Using PS actions as a teaching tool for SL texturing needs

It's occured to me that teaching some texturing techniques by example can be streamlined quite a bit for those that use Photoshop. Photoshop "Actions" provide this option becuase they can be edited with descriptive "Stop Actions" (kind of like the directors notes on a DVD, only in text format).

Here's a quck step by step on how to aquire, install, and run PS actions on your computer:

1. Download the attached Zip file from here

2. Save it to this path in your Photoshop install:
Adobe/Photshop(x.x)/Presets/Photoshop Actions

3. Extract the <*.atn> files from the <*.zip> file to this same path

4. Start PS and go to the Actions tab (located with the History and Tool Presets tabs in default state)

5. Click on the small radial arrow button to open the Actions drop menu and select "Load Actions"

6. Chose the appropriate <*.atn> file you wish to install from the list and click the "Load" button

7. You now have a new "Action Set" loaded into your PS Presets, and it will load any time you start PS. Opening the "Action Set" folder will reveal all the actions saved in this set.

8. Click on the Play button (the little right arrow) at the bottom of the Acton tab window to run the action.

I will post an attached PS Action example here for dowload. Hopefully others will add to this post, and we can build a library of tutorial actions for people to download.

Note: The version of PS should be included in any action post as it is important for compatibility reasons. All my posts will be done from PS7.0.

The following Action set contains 2 Actions (an Action tutorial on the advantages of using Alpha channels to capture antialiased edges, and an Action to quickly do this on flat images with solid soft edge information in the image, such as B&W tattoos).

Great idea. Thanks Nam.

One thing tho. The second tutorial ("Make alpha" did not work out for me. After I go thru the first message, the following message appears: the object "Selection" is not currently available. Note that I use CS and I have no idea of what's an action.

Yes, you will run into trouble if you have no file for the Action to work on. That action assumes you already have some sort of flat artwork open and ready for the Action to work on.

The first Action (the tutorial) included a file creation line in it, so it will run regardless of what you have open, or not.

I also think that the PS CS version will not be compatible in all instances with version 7.0, even though it is pretty much backwards compatible, which is why I noted that any actions posted here should include the PS version number.

I hope this turns out to be less of a headache rather than more of a headache to post tutorials this way. I have my doubts though, if people are running too many versions of PS, not to mention other applications such as PSP, or Gimp.