I remember this being asked before, and if memory serves, there isn’t a way to get the action to record the Alt-Click of the layer mask. I seem to recall that there’s a workaround with more steps, but you would have to load the mask as a selection, create a channel out of it, and then reload that channel or something inane like that.
Well I went back to an action created in photoshop 7 and grabbed the "select current channel > with make visible". I could find now way to create this step in CS2. Maybe its deprecated but even the workaround (view chanels turn off everything except the layer mask channel ) would only work if done in exaclty the right order – I got it working once then not a second time.
I’d love to know if theres a way to create that step mentioned above in CS2 G
but even the workaround (view chanels turn off everything except the layer mask channel ) would only work if done in exaclty the right order
You don’t need to turn off anything.
Here’s what I did…
Start recording.
Control A; Control C; go to channels palette – Create new Channel; click on new channel thumbnail (making it active); paste; Control Click on the channel thumbnail; Control I to invert; Create New Layer (blank); Create Mask from the button at the bottom of the layers palette.
The variable with it is whether or not other channels already exist – to control that, change the name of the channel while recording, so that when you select it, you select the one you named. Also, if you create the channel from the flyout menu of the Channels palette, you can give it a name from the start and avoid other issues if other alpha channels exist.
I couldn’t find how to "select current channel>with make visible" in CS2, or even PS7, for that matter.
Here’s another method Mathias suggested awhile back…
* "Ctrl + click" on the RGB composite in the Channels palette to "load the selection" — essentially the luminosity of the image
* Add a layer mask to a layer, which will be populated with the image’s luminosity
Ah. I knew there was a more elegant workaround, I just couldn’t rememeber it. Thanks Danny.
