Transforming Objects with Adjustment Layers

J
Posted By
JWeber
Jul 5, 2004
Views
475
Replies
4
Status
Closed
When moving images around I have noticed something weird that I thought was PS 7 on my G4, but it’s still there in CS on my G5. It involves the bounding (selection) boxes of objects and adjustment layers. If I have an object floating in the middle of my working area and choose "transform", the resulting box and handles that define the object should be determined by it’s size. If I have taken out background with a mask, the box and handles should define the visible (unmasked) area. At least that’s how it should work and has worked in the past. But now if I choose that object, assign an adjustment layer and move it to another open window, the selection box and handles do something odd. The selection box is correct around the bottom right of the object but the top and left will now reside along the top and left of the canvas. No matter where I move the object on the canvas, the top and left will now always be on the top and left side of the open window. This is very strange. What happens then is that a transform such as rotate will now be centered on the new and bigger bounding box and not on the object. If I remove the adjustment layer, the selection box is how it should be.

To show you what I mean I did a screen grab of 4 images and created a web page to show them. Here is the link: <http://www.pbase.com/image/30940845>

Image number 1 has an object with no background centered in a window. I choose scale from the transform menu and the handles are correct.

Number two is the same image with a levels adjustment layer attached (command G) to the layer and moved to another window exactly the same size as the first. Notice how the selection box has changed? BTW, the window size has no bearing on the problem. It will happen no matter what the size is.

Number three is that same window with the object moved down on the canvas with the resulting selection box. See how it grows depending on the placement of the object?

Number Four is the same object with the adjustment layer removed. The box and handles are back to normal.

I’m constantly moving images around and after a while any kind of transform gets tedious because the center of the image I’m manipulating isn’t really the center of the image any more, it’s the center of the the box that is determined by wherever my image is on the canvas.

As I mentioned this happened on my G4/OS9 with PS7 and now on a G5/OSX with CS so I don’t think it’s anything about my equipment.

Any ideas would be helpful.
Thanks.
Related Tags
adjust layer object transform

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EH
Ed_Hannigan
Jul 5, 2004
I think this is the way it’s supposed to work. The Adjustment Layer is just confusing the issue.

First of all, note that the behavior is different depending in whether the AL is linked to the layer and if the mask is linked to the object or not.

With the two layers not linked to each other, if the mask is not linked to the object and you are clicked onto the mask the bounding box conforms to the mask (as in your pictures 1 &4) and that’s what will be transformed, not the object. If you are on the object note that the bounding box conforms to the original object, not just the visible areas, no?

If the mask is linked to the object,you should be getting the original object bounds regardless of which you are clicked on.

If you make a selection of the mask (crawly ants) then the bounding box conforms to the selection and the AL is not included.

I’d say just unlink the Adjustment Layer. If you need the center of the transform get it by doing Command-T on the mask (unlinked) and drag somem guides to the intersection. Then you can drag the "hub" to that point when you transform.

I hope this makes sense and I get what you are asking.
J
JWeber
Jul 5, 2004
Ed

Thanks.
I get some of what you’re saying. I never equated the linking with the issue. Maybe because I was dragging the objects from window to window and always had them linked so they would move to the new window with the base layer and just left them that way.

The thing is that in pictures 2 & 3 that is not the original bounding box, and the object has no layer mask. So how is that bounding box being created by the adjustment layer and why does it change based on the object’s movement on the canvas?

The problem is that linking an adjustment layer is needed for transformations so that when the base layer is transformed, the adjustments are transformed too. Unlinking the adjustment layer solves the problem if all I want to do is rotate the object and not have the funky bounding box, but what about with linked adjustment layers?

Your last comment is kind of confusing. For one you can’t do command T on an adjustment layer, you get the "Cannot transform because the initial bounding box rectangle is empty" dialog. And all the guides etc. is way to much to do when you are trying to work fast and have many layers and transformations to do. And I’ve been using PS for a long time and this issue is something that seems to have been introduced with 7.0 so I know it used to work differently. I was hoping that CS cleared it up.
EH
Ed_Hannigan
Jul 5, 2004
If you do Command-T on linked layers it is going to tranform based on both those layers. I think there is a built-in "area" that the adjustment layer encompasses based on the layer it’s affecting and measured from the upper left. That’s what you are transforming. That’s my theory anyway, not being an Adobe engineer.

Most of the time you won’t need the AL linked. I don’t think this is recent; at least it seems to work the same in version 6.
J
JWeber
Jul 5, 2004
"I think there is a built-in "area" that the adjustment layer encompasses based on the layer it’s affecting and measured from the upper left."

Well that’s just weird and makes no sense. It sounds like what is happening though. Way the upper left? What is does as I mentioned is make it so the linked images (base+adjustment) transform base on that "area" not on the layer. Seems counter to what you want to have happen, just manipulate what is on the layer.

I find I always need the AL linked. I do a lot of selected adjustments to pieces of objects, not the whole object so any transformation has to have the AL linked.

I don’t remember it being this way in 6.

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