This tutorial will explain how to create a Photoshop action that can
automatically perform any activities that you perform repeatedly. My
personal workflow always starts in the same way for any image that I
work on in Photoshop, so I have created an action for this called 'Clean
Start' that I invoke for every new image I work on.
You can, of course, create an action to do any repeated tasks you like. When I am doing the 30-day challenges, and I am putting together my poster, if there is a border or drop shadow or other image embellishment for each day's image, I usually create an action so that once I put each day's image into the poster, I can use the action to create a consistent look and feel from one day to the next.
Photoshop provides us with a set of default actions that are available to create image effects for us automatically. If you open up the Actions Palette, you can see these listed in the Default Actions folder.
You can collapse the folder so that all the actions listed in it are out of sight for the meantime.
Creating a new action is as easy as recording anything on a mobile phone or any other recording device. Even the symbols are the same.
The menu is at the bottom of the Actions palette.
The first thing I did was create my own actions set, where I can store my actions separately from the default ones. I just like to be organized that way, or things could get confusingly chaotic after a while!
The New Set icon is the little folder in the menu list. Give your new set a name and click OK.
You should see your new folder in your folder list.
Now you are ready to create an action to put into the folder.
Click on the little icon in the lower menu that looks like a page with its corner turned down.
Give your new action a name and input which folder you would like the action to be stored in.
You
can even assign your action to a function key so that you only have to
use that key to invoke your action. I choose not to do it that way,
since I use some of the default functions of my keys for other purposes.
Click record and you should see your action appear in your actions folder and the round red Record button will be activated (just like on your old tape recorder, or today's mobile phone!)
You can, of course, create an action to do any repeated tasks you like. When I am doing the 30-day challenges, and I am putting together my poster, if there is a border or drop shadow or other image embellishment for each day's image, I usually create an action so that once I put each day's image into the poster, I can use the action to create a consistent look and feel from one day to the next.
Photoshop provides us with a set of default actions that are available to create image effects for us automatically. If you open up the Actions Palette, you can see these listed in the Default Actions folder.
You can collapse the folder so that all the actions listed in it are out of sight for the meantime.
Creating a new action is as easy as recording anything on a mobile phone or any other recording device. Even the symbols are the same.
The menu is at the bottom of the Actions palette.
The first thing I did was create my own actions set, where I can store my actions separately from the default ones. I just like to be organized that way, or things could get confusingly chaotic after a while!
The New Set icon is the little folder in the menu list. Give your new set a name and click OK.
You should see your new folder in your folder list.
Click on the little icon in the lower menu that looks like a page with its corner turned down.
Give your new action a name and input which folder you would like the action to be stored in.
Click record and you should see your action appear in your actions folder and the round red Record button will be activated (just like on your old tape recorder, or today's mobile phone!)
Now you just carry out whatever actions you want to be included in
your task. Since mine is for a new image, the assumption is that the
image should already be open in Photoshop, so I need to make sure that
is the case before I start my recording.
I can switch off the recording while I prepare myself to start the tasks that I want to include.
When I am ready, I click the Record button again and continue my tasks.
When I am finished recording my tasks, I click the stop button again.
The action will include a list of all the tasks that are included in it. You can remove or add extra tasks to it by using the Delete icon (the bin) or by putting your cursor on the task before where you want to make changes, pressing record and inserting more tasks to complete your action.
I can switch off the recording while I prepare myself to start the tasks that I want to include.
When I am ready, I click the Record button again and continue my tasks.
When I am finished recording my tasks, I click the stop button again.
The action will include a list of all the tasks that are included in it. You can remove or add extra tasks to it by using the Delete icon (the bin) or by putting your cursor on the task before where you want to make changes, pressing record and inserting more tasks to complete your action.
