Photoshop Help

[HeroPower]

Hi guys. Not sure if this question would better suited for the animation forum where the users are likely to use Flash, but I figured more users that understand Photoshop would be here.

In Flash you can create a Symbol. For this example, lets say this symbol is a flower with a stem. I can then duplicate this symbol as many times as I like. Now if I go into any of these symbols and, for example, paint on pedals to the stem then all of my flower symbols will now have stems with pedals on them.

I want to be able to do this in Photoshop. Is it possible?

I have a very vague idea of smart objects in Photoshop, but according to the documentation you cannot "You can’t perform operations that alter pixel data—such as painting..." I'm not really sure if smart objects are the solution. If they are the solution, I have no idea how they work (using latest version of PS), but at least I have a starting point to figuring out my problem.

[Mopsicle]

At 2/19/17 11:43 PM, HeroPower wrote: I want to be able to do this in Photoshop. Is it possible?

Smart Objects are definitely the solution you need. It's true that you can't perform operations that alter pixel data on the Smart Object layer, but what you can do instead, once you've created your Smart Object, is double-click the Smart Object layer, which will open the Smart Object in an external document, and you can edit the pixel data (i.e. paint) from there. Once you're done, just save the Smart Object and all of your Smart Object layers will immediately update.

[HeroPower]

At 2/19/17 11:55 PM, Mopsicle wrote:

At 2/19/17 11:43 PM, HeroPower wrote: I want to be able to do this in Photoshop. Is it possible?

Smart Objects are definitely the solution you need. It's true that you can't perform operations that alter pixel data on the Smart Object layer, but what you can do instead, once you've created your Smart Object, is double-click the Smart Object layer, which will open the Smart Object in an external document, and you can edit the pixel data (i.e. paint) from there. Once you're done, just save the Smart Object and all of your Smart Object layers will immediately update.

Oh wow. Thank you for the quick reply. Well sweet looks like I will have to start working with Smart Objects. Thank you very much for the help!

[Mopsicle]

At 2/20/17 01:52 AM, HeroPower wrote: Oh wow. Thank you for the quick reply. Well sweet looks like I will have to start working with Smart Objects. Thank you very much for the help!

No problem. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any more questions, or require further help. Have fun!