[Jeff Hinkle]

This was all tested in Photoshop CC on a Mac.

[Christopher Rotter] “Hold Shift + click the top blue bar for toolbar and palette will move them to the nearest edge

What blue bar, the top menu bar ? “

As you drag one palette’s edge to another’s edge a blue bar will appear. If you release the mouse at that point, the palettes will “fuse” together

[Christopher Rotter] “Double click the top blue bar for any palette window will minimize it

Just double-clicking the top of any palette window will minimize it, same as clicking the small double-arrow in the upper-right corner. Maybe it’s blue on Windows, I dunno.

[Christopher Rotter] “Double click the grey background will bring up open file option, Hold Shift+double click will open up the browser.”

New one on me, and didn’t seem to work. Maybe it did in an older version.

[Christopher Rotter] “While using Marquee Tools, hold Alt will make the starting point as a center of the selection ?

I tried this technique couldn’t get this to work !”

Should work. You can even press Opt/Alt after you start to drag and the selection will change to a center-out drag. It doesn’t affect the single-line Marquee tools, if you were trying it with one of those.

[Christopher Rotter] “While Move Tool is selected, hold Shift (Alt+Shift+Right click) can allow rather or not make current layer chain with upper layer.

Did the person who wrote this tip mean, linking layers ?”

I’ve read that about thirty times and have no idea what the person who wrote that tip meant. You can Opt/Alt-click between two layers in the Layers palette to make a clipping group of the two layers (top layer will only appear in the opaque pixels of the layer beneath it)

[Christopher Rotter] “With grid on, click the top left corner of the grid and drag to anywhere on the image to set the pivot, double click on the icon again can reset the pivot”

If you put your pointer in the small gray square in the top left where the rulers meet (rulers must be visible, of course) you can drag a new origin point from there to set a new 0,0 origin. Double-clicking that same square will reset 0,0 to the top left of the image. This does nothing to set a pivot point, though, just the rulers’ origin.

[Christopher Rotter] “Alt drag a step from a serial action can copy it to another action.

Don’t understand and I tried it didn’t work ?”

If you have two multistep Actions, you can Opt/Alt-drag one step from one Action to duplicate the step in another Action. For example, in the standard Default Actions set, twirl open Vignette and Frame Channel. In Vignette, grab the Feather step, hold down Opt/Alt and drag it between the first two steps of Frame Channel. When you see the white line appear between the two steps, you know it’s in place. Release the mouse and the Feather step will now appear in both Actions.

[Christopher Rotter] “What happened to Marlin, remember the easter egg in the olde versions of Ps ?”

His osteoporosis got the better of him, but if you hold Cmd/Ctl and select “About Photoshop…” you can see his beverage of choice.

—
It is easier to destroy than to create.
More fun, too.

[Jeff Hinkle]

Which shortcuts, specifically, are you having trouble with?

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It is easier to destroy than to create.
More fun, too.

[Jeff Hinkle]

First step is to ask the printer what they want for delivery. We do billboards quite frequently and our printer has us typically work at 1/2″=1′ scale at a higher resolution. Start with your printer and ask what they want. Beats guessing. Then build your document to their specs and save according to their directions (color space, file type, etc.)

—
It is easier to destroy than to create.
More fun, too.

[Jeff Hinkle]

Couple ways:
If you just need an inside border, apply the Stroke effect set to Inside. adjust color and thickness to taste.

If you need a separate rectangle, make a selection from your original rectangle, choose Select>Modify>Contract and set the Contract By value to how thick you want the border. You now have a proportional selection from your rectangle.

—
It is easier to destroy than to create.
More fun, too.

[Jeff Hinkle]

Lots of approaches. Here’s one:

First, forget Quick Select, Magic Wand, and the like. You’ve got a nice hard-edged shell, make your selection with the Pen tool. Once you have your selection, make a new layer, fill with your “car” color and experiment with blending modes like Color.

If you’re wanting to do the highlights with effects, you can probably get something close with Bevel set to (approximately)100 Depth, 135 Size, 5 Soften, 90 Angle, 70 Altitude, and the “Ring” or “Double Ring” Gloss Contour.

That said, studying images of car reflections and making them by hand on a separate layer will most likely give better results and more control.

—
It is easier to destroy than to create.
More fun, too.

[Jeff Hinkle]

Composition>Composition Settings and change Starting Timecode to 00

—
It is easier to destroy than to create.
More fun, too.

[Jeff Hinkle]

Organize your brushes in a way that makes sense to you and save them out as collections, then just load the collection(s) you need for your current project.

—
It is easier to destroy than to create.
More fun, too.

[Jeff Hinkle]

If I understand what you’re asking: put your new layer above the lever with the locked transparency (which need not be locked for this to work). Opt/Alt-click between the two layers; your cursor will change to a square with a downward arrow and your top layer will gain a small down arrow next to its thumbnail. Now any painting you do in that top layer will only show where you have pixels in the lower layer.

—
It is easier to destroy than to create.
More fun, too.

[Jeff Hinkle]

I’ll agree with Walter on this one (FWIW). Tilt and pressure, while nice, really only come into play with digital fine arts. If you’re only doing roto work and maybe some Photoshop editing, the lower pressure sensitivity and lack of tilt shouldn’t be a factor. Go for real estate. You’ll be happy to have the room and won’t miss the tilt.

—
It is easier to destroy than to create.
More fun, too.

[Jeff Hinkle]

When you say “rendering out,” do you mean in your final output render or just how it’s displaying within After Effects? Or both?

—
It is easier to destroy than to create.
More fun, too.