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New Enhanced Layer Management
by Joyce Evans
With the new layer management in Photoshop 6,
you are no longer limited to 99 layers. Let's take a look
at some of the new things you can do.
1
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To take a look first hand
at the layer menu open a file from the Sample folder
that installed with Photoshop 6. I have open the accelerator.psd
one. |
2
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This is what the layers menu
looks like to start with. It doesn't look like like
many layers but it's deceptive. |
Take a look at the new icon menu at the bottom
of the layers palette
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Click the down arrow and
you'll see that the layers are organized. |
| 4
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Notice the color coding?
What a great visual feature! Let's Add a set and select
a color for our layer. Click on the New Set Icon
(the white folder) *Note* The new set will be added
above the currently selected layer set.
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5
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From the Menu bar choose
Layer>Layer Set Properties (or double click on
the new set name to open the dialog box) |
| 6
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Name your set here. To choose
a color for the set, click the down arrow and select
one. Click OK when done. |
| 7
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You can move a layer set
into another if you'd like. Click on the icon of the
set you'd like to move. The icon will turn black,
if not you will simply rearrange the stacking order.
Click it and drag to the desired layer set. |
| 8
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Click the arrow next to
the Buttons set and take a look. Here you'll notice
some new icons in Photoshop. The gray squares, the
f indicates an effect has been added. To turn the
layer off just click on the eye icon, click it again
to turn it back on. The box area next to the eye
icon is the lock. Click here to lock layers together.
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| 9
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You can also apply effects
from one layer to another. Try this one, in the buttons
layer set you see above, click the effect Outer Glow
and drag it onto the Current Features layer. Do you
see the glow? It is applied automatically to that layer.
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| 10
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You can addjust the opacity
and blend modes for each layer set as well. The default
blending mode in a layer set is Pass Through, this allows
the layers to look exactly the same inside the set as
they do outside. When you choose a different blending
mode, then all of the layers inside the set are composed
separately, and then blended with the rest of the image
using the chosen mode.
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