Photoshop: CMD-RightClick Layer selection directly to pixel selection

[Art48]

We recently started using PSD-Manager for 3ds max and while it is an awesome tool we discovered a little problem and are looking for a "fix" either via photoshop settings itself or a plugin.

When you have all the masks as layers in PS you can select the layer of the appropriate mask via CMD-RMB and you can select the layer containing the mask you are looking for. If you actually click it, the layer windows jumps to the selected layer and selects it which is generally fine and expected behaviour.
Now when we render complex images there are dozens of mask layers and when you are somewhere in the layer stack, doing your retouching and then want to select a mask, you jump to a complete other layer in the stack and lose track of where you actually were working at the moment and have to scroll back again and look for the layer you were working on.

An idea solution would be to not jump and select the layer when CMD+RMB, but to directly select the pixels of the selected layer. Is there any way to do this via PS settings or a plugin?
Do you have an idea of where else I could post this question and hopefully get a good answer, too?

[Deflaminis]

I am not sure if I'm understanding properly, but you can simply Control Left Click any layer to make it a selection. This won't deselect whatever layers you are on. You can do this to a layer with transparency or on the mask itself. If you hold down shift when you do it (Control-Shift-Left Click), you can add things to the selection. You can save selections too and call them back later with Select->Save Selection. I highly recommend the long out of print book Photoshop Channel Chops, does not disappoint.

[dans]

Art48 means the Ctrl + Right-click workflow as seen in the GIF below. It allows to easily find a layer that is under the cursor. All the psd-manager mask layers will appear in that popup menu.

One could of course not click in the popup menu - but just remember the name of the layer listed. Then look for it in the layers panel and load the selection by CTRL + clicking the layer thumbnail. Then scroll back up to the still active layer. Probably too much scrolling for Art48's taste

To get back to the question. It is not possible to create such a popup menu via a Photoshop plugin or modify its behaviour. Only Adobe can create tools that directly interact with the document window (like a color picker, brush) or preview filters directly within the document.

However, I already experimented with Actions and scripting a bit yesterday and think I found a trick that may be good enough - still needs a little work.

Daniel

[Art48]

Hey.

To me the actual advantage of that RC menu IS that I don't have to scroll up and look for that layer! That is one of the points of it in my opinion. If you got a complex document and 50 masks from PSD-Manager it gets complicated and annoying behaviour. But I totally see that this is not an issue of PSD-Manager.

[dans]

Try this:

Install script:

• Download (Right click > Save Link...): http://www.cebas.org/psdmedia/support/Quick Select (psd-manager).jsxbin
• Copy to: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CC 2017\Presets\Scripts (actual path depends on your Photoshop version)
• Restart Photoshop
  Result: Script should appear as File > Scripts > Quick Select (psd-manager)

Change a required Photoshop option:

• Open History Panel (Window > History)
• Panel menu > History Options...
• Enable option Make Layer Visibility Changes Undoable and click OK

Assign Keyboard Shortcuts:

• Edit> Keyboard Shortcuts...
• Navigate to File > Scripts > Quick Select (psd-manager)
• Assign multiple shortcuts (you can use a different key instead of F3): F3, Shift + F3, Alt+ F3, Alt + Shift F3

Usage:

1. Work somewhere in your PSD file
2. Select a psd-manager masking layer that you want to load as selection (directly in the layers panel or via the Ctrl+right-click on document popup menu)
3. Start the script via menu or shortcut. Hold keys Shift, Alt, Shift+Alt for adding to, subtracting from or intersecting with the current selection.
   Result: Selection is loaded from current layers transparency and the layer that was active before step 2 is selected in the layers palette again.

Known issues:
- Alt key (subtracting from selection) may not work when launched via shortcut

Let me know what you think,
Daniel

[Art48]

Hi, thank you, I will try it as soon as possible

[NicoC]

Clever suggestion, Art48, !
Thanks a lot, Daniel, for taking some time and propose this nice PS script, we'll use it near daily I guess

[Art48]

Alright Daniel, I testet it and it works as intended and is DEFINITELY a step in the right direction and makes working like that easier. Thank you very much for that and providing it for free!

I have a couple of suggestions on improving upon that script, and I don't know if these are technically doable and robust at all, but that's for you to decide:

1) If I have not only a certain layer active but that layers mask, please return me to the mask instead of "just" the layer.
2) What would be awesome is if you can make the script "smarter" in the sense that it doesn't select stuff then returns to the layer, but JUST return to the layer. That way you could for example make your selections with the "traditional" photoshop tools (CMD-Click, CMD-Shift-Click etc all in the Material ID Layers) and then press the button and it returns you to the last selected layer THAT IS NOT Material ID or Object ID or whatever masks layers PSD-Manager creates. I don't know if this is technically doable or robust, you'd propably have to do it by layer names or something but that would be my ideal workflow.

As it is is now it definitely helps, but if you can pull of my suggestion #2 that would be golden

Again thanks for taking the time and providing this script!

[dans]

I haven't forgotten about this one, it is just tricky - so let me explain.

1) If I have not only a certain layer active but that layers mask, please return me to the mask instead of "just" the layer.

Not possible with my current approach in teh script. By the time the script is started a new layer is already selected (and so for example a mask not active anymore). The script remembers which layer you want selected and is going back in the document history so the previous layers become active again. Then the new selection is made. Photoshop doesn't reactivate the mask when going back in the document history to a previous state - so this does not work.

2) What would be awesome is if you can make the script "smarter" in the sense that it doesn't select stuff then returns to the layer, but JUST return to the layer. That way you could for example make your selections with the "traditional" photoshop tools (CMD-Click, CMD-Shift-Click etc all in the Material ID Layers) and then press the button and it returns you to the last selected layer THAT IS NOT Material ID or Object ID or whatever masks layers PSD-Manager creates. I don't know if this is technically doable or robust, you'd propably have to do it by layer names or something but that would be my ideal
workflow.

The reason I included the selection part is that the script need to know what to return to. If you already made a selection or other things then it wouldn't know how far to go back in history. This could be solved by specifically looking at which layer is selected and going back until the selected layer is not one of the psd-manager masks (which would work only if you used layer groups option for output). The other reason is that Photoshop will only restore the layer selection when going back in the document history in certain circumstances. A layer selection change alone isn't recorded in the document history. If this all sounds confusing then the plain reason for that is - that it is.

It would be possible to track layer selection by other means by listening to all events that are going on - but that is more complicated and will require more effort to get right and to not interfere with anything. Doing with just one command seemed quicker in terms workflow to me and was easier to script, because otherwise I will have to save the current selection somewhere else and later restore it. So it ends up being a completely different and new script. I already spend more time then expected on this script because of differences between Photoshop versions. So for the time being I unfortunately can't invest more 'free' time to rewrite this.

Daniel

[Art48]

I haven't forgotten about this one, it is just tricky - so let me explain.

Not possible with my current approach in teh script. By the time the script is started a new layer is already selected (and so for example a mask not active anymore). The script remembers which layer you want selected and is going back in the document history so the previous layers become active again. Then the new selection is made. Photoshop doesn't reactivate the mask when going back in the document history to a previous state - so this does not work.


The reason I included the selection part is that the script need to know what to return to. If you already made a selection or other things then it wouldn't know how far to go back in history. This could be solved by specifically looking at which layer is selected and going back until the selected layer is not one of the psd-manager masks (which would work only if you used layer groups option for output). The other reason is that Photoshop will only restore the layer selection when going back in the document history in certain circumstances. A layer selection change alone isn't recorded in the document history. If this all sounds confusing then the plain reason for that is - that it is.

It would be possible to track layer selection by other means by listening to all events that are going on - but that is more complicated and will require more effort to get right and to not interfere with anything. Doing with just one command seemed quicker in terms workflow to me and was easier to script, because otherwise I will have to save the current selection somewhere else and later restore it. So it ends up being a completely different and new script. I already spend more time then expected on this script because of differences between Photoshop versions. So for the time being I unfortunately can't invest more 'free' time to rewrite this.

Daniel

Hey, thanks for the information, and I really really appreciate that handy script and we're using it very often now.