introduction

Today we will show you how you can accelerate your work process in ClipStudioPaint using AutoActions.

AutoActions can be used to combine several work steps into one function.

 

Instead of taking the same steps over and over again in a certain phase of your work process, you can do this by clicking a button or a key combination.

 

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Create an auto action

Auto-Actions are available under Window> Auto-Action.

For example, let's create an auto-action in case we have completed a sketch and want to build an ink drawing on it.

New Auto Actions are created by clicking on this small icon in the Auto-Action Menu. You can and should rename the New Auto Action immediately afterwards, so that you really save time.

 

New Auto Actions are created by clicking on this small icon in the Auto-Action Menu. You can and should rename the New Auto Action immediately afterwards, so that you really save time.

Now I press the record function and do the usual work steps - I lower the opacity of the sketch layer [Layer settings> Slider down], color the sketch blue [Layer properties, layer color on blue], create a new layer and hold it the recording.

In the Auto-Action window we can already see that the steps have been recorded.

If we now reset our sketch and click on the little play icon on our selected Auto-Sketch, these steps will be applied to our sketch in exactly the same way.

Create an icon for auto action

But it can be done even better - we can drag the new auto-action directly into our main menu so that we don't have to open the auto-action window every time.

In the Command Bar Settings [File> Command Bar] under Auto-Actions, the icon for your respective auto-action can still be changed and you can define your own symbols, ...

... by selecting your auto action, clicking the corresponding icon in the command bar and then selecting the Settings button.

You can also change the background color for these icons and, for example, assign a certain color to a group of similar functions.

You can also set a keyboard layout by opening the Keyboard layout settings window [File> Shortcut Settings] and selecting Auto Actions from the drop-down menu.

Set-up with several auto-actions

I would like to put our character Phillip in a composition with speckled light, such as occurs under trees.

To do this, I create a layer whose blending mode I set to Multiply, whose opacity I reduce and clip to the layer below my character.

Then I create another layer, set the Blending Mode to Add Glow, and clip it onto the Multiply layer below. Now I have summarized several steps of my setup, which is very useful if you always do it in the same way.

Now I manually set a few shapes for my speckled light with the Selecttool and enter the next phase of my process, and for this I also create an auto action.

First I select my Light Shapes [Ctrl + left mouse click on the Add Glow layer], then select my Multiply layer and press the Delete key.

Now the shadow areas where the light hits the character have been removed. Now I add a motion blur to my light [Filter> Blur> Motion Blur] and reduce the opacity of the light layer.

Now I can summarize essential technical work steps of this work process with only 2 Auto Actions ...

... and in the last step I can concentrate on working out missing shadows and tonal value differences as well as the design of the edges of my light shapes.

The best thing to do is to evaluate your work steps yourself and think about where you can bring in such auto action in a meaningful way. I hope it's helpful, have fun trying it out and see you next video.