Workflow

Workflow Automation

Photoshop Droplets: The Batch Processing Tool You're Probably Ignoring

A few years back I had a client, a mid-size e-commerce brand, send over 500 product images on a Thursday afternoon. They needed them web-ready by Monday morning: resized to 1200x1200px, converted to sRGB, sharpened for screen, and saved as optimized JPEGs. Four steps, 500 images. I’d built the action the previous weekend specifically for this kind of job. What I hadn’t built yet was a proper droplet. So instead of dragging a folder and walking away, I was babysitting the batch processor for three hours, restarting it every time a filename tripped something up.

May 18, 2026

Actions

How to Record Complex Multi-Step Actions

Recording a simple Photoshop action is straightforward — hit record, do your steps, hit stop. But complex multi-step actions that work reliably across different images require planning and a few techniques most people skip. Plan Before You Record The biggest mistake is hitting the record button and figuring it out as you go. Complex actions need a written plan. Open a text file and list every step in order. Note which steps need user input (like selecting an area) and which should run automatically.

March 11, 2026

Workflow Optimization

Building Custom Photoshop Presets That Actually Save You Time

Building Custom Photoshop Presets That Actually Save You Time I’ve watched a lot of creators accumulate hundreds of presets they never use. Their Curves panel becomes a graveyard of “maybe someday” adjustments. Here’s the thing: custom presets only work when they solve actual problems in your real workflow. Let me show you how I build presets that stick around and actually get used. Know What Problem You’re Solving Before you save anything, ask yourself: “Am I doing this adjustment sequence more than twice a month?

January 27, 2026

News

Building Cinematic Worlds: A Matte Painting Workflow That Actually Works

I’ve been diving into matte painting techniques lately, and I’ve noticed something frustrating: most tutorials skip over the structural stuff. They show you the final result, but not the why behind the layering decisions and compositional choices that make a cinematic environment actually feel believable. That’s why I got genuinely excited learning about how professional concept artists like Killian Prevost approach this discipline from the ground up. It’s not just about beautiful renders—it’s about building a repeatable, organized workflow that scales whether you’re creating a game environment, film concept, or personal illustration.

January 26, 2026

Workflow Optimization

Automating Photoshop with Scripts: The Workflow Game-Changer I Wish I'd Known Earlier

I spent three years doing the same tedious tasks in Photoshop before I realized how much time I was actually wasting. Resizing images, applying the same adjustments, renaming layers, exporting to multiple formats—it added up to hours every single week. That’s when I dove deep into Photoshop automation scripts, and honestly, I’m kicking myself for not starting sooner. The Difference Between Actions, Presets, and Scripts Before we get into the heavy lifting, let me clarify something that confused me at first.

January 14, 2026