What if you could create design magic out of thin air? Perhaps you'd snap your fingers and bam, your favorite photo would transform into a stunning work of art! Well, you can do just that with Photoshop Actions.
A Photoshop action is an incredible feature that allows you to record a series of steps to achieve remarkable effects, and then play the sequence back to apply those effects on any image. And because these actions are reusable you can improve your workflow by chopping countless hours off your design process.
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Hi, I just came across what looks like a fun action for Photoshop that is provided for free by Adobe called Toon Artist. I followed all the instructions but when I run the action, towards the end I always get a "no pixels were selected" error followed by a "The command MAKE is currently not available" error. The action then finishes and all I end up with is a blank white screen with the words "Toon Artist, Photoshop Action" on it.
This action looks like a lot of time and effort went into it, and I really want to be able to try it out. Is anyone else having similar issues, and if so were you able to find a solution? I can see pieces of my original image used here and there throughout the many layers, so by all appearances it was working right up until near the end. I'm not sure what I could be doing that would cause it to fail at such a late point in the process.
@richardb60414725 Yes, I also get the "no pixels" warning early in the action, but if you click okay and let it keep running, it works perfectly if you've followed all the directions. Did you stop after that prompt?
I wonder if it has to do with having the empty layer selected before starting the action, instead of having the image layer selected. I had the empty layer selected because that's how it's done in the video tutorial. Probably doesn't make any difference, but maybe it's an idea to test if you want.
It's worked OK for me and I do enjoy it. The only suggestion I can think offhand for you is making sure before you apply the action that you've created a new blank layer and used a 100% hardness brush to draw over your subject area.
Not sure about your case. Just see which step fails and think why it could be (if it's not what I just mentioned). Many times it's obvious. Sometimes it's because Adobe changed an option somewhere and the action picks the wrong one now, or because you didn't install the extras, etc.
I'm trying to create an action that will move a layer around the canvas. The problem is that my image won't always be the same size and neither will my canvas. If I record a transform and move my image to X:0px by Y:0px, Photoshop will record that the image moved (as an example) -54px to the left and -20px to the top.
This won't work for me because it's recording the steps based on where my image WAS. My image won't always be in the same starting location. So if I were to use this action on a different file where the image is located somewhere else on the canvas, -54px to the left and -20px to top may not bring it's upper left corner to 0px/0px on my canvas.
I hope I've explained this well enough. My main goal is to get an image layer, regardless of it's location on my canvas, moved to the top left 0px/0px of my canvas (also regardless of that canvases size).
As far as I know, there is no straight-forward way to do this in Photoshop. It's really easy to do in Illustrator, where the position of an object is just one of many parameters that you can edit in the toolbar.
That being said, it is possible in Photoshop, if not straight-forward. You need to use the alignment buttons that go with the Move Tool, and you need a second layer that is already positioned with its corner aligned where you want it.
In your case, since you only want to align your object to the top corner of the image, a background layer would work perfectly. Otherwise, you can create a new layer, fill the whole canvas, and then use this to align your object to.
Is it possible to relink it inside the action to another file? So that it places another file instead the one in the action? Have you tried to renaming the file exactly with the same name and replacing the one you had in the action?
I also want to rename some of the files being placed without breaking the action, can I do it without rewriting the whole Action? Try a test renaming just one of the files that you want the action to be applied to. It should work if the action recorded going into 'a folder' and applying it to the files are in that folder.
Sorry think I was not clear. I am placing one image into all my files and the image has a wrong name, so I am wondering if I can rename it and change the filepath in the action as i only rename it then photoshop action tells me the file is not found:
Actions steps vary there are hard coded Photoshop Step, interactive Photoshop steps, Plug-in steps, steps and inserted menu items and stop steps. Interactive steps need your user interaction to make changes or accept the recorded setting. Normally action steps the the same thing every time. If you want your action to place in different files sometimes in a none batch process all you may need to do is make the existing Place steps interactive. Turn on their dialog by checking the step's dialog box in the action. The interactive steps will then open their Place Dialog setup to place the files recorded in the action step. You can accept this and place the file in or navigate to the file you want to place in this time. In fact you can duplicate the action and change the action name from ActionNameCopy to ActionNameInteractive and then turn on the Interactive action's Place steps dialogs. You can have your old Batch able action and an interactive action version.
I am running the same action on several thousand files and want to run the same action on another machine, if I make the step interactive and change the file once will it then relink the whole action to this file? Or once I make it non interactive it will keep searching for the original file that was recorded in the action?
To re-link the smart object layer the smart object layer need to exist so its object can be replaced re-linked. That means done after you run you action placed in the file recorded in the action. A second proces done manually or via some automate Photoshop process. A second action or script to replace some layers objects. The layer would need to be targeted and then have their object replaced.
You do not want to have to re-link link smart layer object to a different file unless you know all the files the you will link have exactly the same Aspect ratio, size and resolution as the object being replaced. For all smart Object layers have and associated transform to size the smart object for the layer content. The Associated transform is not change if you relink replace the smart object layers object. During the Interactive Place step there is the interactive transform part where you can change the layers associated transform.
I want it to always place 2.jpg instead of 1.jpg and I am looking for a way to do it automatically as I am working with a folder of many thousand images and having a menu pop up and ask every time is not really a solution.
If it always the same main canvas that is easy to do by making photo collage template PSD from the main image file. Then batch populate the template with your images. Action have limitation when it come to automating Photoshop process for on their own Actions can not use logic in the processing its step step step. Photoshop scripting is a much more powerful way to automate Photoshop processes. However Photoshop Scripting is Programming not an east thing like recording Photoshop steps. You do not need to be a Programmer to use a Photoshop like you do need to record Action the Adobe supplies. Adobe also supplies Script you may be using and do not even realize you are using a Photoshop Script. Like menu File>Automate>Photomerge or menu File>Automate>Fit Image, menu File>Automate>Contact Sheet II and some you know are scripts like menu File>Scripts>Image Processor... menu File>Scripts>ScriptName.
It would be very easy for you to create a Photo Collage Template that conforms to my template design and batch populate your template with you images using one of my Batch populating scripts. Or interactive populate it or automatically populate it and leave it open in Photoshop so you can text what was done automatically or embellish the populated template. The are several Collage Template populating scripts in my Photoshop Photo Collage Toolkit.
It won't work unless you re-record that step. If you record full path to the file you want to place then you must have file with that name in that location like: C:\Users\Bojan\Pictures.... It is not difficult to re-record step: double click on step and navigate to file which you want to place or delete step and record new one in exactly same position in action.
I understand that you want to place same image/file in multiple documents during batch process (please correct me if I am wrong). You must re-record Place step to point to right path and existing file name on different computer (unless file name and path to that file is exactly the same).
There isn't option to instruct Photoshop to use image ( or in other words to remember image )which you select in the first run , that can be done with programming. Actions are simple things which are very limited for such task.
It seems more like the want place image into a main image file and save it with a different name the have thousands of images. If it is a single main image file always the same file and a single image they want to put into it they could record a batch action that would place the main image into the image the files open by the batch processor first insure that image document does not have a background layer a simple script step can do that. The action would then change the Document Canvas Size for the Main image will fit into it. It Always the same image the same image file the size can be hard coded into the action. Then the action would place in the main image file and the move the current layer that placed in master image to the bottom of the stack. There would still be a problem poisoning the image for an action can not use logic when adding the canvas to house the main image. The action would end by saving a psd with the image name. That would be overridden by the patch processor and saved into the batch destination folder
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