Tools

Tools handles the small post-production jobs that eat your time. Open it from the shortcut on Home. Each tool shows whether it works on the whole document or the selected layers, and confirms when it’s done. Every tool that changes the document is a single undo step in the History panel.

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Set up

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Save document as template

Turns the group structure of the open document into a reusable template. See Create a template from a document.

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Manage render elements

Opens the Render elements list.

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On the open document

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Reset layer transforms

Whole document. Bakes every smart object at 100% scale without changing how it looks. Run it after Update renders fitted a larger render into an old footprint and you want the smart objects to read 100% again.

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Collapse groups

Whole document. Folds every group in the Layers panel.

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Extract layer masks

Selected layers. Makes masked groups from the R, G and B channels of the selected multimatte smart objects, using the nametags in their file names (or their layer names). Existing layers and groups with the mask’s name get the mask; otherwise a new group is created. See Masks.

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Masks from Cryptomatte

Whole document. Makes masks from a Cryptomatte on the open document, without updating any renders. Browse the Cryptomatte EXR (and the beauty render too, if the EXR has none), pick mattes in the list or in the image, and press Make masks. Layers and groups already named #name get new masks, and the other mattes get new groups. See Cryptomatte.

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Refresh merged layer

Selected layers. Rebuilds a “stamp visible” layer with smart filters on top of your stack (for example a merged layer carrying Camera Raw or sharpening). It merges everything visible into a new smart object, moves the selected layer’s smart filters onto it, and puts it in the old layer’s place with the same name, opacity, blend mode and visibility. Run it after you change layers below, so your finishing filters apply to the fresh result. The selected layer must have smart filters.

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Convert to smart objects

Whole document. Turns every render element pixel layer (a layer whose name contains an element name) into a smart object, keeping its opacity, visibility and blend mode. Use it on PSDs where the renders were placed as normal layers, so Update renders can work with them.

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Rasterize render elements

Whole document. Rasterizes every render element smart object, keeping its look, opacity, visibility and blend mode. Handy before you hand a PSD to someone who doesn’t need live smart objects.