How do I “reverse engineer” actions in Photoshop?
Say I find an action I really like. Is there a way I could figure out how this action was created? I could really learn a lot about techniques that way.
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I honestly am not 100% photoshop knowledge here. However, I know you would need the original edited photoshop file. not a .jpeg of .gif but the .psd file. Once you have that it should just be a matter of running the undo command all the way back to where you want the photo, untouched or slightly edited.
If you click on the action once you have it loaded, you can then see the steps used in the file in the action palette window.. However, this isn’t necessarily going to help. If, for instance, other files need to be loaded to be used by the action while in use you won’t necessarily have them loaded on your system.
If the action has been fully commented then you might be able to pick up on the files that way, but I’ve found that not all actions (especially commercial ones) are done in this way. A lot of designers keep this sort of data only for customers. You’ll probably get an additional text file or PDF sold along with the action detailing exactly what’s being done, when, how and what needs to be done to the PSD file to get the action to work correctly (for example mode changes, layer styles applied between steps etc)..
You’re right in as much as this can be a great learning tool, but a lot fo designers are now getting wise to this, and are protecting their work in other ways. So, double click the action to see the steps, but it might not be of much use to you.
Hope This of Help
Scots