black and white smart object as a mask for other layers?

[kirkr5689]

Does anyone know a trick to do it simple way ?     With knockout shallow option  maybe or  anyhow ?   I have grayscale images generated in  Substance Designer i want to use as a live externally updating masks  for groups of other regular smart objects.    I.e  I need  a way to use smart objects as a smart masks .       Is there a simple solution  I might be missing and   not involving  special scripts/event listeners or  huge stacks of clipping groups where I wouldn't understand anything a week later in my own files ?   

In a word something as simple as  erasing blending mode  in Affinity ?   

[Myra Ferguson]

You can use your smart object to make a layer mask and then hide or delete the original smart object.

To make the layer mask from the smart object do the following:

1. Select the smart object that contains the grayscale image.
2. Copy it.
3. Select the layer where you want to apply it.
4. Add a layer mask (click the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. The layer mask will be all white.)
5. Select the layer mask channel. This step is important--otherwise when you paste your smart object, Photoshop will make it a new pixel layer instead of the layer mask. You can select the layer mask channel either by going to the Channels panel (Window > Channels) and selecting the layer mask, or from the Layers panel, Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS) + click on the layer mask.
6. Paste.
7. Click on the pixel layer thumbnail for the layer where you just pasted the image for the layer mask.
8. Hide or delete the original smart object if it's above the layer where you made the layer mask.

Depending on your workflow, you may be able to record an action to do the selecting, copying, and pasting for you.

[kirkr5689]

Thank you Myra  but it's not exactly what I need .  I'd like this to  be live  without doing all the job again  when I re-render the mask inside smart object.    Be non-destructive, self updating and easily identifiable  in the layer stack  like  erase layers in Affinity.      I hoped blend IF knock out options or something  could do the trick .   Perhaps a script taht could do it on the fly ? 

So far I am using clipping groups with another mask stack  group inside clipping ones  + blend if tweaks     but it complicates my layers panel so much  I hardly could figure out whats happening  just  next day .

I am looking for easier and simpler  "on the fly" solution.    Maybe script based ? 

 A way to configure event manager  to run an action or script  updating  certain layer masks  automatically?   

Or maybe  having  layercomp "mask1"   for example   linked to certain layercomp inside a linked  smart object  and  propogated  by a script to masks of other layers on the fly whenever I update the smart object.   

[Myra Ferguson]

Unfortunately, I don't Affinity, so I don't know what erase layers is like.

There other operations you can do with smart objects if your smart object contains at least 2 layers, but it's more for when the 2 images are similar and you want to remove parts of the image (think people at a tourist spot in a photo where they have moved locations and you want to remove all the people based on all the images in the stack). The feature is called Image Stacks:

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/image-stacks.html

If you're able to post a full screen image of what your image and layers are like, I'd be happy to take a look in case there might be other options.

[kirkr5689]

You see I use clipping group  and have to put  smart object mask inside a group to  be able to clip  blue edges .    It's sort of another way of masking but  nort very convenient really  once you have a lot of them .  It turns the layer  stack into undeciferable puzzle .    I initially wondered  about any other simpler way to do the same .   But now I think it's only possible with  scripting and chatGPT ( I am not a script codder so could do it by chat only) .     So I would be appreciated for any advise   how to use script event  manager  to detect masking smart object update   and propogate the mask image into other related  layers masks automatically.       So I could just have layercomps like mask1 , mask2 etc  for easily previewing   and then  not be solving puzzles  of mutiple  clipping groups and "blend if" settings across the whole layer stack.     

[D Fosse]

Smart masks has come up as a feature request several times. Most of us regulars have probably voted for it, but so far we haven't been heard. 

I suggest this be moved to "Ideas" so we can vote again 🙂

[Myra Ferguson]

...A way to configure event manager to run an action or script updating certain layer masks automatically?

By @kirkr5689

After seeing your screenshot, I would still recommend the approach that I suggested by creating a layer mask by copying and pasting the smart object into the layer mask channel. After you create the action, you can turn it into a droplet so that you can make it automatically run the action when you drag a file onto it:

Create a droplet from an action

[kirkr5689]

I already posted many such  "ideas" multiple times  actually.  To borrow  anchors from Substance Painter,    as  a special links to layercomps for masks , as Affinity style erasing blend mode and layer linking.     But hopes are not very high really.    I suspect core Photoshop stopped to be developed after CS6.  At least I found nothing new and helpful since.  Wasted months literally  this year trying to find anything meaningful a generative AI, not only Photoshop one,  would do that  really could be helpful for me and not be  just a cool toy. 

I am trying to do a comeback to Photoshop  now  just because chatGPT  has improved its Photoshop scripting   lately  and finally it became possible to automate export  and do a few other tasks previously available only in node based  editors.      

I need just a simple compositing software to mix CG materials  and I can't stand AdobeSampler.   Need something with perfect pixel snap precision without sub-pixel blurring  and easy to manipulate and modify .   Sadly Photoshop  doesn't fill this niche too  but probably is still closest. 

[D Fosse]

@kirkr5689 

Well, to say Photoshop hasn't been developed since CS6 is a stretch to say the least. CS6 is a steam engine compared to modern Photoshop, and would be useless to me today. But most of that development has been in GPU processing and AI-based functions (no, I don't mean generative AI, which  I stay as far away from as I possibly can).

But yes, smart masks is something many of us would welcome.