Hey everyone,
anyone got any pointers how to generate multilayered PSD files without using Photoshop? Functionality needed is mostly generating different kinds of layers, groups, set their names and properties as well as blending modes.
Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Thorsten
I believe that this can be done w/ GIMP. GIMP can read/write PSDs, and it has a Python scripting interface. “Layer groups” were added fairly recently as well. It’s no Photoshop, but it is a solid image editor with a very appealing price tag.
Thanks a lot, i will look into that. As a bit of background i am looking to replace a Photoshop based automated part of the pipeline. Basically 3d renderings are split into their elements and a PSD file is pre-assembled for PS Artists to start working directly. This is happing in the renderfarm. And beeing PS scripting based it is errorprone, a big bottleneck (am not going to license PS per renderslave :P) and expensive (even the single PS license is a waste for such a low level task).
Using gimp and eventually some command line batch processing sounds like it might be feasible. Thanks again!
Thorsten
We use ImageMagick for all our conversion and thumbnail generator server, works pretty well, and with the 32bit HDRI compiling options it supports float as well.
Just to update on that one.
@svenneve: That does not allow to output layered PSDs tho, does it?
Sadly gimp was a dead end. It supports saving layers, but not groups to PSDs.
Currently am experimenting with rewriting the current process to be OLE/COM based. That still seems more verbose/better to automate than using jsx (jeez).
This still does not solve the problem of incredibly expensive licenses needed for pre-assembling a bunch of comps. So all input is still welcome!
Regards,
Thorsten
try:
convert repage:fileforlayer0.png repage:fileforlayer1.png repage:fileforlayer2.png -clone 0 finaloutput.psd
It’s also possible to create a ‘background’ image first (or maybe it can be done in one command), say:
convert -size 640x480 rc:white -transparent white bg_layer.png
Would this also allow for nested groups and alike? Gimp only supports layers, not groups and nesting. And from my quick tests im seemed to have the same limitation.
In addition i probably need to do some seriously wrangling, re-arranging, have some input layers as layermasks etc. I guess this will finally be off the limits for non-PS tools 
Regards,
Thorsten
Not sure, haven’t tried it for groups / nesting before.
I just found out about this. Not sure if it can be of any help
http://psdplugin.codeplex.com/
Thanks, sadly not tho
Layer group visibility and blend modes are preserved. However, Paint.NET does not have hierarchical layers, so the sublayers are treated as individual layers. Depending on the blend modes used, the composite image may not look correct in Paint.NET.
Regards,
Thorsten
Hi Thorsten,
Did you ever find a good solution to your problem? We use Photoshop droplets to automate psd creation for our artists use and I am curious if you found anything usable?
Sadly not. The only thing that supports everything we need is PS itself. So we are using COM and/or jsx.
Cheers,
Thorsten
[QUOTE=instinct-vfx;24934]Sadly not. The only thing that supports everything we need is PS itself. So we are using COM and/or jsx.
Cheers,
Thorsten[/QUOTE]
Thanks for confirming, we are using a javascript solution here. It works, but is kind of messy and slow. Glad to know we are not missing out on something!