Hmmm...... Okay
I don't know if my definition of an Adobe Photoshop Actions is just gonna confuse you guys more or not.... so here goes nothing
For instance, say you've got text that you want to apply a realistic "chrome" effect to (without using any pluggins to do the job for you), you would genenarally go through a whole bunch of individual steps to achieve your desired effect (eg. creating a layer copy, masking the layer, blurring the layer and so on and so forth) until you finally get the effect your looking for.
An ACTION is a 'recording' of all of those steps taken that can be used at a later stage to apply all of those steps again but this time by simply clicking one or two buttons to apply the entire ACTION as apposed to going through each individual step again
(Effectively it will act like a sort of pluggin but it's not a PLUGGIN). An ACTION file is generally pretty small, about +-30kbs depending on the numbers of steps recorded and it's overall complexity. You simply add the .atn file to your Photoshops Actions folder in the route directory and then call up the action using the "actions" tab in the PS interface and apply it to whatever document you're working on
(Highlight the action you wanna use and press the PLAY button).
Check out
ADOBE STUDIO EXCHANGE for downloadable actions that other users have submitted. There's some awesome stuff.
