SCRIPT TO FIX SEAMS [Archive]

dynafx

25-05-2005, 08:21 PM

PHOTOSHOP RESOURCE 
HOW TO FIX TEXTURE SEAMS WHEN SEVERAL LAYERS ARE INVOLVED 
With a script to apply offset to several layers at once with ease. 
created on 03.05.2005 
Updated:
25.05.2005 - New Version (1.1) Now with Photoshop 7 support! 


Hi
all. To those who thought I was dead, it's flash news, I'm not. This
time I'm going to provide you with a nice little script that will bring
happiness to your household. I hope this may prove useful to at least
some of you. I know you're somewhere out there.

It
is quite bit of a nuisance that the wonderful guys at Adobe do not let
us swing around our canvas ever so freely. I think it would not be that
hard for them to code a continuous canvas on edges so strokes at one
edge affect the opposite side, and you could be panning around an
infinite tile of your canvas (of course all of them being optional).
Some texture maker programs has this superb functionality, with one
little disadvantaget: They are not Photoshop.

We
can use Offset filter in Photoshop to offset out layers and fix the
seams. But this is tedious when several layers are involved. It can't
be properly saved as a Photoshop Action either, as there are variables
that change with each document.

Now this is
where scripting comes in. PS7, CS and CS2 comes with scripting
functionality. CS2 seems to have improved on it. It is still somewhat
lacking important features for my own good tho. The reference they
provide is really good, the possibilities are endless. I thought I
could improve my scripting skills while providing a nice new function
to Photoshop users, so I came up with the Offset All Visible Layers
Script.

You can <a href="http://www.hesido.com/tutorials/files/offsetallvisiblepsscriptlatest.zip" target="_blank">download the Offset All Visible Layers PS7/CS/CS2 script v1.1</a> here.

Extract the contents somewhere on your harddisk

For Photoshop CS2, you can just double click the file and it will work from anywhere if Photoshop is open.

You can run the respective versions of the scripts for PS7, CS or CS2 from Photoshop -> File -> Scripts -> Browse.
There are three versions, one for PS7, one for CS and the last for CS2.
Please do not use CS2 version with Photoshop CS, as this would crash
the script (But not anything else hopefully).

You can also copy the appropriate version for your Photoshop to your Photoshop folder on your harddisk -> Presets -> Scripts 

These scripts should work also on Macintosh computers.

I
am so tired I won't write anymore! Here is what it does (The user
interface seen here is for CS and CS2 versions, for PS7, see the notes
at the bottom of the page): 

<div ="imagealigner">
<img src="http://www.hesido.com/tutorials/offsetallimages/boxtex1.png" alt="Three Layered Box Texture" height="309" width="300" border="0">
</div>

<div ="imagealigner">
<img src="http://www.hesido.com/tutorials/offsetallimages/boxtex2.png" alt="Using Offset All Visible Layers Script with default settings" height="201" width="420" border="0">
</div>

<div ="imagealigner">
<img src="http://www.hesido.com/tutorials/offsetallimages/boxtex3.png" alt="Seam Areas that need to fixed" height="309" width="300" border="0">
</div>

<div ="imagealigner">
<img src="http://www.hesido.com/tutorials/offsetallimages/boxtex4.png" alt="After fixing and running the script again" height="566" width="300" border="0">
</div>

This
comes in real handy when you are doing seamless texture work and you
can fix your multi layered texture's seams without going out of
Photoshop. This could be done by hand per layer but it is tedious and
this script computes half of the canvas by default so you needn't worry
about calculating.

Another good use for this is fixing the seam for a cylindirical UV map. Here's a rough example: 

<div ="imagealigner">
<img src="http://www.hesido.com/tutorials/offsetallimages/uvtexture.jpg" alt="Working with a cylindical UV map" height="685" width="380" border="0">
</div>

Important notes:

<ul>
<li> With its defaults settings, when run twice, the layers are restored to their normal positions, so
do not freak out if your layers look haywire when you run the script
the first time. Just run the script with the same layers visible, and
everything snaps back to normal. </li><li ="stronger">Make
a snapshot of your document or save it just in case, and run the script
twice to see if your document is correctly offset. If everything is
normal, then your document is ok to use with the script.</li><li>The script only works for visible layers. This is not a bug, but a feature.</li><li>The script does not move text layers (PS7/CS/CS2) and smartobjects (CS2) as they need to be rasterized before offsetting.</li><li>The
script will attempt to rasterize any vector mask layers that are
visible. If you do not want the script to work halfway through because
you cancel a rasterize operation, simply hide those layers..</li><li>If
there are visible layers that has pixels outside the canvas, the script
will ask whether to crop-fix the issue or cancel the operation. Such
layers cannot be properly offset along with the other layers. (CS and
CS2 only)</li><li>ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR WORK. I can't be held responsible for the malfunction of the script.</li><li>There
are clear instructions for you to tweak the scripts in the script file.
You do not have to know scripting to customize the script to your needs.</li>
</ul>

Differences in PS7 version:

<ul>
<li>Because
of the limitations of PS7 scripting, the user cannot give specific
pixel input to the script. The script does offset by half of document
size by default if the user confirms two offset dialouge boxes. </li><li>Because
there is no way to determine layer size and position, the script cannot
check for layers out of the canvas, so it does a crop by default. (But
you can tweak the script so it doesn't.)</li><li>Only for PS7, for the script to work, you may have to install the <a href="http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=1535" target="_blank">Photoshop 7.0 Scripting Plugin for Mac</a>, and <a href="http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=1536" target="_blank">Photoshop 7.0 Scripting Plugin for Windows</a>. </li>
</ul>
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<a href="http://www.hesido.com/base.php?page=tutorials&sub=offsetall" target="_blank"> http://www.hesido.com/base.php?page=tutorials&sub=offset all</a>

dynafx

25-05-2005, 08:43 PM

<img src="http://www.cgnetworks.com/stories/2005_05/genetica2/banner.jpg" border="0"> 
Seamless texture editor Genetica 2 released 
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Related links: 
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