end of the action Or you can click a specific operation

name and then begin recording In this case, the new operation appears

imme-diately after the operation you clicked

✦ Moving an operation: To change the order of an operation, drag the

opera-tion up or down in the list You can even drag an operaopera-tion from one acopera-tion

into another if you like

✦ Copying an operation: To make a copy of an operation, Alt-drag it to a

differ-ent location Again, you can Alt-drag operations between actions You also can

select an operation and choose Duplicate from the palette menu Photoshop

creates a copy of that operation and inserts it directly below the original Now

you simply need to move the duplicate to its new location

✦ Investigating an operation: If you can’t remember what setting you entered

in a dialog box, or you don’t recognize what an operation name such as Set

Current Layer means, click the triangle before the operation name to expand

it Figure B-3 shows an example of a Set Current Layer operation expanded to

show that Photoshop has set the layer to 30 percent opacity

Tip

(Now do you see why I think set is a bad name for those folder/group things

that hold actions? Commands have settings, the Actions palette records an

operation as being set, and now you can group operations into sets These

terms may be set in stone, but they don’t sit well with me.)

Figure B-3: Click the little triangles to expand

the operations and view their settings

✦ Changing a setting: If an operation name includes an embossed square to the

left of it — in the column marked Dialog box in Figure B-3 — it brings up a

dia-log box When you expand the operation, Photoshop tells you the settingsentered into that dialog box In the case of the Median item in the figure, forexample, the Radius value in the Median dialog box has been set to 3 Tochange the setting, double-click the operation name, revise the settings in the dialog box, and press Enter

On/Off

Expanded operationDialog box

Note

Chapter B ✦ Actions and Other Automations

Photoshop will go ahead and apply the settings to your image If this is a

prob-lem, press Ctrl+Z to undo the operation This reverses the settings applied to

the image, but has no effect on the changed settings in the action The Actions

palette ignores Edit ➪ Undo (You can force the palette to accept the Undo

command, however, as I explain shortly.)

✦ Leaving a setting open: Not all images are alike, and not all images need the

same settings applied to them If you want to enter your own settings as the

action plays, click the faint square in front of the operation name in the dialog

box column A little dialog box icon appears, which shows that you must be

on hand when the action is played In Figure B-3, for example, a dialog box

icon appears before the Set Current Layer item When I play the action,

Photoshop leaves the Layer Options dialog box up on screen until I enter an

Opacity value and press Enter Then the program continues playing until it

reaches the next dialog box icon or the end of the action

Alt-click in front of an operation name in the dialog box column to display a

dialog box icon in front of that one operation and hide all others To bring up

dialog boxes for everybody, Alt-click the same dialog box icon again or click

the red dialog box icon in front of the action name

✦ Forcing Photoshop to record a command: If Photoshop ignored one of the

commands you tried to record, choose Insert Menu Item from the Actions

palette menu Photoshop displays the dialog box shown in Figure B-4, which

asks you to choose a command Go ahead and do it — the dialog box won’t

interfere with your progress Then press Enter to add the command to the

action In Figure B-4, for example, I’m forcing an action to display the rulers

Figure B-4: This dialog box forces Photoshop to record your command,

whether the program likes it or not

✦ Inserting a stop: A stop is a pause in the action You can’t do anything when

the action is paused — not in Photoshop anyway You can switch to a different

application, but Photoshop’s options are off limits until you cancel or

com-plete the action The purpose of a stop is to give you the chance to see how

the operations have progressed so far or to insert notes on the purpose of the

upcoming operation To add a stop, choose the Insert Stop command from the

Actions palette menu Then enter the message you want to appear when the

stop occurs Select the Allow Continue check box to enable you to continue

the action during playback

Tip

Tip

I most frequently use a stop to jot down a couple of notes about the actionthat I’m constructing Sometimes I come across an action that I wrote a couple

of months previously and although it seems useful for a current project, Ican’t quite remember why I chose the settings for a particular operation.Luckily, because I’m in the habit of inserting a stop before such operations,

I can usually decide whether the action is right for the job

Another good use for a stop is to specify that a group of operations areoptional or are needed only under certain stated conditions For example, youcan create a multi-use action that includes instructions for all of its uses Onefinal note, I typically toggle a stop to the off position so that I’m not bothered

by its message every time I use it Because I know that one of my actions maywell contain a stop or two, I can check for them while I’m reviewing theaction’s merits

✦ Changing the name and function key: To change the name, shortcut, or color

assigned to an action, double-click the action name You can also choose ActionOptions from the Actions palette menu Up comes the Action Options dialogbox, which contains the same options as appeared back in Figure B-2 Changethe settings as you like Any function keys assigned to other actions appeardimmed Also, if you try to assign a keyboard combination (say Shift+Ctrl+F3)that’s been assigned to another action, Photoshop will deselect either the Shiftcheck box or the Control check box

✦ Deleting an operation: To delete an operation, drag it to the trash can icon at

the bottom of the Actions palette Alternatively, highlight the operation andchoose Delete from the Actions palette menu Easier still, select the operationyou want to delete, and then Alt-click the trash can icon (You can also merelyclick the icon, but Photoshop displays an irritating alert message Alt-clickingskips the message.)

Playing actions and operations

When it comes time to play your action, you can play all of it or just a single tion The simplest way to play back an entire action is to press the function key youassigned to it

opera-If you don’t like to fill your brain with ephemeral nonsense, such as what functionkey does what, you might prefer to switch to the button mode To do so, choose theButton Mode command from the Actions palette menu, as shown in Figure B-5 Youcan now see the colors you assigned to the actions, as well as the function keys.Just click the button for the action you want to play

But the button mode has its drawbacks All you can do is click buttons You can’tedit actions, you can’t change the order of actions, you can’t assign new functionkeys to actions, and you can’t play individual operations This is a great mode if you want to protect your actions from less adept users, but it’s an awful mode

if you want to modify your actions and create new ones

Tip

Chapter B ✦ Actions and Other Automations

Figure B-5: Choose the Button Mode command

to view each action as an independent button

So, choose the Button Mode command again to return to the normal palette setup

Then try some of these less-restrictive action-playing techniques:

✦ To play a selected action, click the play icon at the bottom of the palette You

can also play an action by Ctrl-double-clicking on the action name

✦ To play an action from a certain operation on, select that operation name in

the palette, and then click the play icon

✦ To play a single operation and no more, drag the operation name onto the

play icon Or Ctrl-double-click the operation name

✦ You can tell Photoshop which operations to play and which to skip by using

the check marks in the on/off column (labeled back in Figure B-3) Click a

check mark to turn off the corresponding operation

✦ Alt-click a check mark to turn that one operation on and the rest off To turn

all the operations in the action on again, Alt-click the check mark again, or

click the red check mark by the action name

✦ If an operation has a dialog box associated with it, you can choose whether

Photoshop will stop and give you the chance to change its options If a

dual-toned box with three dots appears in the dialog box column (as in the case of

the Set Current Layer operation back in Figure B-3), Photoshop stops during

playback and displays the associated dialog box You can choose the settings

as you please

Tip

Tip