Deep Paint also includes a photoshop plugin to allow you to paint a 3D model and then import/export to PS for saving or editing

Wow. Bit confusing this. A colour bitmap has no greyscale, but its relative luminosity can be measured. Converting colour to greyscale is not an exact science. Desaturation is the obvious method, but for instance, if you desaturate or convert to grayscale a RGB image, it will be different to a CMYK one. The only accurate way of doing it is to covert your source colour to grayscale, and then use the eye dropper and read the info palette for the resulting % mix. Hope this helps. May I ask WHY???!!! Rob

Icon files are not a standard graphics format. To comment on Dreamer101's comment - 16x16 isnt quite what it was: That was the old desktop icon size in earlier versions of windows, but this has changed. The ICO format is actually a container for a number of icons at different sizes and resolutions, that can be used in different modes, ie: in XP, the desktop icon is more detailed than the mini version on the shortcut bar or tray. Macs have a similar concept. There are a number of packages available, some for designing and exporting, whilst some are editors only. There are even some as PS plugins. Hope this helps.

In CS you have the ability to save the keystroke settings

Narcissus! Simplicity and no obvious plugins.

I fully agree, but I use both - I use 5.5 for my own use because it is quicker and less cluttered, and CS because it is industry standard when working at a clients premises.

It's also nice to point out that Adobe are the biggest applications producer in the world after that cocky little upstart by that Bill Gates bloke. ;o)

Illegal use?? How? Or does that mean I cant use your actions? I cant use your brushes? There is a settings file for keystrokes you can reprogram. and CS is NOT the same as 5.5 I keep hitting keys and getting all the wrong stuff. Personally, I think 5.5 was the best it got - after that it was just add-ons and gimmicks - how can you improve on perfection? There have been a few good additions like the browser and print functions, but I dont need liquify and slice tools etc etc (yawn). Sorry for my gripe, but I've been using PS since V2, and I know what I like as a practical tool, not an overweight piece of bloatware.

That's what I like. Attention to detail. ;o)

Have you tried exporting to Image Ready? It does animations really well and compresses the file. Just load each image on a separate layer and it will sequence through them at whatever frame rate you need. It will also output an Alpha transparency channel if you need it. What file format do you eventually need this animation in? If you are doing GIF's, unless the resolution is very small, the file size will be massive and take forever to download. I suggest you go back to your client and tell him he should listen to people who know what they are talking about. (Thats why he employed you). Vectors are a far more web-friendly, lightweight format for web animation. You might want to also have a look at Swift3D from Electric Rain.

Be careful on this one - I still have 5.5 as well as CS on my PC, and I pointed the plugins dir at my old 5.5 directory. All my third party plugins work fine, but it also tries to load the built in Adobe plugins as well, which have mostly been updated anyway, and some dont load. On top of that you end up with two blurs, two sharpens etc etc. I suggest any additional plugins you add within Photoshop you put within a separate folder (ie 3rd party or something) within the plugins directory so you can point at that.

I just noticed your question on layers too. Maybe I should start teaching! hehe To create a layer, click the little page shaped icon at the bottom of the layer palette, or click ctrl-J From there you can add what you like to that layer without affecting the others. Layers are viewed from the top of the palette downwards, and you can switch them on or off using the little eye icon to the left of each layer.

Channels are actually very simple. A gray scale image has 256 shades of grey, from black through to white. If you look at a grayscale image in the channels you will see you only have a single channel. In RGB, you effectively have three grayscale channels, but each shows the amount of it's respective colour (Red, Green and Blue) - the combination of these three channels makes up the composite image. Similarly, CMYK uses four channels. You can also make up further ones to create selections and masks. If you want to see how it works, go to channels and select, say, the red channel, then open a second window showing the composite image. try erasing or painting on the red channel and observe how it affects the composite. Not easy to get this concept across in a few words, but I hope this helps.

One good trick to control good contrast on B/W shots is to covert to Lab color, select the Lightness channel, then convert to Grayscale. Ignore the other channels. Once in grayscale, duplicate the layer and set to multiply. From there you can adjust the top layer opacity. If you want to filter out set areas, create two versions, one normalising the overexposed areas, ond one normal one and history brush between the two.