Lessons

Lesson Info

Software Organization & Brushes

(silence) We're gonna talk about keyboard shortcuts in photoshop, and I'm gonna absolutely say, this is so his wheelhouse. I call them, kinda like, automation dude. I have not been good about incorporating automation into my workflow and it's a hindrance for me. It really is. I need to get over that and figure out how to use automation. Actions, F-keys, he's got a gazillion of them. They're fantastic. So, we're gonna talk a little bit about that. And you can often bring those into your office workspace. If you get, you have to give it to someone to put on the computers. We work, I know this is a little unusual for maybe most of the community, but we work in lock-down situations. Sounds so dramatic, doesn't it? (drumming sound) so dark. Where you're not allowed to plug computers in or plug hard drives in or anything, because of security reasons for entertainment. So, it's a little difficult for us to get our actions, our preferences and whatnot, on the computers, but you can go th...

rough some staff. For many of y'all, you can put them on the cloud, and just download them and pick 'em up wherever you're at. So, incuded in that is gonna be brushes in photoshop, actions in photoshop, and then libraries. I'm all about adobe libraries. So, yeah, I'm gonna let you talk about your shortcuts, I think. Keyboard shortcuts. There's a bunch of them it comes with and they're all fantastic. All your commands, all your options, all your shifts. However, there is a key you can personalize these. So this, yeah. I do it quite a bit. So, let's talk a little bit about, maybe we should talk a little bit about what's already there, before we jump ahead. I think we wanted to talk a little about what's already there. He's so agreeable. I love that about him. Alright, so, there's different shortcuts for things like navigating through your layers, duplicating through your layers, brush shape, opacity, quick fill, menu adjustments. I know you guys know this kind of stuff, it's all over the internet, you can find, we're not giving you any because find your own. Whatever works for you. They also come in different sizes and shapes, and there's all sorts of ones. But it is worthwhile for those of you starting out, you want to start here. I didn't start out this way, so I'm finding it really hard to incorporate this into my job-flow. And again, don't look at... memorize all this, but the things that you notice yourself repeatedly doing, that's the one, start with that one. If you're going up and rolling down that pull-down screen to this, make that... learn that one, whatever that one is, or make it into a QuicKeys of your own. This is... yeah. You know, I will tell you that staff responds differently when they see you hitting QuicKeys and the computer is moving very quickly, they like that. Looks like you're going fast. Yeah, it does look like you're going fast. In the meantime, you could be in your head, going 'Oh my God, I don't know how to do this job,' but they'll think you're whizzing around, so.. Playing... playing piano. Uh, this is how you get to it, so, go up under your Edit in Photoshop, pull down the keyboard shortcuts. It'll bring up the window that you see all the way to your right, the darker one. And... It'll go through every bit of your pull-down menu, so... This one is one I use quite often for the selections. Back in the old d- do you remember feather used to be a CMND + F? That was a long time ago. Long time ago, but... but then, it switched to CMND + F was the last filter, now it's find. Yeah. So that switched, but I like it the old way, so, what I like to do is, I think it's CMND + option for my feathers, CMND + option + F, feathers, it brings up the dialogue box, and I make my feather. CMND + option + C contracts the selection, right there, and then CMND + option + X for expand. And everything is right there. So, F, C, and X, are right there, it's very quick. So instead of going up and scrolling down every time. Uh, it wasn't where I want it. Ten feathers instead of seven. Everything is right here, QuicKeys, and this is all through my Photoshop. Again, whatever you notice yourself repeatedly doing, just start there. Try one, see how you like it. The other ones I use, I use Gaussian Blur a lot, so I immediately put a QuicKeys on that. High Pass, I do a lot. But, modify for yourself. But, yeah... do at least one. So, I have a suggestion about that. As I was saying, this is a kind of a painful process for me, I'm embarrassed to admit this, that I am having trouble adapting this into my work flow. So, I have talked to many people, April in the room, we talk about this, When we were tra- you were - we, the royal we - transitioning to the tablet, really painful for people. I had flippers when I started with the tablet, I was such a spazz. And I didn't, it just... it's muscle memory. I took that mouse, and I put it in the kitchen. I put it out of reach, out of area, and I don't know if yours went in the garage or the trash can. I don't know where it went. But, sometimes it takes that. Like, literally getting out of the way. So, for me, if and when I can not have a job I'm rushing through, I'm trying to not use my normal way of getting to files and it's flippers, all over again. I'm like, 'Oh, Gaussian Blur, F + wha... where is it? And I have a little guide, and uh, but eventually, I will get that. So, I'm suggesting for those at home who want to try to figure out a new workflow, and incorporate this, make it so that you learn it. In a way it's kinda like working out, isn't it? Muscle memory. Yeah, so, do something to make you learn this, and then, of course remember, if you go and house-sit somewhere else, you have to bring it with you, because you won't have it and then you'll be at some office and you'll be hitting F5 and the computer blows up and you're wondering why. So there, I have a vast array of this stuff on my home computer, but when I do go in, I don't do every one of them. But that's pretty much where I start, the first time I hit CMND + option + F, to feather my selection, which I'm doing 70 times an hour, first time that comes up, I was like, I gotta check that while I'm there. I'm gonna do my expand selection and my contract. So those are almost definitely. Yeah And you can set up for F keys, too, and CMND + F keys and option + F keys and so you make it into whatever you want. Yeah And I think you can do colors, too, also, while you're in there, you can make your feathers and your filters different colors, so my Gaussian Blur is CMND + option + B, and it goes up and it brings up the Gaussian Blur, and is also, I think, blue or purple, or something like that. So, when I am rolling through there and I was like, 'haha, maybe I'll just Gaussian Blur it' and I am back, oldschool like that, I can see the blue one real quick. Yeah, that's a really good, because we're visually oriented, we're cued for that. That's a really good tip. I should do that on mine, as well. What was I gonna say about that? You said, uh, la sita. Anyway, So, the color coding is really good. Again, I'm trying to figure this out. I, I'm very curious when we get to this action section, about putting color codes in different, if you're additive or it's an adjustment layers, or if it's something like that. Don't let me forget. Because, oh my goodness, I love the brushes. Love-love-love the new brushes. Um, I remember what I was just about to say. So, d'you - we're talking about these F keys and QuicKeys, you'll notice if any of y'all take our other Creative Life courses, that we go really slow when we're trying to find the menu, because we don't work with menus, so, when we're teaching a class, we're like, 'Oh, where is that?' It's because we're always F keying and whatnot for that. Alright, so most of you should know by now that brushes are new in Photoshop 2018 and it's phenomenal and it's awesome, and you can organize them in any way that you want. Oh, Rable's 'riginals, so, That's me I have to say, part of me is cringing here, because we- you know how you label things the way you're gonna label things? I'm just wondering if there's something horribly inappropriate in here, because we like to label things the way we do. Anyway, um, so if there's anything offensive, I apologize in advance on behalf of him, right now, because these are all his. So, one - he's putting his name on this, and why is that handy? Because he goes into other shops, and when he goes into other shops, he wants to know that that's his crosshatch. It's not someone else's. It's because he's modified it. So, please pay attention to this to know which one are yours. Y'know, now he calls them Rable Half Tones, and calls 'em m- There's my favorites there, and we have a whole brush class on Creative Live. It explains how to work on all of these. The one thing I want to note that we haven't talked about is, when you go in-house somewhere else and you put this on the box, and you walk out the door, it's still on the box. So, if you don't want that, if you have something proprietary, for example, there's some grass stuff in Kyle's new brushes, that, man, I don't want anyone to know is in there, because it is so good, and I wouldn't leave that on a box because the next finisher that comes in, I want them to call me, not them. So, I do have some proprietary little things that I don't want people getting out of. So, brushes and then the actions, these are his actions, he is action man here, and you'll see he has his frequency separations here, I'm just doing your Vanna White, I'm stepping out of light, I think, but, um, same kind of thing, color-coding, but we should talk about color-codes. Would you consider doing all your adjustment layer in one? All your editing in one? For me? Yeah- Filters? Anything that's gray, is a gray-ish type, so it's a lot of overlays, anything that's linear, light, anything that's noise. Okay, I'm gonna stop him there. So, what he does for his brain, is these gray ones, they use a 50% gray layer. When you're using High Pass, it becomes a 50% gray layer. When you're doing frequency separation, the whole detail section, they're all that 50% kinda gray layer, so I understand mentally why that works for you. Yeah, and then from, uh, the other thing is the yellow ones are stuff I just wanna use as quickly look or check work, and I'm probably gonna throw it away, so that multiply curve, I'll throw that on there just to darken stuff down, so, if I'm trying to retouch, like, 10% or 15%, I'll darken the whole thing down and that makes it easier to see those descrepencies, and that's something I want to lose. So, I know to look through there, and yellows, I'll get rid of. It doesn't stay with the file. Green ones, it's a little different now, but when you first started color-coding, green was the lightest color that you could use. That's really old school. Yeah. Anything that makes the file that's a lightening adjustment, I usually make it green. Anything that darkens it, goes, the darkest color, which was purple. And then, these action buttons are the same color. When I make the action, the actual adjustment layer is colored correspondingly. So, the action and the adjustment layer are both green, all the way through. So, the action and the name of the layer are named exactly the same as well. Two points I want to make. This is such a personal process. So, think about it. Think what works for you. Maybe your color corrections want to be a color, and your editing or your cutting or your frequency another one, but because I just said, this is a really personal process, if you're going in-house at an agency, and you're working on someone else's machine, which often happens. There is no machine that no one's touching. If you go into an agency, that's someone's machine, and for that day, you're on it, and you're filling in for someone who's sick or whatnot, please save out all their settings somewhere where you can find it, put your settings on, and then before you leave, you put their settings back on. I can't tell ya how many times I was sick when I worked at an agency, you know, or took a vacation, I came back and my computer was wacked out and that's rude. That's just rude. It's like not doing the dishes or something. Please make your own settings, your own colors, but make sure you don't screw up somebody else's. (silence)