Layer blending options and Xion

[UnseenRage]

How do you make the blending options on layers (i.e. shadowing or inner glow) stay on when you make a psd usable for Xion? My layers just look vanilla and all of the shading and inner beveling go away when Xion intergrates the layers into buttons and other stuff.

[pickle]

Xion doesn't interpret layer styles. You'll have to right click on the layer & select 'Create layers'. Then you'll have to apply masks to the newly created layers as needed.

[White Rabbit]

While I work on a skin I usually just make a copy of such layer and then "flatten" the copy, which involves creating a blank layer beneath it and merging them together. It's a bit crude but it works.

[UnseenRage]

Thanks for the quick reply guys, I will try both methods and see what will work the best for me.

[SLoB]

use the shortcut keys
shift+ctrl+n to create a new layer above the one your working on, select the link icon on the image you want to merge, highlight merged layer if youve already labelled it, then press ctrl+e to merge
quicker than mousing around

[UnseenRage]

There is a lost in blending of layers when you have to merge layers this way. Is there any other way to get Xion to recognize and use the blending from the layers? There is a loss of inner glow and outer glow when merging layers. Does anyone have a work around or is this the limit of XIon?

[pickle]

The loss might be due to a difference of opacity or fill - fill especially. Xion doesn't interpret the fill property. The only other way (that I know of) is to select what you want & copy merged.

[avok]

yeah im also having the same deal with the styles only way i seem to get what i want is to make a flatten image. iv pretty much made a bunch of "images" like a pas for eas button ect and then merge them as i work. i dont know of any other way to get xion to see them.

[SLoB]

flattened layers "ARE" the way Xion sees them, until such time that Xion sees "otherwise"

[avok]

ok messed with photoshop and layers and here is the best way "best" lol

do your effects on the layer you want styles then make a new layer above it. make sure all your other layers are hidden. and click merge visible. it will kepp your effects and you dont gotta make a bunch or other stuff. its how i did it.

[SLoB]

old news
we're all pretty much knowing of that, there are numerous threads with such discussions

you don't just have to merge visible, depending on ps version it can be easier to have explicit layers selected/merged
that will be pretty much the same for most skinning engines, any effects will be needed on a flattened layer, Xion does have the advantage that you don't need to split/spit out the layers to pick them up in an external xml file and it also helps to structure your psd, to go one step further with the psd would be to label every layer properly then the skin could be easily ported to other media players
if you have an editing tool that can group layers then this is also a good way to hide/group layers to reduce the initial look of the psd but bear in mind that if u just hide the group it wont hide any of the layers, those layers will still show unless utilising keywords/loops etc..