Is there a way to temporarily "freeze" port of a photoshop canvas?

[jon.magram]

Hello! Forgive me if this is the wrong forum, but it seemed about right...I'll move it if necessary.

I have a question about whether or not it's possible to temporarily "freeze" part of a photoshop canvas so that you can work on the rest of the canvas without the frozen part being affected.

I know there are plenty of tricks that you can do with layers and layer masks, but if possible, I would prefer to have a completely separate function that works outside of all layer options.

This may be a somewhat complicated question, so made a little drawing/comic explaining what I'd like to be done. Let me know if you need to know any more about my question, and thanks!

 

[sprucemagoo1]

Use the rectangular marquee tool to select the area within the boarder, but make sure you're on the layer that you want to draw on.
That is it!

Surely this has been too easy to answer, there must be something more!

 

[dv8_fx]

Another way is to create a layer from the image or a layer copy, erase the parts outside the border you don't need or do your work on the outside part.

 

[SCTRWD]

Sorry I couldn't make out your scribbling, too low res for me

But I think you can use crop tool with Hide option or better then place your drawing as a Smart Object in the bigger "master" document. Then you can use Smart Object's content to show only the drawing. And use the "master" document itself to show the drawing with comments and everything extra.

Hope I helped, thou doubt so...

 

[jon.magram]

Use the rectangular marquee tool to select the area within the boarder, but make sure you're on the layer that you want to draw on.
That is it!

Surely this has been too easy to answer, there must be something more!

Unfortunately, due to my workflow, this wouldn't work because I'm constantly using the selection tool to select other parts of my image.

Another way is to create a layer from the image or a layer copy, erase the parts outside the border you don't need or do your work on the outside part.

I don't think this would work either, since my document is already a mess of layers, layer groups, and layer comps...Creating storyboards in photoshop becomes a pretty complicated process in terms of layers.

But I think you can use crop tool with Hide option or better then place your drawing as a Smart Object in the bigger "master" document. Then you can use Smart Object's content to show only the drawing. And use the "master" document itself to show the drawing with comments and everything extra.

Your suggestion to use the "hide" function in the crop tool has gotten me the closest! However, when I do it, if I draw outside the bounds of the hidden area, then unhide it later, the drawing that went outside the bounds is still visible...Maybe there's a way to prevent that?

I didn't quite understand the second half of your suggestion, could you explain it again?

Thanks for the responses so far.

 

[Davin Salo]

Unfortunately, since you're using the selection during illustrating I think your best bet is to create a layer on top of your document that covers your "text" section and put text above that layer. The "hide crop" function won't work to disengage that region since it only "hides" it for displaying purposes when you're actually cropping your image - which would not be what you want since it'll delete the rest of your storyboard.

I threw together an example psd to illustrate. Only issue I normally run into with this process is when I muck up writing on my text layer I can't erase it without seeing through. Other than that it's a pretty handy workflow.

Note - I lock the pixel position so you can edit it, but not move it.

Copy the "Blank" folder to get more panels.

It's a large file, so here's a screencap if you like.

*edit* externally hosted image is larger than it's displaying. Right click and copy url to view in all it's glory.

Or just download this:

Cheers. I'd be interested in seeing what you were storyboarding .

 

[jon.magram]

Yeah, that's what I figured I'd have to do. The reason I wanted so desperately to not have to do it is because I already tend to work with hundreds of layers in my document and having another hundred for dialogue (even rasterized) can get choppy.

The way I would prefer to do it (in a perfect world) is keep the dialogue of whatever character is speaking on the exact same layer as the character's layer, because I use the "auto-select layer" tool in order to find the layer I want, and it helps keep the document more organized.

But! Looks like I won't find my magic tool and I'll have to live without it. Thanks for your help.

If you want to see my work, you can google my name. I'm sure something will pop up. I'm still just a student, though!

 

[Davin Salo]

Just a student doesn't cover it. I have plenty of good work running back to when I was "Just an amature". It's all valid . I like your illustration style - though a lot of your new stuff is a bit abstract for me... mind you it gets the concepts across cleanly without having to dig a time pit (contour sketches ftw).

I envy your illustrative talent. Sorry I had no magic for you . Keep up the good work, you've got talent!