: Can I have layers with different pixel resolution in Photoshop? I use Photoshop for pixel art. When I have a reference photo, I'd like to be able to use that image as the background and start
I use Photoshop for pixel art. When I have a reference photo, I'd like to be able to use that image as the background and start drawing my pixel art on a layer on top of it.
The thing is, the best way I found to do pixel art in Photoshop is to work with actual pixels and zoom in to ~2000%. That means that I have to reduce the size and resolution of my reference photo to fit my final art. This way, I lose a lot of detail in the reference, which makes some decisions in the art harder than they should be with a full-resolution reference.
Is there a way to have layers with different resolution in the same document? For example, I have pixel layers of 160 x 120 to work on, and a reference image behind those of 800 x 600? That way, I could still use a 1px pencil brush to draw my pixels but still have a high-res image as a reference in the same document.
I'm working in CS6 if that is of any importance.
This is a bit of a mockup of what I'd like to achieve as a document to work in:
EDIT for clarity: this image is not the ultimate effect I want to achieve, it is what I want my working file to look like. A high resolution image in the background and a low-res pixel art in the foreground which I can live edit with a 1px pencil brush.
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Not exactly, but...
... there is a way to achieve the effect you describe.
Apparently you can change the scaling mode for smart objects, but it's a global setting that takes effect for newly created Smart Objects: Preferences > General > Image Interpolation.
So the procedure is like this:
Open your background image
Set Preferences > General > Image Interpolation to Nearest Neighbor
Choose File > Place and select the PSD of the pixel man
Scale him as desired
(Optional:) Set Image Interpolation back to Bicubic
You can now edit the pixel man PSD and whenever you save, the scaled version is updated.
You can use smart objects to place hi res imagery in a lower res PSD file (or the opposite, but I'm not sure why you'd want to do that). But the image will never be a higher resolution than the PSD file.
Hi res smart objects can be useful if you want to:
Save the high res image in a low res PSD file (if you don't save it separately)
Start with a lower res PSD file, but be able to go higher res without issue
Resize the layer up and down without worrying about it degrading the image
No.
I'd approach it one of these two ways:
Use a multiplier for your pixel brush size, and just use nearest neighbour interpolation to resize your image to the correct size without deforming it. (let's say you had to blow up your pixel art 10x, just use a 10px square brush). You can always have a second view zoommed out to simulate the final size. Although you'd have to do it without a nice automatic pixel grid.
Or do as you said, reduce your reference artwork to the final size but open a second window with a copy of it in the original size; this way you might be able to pick some of the details.
No this is not possible. To be entirely sure I went through every option that the layer has.
A workaround might be setting up guides with the size you want the pixels to be and then using the Pencil tool to fill them.
I don't think you can set different resolutions for different layers, however if you build your low res piece in it's own document and then place that object over a high res photo, you would get the intended effect.
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