What's new
Photoshop Gurus Forum

Welcome to Photoshop Gurus forum. Register a free account today to become a member! It's completely free. Once signed in, you'll enjoy an ad-free experience and be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Actions Run an action ABOVE another action with a group in it


nazareth

New Member
Messages
4
Likes
0
Ok folks, I am trying to run an action ABOVE a GROUP that is in another action-

In other words, I want to run an action which as a group in it- leave te group active, so that I can use the layers I n that group t adjust things- bu I want to run another action immediately above this action without having to flatten the first action. But when I try to do this- what happens is that some layers will dissappear in my original action, and some of hte layers i nthe second action will end up below the group of the first action


Is this making sense? Florabella actions for photoshop has it so you can run an action- and run another action above the first, and run as many as you want- erach action has a group in it- but I'm unsure how to gwet my actiosn to play aboe an action with a group in it- becuase thep roblems I mentioned occur-


in the following video you'll note that she runs an action, then immediately runs another one right on top- the second one is right around 1:18 of the video- Somehow she gets her actiosn to run above a group- Then she runs another one above that at around 1:58 or so- she runs several infact- I've tried stamping my image above the group, and running an action above that- but that doesn't work either- there must be soem trick to this-


http://www.florabellacollection.com/video-tutorial-9---florabella-trinity-photoshop-actions.html
 

nazareth

New Member
Messages
4
Likes
0
think I figured it out- I had to do a really weird work-around- while recording the action, Ihad to make a group for my second action, put the layers into the group folder,, then delete just the group folder- leaving the layers intact, then make another group folder- (I also have to make a stamped layer on my first action set before running the next action set)- for some weird reason this seems to work- Wish I knew more about layers/groups etc- but oh well- If I didn't delete the group folder- and create another one, when I ran the action both my first action set and second would be linked together- in other words, I would collapse the top group folder, and my first group would be inside the top group folder (I guess- I would collapse the top folder and the base, bottom group folder would 'dissappear'- I just assumed it was inside the top group folder)
I know it sounds weird, but that is what was happening- but since doing the workaround, I can collapse the top group folder, and work on the base/first group folder layers, edit the layers I need to, then expand top group and edit those as well-

I don't think I'll ever get the hang of groups, folders, layers etc- within actions-

Not sure why that all happened like that- but it seems to be working now- tried it on several action sets that I have- and it's working now- I can run one, then another right on top Not even sure how I stumbled on that solution- or why it works, but it's working now- I'm sure there's an easier way- but it's not big deal to do it this way-
 

mathom33

Member
Messages
6
Likes
0
If I understand you correctly you are trying to run one two actions back-to-back...?

What is it that is wrong with your action that is not allowing it to work?

Many people that create actions will use the background layer as their starting point and will keep referencing it. Many photoshop users will have multiple layers and want the action to run from the topmost layer. What you need to do is make sure that you stamp layer and place it at the top and name it something that is specific to that action. Make sure that none of the steps try to copy the Background layer for editing purposes. Once all of your layers all complete, you should be able to select the ones you want to create a group.

Hopefully that made sense... I'm currently working on a installing a bathroom, so if you want, send me a copy of the action and I will try to run it on my machine to see exactly what it's doing.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

MrToM

Guru
Messages
3,595
Likes
3,321
...what happens is that some layers will dissappear in my original action, and some of hte layers i nthe second action will end up below the group of the first action...
Actions rely on unique layer names so if you run an action that requires 'Layer 0' and you have more than 1 'Layer 0' then you'll get the problems you are experiencing.

People tend to forget that an 'Action' is an exact replay of a previous workflow......note 'Exact' replay.

A 'bad' Action will use default layer naming, a 'good' Action will have unique layer naming.

Regards.
MrToM.
 

nazareth

New Member
Messages
4
Likes
0
Actions rely on unique layer names so if you run an action that requires 'Layer 0' and you have more than 1 'Layer 0' then you'll get the problems you are experiencing.


A 'bad' Action will use default layer naming, a 'good' Action will have unique layer naming.

Regards.
MrToM.

es, I think that has been part of my problem- I have a bad habit of leaving default names- I will tr to get into habit of renaming- I've definitely run into the problem you describe petty often infact
 

nazareth

New Member
Messages
4
Likes
0
Thanks Mathom- I think that may be part of the problem I was having- I tried the stamped layer- but never renamed it- and ran into the issue that Tom mentioned- I have since renamed the stamped layer, and it seems to work now- although I ran into an issue with some layers that I had that were below my groups layers- but I got that sorted out eventually too- I finally figured out though that I had to turn off the stamped layer in order to make edits to the layers in my groups folder- once I made the edits- I then selected the stamped layer at top- then ran another action right on top and it worked fine- I now can have two actions all open and ready for adjusting- I think one of the problems I was having when making actiosn before was when I tried copying background layer- that seemed to sometimes mess the whole action up now that I think back

I don't know what wen wrong- but I had to do a realy weird work-around- I had to make the action- make m group make my stamped layer- then stop the action- run it- the group would be messed up for some reason- (the layers were no longer in the group-) I wuld have to delete just the group folder (while recording the action again), and then move the layers back into the group stop the action- an after that it would run fine and make the group like it should- A convoluted way tomake an action- but I now works
 

mathom33

Member
Messages
6
Likes
0
That sounds like a lot of work to get it to work they way you want it to. But I'm glad you got it straightened out!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Top