Category: Tips&Tricks

Tip#107: Adjust MagicSquire the way you want

MagicSquire 5 is your ☃️ personal Brush Companion. Customize it the way you want!

Set up separate 🖌 Brush Controls as a quick right-click HUD popup or use as a part of the panel. Combine with PRO Mode.

  • Go to Settings and turn on HUD only controls Brush. After that you can set up keyboard shortcut to display HUD popup under your cursor where only Brush Controls are visible. If you turn it off you can display the whole panel in the HUD popup.

  • Turn on PRO Mode from MagicSquire menu

Now compatible with Photoshop 2022!

From series of tutorials for MagicSquire, advanced Photoshop brushes manager and brush control panel

MagicSquire 5.0 video tutorial: Brush Controls, mass-tagging, more!

The video tutorial on all new features of MagicSquire, Photoshop brush organizer plugin is out!

Upgrade MagicSquire here

Read more about MagicSquire, Photoshop brush organizer plugin

 

Tip#106: Bring multiple objects to same palette with MagicTints

Select multiple layers
Select multiple layers

Select multiple pixel layers and then click “Apply” on MagicTints panel. That’s it! MagicTints will bring all selected objects to the same palette, from the Color Reference list. All at once.

  • You can choose specific colors or use any image as a target color reference. Works very accurately, transfers colors and contrast immediately.
  • You can also assign Keyboard Shortcut to that operation

Works in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign.

Or you can export LUT and use on any photo video in Affinity Photo, Lightroom, Premiere Pro, AfterEffects, Final Cut or even in 3D software like Unity, Blender or Unreal Engine.

MagicTints is also available as a standalone app on macOS or Windows.

From series of tutorials for MagicTints, 1-click accurate color matching

Tip#104: Match elements from different photos 🍭 in one click

1) Bring backdrop into MagicTints as color reference by clicking a Screen Shot 2021-07-20 at 9.00.52 PM down arrow on the toolbar
2) Select another object (image, layer, group of images) and click “Apply”

The elements will precisely color match (keeping contrast etc.) Apply to illustrations, 3D renders, photos. Works in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign plugin.
Also works in a MagicTints Desktop App on macOS and Windows – just use transparent PNGs for objects.

3)* You can use the same technique in video software like AfterEffects, Premiere or Final Cut Pro – by applying LUT exported from MagicTints

From series of tutorials for MagicTints, 1-click precise color matching app

Tip#103: Ways to activate MagicSquire brush HUD popup under cursor

1) Click HUD button on MagicSquire panel

2) Click MagicSquire menu -> HUD Mode

3) Go to Settings (menu -> Settings) of MagicSquire panel and assign a keyboard shortcut

4*) Assign same key to Stylus/mouse click to activate it using mouse click or stylus

5*) Use Sticky HUD mode to display HUD on keypress and auto-hide it on key release (same with Stylus button)

From series of tutorials for MagicSquire, advanced brush group manager for Adobe Photoshop

Tip#101: Create your own LUT from 1 target image for video/animation/primary color grading

Create your very own, precise LUT in ❖ one click ❖, from a reference image in Adobe Photoshop. Then use it to color grade any footage or imagery in other software – for 3D, video, primary color grading, animation, in any post production.

  1. Select a color reference image in MagicTints
  2. Click a button on the bottom toolbar and save .cube or .png. One click!

MagicTints exports LUT in any size. You can specify arbitrary LUT size in settings – for example 16x16x16, 17x17x17, or even 128x128x18.

From series of tutorials for MagicTints, 1-click color matching and LUT export

 

MagicTints 2.1! Faster LUT, up to x128 export

WHAT’S NEW

v2.1
– Now correctly works in the environment with two-byte characters (like Chinese)
– LUT 128x128x128 is now possible! Now correctly exports large LUTs of 64x64x64, 72x72x72, 128x128x128 etc..
– LUT generation is much faster
– LUTs are now much more precise, especially on big sizes (fixed problems with desaturation and banding)
– Now there are no limits on source image size when creating a LUT
– The GPU icon on the top is now less visible when GPU processing is disabled – to distinguish between sates
– Fixed a problem with partial color matching on AMD GPUs
– Fixed a problem with some LUTs (like 17x17x17 and 128x128x128) not opening in Photoshop and 3D/Video software

Upgrade MagicTints

Learn more about MagicTints – 1-click color matching and LUT export

Enjoy updated MagicTints 2.0 Manual

Learn how to:

  • Transfer a Color Scheme from one still image to another in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign
  • Generate a LUT from just a single color reference (LUT can be used to grade video footage in other DCC software, or in game engines like Unity and UE4)
  • Specify LUT size
  • Apply Contrast from one image to another
  • Import Color References to MagicTints
  • Enable/disable advanced GPU processing
  • Assign Keyboard Shortcuts
  • Paste color reference images from Clipboard
  • much more!

Read MagicTints manual 

Read more about MagicTints, the 1-click Color Matching and LUT export panel

Upgrade MagicTints to v2.0

Tip#100: Ways to activate full-featured color picking HUD

Looks like an anniversary of the tips&tricks series! 100th tip is ON.

Quickly get full-featured color picking HUD under your cursor in Adobe Photoshop. MagicPicker HUD shows up over normal Photoshop’s interface.

The HUD is more unique, intuitive and faster than normal Photoshop panels. It always pops up under your current cursor position. It’s very important especially if you use a Wacom-like tablet (no need to move your hand anywhere). It also auto-hides if you click anywhere on the document. MagicPicker HUD can also auto-hide when you release key/button.

MagicPicker 7: Advanced color picking HUD in Adobe Photoshop
MagicPicker 7: Advanced color picking HUD in Adobe Photoshop

You can activate MagicPicker HUD in the following ways:

  • Click “HUD” button on the panel
  • Click MagicPicker menu -> HUD mode
  • Assign keyboard shortcut in Settings and activate through keyboard any time
  • Assign same shortcut to Stylus button and call it with stylus
  • *Activate “Sticky HUD” mode from Settings to show HUD on press and hide on release of the key

HUD is available in MagicPicker starting from version 7.0.

From series of tutorials for MagicPicker, advanced color picker for Adobe Photoshop

Tip#99: Quickly and silently add new Photoshop brush/tool preset

Silently add new 🖌️🖌️ brush or tool presets in Photoshop using keyboard shortcut. In MagicSquire panel use Settings to define “Quick New Brush” shortcut. That’s it! One key press and your auto-named brush is in the group. No questions asked.

Quickly add new brush to group with MagicSquire panel for Adobe Photoshop
Quickly add new brush to group with MagicSquire panel for Adobe Photoshop

From series of tutorials about MagicSquire, the advanced brush group manager for Photoshop