Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Manual (Page 559)

552 USING PHOTOSHOP CS4
Video and animation
Last updated 1/10/2010
Original layer before using the Split Layer command
Resulting two layers after using the Split Layer command
Group layers in a video or animation (Photoshop Extended)
As you add more layers to your video or animation, you might want to organize them into a hierarchy. One of the
easiest ways is to group the layers. Photoshop preserves the frames in your video or animation in grouped layers.
You can also group a group of layers. Besides nesting your layers in a more complex hierarchy, grouping a group of
layers lets you simultaneously animate the opacity of all the grouped layers. The Animation panel displays a group of
grouped layers with a common opacity layer property.
Grouping video layers in Photoshop is similar to precomposing in Adobe After Effects.
❖ In the Layers panel, select two or more layers and do one of the following:
• Choose Layer > Group Layers.
• Choose Layer > Smart Objects > Convert to Smart Object.
For a video on working with video layers, see www.adobe.com/go/vid0027 .
Rasterize video layers (Photoshop Extended)
When you rasterize video layers, the selected layer is flattened to a composite of the current frame selected in the
Animation panel. Although it’s possible to rasterize more than one video layer at a time, you’ll only be able to specify
the current frame for the topmost video layer.
1 In the Layers panel, select the video layer.
2 In the Animation panel, move the current-time indicator to the frame that you want preserved when you rasterize
the video layer.
3 Do either of the following:
• Choose Layer > Rasterize > Video.
• Choose Layer > Rasterize > Layer.