Original subtitles

Hey, what's up, guys

Nelson here. Welcome back to my pixel art lesson

In this video, we're going to go over some layer management tips

and take a look at how I stay

organized in the program and outside of it as well.

Let's get into it.

We're going to be taking a look at the Animal Crossing background that I just made last video.

You always want to keep your work as organized as possible.

Especially when you hand it off to another person like your client

Grouping layers that are related helps clean up a lot already.

And in this case, we have each group folder

based on each plane in this scene,

which we have organized in the last two videos so

So over here you can see in the order of foreground, mid-ground

foreground, mid-ground, train, midground behind the train

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characters, background, and the ground

so we're going to go through each layer

and attempt to reduce the layer count

since there's a lot of hidden assets in here

So there's basically three ways

I keep my file structure organized: naming and color-coding layers,

merging layers together, and grouping layers right now.

Right now, I'm scanning through every layer

to see if they're all named properly.

If you need to keep multiple layers for one item

or have a bunch of duplicate items,

you can color code it and you can see right now I already have a lot of layers

color coded like how Poppy and her glasses and her shadows are

on a separate layer but highlighted in blue

so I know they're related to each other.

You can right-click the layer and choose a color here

and it will highlight the layer

that way you can associate color with what the item is

I have a clothesline with clothes hanging on it,

but these two are inseparable from each other

and I won't be changing it later.

So why not merge them together?

Try to merge layers whenever possible

and also named the layers to what they actually are.

I usually am to have only one layer per item

because I can keep track of it and move it around really easily

it can start to get really confusing

looking at a bunch of unnamed layers you know?

I know this might take a bit of getting used to

but I find it a lot more efficient

compared to scrolling through like five hundred layers

because sometimes your file structure gets so complex

where it can start getting really complicated

if you don't organize it properly

this is why it looking back on chapter one

when I first started my drawing

I only had about three layers

and it was only for the fill, the outlines, and one for the background to keep it simple.

And as I start to add more items

then I make a layer for each one.

So the key is to reduce it as much as possible,

of course theres situations where you need the layers like

in our top down scene, but even so

it's grouped and isolated to one cluster of items or one plane.

You want to make it as convenient as possible for yourself

Right now I'm working on the background plane

where the farmer's market and the stairs are.

I have all my layers named and color coded

but I feel like they're still too much going on

having 11 layers just for items like seafood and pear boxes

fish and steamer boxes.

If there's a bunch of items on separate layers,

I make a selection of all the layers

by holding shift and clicking all the layers you want grouped.

You can press the group folder button down here

and I'm going to name "items"

That way you'll have all your loose items in one folder

and the structures like the stall, the stairs, and the deck

as the main things you first see in the folder.

So I basically spent around 10 minutes looking over my file structure

and seeing what can be reduced and organized.

Here's how the overall structure looks like.

You can see that everything is color coded

and named properly there

there's still a lot of layers,

but with the amount of object in this scene.

it makes sense.

As for organizing your actual files

Please, make folders for your projects, name your Photoshop files.

I have a folder for almost every project I've done and

each one has its own reference folder, its own export folder

for what I send out things to twitter or instagram

And this way when I want to find something again,

I can just type up the name and it'll appear in my search results.

For example, I just typed BEAM for my pixel art book collection

and I instantly get all my pixel backgrounds related to that project.

But yeah, that's my short video on how to keep your files

and layers organized these little things really

these little things really do go a long way

and help you keep track of the projects and files you have going on.

Thank you so much for watching.

Let me know if there's any more tips

you want to hear about. At the next chapter

In the next chapter, we're going to be talking all about animation.

We're going to be taking the background we made in chapter 3 and animating it.

I'm really excited about this one

since this is my favorite part to do.

see in the next one and take care.