PHOTOSHOP ACTIONS : ACTIONS FOR PHOTOSHOP

The Vampire Blood Action - This one came about by accident one day while trying to achieve some completely different effect. It uses Curves and a few stock filters such as Plastic Wrap in ways you may not have thought of before. Sometimes the usefulness of a filter isn't always apparent when run by itself. You open up one of your vacation photos in PhotoShop and run a filter like Plaster on it and go, "Man!! That's messed up!" You then chalk it up as a filter you probably won't use again. However, when combined with other techniques, in one of several steps in an overall process, some of these filters have some surprising little secrets hidden with in them. You click here, you click there, and all of the sudden, "Whoa, how the heck did that just happen?!!" Just look at this one. This was one where I looked at the output and said "Thank you Adobe for the History Palette." Otherwise, I probably never would have remembered what I had done.

The Hatchet Action
The only thing missing from this one is the saw dust and woodchips. Shown here is the final result of the hatchet action (or lumberjack action if you like). This one is pretty easy to setup. All you need is a 72dpi image with some black text on it, and your ready to chop away.

The Slime Action
This is what happens to you when your daughter watches Nickelodeon for fourteen hours a day. Actually, be sure to step through this one and examine the individual steps. There are some cool techniques here for creating airbrush like highlights and shadows. This one, like the Blood Action, also uses the Plastic Wrap Filter. Yes, there actually is a use for this thing, other then making pictures of your grandmother look like they were wrapped with Saran Wrap to stay fresh in your lunch box. Anyway, let's get started.

Graphic Designers from our Community

The Extreme Bevels Action
It's called the Extreme Bevels Action, and it uses several different techniques to create different types of bevels, embossings, insets, cutouts, etc. These techniques have become the staples of web design over the past few years. You see them in everything from type treatments to interface design to 3D buttons, horizontal rules and bullets. You name it.

The Plaster Action- t's called The Plaster Action. Yes, I know it doesn't look like plaster. I'm not quite sure what it looks like. But that was the whole point. The only reason it's even called the plaster action at all, is because it actually uses the plaster filter. Not a filter you use every day. It's one of those filters that you see the output of in those PhotoShop books, you know the ones where they run every filter on the same photograph and then proudly display the horrifying results side by side in little thumbnail images spread out on about 30 of the most useless pages of the book, and you think 'Holy Crap!! Why the Hell would I ever want to do that.' Yep, the plaster filter isn't one that jumps out at you as being very useful. And for the most part, I've found that it really isn't. Neither is the ocean ripple or photocopy filters for that matter. But, I did manage to use all three of them in this one effect. (Did I mention the fact that I don't sleep much?) The plaster filter itself is kind of like a shinny cross between the the emboss and lighting effects filters.

The Electric Light Action - Download and load it into your Actions Palette. You will want to start with a new 8x5 inch document with some decent sized text on it. Anything too small and you will loose detail. For this one, I used Jokerman at about 200 points. I tweaked it a bit in Illustrator and brought it into back into PhotoShop for the final effect. My original, shown here reduced for the Web, was actually 8x8 inches. If you want, you can click on it and download a full size copy to try this out on.

The Explosion Action - If you have looked at some of the other actions that we have done, like blood, slime and hatchet, then you knew I wasn't gonna be happy until I got to blow something up. Well, put your ear plugs in and watch out for flying debris, because here's The Explosion Action.

The Peeling Paint Action
Apparently, this text is going to need another coat. Please refrain from digging your finger nail into this one and flicking off any more paint. Believe it or not, this one does have a few useful techniques in it. I know at first glance this one looks about as useful as the Note Paper Filter run on a picture of your dog, but, check it out anyway.

The Chrome and Gold Actions
This action was inspired by those little chrome plates on the back of cars that tell you what kind of car the person in front of you is driving. You know the ones that are reflecting the sun directly into your eyes at 7:00 in the morning during rush hour traffic.

The Water Action- The Water Action. (Funny, nobody ever asked about the Peanut Butter and Crackers Action. Must not be a big demand for that look, I guess.) Anyway, there are actual many techniques for doing water and other transparent surfaces, but I found this one the easiest to put into an action. Again this one uses most of the same stock Photoshop filters and techniques that can be found in many of the actions posted on this site. This one uses Guassian Blur and Levels to smooth and round out the letters and droplets, Curves to created the shinny look, Plastic Wrap for a few added specular highlights and Pinch to warp the background under the letters.

The Cutout and Outlined Actions
The Cutout Action has a couple of useful techniques in it, in particular, the trick used to create the lines that will be cutout in the outer shell of the letters. It uses a patterned fill blended with a version of the letters to create the cutout channel in the shape of the outer shell.

The Copper Syrup Action- This action by itself is really not overly useful (unless, of coarse, you actually manufacture pancake syrup made out of blue and gold copper), however, there are some very cool techniques in this one that rely heavily on image calculations and composite modes.

The Dried Snake Skin Action
There may be a bit of manual labor required to set up the Dried Snake Skin Action, it depends on the font you use. As you can see from my original in figure 2, I used a font that is already a bit distressed looking. If you use a different font, such as the one in figure 3, you can use steps one two and three to distress your type before running the action. This will enhance the dried, curled look. If you click on figure 1, you can view the full size version. There is always a touch of detail lost when I resize these for the Web, so I like to include the original. I created this on a 10in x 10in 72dpi document with plenty of white space around it.

FilmStrip Action! - The FilmStrip Action 1.0 takes three images of your own choice and makes a negative. There are three different actions included in this file. One makes a filmstrip shown in a perspective view like the one shown above this text. The two other effects are shown here.

3D Action!- 3D Action! is perfect for making web interfaces and cool 3D buttons. By making paths or using selections you can turn all kinds of shapes into 3D in no time at all. Go to the tutorial section and follow a 3D tutorial to learn how you can get the most out of the actionset.

Puzzle Action!- This is my first attempt at an action set that makes different jigzaw puzzle effects. I have made two tutorials for you, a basic tutorial and an advanced tutorial showing you how to use the actionset. Follow these tutorials and you'll be making cool "puzzle images" in no time at all!

Cloud Text Action - The Cloud text action can be used to make "seethrough" text or just soft text in any colour you like. Follow the instructions in the documentation included in the distribution file.

Bevel-it! 1.0
This action bevels your text. It is also perfect for making buttons. Examples of buttons made with this action is shown below. Instructions and info on how to get the best result using this action is included in the documentation in the distribution file.

Edge Collection 1.1
Edge Collection 1.1 is a set of ten borders. Each border is shown below. The difference between version 1.0 and 1.1 is that the newest version doesn't crop the image as much as the first version.

Edge Collection 2.1
Edge Collection 2.1 is a set of ten borders. Each border is shown below.The difference between version 2.0 and 2.1 is that version 2.1 doesn't crop the image as much as the first version.

Edge Collection 3.1 - Edge Collection 3.1 is a set of ten borders. Each border is shown below.The difference between version 3.0 and 3.1 is that version 3.1 doesn't crop the image as much as the first version.

Shape Collection 1.0 (Under development)- The Shape Collection actionset is currently under development. It is fully functional but has few shapes included.

Frame-it! 1.0
Frame-it! 1.0 does not crop the original image and you can choose between gold, silver, red, green and blue frames.

WoodFrames 1.0- WoodFrames 1.0 is a collection of six actions adding wood frames to your pictures. There are three actions for landscape orientated pictures, and three actions for portrait orientated pics. The actions apply a thick, medium or thin wood frame to your photos.

Do It Yourself Edges 1.1- Do It Yourself Edges is one of the most versatile actions I have ever made. You draw your own edges using the mouse and the paitbrush tool.

Fundy.net - Photoshop Action Pack- The Photoshop Action Pack is simply a collection of my miscellaneous Photoshop actions (ATN files). Each action is described below. Download and installation instructions are provided at the bottom of the page.

ActionFX's Actions for Photoshop 6
Free Photoshop actions to use for Photoshop 6.

ActionFX's Actions for Photoshop 5 and 5.5- Free Photoshop actions to use for Photoshop 5 and 5.5

About.com - Symmetrical Photos - Free Photoshop Action- The symmetry action enlarges the canvas and then duplicates and mirrors the original image vertically and horizontally to create symmetry. Try cropping the original in an unusual way before running the action for some interesting results. Compatible with Photoshop 6.0 and higher. An example is shown here. Click the image to go to the download page.

Photoshop Action Page
The Actions Shown on this page look good with a black background. But your background isnt always black now is it, well if you want a action with a white background

About.com - Sue's Cartoon Actions- These small Web images do not portray the effects as nicely as they will appear when applied to a larger image. Five cartoon effects are included in the action set. You will need to highlight the actual action (not the set) in the actions palette before the play option will become available. If you like these cartoon effects, check out my tutorial and kit for adding text bubbles and speech balloons to your photos.

About.com - Sue's Photo Effects Actions
These small Web images do not portray the effects as nicely as they will appear when applied to a larger image. Six artistic effects are included in the action set. You will need to highlight the actual action (not the set) in the actions palette before the play option will become available. The Paint by Numbers effect has two versions, one for Photoshop 6.0 and another for Photoshop 7.0.

About.com - Sue's Action Set #1- Sue's Action Set #1

Photoshop Monochrome Conversion Actions- Photoshop offers the ability to record a series of regularly used image manipulations as an action file. These actions can be replayed on any image and allow processing steps to be applied consistently and without having to remember complex multiple stage operations. I've developed a number of Photoshop actions for conversion of colour images to black and white. You can click on the links below to download these actions to try out on your own images.

Action Addiction - Action CD
A collection of actions for use with Photoshop 4 and above, some are free whilst others are available for just a few dollars on the Photoshop Stuff CD. It would also be nice to know where they are being used so drop the creator an email and let them know.

Photoshop action to add copyright - On the fuji talk forum on dpreview there was a discussion about how to automate a copyright notice on a batch of images. I think this should be quite easy in photoshop if you follow the next steps:

Photoshop action for theme preview- I have created photoshop action that makes nice preview from theme screenshot. Someone might find this usefull.

Photoshop Actions for enhancing your digital images - Here is a description of all of the actions contained in the Canon EOS-1D Actions set.