{"id":554,"date":"2014-02-19T19:34:35","date_gmt":"2014-02-19T19:34:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.webmastersun.com\/blog\/?p=554"},"modified":"2014-02-19T19:34:35","modified_gmt":"2014-02-19T19:34:35","slug":"how-to-make-actions-in-photoshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webmastersun.com\/blog\/how-to-make-actions-in-photoshop\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Make Actions in Photoshop"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today I\u2019d like to sho\"action-article\"<\/a>w you how to make your work easier by creating whats called an Action. Actions are simply little scripts that tell Photoshop to perform a pre-defined set of tasks.<\/p>\n

For example, lets say that you have lots of images that you want to turn from color to black and white. Rather than performing the same task over and over again, you can make an Action once and then tell Photoshop to repeat this set of tasks for you. This will cut down yourworking time and save you from getting really bored!<\/p>\n

At the moment I\u2019m doing a lot of animation with Photoshop and a really common but repetitive task is to make something rotate on its axis. So I\u2019m going to make a simple Action to do this for me.<\/p>\n

Lets begin!<\/p>\n

Step 1<\/strong>
\nOpen a new document and draw something that isn\u2019t symmetrical \u2013 this will help us to see that our rotation has completed a full rotation, this is just to create the Action.
\n\"1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Step 2<\/strong>
\nOn the menu bar click on > Window\u00a0 >Actions
\nThis will open up the Action tool. Click on the \u2018New Action\u2019 icon<\/br>
\n\"2\"<\/a><\/br><\/p>\n

\"3\"<\/a><\/br>
\nStep 3<\/strong>
\nA dialog box will appear and name your new Action something memorable and descriptive, then hit Record. Once you\u2019ve pressed record a circular icon will turn red.<\/br>
\n\"4\"<\/a><\/br>
\nNote:<\/strong> Everything you do from now on will be recorded as part of your Action, so its good to have a clear plan of what you want to achieve.
\nWe\u2019re going to rotate something that will eventually be animated so we want to firstly rotate it by X degrees and then make a new layer for the next rotation and so on because we want to have each progressive rotation in a new frame.<\/br>
\nSo here we go\u2026<\/br>
\nStep 4<\/strong>
\nGo to > Edit\u00a0 > Transform\u00a0 > Rotate in the menu bar.<\/br>
\n\"5\"<\/a><\/br>
\nYou\u2019ll see the controls appear at the top, the one we\u2019re interested in is this one:<\/br>
\n\"6\"<\/a><\/br>
\nI\u2019ve chosen to rotate by 10 degrees each time for this example, but its up to you. Remember that for a smoother animation more frames is better. You\u2019ll see your image rotate.<\/br>
\nThen apply the rotation by hitting Enter.<\/br>
\nNow we will duplicate the layer by right clicking on the layer in the layer palette and selecting Duplicate Layer.<\/br>
\n\"7\"<\/a><\/br>
\nStep 5<\/strong>
\nNow repeat the process in step 4<\/strong> over and over until you\u2019ve completely rotated your image.
\nOnce you\u2019ve finished you should be left with this:<\/br>
\n\"8\"<\/a><\/br>
\nYou can see that I\u2019ve got a lot of duplicate layers, a lot of tasks in my Action pallete and what looks like a circle image \u2013 this is actually all my layers displayed together.<\/br>
\nStep 6<\/strong>
\nHit the Stop button.<\/br>
\n\"9\"<\/a><\/br>
\nYour action is complete!
\nLets test it\u2026<\/strong><\/br>
\nStep 7<\/strong>
\nOpen a new document and draw or write something that you want to animate.
\nOpen the Action window and find your new action then hit the Play button.<\/br>
\n\"10\"<\/a><\/br>
\nYou\u2019ll see Photoshop automatically perform your tasks just as you programed it, let it run until its finished and you\u2019ll be left with this:<\/br>
\n\"11\"<\/a><\/br>
\nStep 8<\/strong>
\nNow its time to animate it!
\nGo to > Window\u00a0 > Timeline.<\/br>
\n\"12\"<\/a><\/br>
\nThis will open Photoshops animation window. We are going to create a frame animation so select this by clicking the little triangle.<\/br>
\n\"13\"<\/a><\/br>
\nYou will now see a little frame at the bottom of the screen. Next click on the menu option tab on the right:<\/br>
\n\"14\"<\/a><\/br>
\nSelect Make Frames From Layers.<\/br>
\nYou will now see every layer of your image in a new frame:<\/br>
\n\"15\"<\/a><\/br>
\nHit the Play button to see it spin.<\/br>
\nStep 9<\/strong>
\nTo save the animation as a gif go to > File\u00a0 > Save for Web<\/br>
\n\"16\"<\/a><\/br>
\nThis will open a new window.<\/br>
\n\"17\"<\/a><\/br>
\n1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Choose GIF
\n2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Choose \u2018Forever\u2019 if you want your animation to loop
\n3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hit Save and name your file.<\/br>
\nStep 10<\/strong>
\nNow its time to optimize our gif, you can do this in Photoshop, but I prefer to use this free online service: www.ezgif.com<\/a><\/br>
\n\"18\"<\/a><\/br>
\nChoose GIF Optimizer and upload your file<\/br>
\n\"19\"<\/a><\/br>
\nMy personal choice is to use \u2018Gifsicle Level 2\u2019 then hit Optimize It!
\nYou will see your gif in the \u2018Output\u2019 window below.<\/br>
\n\"20\"<\/a><\/br>
\nYou can then change the speed or perform some other changes if you wish, otherwise just hit save and you\u2019re done!<\/br>
\n\"21\"<\/a><\/br>
\nHere\u2019s my finished gif:<\/br>
\n\"rotation\"<\/a><\/br>
\n\"bio\"<\/a><\/br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I\u2019d like to show you how to make your work easier by creating whats called an Action. Actions are simply little scripts that tell Photoshop to perform a pre-defined set of tasks. For example, lets say that you have lots of images that you want to turn from color to black and white. Rather […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[66,3],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow To Make Actions in Photoshop - Webmaster Sun Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.webmastersun.com\/blog\/how-to-make-actions-in-photoshop\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How To Make Actions in Photoshop - Webmaster Sun Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today I\u2019d like to show you how to make your work easier by creating whats called an Action. Actions are simply little scripts that tell Photoshop to perform a pre-defined set of tasks. For example, lets say that you have lots of images that you want to turn from color to black and white. Rather […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.webmastersun.com\/blog\/how-to-make-actions-in-photoshop\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Webmaster Sun Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-02-19T19:34:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.webmastersun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/actions-thumb.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"250\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"174\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Stuart McCulloch\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webmastersun.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.webmastersun.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Webmaster Sun Blog\",\"description\":\"Blogging Tips to help you make money online\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.webmastersun.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webmastersun.com\/blog\/how-to-make-actions-in-photoshop\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.webmastersun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/actions-thumb.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.webmastersun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/actions-thumb.jpg\",\"width\":250,\"height\":174},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webmastersun.com\/blog\/how-to-make-actions-in-photoshop\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.webmastersun.com\/blog\/how-to-make-actions-in-photoshop\/\",\"name\":\"How To Make Actions in Photoshop - Webmaster Sun Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webmastersun.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webmastersun.com\/blog\/how-to-make-actions-in-photoshop\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-02-19T19:34:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-02-19T19:34:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webmastersun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/690702939e684757cb37586ed8ec6029\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webmastersun.com\/blog\/how-to-make-actions-in-photoshop\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.webmastersun.com\/blog\/how-to-make-actions-in-photoshop\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webmastersun.com\/blog\/how-to-make-actions-in-photoshop\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.webmastersun.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How To Make Actions in Photoshop\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webmastersun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/690702939e684757cb37586ed8ec6029\",\"name\":\"Stuart McCulloch\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webmastersun.com\/blog\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f037693c4905ce3b2825c2f0bb436de1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f037693c4905ce3b2825c2f0bb436de1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Stuart McCulloch\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.webmastersun.com\/blog\/author\/tien1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How To Make Actions in Photoshop - Webmaster Sun Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.webmastersun.com\/blog\/how-to-make-actions-in-photoshop\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How To Make Actions in Photoshop - Webmaster Sun Blog","og_description":"Today I\u2019d like to show you how to make your work easier by creating whats called an Action. 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