Photoshop 6 for Windows Bible- P33 pot

41 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 interesting 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 42 Extra Reading ✦ Photoshop 6 for Windows Bible Meanwhile, d is the angle of the current pixel from the center and m is the dis- tance from the pixel to the center. So rad(d–(4*ctl(0)),m,0) tells the filter to lift the brightness from the pixel in a counterclockwise direction from 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 chan- 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 a blank space between the rotation and distortion sliders. Not using slider four 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 distance- from-center variable, thus shoving the pixels outward as you drag the fifth slider bar (the top of the two labeled Map 2). Give it a try. 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 its colors 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 expres- sions exactly as they should appear. By the way, a little yellow triangle to the left of the R, G, or B option boxes is Photoshop’s way of telling you your formula contains some sort of error — a missing 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 to appear 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 may want to set all sliders to 0 so that the user starts from square one, but it’s completely up to you. Tip 43 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 you want 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 author information 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 for your tastes. Watch out: The Filter Factory enables you to select any of the slider check boxes, 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 44 Extra Reading ✦ Photoshop 6 for Windows Bible 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 dialog box should look something like the one shown in Figure A-48. Notice the gaps between the Blue Whirl and Distorto sliders. Nice logical grouping, huh? Feel free to drag the controls and apply the filter as much as you want. It’s alive! 45 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 46 Extra Reading ✦ Photoshop 6 for Windows Bible 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 default slider 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. Cross- Reference B B CHAPTER ✦✦✦✦ In This Chapter Recording actions in the Actions palette Editing and playing recorded commands Saving, loading, and managing sets Batch-processing entire folders of images Creating and using droplets ✦✦✦✦ 2 Extra Reading ✦ Photoshop 6 for Windows Bible Recording an action Choose Window➪ Show Actions or press F9 to view the Actions palette. The icons along 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 of the 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 shortcut. You can organize actions into groups, which Adobe calls sets. (I’m not a big fan of this term —what’s wrong with groups? — but now I’m nitpicking, aren’t I?) Sets are useful when saving actions —you save an entire set at a time —and they help keep things tidy. A set appears as a folder in a gray bar. Actions are indented below the set, and operations are indented below the actions. It’s a simple directory hierarchy with which we’re all amply familiar from the operating system. Set Trash New action New set Play Record Stop Action Operations 3 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 Extra Reading ✦ Photoshop 6 for Windows Bible 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 Set pop-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. From then on, you can play the action simply by pressing the assigned function key combination. When assigning function keys, it’s possible to overwrite one of the predefined shortcuts listed in Chapter D. By default, F2 through F4 choose Cut, Copy, and Paste. 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 alternative shortcuts. (You can press Ctrl+W to close an image, for example.) But you might hesitate before assigning F5 through F9. These display palettes and 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 and operations” 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 every action. Don’t worry too much about the choices outlined in these last four steps. You can 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 set- tings, and press Enter. If you want to record a sequence of operations, work through the sequence as you normally would. But whatever you do, relax. There’s no hurry and no pressure to perform. Feel free to take all day to figure out what you’re doing. You can start to choose a command and then change your mind. You can even enter a dialog box and cancel 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 you mess 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 are not image-manipulation related, such as zooms, scrolls, and commands under the View or Window menu, are ignored. (However, you can force Photoshop to record 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 what type of operation Photoshop does not automatically record in an action: If you can’t undo it, Photoshop won’t record it. Tip Tip Caution [...]... convention, Photoshop will effectively apply a Save As for you In the example shown in Figure B -6, you see that I’ve chosen to have Photoshop save the files with their original name plus six digits to reflect the current date plus the file extension that reflects the files’ final format You can choose up to six different components for the naming convention 13 14 Extra Reading ✦ Photoshop 6 for Windows. .. Reading ✦ Photoshop 6 for Windows Bible Tip I most frequently use a stop to jot down a couple of notes about the action that 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, I can’t quite remember why I chose the settings for a particular operation Luckily, because I’m in the habit of inserting a stop before... 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 5 6 Extra Reading ✦ Photoshop 6 for Windows Bible Note (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,... creating here, which I call RockenSocken, will apply Sharpen JPEG (Chap 10) to any files I drag onto the droplet For convenience, I made the destination folder the same folder in which the droplet will reside 15 16 Extra Reading ✦ Photoshop 6 for Windows Bible Note When you create a droplet, Photoshop does not give you any warning that you might be about to use the same name as an existing droplet If... invent for yourself, generically know as scripts, which are covered back in Chapter B 6 Experienced users will be glad to discover that most of the shortcuts they enjoyed using in Photoshop 5 have faithfully returned in Version 6 But if you’re used to speeding through Photoshop in a blaze of keystrokes and mouse clicks, be prepared for the occasional hiccup because there are a few changes in Version 6 Or... figure — no Ô, Option, or other modifiers required Many of the shortcuts make sense M selects the marquee tool, L is for lasso tool But then there are the weird ones, such as O for dOdge, R for bluR, and my favorite, I for I-dropper 6 The toolbox shortcuts have changed a bit in Photoshop 6 The K, U, and N keys represent a total of nine new tools K used to select the paint bucket (now up with the gradient... 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... you can choose whether Photoshop will stop and give you the chance to change its options If a dualtoned 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 9 10 Extra Reading ✦ Photoshop 6 for Windows Bible Press Enter... much for consistency — but with a little effort you can figure it out.) In a flash, you’re back to your original image CrossReference For complete information on the History palette, read Chapter 7 Saving and loading a set To save a set — you can only save sets, not individual actions — first click the set name in the Actions palette Then choose Save Actions from the palette menu Photoshop asks you for. .. a little practice, you’ll be driving your new Model 6 Photoshop at speeds that would land your butt in jail in the real world Context-sensitive pop-up menus Selecting tools from the keyboard A few fantastic palette shortcuts A smattering of splendiferous Options bar shortcuts Comprehensive shortcut table ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ 2 Extra Reading ✦ Photoshop 6 for Windows Bible Hidden Shortcuts and Modifiers Shortcuts . that reflects the files’ final format. You can choose up to six different components for the naming convention. 6 Photoshop 6 14 Extra Reading ✦ Photoshop 6 for Windows Bible The Destination pop-up. action. 3. Enter a name for your action. Something descriptive, up to 31 characters long. Tip Tip 4 Extra Reading ✦ Photoshop 6 for Windows Bible 4. Choose a location for the action. If you decide. folder, simply choose it from the menu, and it appears in the palette. Tip 6 Photoshop 6 Cross- Reference 6 Photoshop 6 11 Chapter B ✦ Actions and Other Automations Resetting, replacing, and clearing