gradient for array of boxes

[SyyyyyyB]

This is what I would like to do but do not know how: create a grid of rectangular boxes and have that entire array of boxes be one gradient of colour . Then I want to place that gradient array of boxes over another colour gradient background. Help appreciated!

[Semaphoric]

Do you want each box to have its own gradient, or have the gradient span all of them?

[SyyyyyyB]

Gradient span all of them.

[Trevor.Dennis · Accepted solution]

This might give you food for thought.

Make your box on a new layer > Fill it with any colour > and make it a Smart Object.

Make as many copies as you need rows, and use Move > Align to equally space them.

Place thouse layers in a Group, and repeat the last steps to make the colums.

If you double click any of the Smart Objects to open it in a new window, and run your gradient, the other Smart Objects will be updated, thus

If, on the other hand, you wanted a single gradient to cover the boxes, them select all the groups, and make that a smart object.  That effectivel;y puts them all into a single layer.

You can now run a gradient in a new layer and clip it to that Smart Object.

You can still double click the Smart Object to edit it.

You could also add a layer mask to the gradient layer, and mask some of the layer to reveal the original gradients.

If we/I are missing your point, give us some more details and someone will work it out with you.

[PECourtejoie]

Hi, to create the Clipping mask, OPTION+click between the gradient and the other layer (ALT+click on a PC)

You just then need to place a gradient adjustment layer on top of the background layer.

I hope we're not doing your homework! 😉

[jane-e]

That's very clever, Trevor. I was about to suggest using Adobe Illustrator where one gradient across muliple objects is built into the application. The objects need to be either multiple-selected or grouped.

Jane

[Bojan Živković]

Perhaps this tutorial can help something https://youtube.com/watch?v=_ishD85JXns&feature=shares

[Trevor.Dennis]

Bojan, do you remember the Trevor Morris scripts before it all changed to HTML5 and broke a ton of useful tools?  His Dmonzon Tools had a useful array generator.  Did Chuck Uebele's Equal Space extension give us back the first two functions?  It's built into the Move > Align tools now.  

[Bojan Živković]

I know for Trevor, can not remember script.

[SyyyyyyB]

Thank you everyone! This is what I did:

I chose the rectanglular shape tool and created my boxes and arranged them on my background. I combined all the box layers into a smart object and gave that a gradient overlay. I then took my background layer and made a new fill layer that was a gradient. I arranged the layers so the background was beneath the box array smart object layer. It worked!