Adobe, Photoshop (25.6.0), Why Is "Make Frames From Layers" Completely Out Of Whack?

 Adobe Photoshop 25.6.0 weirdness...

Adobe, what on earth are you thinking? I have stills, numbered 001 through 005. I use File / Script / Load Files into Stack.

I select my 5 pictures, click on Sort By Name, and OK.

Photoshop imports all 5 slides and stacks them in order, great. I now have 5 layers with 001 at top, and 005 at the bottom. So far so good.

001 being selected, I click on Create Frame Animation. The Timeline populates with 001 as the first image of the animation, OK.

Then I go to the Timeline hamburger menu, click and select Make Frames From Layers.

Photoshop populates the Timeline with 5 frames, except... they are in REVERSE ORDER! 👀😡 👿 005, 004, 003, 002, 001.

Why Adobe?

So then I have to add a step, select all the frames in the animation, click again on the hamburger and select Reverse Frames. Now it's in the correct order.

This behavior DOES NOT MAKE ANY SENSE. Why would we want to sequence images in reverse order as default? Seriously?

See for yourself.

Photoshop Power User Tips - Layer, Smart Object, Replace Content and Relink to File

 When you have an image embedded into a Photoshop project as Smart Object and you have resized it and done some work on it. How to swap for another image all the while keeping the work you've done?

Easy: Select the smart object/layer, in the Menu, go to Layer, Smart Object, Replace Contents and Select the new image.

That's it! And it's powerful. That's particularly handy when doing BD or DVD chapter menu pages with thumbnails.

In addition, Relink to File will create a link as oppose to embed the image into your project.

Photoshop CC 19.1.2 Quick Export Gets Stuck at Times

Is it just me or Photoshop File/ Export/ Quick Export as PNG is sometimes not functioning for unknown reasons?

It works, it works, and then it doesn't... In my case this is a very inconsistent and annoying behavior, the only cure is to Quit and Restart Photoshop.

I know its not the latest update (19.1.3 is the current), but I'm not ready to upgrade this machine yet. Are you experiencing something like this on your system? Curious.

How to Find and Install Previous Versions of Apps in Adobe Creative Cloud 2018

From the Creative Cloud App Manager, select the Apps Tab and select either All Apps, or My Apps.

Next to each app, you will see a button marked Open with a small arrow/triangle to its right.

Click on the triangle, it will reveal a short pull down menu. In the case of Photoshop CC, you will see:

- View Tutorials
- Other Versions
- Uninstall

Click on Other Versions and you will see a list of available previous versions for installation.

Click on Install to Install the version of your choice.

Note that the list depends on the App. Audition CC (2018) for example only offers CC 6.0 and CS6 5.0

How to apply Adjustment Layers to a single Layer or Group in Photoshop? ...Clipping Mask!

The Adjustment Layers are great, but they modify all layers that are staked below. How to exclude some layers form the adjustment?

Easy: Select the Adjustment Layer, and "Create Clipping Mask" (Alt+Command+G) and the Adjustment Layer will now clip to the underlaying Layer or Group selectively, without altering other Groups or Layers.  Neat.

You can do the same by clicking on the left bottom icon of the Adjustment Layer Properties Panel:

Another way is to hover over the space between the Adjustment Layer and the Layer or Group below it in the Layer Panel, hold "Option" and you will see the Create Clipping Mask small icon. Click on it.

Note that it is reversible: you will now see the "reverse / undo" Create Clipping Mask icon, click on it and the Adjustment Layer is back to "normal" - affecting every layer below - mode.

FCPX (10.1.4) Ken Burns Effect snafu with stills

Again FCPX screws up with animated stills using the Ken Burns effect.

If I have a still that's in a Storyline, chances are that FCPX will not behave properly.
In my case it scales the image wrong.  Taking the still out of the Storyline and bingo, everything is fine.

What I've noticed with the Ken Burns is that when it is applied to a photo that's been retouched externally, for ex. a photo sent to Photoshop and cropped/rotated and then saved, it updates fine in FCPX but the KB is all fucked up and shows the Start and End frames with improper Aspect Ratio.
When this happens, the only thing I found to fix this is to over cut with the still from the Browser.

If the retouched photo is in a Storyline, every other photo in the Storyline is affected, i.e. framed improperly.  Again, the only way I find to fix this is to remove the photos from the affected Storyline.  I can even bring them back into the Storyline and they stay fine.

Another thing about the KB visual representation is that it overrides the other effects.  So If I apply a rotation on a still, and then a KB, the KB user interface does not take the rotation into account. Note that the rotation is applied after I close the KB UI window.   I can't work without seeing what I'm doing, so it forces me to go to Photoshop.

Photoshop Smart Object

    How to create Smart Objects in Photoshop:
Right-Click onto a Layer into the Layer window, Select: Convert to Smart Object.
Any Filter applied to the Smart Object Layer is added as an Effect and can be turned on/off.
Yeah! This saves me having to duplicate Layers ad-finitum just in case something goes wrong... 

Save file as Tiff with layers, it will relink into FCP, with the Effect(s) turned on/off reflecting the status in Photoshop.  Combined with a set of actions, that can be a fast way to automate stills treatment.  Non-permanent, very useful.