The point of this exercise is for us to practice what we've learned in the
previous tutorial on layer theory practically. To open up a document to see
ten different layers. And I'll show you how we can reorganize those layers -
shuffle them around so to speak. Remember in my card analogy if we have this top card,
it doesn't mean we can't just shuffle it out for a different card and
move our layers around. So go ahead and download that file, open it up in
Photoshop, and I'll meet you in there.
Once you've downloaded your layer organization PSD from canvas, let's go ahead and open
it from the start window in Photoshop. Let's click "open" and then select your
PSD called "Layer Exercise Organization." Hit "open." Now this exercise is meant to
help us understand top-down mentality, practice the move tool, but also
understand how we can reorganize our layers inside of our layers panel.
Now I've given you guys in your layers panel numbered squares ranging from 1 to 10.
The bottom two layers are locked, and that's because
it's part of my exercise - it's the directions at the bottom and the dashed
square in the center. And the instructions say, "Organize the layers in
order: one at the bottom, and stack the numbered squares." So we have now a whole
bunch of random -in terms of their order - numbered squares. If I drag one over to my
square, using my move tool, and then I go to move number 2 on top of it there's an issue.
2 isn't going on top, it's going behind it, and why? Well let's look at our
layers panel. Here's number 1, here's number 2. 2 is underneath 1 in terms
of the layer order. And based on our top down mentality that we understand that layers have,
1 would be on top of 2, which means
if we want to stack these numbers - 1 at the bottom, 10 at the top - we have
to change the order of our layers in the layers panel itself. And to do this it's
really quite easy - we can click and drag layers around inside of our layers panel.
So, if as the directions say, we want one at the bottom,
I'm gonna drag 1 to the bottom. And so on and so forth. I'll drag 2 right until I
see those blue lines, and release. 3, blue lines, release. 4, and so on.
Once I've reorganized my layers in my layer panel - using our move tool - every
square should stack on top of the previous. Go ahead and do this now.
And when you're done, we should only see 10. Now if I were to grab number 1 at
this point and drag it on top of 10, 1 appears. So I know this exercise isn't
difficult, and some of you just breezed through this.. some of you may not even
finish this tutorial. But what's important is that we really understand
what top-down mentality means for layers. Because as we get started making our own
compositions, understanding top-down mentality is going to be critical when
we start to make good designs. And, it helps us not panic if something isn't
showing up odds are it's just beneath another layer. Now I want you guys to
practice this over and over and over again until you can do it in a matter of
seconds. Because if you can navigate your layer panel this well and you can very
easily change the order of your layers and get the move tool out in your tool
bar and move things around, we are off to a great start. It may not feel like much,
but we're off to a great start. So practice this again if you need to, then
I'll see you in the next tutorial.