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Nested Smart Objects

So let's start to try to explore. Some of the things we can do is smart objects that are special. Here is a logo for a book that I wrote many years ago. It was called up to speed because I wrote about only the new features of a program when they updated it, and so it would get you up to speed. And if you look here, this is made out of multiple layers. I have a layer here that just puts color in the letter. In the word to here I have the actual white text below that I have, ah, one that has motion blur on it below that, this shape and so on. Now, I didn't use smart objects objects when this was created cause I didn't make it. But had I been there, I would have used smart objects. And if I had, then this layer that has a motion blur on it, which is if I turn off some of these other layers, you'll see it right here. This has got the motion blur filter applied to it. Well, unfortunately, I can't tell what setting was used when the blur was applied, and if I think it's too much or not enoug...

h. I can't change it because it wasn't a smart object. If it was, I'd be able to in. Let's just look out a few of the things that might do here. If I select one of these layers and I attempt to come up to the edit menu, choose, transform and choose a choice called Warp, you see that it's available here. That's because I only have one layer selected, but watch what happens when I select multiple layers. If I select all except for the layer that contains the red background, then I go to the edit menu. Choose transform, noticed that warp is completely great out because warp can only work on a single layer at once. Also, if I go here to the filter menu, notice that every single filter is also great out because they can only apply to a single layer at a time. That is, unless I first choose layer smart objects convert to smart object. Now, if you have more than one layer selected at the time you do that, then it's gonna look as if those layers have been merged together into a single layer. So watch my layers panel and you'll see all the layers that are currently selected suddenly become one. And that particular layer has that special icon in the corner to indicate it's a smart object. Now that I've done that, if I go to the edit menu, I can choose transform. And now warp is available because what I'm working on looks to be a single layer. So warp works just fine. I Maybe I come up here and choose unusual choice there just to get a little different. Look, Crestor Turner, enter. I can also go to the filter menu in every filter that's here is available. So if I wanted to do a motion blur on this no problem whatsoever. So there are certain features within photo shop where smart objects help because it allows you to apply things to multiple layers. But now what if I decided I needed to make a change? Maybe I don't want the letters T 02 How for the color in it. I want them to be white. Well, if this was not a smart object, now how would I get in there and isolate just those two letters that are there and change their color toe white. Well, this has got blurring on it and warping on it and everything else. Well, what happens is when you turn something into a smart object, it takes the original contents of whatever it was you had selected. And it does the equivalent to doing a save as saving it as a separate file. You can access that separate file by double clicking on the thumbnail image for a smart object. So if I double click right here, another document is gonna open, and it's going to contain the original layers that were put into that smart object. And so, if here's my original layers, the top most layer was one that was changing the colors of letters T O. And I'll just turn off the eyeball for that particular layer. Then, if I close this file, I'll just click on the little X that's up here in the tab. It'll ask me, Hey, would you like to save those changes when it's saving the changes, it's not going to save them onto my hard drive. It's going to save them back to where they just came from. And if you think about When this document appeared, it appeared when I double clicked on the thumbnail image for that smart object. So when I choose save here, it doesn't mean save on my hard drive. It means save back into that layer that I was working on earlier so I can choose save. And now do you notice that the letters T o R. Now white if I were to choose, undo by typing commands? E, you'll see that now they're back, or I will I will choose reapply and you see the change that I've made. Not only that, but the changes I've done as faras, the warping goes, and the filter that's been applied are also not permanent. Because if you look in my layers panel that I see the word motion blur can turn off its eyeball, and there it is without it, and I can go to the edit menu. I can choose, transform and choose warp, and all I need to do here is if I look at this, there's a number up here, says Bend, 50. I'll bring it down to zero. That means don't bend it with warping, and the only thing I need to do, in addition to that, issues my move tool to move it back down. But those changes that I've made are just settings attached to the layer. And if I go back to the same source that created them, I can change the settings. I can change the amount of warping in this case, bringing it down to zero. Or, in the case of Motion Blur, I could turn the eyeball back on next to it and just double click on the name Motion Blur. And I would be looking at the settings as if I never had left this to see what I can get. So a smart object, remember, is gonna take if you have multiple layers and it's gonna look like they got merged into one. What really happened is they got encapsulated into a separate document. It's a second top document that is not a separate file on your hard drive. It's just embedded in that layer. In order to get to the original contents, you double click on the thumbnail for the layer, and it appears as a separate document, a separate window. You can make changes to when you save it. It saves it right back into the layer it came from. And so that's how smart objects work. Takes a while for your brain to get around that. But let's look at a few other things related well before I showed you that I wasn't able to warp more than one layer in times, it was just great out. Same with filters, will. Sometimes there are other things that messed up like that. In this case, I want a warp. This it's only one layer, so it should have no problem working it. And if I go to the image menu or sorry, the edit menu choose transform. You see warp is available. But watch what happens when I warp this. I'm gonna warp it, and you can warp it manually by dragging on these little handles. Or you can come up here and just choose a preset. And then there's an amount called Bend that allows you to bend it. But notice when I warp this image. Sure, this shape that was there got distorted. It used to be close to a square, and now it looks more like one of those Asian fans. But the pattern that had been applied to it did not get bent didn't get warped. So I'm gonna choose, undo and let's look in our layers panel to see how this image is constructed. Well, here's a shape, and then attached to the shape is something called a pattern overlay. You add things like a pattern overlay by going to the bottom of your layers. Pound clicking on the letters F X and here's a long list of effects you can apply, like drop shadows. In one of those choices is a pattern overlay, and I couldn't fill this with any kind of pattern I want, but I'll click cancel to keep the one that was there. The problem is, when I warp to this, that pattern is just a setting attached to the layer, and it warped the shape of the layer. But then that setting attached to later just updated and it didn't get warped. So what I'm gonna do is with that layer selected, I'm gonna go to the layer menu, choose smart objects and choose convert to smart object. When I do that, watch what happens in the Layers panel. You notice that the part that's used to but she's undo say pattern overlay seemed to go away. It's not that it's gone, because if you look at it, you can still see the pattern applied to that object. But it's inside the smart object, and so therefore Photoshopped, as far as its concerned, when it sees that layer it can't see inside of it, it can only see what it would look like if he merged those layers together into one piece. That's what it thinks it's working on. And that's why filters can apply to smart objects, and warping can apply, even though there might be more than one layer in there. But now let's see what happens when I come up here and I attempt to warp it. If I warp and I use the same setting, which I think I used, I can't remember it was Arcor Arch, But I'll use Arc. You see that the pattern that is contained within that smart object is being bent along with the shape. So sometimes you're gonna find that you need to put something into a smart object just to take some setting that's attached to it like a filter, for instance, and get something else to be able to act upon it that usually it wouldn't in. This is one instance, which would be a pattern

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