Automation for Video Pros

Transcription

1 Automation for Video Pros Want to be fast? A keyboard jockey who can pound through graphics and still make that Fed Ex or On-Air deadline? Then this class is for you. Join broadcast graphics veteran Richard Harrington as he shows you one timesaving idea after another. Learn how to harness the power of Actions and Scripts to get more done in a jiffy. We ll also explore third party assistants and creating new automation tools to get the job faster. From creation to execution, this class has you covered. Learn how to shave hours or even days off those big graphic jobs and repetitive tasks. While this class is targeted to video and multimedia pros (through the samples and specific actions) even other pros can get a lot out of it. The Tools of the Trade There s a lot of different ways to speed up your workflow in Photoshop. You have several built-in choices (and even a few third-party). Finding the right one requires an understanding of each. Photoshop s automation tools can be a HUGE timesaver and most video pros find they are pretty easy to utilize. There are three major categories of automation techniques: Actions Actions offer the ability to generate extremely complex results. Batch processing allows you to run an action on an entire folder of images. Droplets By turning an action into a Droplet, you can place the convenience of Photoshop Actions into a drag-and-drop utility on your desktop. Automate Commands These perform complex production-oriented tasks with minimal effort. Scripts You can harness Scripts to perform tasks that are more complex than actions. Creating scripts requires programming skill, but Photoshop ships with several useful scripts built-in

2 Actions So you ve always wanted to be a computer programmer, right? Chances are you haven t, but that s what Photoshop Actions are, programmable macros that can be very useful. The good news is that they are pretty easy to learn and use, you ll even use VCR like controls to record them. Virtually every command (and better yet, series of commands) can be captured and played back later. Basic actions will play back one command, such as a resize command or image mode change. In fact, these simple actions often can take advantage of your empty function keys on the keyboard. By combining the Shift and Option (Alt) key modifiers, a standard keyboard has customizable keys. An Overview of the Actions Palette Call up the Actions palette (Window>Actions). Go to the palette s submenu and make sure that the Button mode is not checked. One of the first things you ll notice is a familiar interface. This is one tool that is clearly video-influenced: the Stop, Record, and Play buttons function like their video counterparts. The other three buttons appear similar to those found in other palettes. The Folder icon creates sets; a set holds individual actions just as bins hold clips. The Page icon creates a new (empty) action. The Trash icon performs the obvious role of deleting items. To get started, let s work with one of Photoshop s built-in collections. Go to the Actions palette submenu and choose Textures.atn. (This file should have been loaded when you installed Photoshop.) Any actions stored inside of the Presets folder will appear in the submenu s list (Application Folder>Presets>Photoshop Actions). These texture actions are not specifically designed for video, although you may find them useful for creating texture layers. The built-in Rusted Metal action can be useful for text effects or backgrounds. Step 1 Create a new document using one of the video presets (File>New,,,) Step 2 In the Actions Palette, open the Textures set by clicking the triangle next to its name to twirl it down. Step 3 Click on the Obsidian action and press Play. Photoshop quickly creates a realistic texture by combining several built-in filters and image adjustment techniques. Let s try another. Step 4 Next, try the Rusted Metal option. Highlight the name and press Play.

3 Depending on your processor speed, Photoshop should have finished rendering about now. I hope you are impressed. Flip down the triangles in the Actions palette and look at how elaborate some actions are. You may be thinking that these are somewhat interesting, but surely they will get old quickly. This is not the case. Modifying actions is simple. The easiest way is to turn Dialog Boxes on. Normally, an action will play all the way through, using the original values assigned to the filters or image adjustments. By clicking in the column next to the action s name (the empty space next to the checkmark), you can enable dialog boxes for a filter or adjustment. These dialog boxes let you enter variables and influence an action s outcome. Step 5 Try this out, turn on Dialog Boxes for the Rippled Oil action. Then press the play button. Step 6 Click through the first few options about naming layers. Try different values for the Clouds, Chrome, Gaussian Blur, and Unsharp Mask filters. By modifying an action, several different outcomes are possible. Flip down the triangle next to an action s name, and you will see the list of steps. It is possible to turn on only some of the dialog boxes by clicking next to the specific step. If you are excited by the little you ve seen so far, keep reading. We have only scratched the surface. Actions open up all sorts of options, both for creative and technical outcomes.

4 But No One Said Actions had to be Basic: Tools for Television Want to automate standard video graphics production tasks? Then check out Tools for Television s Photoshop Toolbox for video-friendly actions at Action FX For complex text and special effects, check out the excellent site There are several free actions as well as some to purchase. NAPP members, you ll also find exclusive actions created by Action FX at in the members area. Photoshop Video Actions Upgraded to CS2 or CS3? Then be sure to check out the built in Video Actions that I authored with Dan Brown for some timesaving automation tools. PanosFX A newer site that is really becoming one to watch is PanosFX ( This site has some incredible free actions as well as some very affordable and powerful tools for sale. Adobe Exchange If you re not in a position to purchase add-ons to your system, there s one incredible free resource worth mentioning. With the release of Photoshop 5.5, Adobe launched a Web site originally called Action Xchange where users could share their actions; see Some Actions to Build Lets put some Actions well, into action (sorry it had to be said). Here are a few of my favorite Actions. Try these out and see if they help you gain back some time on your next deadline. Safe Title Area Document (NTSC DV) Want a better safe title area overlay? This action will create a new document sized for video that has an overlay layer. This can free your guides up for other uses.

5 Step 1: If using Photoshop CS or later, Create a new document sized 720 X 480 with the document set to RGB mode and the Pixel Aspect Ratio to D1/DV NTSC (0.9). Start recording the action now. Step 2: Choose Select All by pressing Cmd+A (Ctrl+A). Then, choose Edit>Fill and fill with black. Step 3: Create a new (empty) layer, and then name it Safe Area Overlay. You should still have an active selection. Step 4: Scale the active selection to 90% by choosing Select> Transform Selection, and then typing in 90% in the Options bar for width and height. Press Return (Enter) two times to apply the transformation. Step 5: Load a red swatch as the foreground color. Then choose Edit>Stroke and specify four pixels centered. This is the action safe area. Step 6: Choose Select All by pressing Cmd+A (Ctrl+A), and scale the active selection to 80% by choosing Select>Transform Selection. Step 7: Type in 80% in the Options bar for width and height. Press Return (Enter) two times to apply the transformation.. Step 8: Choose Edit>Stroke and specify four pixels centered. This is the Safe Title Area. Step 9: Lock the Safe Area Overlay layer by clicking on the Lock icon in the layer s palette. Step 10: Press Stop and save your work. Alpha Channel from Visible Layers Everyone in video needs alpha channels. This is the best way to create a graphic that can be keyed over a moving video source. Follow these steps for a quick, but effective alpha channel. This action will work on all visible layers. Before recording this action, turn off all layers that do not belong in the alpha channel. Start recording the action now. Step 1: Choose Insert Stop from the Actions palette submenu. Insert a message of this nature: This Action will create a standard Alpha Channel. Please disable layer visibility on all layers that are not mean to be in the final key (including the Background layer). Allow the user to Continue. Step 2: Make a new empty layer and call it Flat. Step 3: Hold down the Option (Alt) key and choose Merge Visible from the Layers Menu.

6 Step 4: Cmd+Click (Ctrl+Click) on the new layer s thumbnail in the Layers Palette in order to set the selection. <<Insert Figure 9.tif>> Step 5: Switch to the Channels Palette and click the Save Selection as Channel Icon. Step 6: Switch back to the Layer s palette and delete the layer called Flat. Step 7: Press Stop. Flatten Layer Styles While layer styles are a great design option in Photoshop, they don t often travel well. After Effects can only import a very limited amount of layer style options and other video application essentially ignore them altogether. The approach we take in our studio is to save a layered PSD file, then a second layered file with layer styles flattened for import. Step 1: Make a new empty layer and call it Flat. Step 2: Press Cmd + [ (Ctrl + [) to move the current layer below your styled layer. Step 3: Press Option + ] (Alt + ]) to select the forward layer. Step 4: Link the selected layer to the Layer called flat by clicking the link icon at the bottom of the layers palette. Step 5: Choose Layer>Merge Layers.

7 General Tips for Better Actions The Actions palette provides a video-friendly graphic user interface (GUI) for computer programming. Here s some general advice to get results quickly. Brush strokes, cloning, and most manual tools from the toolbox do not work. There are several alternatives, such as using a Gradient Fill layer instead of the Gradient tool. To play a single step of an action, double-click on it. Button mode lets you launch actions quickly; it s in the Actions palette s submenu. You ll need to disable it to get recording and editing features. Set the Playback Options from the Actions palette submenu to play back an action accelerated. Photoshop can process faster than it can redraw the screen. You can choose File>Automate>Batch to run an action on an entire folder of images. You can batch multiple folders at once. Create aliases or shortcuts within one folder that point to the desired folders. Be sure to click the Include All Subfolders option. Back up your custom actions to two folders, the default location and a secondary backup. This way, a reinstall or upgrade won t blow your custom actions away. To create an action that will work on all files, you must record some commands with the rulers set to percentage. Use File>Automate>Fit Image to resize images for a specific height or width. Photoshop will record the names of layers as you select them. This may cause playback issues, because the action will look for specific names. Use keyboard shortcuts to select layers and such so that the action won t look for a specific name for that step. Choose layer above Option+] (Shift+Alt+]) Choose layer below Option+[ (Alt+[) Choose top layer Shift+Option+] (Shift+Alt+]) Choose bottom layer Shift+Option+[ (Shift+Alt+[) You can also arrange layers with shortcuts. Move the current layer up the layer stack Cmd+] (Ctrl +]) Move the current layer down the layer stack Cmd+[ (Ctrl +[) Move the current layer to the top Shift+Cmd+] (Shift+Ctrl+]) Move the current layer to the bottom Shift+Cmd+[ (Shift+Ctrl+[)

8 Automate Commands The Automate commands fall into two major categories: those that relate to actions (Batch and Create Droplet) and Pre-built Production Commands. Batch Processing Photoshop allows you to run actions on an entire folder of images. This can significantly cut down your production time. Step 1 To apply an action to a group of images, place those images in one folder. Step 2 Make sure the action you want to run is loaded in the Actions palette. Step 3 Step 4 Choose File>Automate>Batch. Select the desired set and the action. Step 5 Select the folder to process in the Source area. When you first start out, it s a good idea to work with a duplicate copy so that you don t accidentally erase your images. Select Override Action Open Commands in order to ignore open commands recorded in the original action. Select Include All Subfolders to process even nested files in the original folder. Select Suppress Color Profile Warnings to ignore any profile warnings. Step 6 Choose a destination folder for the new images from the Destination menu. Choose None to leave the files open or Save and Close to overwrite the original images. Step 7 Be sure to choose an error processing method: Stop for Errors or Log Errors to File. By logging errors to file a large batch won t stop because of a single error. Step 8 Click OK.

9 Droplets A droplet is a Photoshop action conveniently stored as an icon on your desktop. Files or folders can be dragged on top and batch processed. Step 1 Choose File>Automate>Create Droplet. Step 2 Specify a location to save the droplet by using the Save Droplet In section of the dialog box. Step 3 Choose the specific set and action from the Set and Action menus. The action you want to use must be currently loaded. Step 4 Specify Play options for the droplet Override Action Open Commands ignores any file names specified in the action. Deselect Override Action Open Commands if the action is designed to work only on open files or if the action contains Open commands for specific files needed by the action. Step 5 Decide if you want to include all subfolders to process files in subdirectories of drag-and-drop. Step 6 Select Suppress Color Profile Warnings to ignore color policy messages. These can cause a batch to hang waiting for your input. Step 7 Specify a destination for the batch-processed files in the Destination menu: None leaves the files open without saving changes (unless the action contains a Save command). Save and Close rewrites the files to their current location. Folder to specify a new location. Step 8 If choosing Folder, you must specify a file-naming convention for the batch-processed files. Step 9 Specify an error-processing option from the Errors popup menu. Log Errors to File is generally best for batching.

10 Crop and Straighten This command is simple, but a big time saver. It allows you to take multiple pictures from your scanner bed and split them apart into separate documents. Step 1 Place multiple images on your scanner bed (ensuring you have a small gap between multiple images. Step 2 Scan the images into Photoshop with you scanning software or plug-in. Step 3 Choose File>Automate> Crop & Straighten. Photoshop will move each picture into its own document and account for any accidental rotation. Step 4 Save each image off and start to clean them up for the screen. Scripting Scripting in Photoshop offers a more powerful automation technology than actions. With scripts, you can choose to perform more elaborate tasks than an action can perform. Scripting was first introduced with Photoshop CS, and each version has added greater support. Photoshop ships with builtin scripts that are very useful. Export Layers to Files As you work with different video applications you will find that support for Photoshop layers is not universal. To get past this limitation, Photoshop offers a useful script called Export Layers to Files. Photoshop allows you to convert a layered file into a series of individual files. You can choose to create a PSD, BMP, JPEG, PDF, Targa, or a TIFF file for each layer. Layers are named automatically as they are created, however you have options that you can use for naming. Let s give it a try.

11 Step 1 Open a layered file. Step 2 Choose File>Scripts>Export Layers to Files to run the script. Step 3 In the Export Layers to Files dialog box, choose a destination by clicking the Browse button. Step 4 Enter a descriptive name into the File Name Prefix text box. Step 5 Choose a File Type and set any options for the exported file. Select the Visible Layers Only option if you want to export only layers that are visible. For video workflow, you can leave the ICC Profile option unchecked Step 6 Click Run. Image Processor The Image Processor command is an extremely useful production tool that will allow you to quickly reformat and size images to meet your workflow. The Image Processor script made its official debut in Photoshop CS2, but you can find also find it online under the name Dr. Brown s Image Processor. The Image Processor script can be used to convert and process multiple images. It differs from the Batch command in that you don t need to first create an action. The image processor can be used for any of the following tasks: To convert a images to JPEG, PSD, or TIFF format. You can also convert files simultaneously to all three formats. To process a set of camera raw files using the same camera raw options.

12 To resize images to fit within a specified pixel dimension. To embed a color profile into images or convert files to srgb and save them as JPEG images for the web. To include copyright metadata into the processed images. The Image Processor can be used with PSD, TIFF, JPEG, or camera raw files. Step 1 Choose>File>Scripts>Image Processor. Step 2 Select the images that you want to process. You can use the open images or navigate to a folder to select images. Step 3 Select a location to save the processed images. You can choose the Exports folder you created previously on your Desktop. Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Select the file types and options you wish to convert to. Save As JPEG This sets the JPEG quality between 0 and 12. You can also choose to resize the image and convert it to srgb color profile. Save As PSD This sets the PSD options. You can also resize the image and choose to Maximize Compatibility. Save As TIFF This saves images in the TIFF format with LZW compression. You can also resize the image. You can choose from other processing options. Run Action If an action is loaded into your Actions palette, you can run it on the image during the process. Copyright Info You can add copyright metadata to the image. Click Run to process the multiple images. Creating and Using Additional Scripts Writing scripts is far more challenging than actions. Actions use a GUI with obvious controls (Play, Record, Stop). Scripting on the other hand requires you to use a scripting language. Depending on the version of Photoshop that you are using as well as the operating system, you can use AppleScript, Visual Basic or JavaScript.

13 If you ve successfully tried your hand at writing an After Effects expression, then you may feel at home scripting. To find out (a lot) more about scripting, look inside your Photoshop Application folder. Inside the Scripting Guide folder you ll find four PDFs to help you learn scripting. If you find the thought of computer programming makes you want to shutdown your computer and hide, you can rely on others for scripts. Inside the same Scripting Guide folder you ll find sample scripts to try out (although most are gimmicky). There are some truly wonderful examples of scripting available at the Adobe Exchange website You can load scripts by choosing File>Script>Browse. If you d like a script to permanently appear in the scripts menu, place it into the Scripts folder inside your Presets folder. The Road Ahead Each new release of Photoshop has seen improvements in the area of automation. While it s impossible for the computer to do all of your work, it is very much in your best interest to offload the most boring and repetitive tasks. Be sure to make automation a part of your workflow. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Instructor: Richard Harrington Richard Harrington is a certified Project Management Professional, Adobe Certified Expert and Instructor in Photoshop and After Effects, and Apple-certified instructor in Final Cut Pro and Motion. Additionally, he has completed Avid s Master Editor Workshop and the Avid Certified Instructor Program. His visual communications company, RHED Pixel, creates motion graphics and produces video and multimedia projects. He is a adjunct faculty member at The American University, a popular speaker at conferences, and an instructor for Future Media Concepts. He is the author of Photoshop for Video and Broadcast Graphics on the Spot and as well as a moderator for DV Magazine s Photoshop for Video Forum. Be sure to check out Rich s websites and podcasts for more resources: Raster Vector Blog: Photoshop for Video: RHED Pixel: Photoshop for Video podcast Understanding Adobe Photoshop podcast Final Cut Help podcast Photoshop CS3 Sneak Peek podcast Copyright: 2007 Focal Press Web site Info: