Is it possible/neccessary to specify the position of the layer swapped within the smart layer itself?

[DigitalBeer]

Hello Joonas,

Firstly, thank you, for making this available and engaging with the questions people have asked, I've been having great fun tinkering with this script engine on my own personal projects, it's super fun.

I've had a look through documentation and all the Q&A on GitHub and I can't find a definitive answer, I'm hoping you can tell me if I'm getting something wrong.

I have a number of psd files for art frame mock-ups, inside is a smart object and within that smart object are a lot of effect layers, shadows, textures etc. When I'm running the script the exported jpg of my image doesn't have any of those effect layers applied. I am assuming that this is because "The old switcheroo" 👍 is happening as the top layer within the smart object? I tried the "showLayers" function and specified each of the effect layers in the array but that didn't seem to have an effect.

So my question is ultimately, is it possible to specify the position of the layer swapped within the smart layer itself, or should that not actually be an issue and my issue lies somewhere else?

Cheers!

[joonaspaakko]

I'm not sure if I understood the issue, but I'm thinking maybe nestedTarget. You give the script a smart object target like always, then you can make an additional smart object inside it and target that layer using the nestedTarget, which will then be where the input files are placed:

In the picture the floating window on the left is the target smart object contents and in the layers panel you can see the nestedTarget.

In all of my examples of the nested target, it's smaller than the regular target, but in your case it should be the same size as its parent target since if I understood correctly, you only need it in order to place the input files inside the target smart object at a very specific layer position.

I have two examples in the repository that use it:

Batch-Mockup-Smart-Object-Replacement-photoshop-script/Examples/example-1/Batch replace - example 1.jsx

Lines 57 to 67 in 8874ffa

	{
	target: '@white-mug',
	input: './_input files/white-mug',
	// Another way to handle transparent whitespace is to make your own placeholder smartobject inside the target smart object.
	// If you want this nested target to be the size of the placeholder graphic that came with the mockup, you might get a good result
	// by converting the placeholder graphic layer into a new smartobject and using it as the "nestedTarget", like I have done here.
	// TL;DR The input images are placed inside this nested smart object instead...
	nestedTarget: 'Placeholder',
	resize: 'fit',
	align: 'center bottom',
	}

This is perhaps easier to understand with the target names. The target smart object holds a browser mockup and the nested target holds the browser viewport contents...

Batch-Mockup-Smart-Object-Replacement-photoshop-script/Examples/example-2/Batch replace - example 2.jsx

Lines 37 to 44 in 8874ffa

	// FOREGROUND
	{
	target: '@browser',
	nestedTarget: '@viewport',
	input: '$/_input files/billboard',
	align: 'left top',
	resize: 'xFill',
	},

[DigitalBeer]

Hello Joonas, thank you for your time and suggestion.

I will try to explain the original issue better so as not to waste your time, when I was referring to layer position I meant it's position relative to other layers e.g. top layer.

Here is the original mockup

Here is the contents of the smart object, as you can see, all the effect layers that are specific to the poster texture are in here.

When I run the script using any input image, it comes out looking like this, the image is fine but you can see that it is is missing all the paper texture like the folds and tears and shadows from within the smart object.

Does that make more sense now? Is nestedTarget still the correct approach?

Thank you

[joonaspaakko]

Yea, it's the same exact scenario as the billboard mockup in example 2

Batch-Mockup-Smart-Object-Replacement-photoshop-script/Examples/example-2/Batch replace - example 2.jsx

Lines 37 to 44 in 8874ffa

	// FOREGROUND
	{
	target: '@browser',
	nestedTarget: '@viewport',
	input: '$/_input files/billboard',
	align: 'left top',
	resize: 'xFill',
	},

You can convert the Placeholder layer into a smart object and that's your nestedTarget:

target: '@UK ISO 210 International',
nestedTarget: 'Placeholder',

[DigitalBeer]

Hi Joonas, you were absolutely right, thank you for clarifying that for me, I have done exactly what you explained and it's working perfectly now. Thank you very much for your time and knowledge. You deserve a🥇

Cheers 👍