Shadowing acrylic...

amystoffel

New member
Okay...I feel like a noob here....

So I just noticed that my Acyloholic kit came with something to shadow acrylic...it's a little file called styles. What is it? What do I do with it?????:blink:
 
Is it a file that has an .asl extension? If so, load it into your styles (if you're using PS) and then you can apply it to your acrylic. You can drag and drop it into your PS shortcut to load it. HTH!
 
Okay I found it...loaded it....I swear I never noticed the styles things. I will have to play around tomorrow!
 
It's pretty much the best ever. Traci rocked when she put that in there. It's PERFECT for all your acrylic shadowing needs :)

Just an fyi, for when you do play with. I couldn't get it to work for the longest time. I figured out that just selecting drop shadow from your layers toolbox (down at the bottom, the lil circle with the f) that doesn't pick the acrylic one. When the drop shadow box pops up I have to go to the left hand side of it, and at the top double click on styles, and then I can select a different style (traci's acrylic). Then click on drop shadow underneath the styles on the left, and it'll bring back up the regular drop shadow box with the light source angle, opacity, size, distance, etc.

And if that confused the heck out of you let me know and I'll take some screen shots of what I mean, lol.
 
I just go Window-Styles-and load my style in and voila..it's there! I keep my styles open on my workspace. I use them for every shadow I do lol..I do a shadow I like for something and make a style..so I can repeat it when i want it
 
It's pretty much the best ever. Traci rocked when she put that in there. It's PERFECT for all your acrylic shadowing needs :)

Just an fyi, for when you do play with. I couldn't get it to work for the longest time. I figured out that just selecting drop shadow from your layers toolbox (down at the bottom, the lil circle with the f) that doesn't pick the acrylic one. When the drop shadow box pops up I have to go to the left hand side of it, and at the top double click on styles, and then I can select a different style (traci's acrylic). Then click on drop shadow underneath the styles on the left, and it'll bring back up the regular drop shadow box with the light source angle, opacity, size, distance, etc.

And if that confused the heck out of you let me know and I'll take some screen shots of what I mean, lol.

I'll drink my coffee and then play...otherwise I'm PMing you!
 
:o *lame question ahead* What is the difference between a style and an action?

I'm going to go take a peek at that kit because I would love help shadowing acrylic
 
Mmm...that's kinda tricky. An action is something you run to do what you want. A style is something you add (like a drop shadow or a stroke) to something.
 
I think it's worth buying the element pack just for the acrylic shadowing action. It's great for other stuff, too. And I always like to simplify the layer style to see how the shadow's gonna look flat. I always love it.
 
:o *lame question ahead* What is the difference between a style and an action?

I'm going to go take a peek at that kit because I would love help shadowing acrylic
An action is a set of commands that your program runs and a style is one or more blending options that can be applied to your layers on your canvas (vs having to individually select drop shadows, bevels, strokes, etc). They are both huge time savers. If you want to apply the same drop shadow to several layers, you can highlight those layers and then click on your style and it will apply it to all of those layers. You can also save any styles that you make for future use (very handy). I have both my actions and styles palettes up at all times. I couldn't live without them :)
 
An action is a set of commands that your program runs and a style is one or more blending options that can be applied to your layers on your canvas (vs having to individually select drop shadows, bevels, strokes, etc). They are both huge time savers. If you want to apply the same drop shadow to several layers, you can highlight those layers and then click on your style and it will apply it to all of those layers. You can also save any styles that you make for future use (very handy). I have both my actions and styles palettes up at all times. I couldn't live without them :)
Do you remember Wayne's World? They would bow up and down...We're not worthy, we're not worthy.

Ummm....I want to be you when I grow up. :thumbup: I need things explained like I'm 5 sometimes! Thanks :)
 
Aw, you are so sweet Amy! PS (or any of the programs for that matter) isn't always the most intuitive thing ... and there are always 20 ways to do the same thing, lol.
 
An action is a set of commands that your program runs and a style is one or more blending options that can be applied to your layers on your canvas (vs having to individually select drop shadows, bevels, strokes, etc). They are both huge time savers. If you want to apply the same drop shadow to several layers, you can highlight those layers and then click on your style and it will apply it to all of those layers. You can also save any styles that you make for future use (very handy). I have both my actions and styles palettes up at all times. I couldn't live without them :)

Sheri, thank you for the explanation. Question, I would know it is an action or a style because it will say on the little blue box thingy correct. I just want to make sure I have loaded things in the wrong place. :blink: CS3 blows my mind:blink:
 
I'm pretty sure that if you put an action in the style folder, nothing will happen. It won't show up as a style OR an action.
Styles have .asl for an extension, and actions have .atn for an extension.
 
Sheri, thank you for the explanation. Question, I would know it is an action or a style because it will say on the little blue box thingy correct. I just want to make sure I have loaded things in the wrong place. :blink: CS3 blows my mind:blink:
Sorry, I'm not familiar with the blue box. You can load your actions and styles several ways. You can drag and drop them onto your quick launch bar over the PS icon, you can go to your actions/layers palettes and click on the little arrow in the upper right and go to load actions/styles (navigate to the folder they are stored in) and hit okay or you can do it from one of your drop downs at the top of your program (sorry, I don't have PS in front of me, so I don't remember exactly what it is). You can also do it through your preset manager. When you go to load them, only the appropriate type of files will show up, so you don't have to worry about whether it's a style or an action. If you're loading styles, only .asl files will be visible :) HTH!
 
I'm pretty sure that if you put an action in the style folder, nothing will happen. It won't show up as a style OR an action.
Styles have .asl for an extension, and actions have .atn for an extension.
Col, most people don't know this, but you can put them in any folder! Neither actions nor styles will be "active" as options unless you load them. The folder just serves as a place to navigate too. Most people put them in similarly named folders so they are easy to find for the laoding process :)
 
Col, most people don't know this, but you can put them in any folder! Neither actions nor styles will be "active" as options unless you load them. The folder just serves as a place to navigate too. Most people put them in similarly named folders so they are easy to find for the laoding process :)

Iiiiiiinteresting! LOL! There's my something new learned for today :)
 
May I ask, do you get the style with the acrylic border element set? I bought that one but I don't have the style. Or did it only come with the one set (shapes)? Thanks :)
 
May I ask, do you get the style with the acrylic border element set? I bought that one but I don't have the style. Or did it only come with the one set (shapes)? Thanks :)

I believe it only came with the shapes set. Maybe PM Traci and see if she can hook you up :)
 
Ummmmmm..... forgive me for asking but which kit are we talking about? I have Acrylic-A-Holics...is that the one you are talking about? If so I don't recall seeing that "style" in the folder..........YEP I am a dufus :confused:
 
Ummmmmm..... forgive me for asking but which kit are we talking about? I have Acrylic-A-Holics...is that the one you are talking about? If so I don't recall seeing that "style" in the folder..........YEP I am a dufus :confused:

Yes, the first Acrylic-o-holic. The shapes pack. It should be in there.
 
Another thing most people don't know about PS is that if you put all these additional files (actions, styles, patterns, etc.) into your actually program files it does slow down your program.

I keep all these files in a special folder in my documents and just load what I need for the project I am working on. I save all my new stuff into these files to so that I don't bog down PS.

PS is a RAM cow and if you are having all these extra things it needs to load and callibrate to slows it down.

I also moved all the stuff that was originally in the program folders to my special folder cause most of it I never use and why have the program recognize it and adjust for it when I don't need it to. My program runs so much faster without all of that!!
 
Yea I did know that Paula, but I know not everyone does. I only have a small amount of things in the PS system folders, so mine still runs really fast :)
 
Paula, you are so right about PS being a RAM cow! I had to add another GB of RAM on my machine. So, do you delete them out of your program after each LO?

Admittedly, my program runs very slow when I launch it and power it down (but it's fine when it's open) due to the number of patterns, styles, actions, brushes, etc ... I have loaded. I do try to delete my patterns after I use them and save them as sets. I use my styles and actions way too frequently to not keep them loaded. I removed all of the ones I don't use. For me, part of the design process is to browse everything, so I like to keep a lot in my program for that reason, plus I'm way too lazy to load and delete stuff, lol ... or I just forget about it. I need to get better about shutting my program down daily. I'm sure that doesn't help matters ;)
 
Firstly you should create a special folder in your documents and move all your files from everything your use into it. I have mine organized exactly like the program but I only moved over: swatches, actions, patterns, styles, shapes, brushes, textures and tools cause those are what I use the most and the others I use less so I just left them there.

Then when I am working on a project I only load what I use for that project. When I start the next project I use the replace option and then load what I want for that project. That way I don't have a bunch of stuff on there I am not going to be using all the time.
 
i just skimmed through the previous posts so forgive me if I'm asking a stupid question . . .

I have folder on my desktop for my PS actions. And I loaded them by just dragging them onto my PS workspace. So now they show up in my actions pallette. Does this mean they are actually in PS now and sucking up RAM? I didn't know if I was actually installing them into PS or just making a shortcut, kwim?

thanks
 
Nope that is just a short cut!! All you have done is loaded them into the program when it is open from a different location other than the actual program files. This is good!! :D

What you want to avoid is having all the files in the actual program folders in windows cause that is when the program slows down cause when you open or close PS it actually will load all of them into the program even if you can see them. They are just sorta running in the background and bogging it down!
 
It sounds like we are set up identically! That is exactly how I have my folders set up too. I have them outside of my program and a backup on my EHD. I've created lots of my own sets of actions, brushes, patterns, shapes and styles, but I'm only good about "unloading" patterns since I pretty much make a new set with every kit I use. I do have lots of stuff that is not loaded since I either don't use it or I don't like it (but I can't part with it "just in case", lol). I do keep all of my styles installed and my frequently used actions. I even got rid of most of my third party filters since I hardly ever use them. I'm making baby steps, lol.
 
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