Al
Ward, Action Fx Photoshop Actions Resource
http://actionfx.com
A
couple of years ago, some Action enthusiast friends of mine
expressed their concern that I was pursuing a vapor, a ghost,
an insubstantial illusion in my quest to promote Actions in
Photoshop on a global scale. In short, they told me I was nuts
with a capitol CRAZY. We had met through the Action Xchange
(http://www.actionxchange.com),
an excellent and still hopping online resource for 3rd
party freeware actions. I have learned more about Photoshop
studying those little .atn files than any other resource available,
whether online or print.
Somewhere
along the line it came to me that, though a few thousand people
were getting into the script exchange, there remained a huge
majority of designers that had yet to crack the Actions Code.
I set out to change that, and am still working. I developed
Action Fx as a place to share what I had learned and created
and, thanks to Scott Kelby who has given me a forum in Photoshop
User Magazine and the Planet Photoshop website to discuss Actions,
a few more find these incredible scripts everyday. It has been
a slow, steady process, but finally Actions are starting to
receive the recognition they deserve.
Have
you tried actions yet? Perhaps you still have some questions
as to what the hype is about, or have no idea what I mean by
æactionÆ. Truth to tell, Adobe has not devoted much documentation
to the subject.
Actions
are simply a means to record all the commands used to generate
an effect in Photoshop for re-application later.
I
can hear the æHuh?Æ already, so IÆll put it like this. Want
your text to look like Melted Gold with a wood grain running
along the border of the letter? Something like this might take
awhile to work out in Photoshop, but if someone has already
turned the process into an action, you can apply this effect
to your text with ONE CLICK on the Actions Play Button. Photoshop
then creates the effect automatically. Now imagine you have
to create the headers for 30 different web pages using this
same effect. Without actions you would have to walk through
the process 30 times, taking hours or days to complete the task.
If you had an Action script, you could be done in as little
as 30 minutes, maybe sooner! Simply starting the action, typing
your text, and hitting play again will create your effect.
áImagine
pages of Flaming Fonts jumping off monitors all over the worldà
that is what actions can do, but this is only a small example.
Photo editing, multiple file processing, hot key assignment
for assorted Photoshop commands and a veritable potpourri of
other tasks are æactionableÆ.
If
you are still scratching your head, donÆt fret. IÆm going to
walk through the process of loading and playing actions, and
perhaps offer up a tutorial on creating actions on a later date.
To
begin with, you will need an Action. You may download several
on my website (http://actionfx.com)
or on the Action Xchange. You may also do a search of Photoshop
Actions, which will offer up many sites with available downloads.
DonÆt
worry about hard drive space, as these action files, with the
extension .atn, arenÆt very large. Usually they range from 7
to 20 k. You may save them anywhere on your computer and load
them from there, but it is best for organization purposes to
create a sub directory within the Photoshop file tree. Again,
this is not vitally important, but it will help you to keep
your files in an easy-to-find area. When you have several thousand
of these little scripts on your system as I have, it will be
a lifesaver!
Once
you have downloaded the actions, you will need to open the Actions
Palette inside Photoshop. Hit the F9 key or go to Window>Show
Actions to bring the palette forward.
In
the upper right hand corner of the palette is a small arrow.
Click this to open the Actions Menu. Scroll down until you see
æLoad ActionsÆ, find your newly saved actions on your system
and select them. Unfortunately you can only install one at a
time, but you can load up the palette with numerous actions.
NOTE:
Actions, or .atn files ARE CROSS PLATFORM COMPATIBLE. So both
PC and Mac users can play together!
There
are 2 modes of the Actions Palette: Button Mode and Edit Mode.
We toggle between these two states of the palette from the afore
mentioned Actions Menu. Button mode will place a button with
the action name inside the paletteà simply click on this to
play the action, and follow any directions as they appear. Edit
Mode displays a collapsible tree of all the commands within
the action. Select this mode if you want to see what is happening,
what filters and settings are being applied, etc. while the
action is running. This is a great learning tool! You play the
action in this mode by pressing the æplayÆ button along the
bottom of the palette.
HereÆs a
look at the Actions Palette in the 2 modes:
To
close, IÆll give you a quick example of what actions can do,
using an action I created. With a click of the play button,
I can go from this:
to
this:
I
hope you have enjoyed this little intro to actions! Take care,
and come see me at Action
Fx soon.
Bye
for now!