The other day I had some rotoscoped footage we wanted to enhance with Topaz Video. The transfer went well, but sadly Topaz Video is very pernickety when it comes to retaining alpha or opacity. Although it’s apparently a feature, I’ve never been able to make it work reliably. Hence I thought I’ll use the original …
In the above video I’ll explain how to use depth maps created in 3D rendering software to infer an accurate Depth of Field effect in Photoshop. This can be useful if you want to avoid re-rendering when you want to change the effect, or if your rendering software isn’t accurate enough (looking at you there, …
I’ve been using Premiere Pro since version 5. That was before it became “Pro” or CS. It was just called Premiere back then. At the time of writing that’s been around 25 years ago, perhaps even longer. As such, it really isn’t easy for me to un-learn all that muscle memory. Premiere is such a …
When you open an EXR file in Photoshop, it will ask you how the alpha channel should be interpreted (as Alpha channel or as Transparency). It’s great to have a choice, but it’s utterly crippling when you want to bulk open several hundred EXR files. There’s no native way to suppress this dialogue, or set …
In the latest release of Premiere Pro 2024, Adobe thought it would be a great idea to “refresh” the UI colours we see in the timeline and on labels. As a long term Premiere user of nearly 30 years, those innovations annoy the living daylight out of me. I’m all for updates, but they should …
A few versions ago Adobe have introduced this floaty little palette in Photoshop. It felt very out of place when I first used it, but might be potentially helpful – if only it wouldn’t constantly get in the way. It’s easy to disable with the three-little-dots menu on the right, whereupon it’ll just disappear and …
If you copy and paste a layer, Photoshop will just create another layer. It essentially adds it to the current viewport. If we have something like a black and white image and want to use this to mask some off an existing layer, we need to view the layer mask first, then paste so that …
By default, Celsys let you launch the CLIP Studio app, which is sort of a launcher app to manage your services with them. In there is an option to launch CLIP Studio Paint, but some of us prefer a one-click solution to the actual painting app. Thankfully that’s doable, you just need to know where …
I had this issue with an empty Logitech Options window popping up whenever I launch Premiere Pro. The window does nothing and just sits there on top of other windows when Premiere is in focus. I don’t use that integration at all, and wanted to get rid of it. Turns out there’s an easy fix …
You learn something new every day! I’ve been using Premiere for over 20 years and have come across an issue today that made me question my sanity: I had applied a simple brightness effect on a clip, but the adjustment wasn’t showing in my program monitor. How bizarre! It never did this before. This is …
This morning Photoshop had spontaneously updated itself to a new version, thankfully with an updated Splash Screen that no longer featured an Amazon ad. I was happy about the retro car and the eighties background! I had some work to do so didn’t check out the new features just yet, hoping everything was going to …
I forgot how to see the total duration of multiple clips or sequences in Premiere Pro, so I thought I’d best make a note for when I need this feature next time. It’s super easy actually: open the Info Panel and dock it somewhere head over to your Project Panel and select as many clips …
When I started using the iPad version of Clip Studio Paint it wasn’t exactly obvious to me how to access cloud files from providers other than the CLIP Cloud. Whenever I tried to open a file, all I saw was two options: on my iPad iCloud Drive (Apple Cloud) I’ve just figured out how to …
Photoshop’s Blending Options are so powerful and useful, it’s easy to forget that there are other ways to accomplish the same thing. Case in point: the Stroke Effect, which lets us create an outline around an object. It’s essentially an outline we can apply, which can be used to separate a transparent object from the …
Layer masks work differently across our favourite 2D apps, which can be a little – shall we say – infuriating at times. In Photoshop for example, I’m used to drawing on Layer Masks to hide/reveal something underneath the current layer. Black hides (masks) the current layer, white reveal what’s underneath it, and as such it …
I’ve had a bit of a computer mishap recently that required me to install Corel Painter seemingly on more computers than I actually own. In use are my Mac and my main PC, but due to hard drive switching and frequent re-installations, Corel’s automated license authentication system thought I was using it on more machines. …
PaintShop Pro is trying to help new users by giving them lots of choices when the app launches. This gets old fast, especially when you’re being peppered with sales nag screens every time you open the programme. Thankfully there are ways to configure this behaviour, albeit somewhat hidden. Let me show you where. Removing the …
I’ve recently tried my hand at using ParticleShop with Photoshop, and it worked out of the box after installation. This was not the case with PaintShop Pro though, where an additional step is required (but they don’t exactly tell you this in the installation). Here’s what we need to do to make it work: Head …
The Vignette option has been slightly hidden in Canva recently. Here’s how you can find it: select the background layer of your image click Edit Image under Adjust, select see all a long list of options opens up, one of which is the Vignette Here’s an example of what a Vignette can do for your …
I’ve recently picked up a fantastic deal on Corel Painter 2021 through Humble Bundle. If you’re fast you might still be able to pick it up yourself from here. Among the many goodies were various brushes and paper packs that can be installed. While the papers had an automatic installer for Windows, it was different …
Every few years I end up with having to re-create my favourite workspace configuration in Photoshop. Without fail, I forget where some settings are hidden that I’ve grown rather fond of. Here’s a quick refresher about how to change those. Hide those scroll bars By default, the document is surrounded by scroll bars. It’s clutter …
Premiere Pro has an interesting feature I’ve just discovered: applying effects to source clips. This is helpful if every sequence you’ve created needs an overall colour correction and you’ve forgotten to apply it during editing. Rather than fix 20 clips that reference the same footage, we can fix the footage and the effect will be …
I keep forgetting how to use Emojis in Photoshop. It’s not all that intuitive, so while it’s fresh in my head, let me make a note of it here. This works for both Emojis as well as special characters. The key thing to remember is that an Emoji is just a regular character typed with …
I’ve been puzzled by something for the longest time: when I inspect my keyboard shortcuts in CLIP Studio Paint, what is defined does not match what I need to press for it to happen. Conversely, defining a custom shortcut will sometimes show a combination I haven’t pressed. That’s just “normal” the Bizarro World of CSP! …
I’ve been having a hard time pasting in special characters from a script in Clip Studio Paint. I mean those that you don’t commonly find on a US keyboard, like German Umlaut characters or French accents. Although the characters arrive where they should via copy/paste from another app, the font does not match. I couldn’t …
To draw with symmetry, we can create a symmetrical ruler and start drawing with any brush we like. When we switch over to the eraser tool however, only one part of our line is erased. In other words, it won’t obey symmetry by default. It’s relatively easy to make that happen, albeit so unintuitive that …
Photoshop has a neat feature that lets us make adjustments only to the layer directly underneath, rather than all layers on the stack. It’s called a Clipping Layer. Clip Studio Paint has the same feature, but it doesn’t work by ALT-clicking in between layers. Instead, right-click on the adjustment layer (left thumbnail, NOT the mask), …
Image Layers can be rotated, flipped and mirrored in Clip Studio Paint. Choose the Object Selection tool (cube icon), then select the layer and take a look at the Tool Properties. There are two icons with arrows here, one to mirror the layer from left to right, the other to flip it upside down. Hope …
Sometimes it can be hand to turn anything that’s created via Blending Options into discreet and separate layers. Things like drop shadows, outer glows, pattern overlays, that sort of thing. That way we can process them separately or make adjustments or erase parts of those constructions that we otherwise couldn’t do. I keep forgetting how …
I just got hold of a Clip Studio TABMATE controller. It’s a little Bluetooth gadget you hold in your left hand while you’re drawing on a tablet with the other (or vice versa). I always wanted one of those so I don’t have to stretch my arm to reach a bazillion shortcut keys, and to …