graphic painting novice

[Kaaaw]

Hi,

I am new to graphic painting techniques in photoshop and I am hoping to get some help from those of you with more experience.

I am having trouble creating (personal) Hot Keys and this seems to be because of the lay out of the mac key boards.

Any help regarding this would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,

Anna.

 

[IamSam]

Hello Anna and welcome to PSG.

I use a mac and have not had any problems creating hot keys. If you could give us a bit more specific information as to what your trying to do, we may can be more helpful.

Be sure and check to see that the key is not already assigned a function. You may need to re-assign functions to get the key combo your desiring.

 

[Kaaaw]

The function I am attempting to program into a hot key is that of lassoing and then filling the lasso with a colour.

When I attempt to make this Hot Key this is the process I follow;

Windows- Actions - Preset's Window pops up - New function -name it, choose from a choice of F1 -F12, choose colour etc - press Record (make a lasso and then fill with colour) - press Stop Record.

When I attempt to use this hot key it doesn't work. I have tried different keys but nothing ever works. I have also attempted to change the choice of keys but when I do so, it only gives me a selection of preset functions that are already coded into photoshop, not the function of lassoing and filling.

Thanks so much for your help..this is driving me nuts... I can't work out what I'm doing wrong.

 

[MrToM]

Are you DE-selecting any modifier keys when you select one of the 'function' keys?

I notice on a Windows machine that when selecting which function key to use the modifier key 'Control' (Command) checkbox is on by default.

Is your shortcut key JUST a function key?

The shortcut associated with your action should appear next to the action you recorded in the Actions panel...



If that isn't the problem then posting relevant screen shots may help speed things along.

Regards.
MrToM.

 

[IamSam]

Ok. I was not aware that you were trying to use the FKey functions from actions menu. This is more of an issue. Let me do some more checking to see what I can come up with.

For now..........I assigned an action to my F12 key along with the shift key. It would not work. I had to deselect it's function in the keyboard section of system preferences, which was 'show dashboard'.



I then had to add the 'fn' key along with shift + F12 and the action worked.

 

[IamSam]

Take a look here: https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/kb/function-keys-dont-applications-mac.html

 

[Kaaaw]

Ok, the idea behind the lasso and fill hotkey is to speed up the shading process. I lasso an area I want to shade with and then fill it. Then I extend this area by holding down the shift key when I lasso again but I also want to fill it with the same shade. This is where the Hot Key is suppose to come in to help me by saving me time.

Take this as an example;
I name the Hot Key and assign it the shift F7 key

Then I record the action of lassoing and filling and then stop the recording

I then press shift F7 to see if it works and it does

Now I want to extend this area and so I press shift and lasso

I then try my Hot Key again and nothing happens OR my whole selection disappears.

I simply want to be able to keep extending the lasso area and filling it with the same shade.

I have tried different keys, I tried the F12 key and tried disabling it in the keyboard section as you suggested but nothing happened.
I tried the Fn key in unison with the F1-F12 keys as you suggested and nothing happened there either.
I have tried disabling whatever key i'm using in the control centre and the Fn key as well and still nothing is working.

I'm sure the solution is simple, it's just not apparent to me :neutral:

 

[IamSam]

You can't set an action to make random selections with any of the selection tools.

It looks like to me you have recorded the act of making a selection. You can't do that! If you record an action of making a particular selection and then filling it...........then that's all the action will ever do!

You can only automate the fill part. Create an action to fill only.

Here is my selection (that's already filled using my fill action)


Here's my addition to my selection.


Here I have run my fill action again.



OK, once you have your foreground and background colors chosen, all you need to do to fill is use Alt/Option + Delete for the foreground color, and Cmd/Cntrl + Delete for the background color. This is already very easy. If you have a Pen and Tablet, you can set up hot keys on the Tablet or the Pen itself for the fill function (I would only set up fill with foreground color).

 

[MrToM]

I agree with IamSam, this is rather like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut but I can also see that a hotkey to 'fill' the current marquee in a specified colour could be an advantage.

The workflow you showed in post #7 should work, although as Sam pointed out you will get the exact same marquee every time.

In order for this to work with your current selection, and with any further additions or subtractions to or from it, delete the 'selection' part of the action once you stop recording.

Your action should then be a 'Fill' command only set with your specified colour.

Without seeing the workflow of your action its difficult to be any more precise than that but deleting that part of the action would enable you to use your hotkey with any current marquee you have.....every time, and with the same colour.....regardless of the current FG / BG colours.

If you want to use the FG / BG colours instead then the workflow already suggested would be the easiest way to go, Alt / Option + backspace / Delete for FG colour... or... CTRL / Command + Backspace / Delete for fill with BG colour.

Regards.
MrToM.

 

[Kaaaw]

Wonderful! It works!

Who'd of thought it was the option + delete button? So simple but not so obvious, not to me anyway.
I had tried recording just the fill action but with no success either.

Thank you so much, I can get on with learning how to paint in photoshop now

Have a wonderful day.