Transforming a selection

[betterlookingthandead]

Hi All, Apologies if this already exists in the forum somewhere. I've searched and found nothing specific.

My issue is best described with an example.

I'm painting a portrait and am using various layers for light values, dark values, the sketch and detail etc. After discovering that one of the eyes was out of proportion, I wanted to adjust it (just the eye) using the selection and transform tool (of course) and was hoping to be able to select all of the elements mentioned previously and change them together.

The only thing I could do after exploring menus and help files was to duplicate all the appropriate layers, take them into their own group, merge them together (since transforming the group of layers didn't allow me to select just the eye) and then create a select around the eye and transform it.

All I had to do was then hide the original layers and use the merged layers, correctly proportioned into the painting. It sort of did the trick, but now I can't adjust the individual elements of the merged version as I can in original layers. (Creates a whole lot of work)

Any ideas, or know of something I've overlooked. I hope this makes sense, basically all I'd like to do is create a smaller selection that covers a specific set of layers without the duplicate and merge.

Thanks ahead of time

Al

[HannahRage]

Unfortunately, there isn't a way to select across multiple layers - a better end result might be to select and paste the bits of eye into new layers, make THAT bunch of layers your Group and then the you can transform the group and keep all the eye layers separate.

Or crop down to *just* the eye, resize it down a fixed amount, save it as a new painting, open it in a new document and copy-paste each layer across (a work around, but it makes the selection and scaling part much quicker).

[betterlookingthandead]

Unfortunately, there isn't a way to select across multiple layers - a better end result might be to select and paste the bits of eye into new layers, make THAT bunch of layers your Group and then the you can transform the group and keep all the eye layers separate.

Or crop down to *just* the eye, resize it down a fixed amount, save it as a new painting, open it in a new document and copy-paste each layer across (a work around, but it makes the selection and scaling part much quicker).

Thanks Hannahrage

There's always a work around.

[betterlookingthandead]

Just an update as I started playing with the work around.

I dropped the relevant layers into a group and discovered the "Transform All Layers" in the Edit menu.

Voila !. Did just what I was after. All I needed to do was re-draw the space left after the transform, but it was quick and easy.

[[email protected]]

Hi... this was very helpful.

I get that one can select across many layers by demarcating a selection and then transforming all layers and still keeping the individual items on their original layers ... but could one also copy or cut the multiple selection & merge it into a new layer ?

Thanks,
Sérgio

[markw]

Hello Sérgio and welcome to the ArtRage forums
It can be done but only by copying & pasting the desired areas from each layer one at a time.
Once you have all the bits you want in their own layers you have two options;
First option is to arrange all the new layers one above the other and then merge each of the new layers down one at a time.
Example with 3 layers, layer 1 bottom and layer 3 top, would be to merge layer 3 down into layer 2. And then merge 2 down into layer 1.
Second option drag each of the new layers into a new Group and then merge the group as a whole.
One thing to be aware of is that if you have layers using different blend modes when merging you may sometimes get unexpected results visually.

[[email protected]]

Thank you for the reply.