d1ver
05-30-2010, 02:44 AM
Hey, what's up guys!
Is anyone here as annoyed as I am about having to waste time to save out files from Photoshop In a boring tedious way many times a day?
Poops solution about making "actions" is nice, but unfortuantely wasn't working for me, since I could be having a number of projects rollin' simultaniously and I was just too lazy to redo the "actions" 5 times a day - everytime some feedback comes.
vTools didn't work out because It simply hides all the layergroups except for the one you are about to save. And I have my specular as a set of Adjustment layers over the diffuse.=(
I haven't found much alternatives, though I didn't look much.( it'd be fun if there is XD )
So the other day I snapped=) I needed a clean simple little thing to save out my files for me, that changed nothing and asked nothing - no prefernces, checkboxes and any other stuff like that. The most userfriendly program is the one you don't even notice. Just push a button.
After some hours of shaman singing I came up with a little something, and here it is:
http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/4426/d1vsavearchvive.jpg
Here's a small readme commented into the script itself. Even though I find the picture more informative it misses some small points, that might be worth knowing for someone:
Hi,there.
This script saves a copy of your document with a specified postfix in the same folder as your current PSD without any additional stress.
Just a single push of a button. It is plain and simple. Exactly what I find most usefull.
You file is saved as it is, as you see it in front of you. The script doesn't switch visibility of any layers or groups or change anything at all.
How to use it:
- Create a document. For example "Test.PSD"
- Group layers.
- Mark groups that define separate files with "< "(dont forget " " - space after the "<").
For exmaple, among other groups in your file you could have:
"< Normal"
"< Specular"
"< Diffuse"
- Create awesome art
- Then, for exmaple, when you want your Normals to be saved into a separate file, you make the normals group visible and run the script.
The script will save the copy of your current document appending the first letter of the "toppest", visible, marked group:
"Test_N.jpg" - in this case.
If there are no groups marked or no groups at all, then the copy will be saved with the same name as the PSD.
Be carefull! Remember what you see is what you save. The script doesn't save only "< Normal" group. It saves the file exacly as you see it.
ALPHA CHANNEL: Unfortunately JPEG doesn't support alpha channels, so the script won't save it for obvious reasons.
To save a TGA file with alpha, you'll have to mark the appropriate group with a "*" at the end of the groups name. The script will save a
.tga file with first 4 channels you have in your channel stack. Everything else will be discarded.
Cheers! =)
JPEG and TGA
The script has two versions - JPEG and TGA. Why?
TGA - is the most commonly used format for textures and stuff(that supports alpha channles), but
JPEG is a lot smaller memory wise and I haven't ever met a person who could tell the difference between a TGA file and a maximum Quality JPG. So for previewing I always use JPG since it causes less stress for my PC with no visible quality loss. I even done numerous freelance gigs, where the client accepted jpeg as final result for their textures. But you do have to keep an original loseless variant of your work, though.
Testing
I tested the script on myself for a couple of days and everything was silky smooth. I didn't work much with an alpha though.
Anyways, I am the lousiest java programmer you ever seen and never before in my life have I seen java scripting language before I sat down doing this thing the other day.
So If you'd keep an eye out for bugs - that'd be really nice of you. Feel free to post 'em here and I'll see what I can do.
It's only been tested with Photoshop CS 3, but there are no incompatibilities with other versions, that I know of.
Hotkeying
There's a little strange thing I've noticed when tryin to hotkey this script. I wanted a key somehow associated with "ctrl + s". The only available variant was "ctrl + alt + s". But! ExtendScript Toolkit 2(where you write scripts) has the same hotkey bind to "Scripts" window, so sometimes when you run your script from photoshop with this button combintaion it opens ExtendScript Toolkit. Even when you unbind this combination in ExtendScript Toolkit it still does. It has nothing to do with the script and with another hotkey it works perfectly fine.
Epilogue
Anyways, I hope you guys might find this thig usefull too and It will get a little boredom out of your day leaving you more time for art!=)
It actually just feels good saving out stuff and not having to do it the long way.)
cheers and have a nice sunday!(I'm sure as hell going to enjoy mine =) )
c ya
Is anyone here as annoyed as I am about having to waste time to save out files from Photoshop In a boring tedious way many times a day?
Poops solution about making "actions" is nice, but unfortuantely wasn't working for me, since I could be having a number of projects rollin' simultaniously and I was just too lazy to redo the "actions" 5 times a day - everytime some feedback comes.
vTools didn't work out because It simply hides all the layergroups except for the one you are about to save. And I have my specular as a set of Adjustment layers over the diffuse.=(
I haven't found much alternatives, though I didn't look much.( it'd be fun if there is XD )
So the other day I snapped=) I needed a clean simple little thing to save out my files for me, that changed nothing and asked nothing - no prefernces, checkboxes and any other stuff like that. The most userfriendly program is the one you don't even notice. Just push a button.
After some hours of shaman singing I came up with a little something, and here it is:
http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/4426/d1vsavearchvive.jpg
Here's a small readme commented into the script itself. Even though I find the picture more informative it misses some small points, that might be worth knowing for someone:
Hi,there.
This script saves a copy of your document with a specified postfix in the same folder as your current PSD without any additional stress.
Just a single push of a button. It is plain and simple. Exactly what I find most usefull.
You file is saved as it is, as you see it in front of you. The script doesn't switch visibility of any layers or groups or change anything at all.
How to use it:
- Create a document. For example "Test.PSD"
- Group layers.
- Mark groups that define separate files with "< "(dont forget " " - space after the "<").
For exmaple, among other groups in your file you could have:
"< Normal"
"< Specular"
"< Diffuse"
- Create awesome art
- Then, for exmaple, when you want your Normals to be saved into a separate file, you make the normals group visible and run the script.
The script will save the copy of your current document appending the first letter of the "toppest", visible, marked group:
"Test_N.jpg" - in this case.
If there are no groups marked or no groups at all, then the copy will be saved with the same name as the PSD.
Be carefull! Remember what you see is what you save. The script doesn't save only "< Normal" group. It saves the file exacly as you see it.
ALPHA CHANNEL: Unfortunately JPEG doesn't support alpha channels, so the script won't save it for obvious reasons.
To save a TGA file with alpha, you'll have to mark the appropriate group with a "*" at the end of the groups name. The script will save a
.tga file with first 4 channels you have in your channel stack. Everything else will be discarded.
Cheers! =)
JPEG and TGA
The script has two versions - JPEG and TGA. Why?
TGA - is the most commonly used format for textures and stuff(that supports alpha channles), but
JPEG is a lot smaller memory wise and I haven't ever met a person who could tell the difference between a TGA file and a maximum Quality JPG. So for previewing I always use JPG since it causes less stress for my PC with no visible quality loss. I even done numerous freelance gigs, where the client accepted jpeg as final result for their textures. But you do have to keep an original loseless variant of your work, though.
Testing
I tested the script on myself for a couple of days and everything was silky smooth. I didn't work much with an alpha though.
Anyways, I am the lousiest java programmer you ever seen and never before in my life have I seen java scripting language before I sat down doing this thing the other day.
So If you'd keep an eye out for bugs - that'd be really nice of you. Feel free to post 'em here and I'll see what I can do.
It's only been tested with Photoshop CS 3, but there are no incompatibilities with other versions, that I know of.
Hotkeying
There's a little strange thing I've noticed when tryin to hotkey this script. I wanted a key somehow associated with "ctrl + s". The only available variant was "ctrl + alt + s". But! ExtendScript Toolkit 2(where you write scripts) has the same hotkey bind to "Scripts" window, so sometimes when you run your script from photoshop with this button combintaion it opens ExtendScript Toolkit. Even when you unbind this combination in ExtendScript Toolkit it still does. It has nothing to do with the script and with another hotkey it works perfectly fine.
Epilogue
Anyways, I hope you guys might find this thig usefull too and It will get a little boredom out of your day leaving you more time for art!=)
It actually just feels good saving out stuff and not having to do it the long way.)
cheers and have a nice sunday!(I'm sure as hell going to enjoy mine =) )
c ya