Oct 16, 2012 Coolorus, the color extension for Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Flash that adds a more modern and accessible color wheel to workflows has recently updated to version 1.0, making Coolorus completely CS6 compatible with the new CS6 Color Themes. You probably know the Corel Painter color wheel. Coolorus, the color extension for Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Flash that adds a more modern and accessible color wheel to workflows has recently updated to version 1.0, making Coolorus completely CS6 compatible with the new CS6 Color Themes. You probably know the Corel Painter color wheel.

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Photoshop is a powerful program with many tools and functions. But sometimes that functionality falls flat.

It’s easy to waste hours struggling to find the perfect color palette and organizing your layers into the perfect structures. And don’t even get me started on how long it takes to sift through brush collections.

Luckily some creative minds have built PS plugins to solve every problem you could imagine.

Even if you only use one of these plugins it can still help to streamline your artistic process. Saving time on menial tasks means you can focus more on what really counts—your artwork.

1. Coolorus

Coolorus is the color wheel plugin of your dreams.

The plugin boosts your speed and consistency when choosing colors and even saves your color-picking history on the fly. The UI is simple to understand and exceptionally responsive to fast color picking.

If you struggle with color consistency and harmony use Gamut lock and the Color Mixer features to keep your artwork on track.

They lock the range of colors you can choose from, keeping your palette consistent.

Mix your colors to create new shades with the Color Mixer and collaborate with others by saving and sharing your project’s palette.

Deceptively simple, this plugin has a minor learning curve and will get you choosing better colors instantly. The sleek UI is a major selling point and Coolorus’s functionality will support you in choosing the best colors for your artwork.

2. BrushBox

Have you ever download a bunch of beautiful new brushes only to spend the next two hours trying to find the right one?

It’s no secret that Photoshop’s Brush Preset Manager is lacking in organizational capabilities. And it’s easy to waste precious time sifting through your brush collection for an old favorite.

That’s where BrushBox comes to the rescue! It has the brush management power that you’ve been searching for.

You can organize your brushes into labeled groups that are color coded for easy identification.

Custom tag your favorite brushes so you can find them later with a quick search. If you find yourself using one brush in the same way over and over again, you can change its preset settings too and even predefine its color.

Quick, light on resources, and super easy to use, BrushBox is perfect if you are looking for a little more simplicity in your digital painting.

3. Renamy

If you often wind up with complicated, messy projects, Renamy is the perfect plugin for you.

It’s a layer organization tool with an impressive renaming and tagging system.

Renamy’s flagship feature is the selection and renaming of multiple layers in a single click. After the rename is complete it records the name you used as a tag, making it easy to find those layers at a later time.

Exceptionally useful in large projects with over 20 layers, the Find and Replace function can quickly rename in batches.

For example you can tell Renamy to find all the ‘red’ names and replace them with ‘blue’.

Renamy requires you to use a little bit of basic coding with their own language but it is quick to pick up and easy to remember.

Take a look at their FAQ page to learn about the commands they use and keep it saved as a cheat sheet!

4. MagicPicker

MagicPicker is similar to the Coolorus plugin(#1 on this list) and serves as an improvement for your color wheel.

It’s beyond simple to use and comes with some added functionality and smart keyboard shortcuts.

The color wheel can be displayed in a LUT cube or a traditional color wheel. The UI is smooth and well-optimized, scaling almost instantly when you made the panel bigger.

If you enjoy painting with color schemes then MagicPicker gives you the option to choose locked Mono, Complementary, Triad, and other similar schemes.

To further limit erratic color choices you can enable Gamut Lock, limiting your color options to a warm or cold gamut.

For those who intend on printing their work, K-Lock locks the K value of CMYK projects ensuring printed colors are vivid and accurate.

This plugin can be installed in both Photoshop and Illustrator making it even more versatile than other options.

5. MagicSquire

Like BrushBox, MagicSquire allows you to organize your brushes into basic color-coded groups for easy selection.

However the true power of MagicSquire lies in its detailed brush saving and preset settings.

When you save a brush you’ll see four auto-generated previews which you can choose from.

In addition, you can set which features you’d like to save—color, size, jitter, opacity, and more.

For something more unusual you can change the visualization to horizontal mode—a unique way to see how your brush will react when drawing horizontal lines.

The UI is simple and user friendly making it quick to learn.

Just watch the main video tutorial and you’ll be organizing brushes, making brushes, and creating artwork faster than ever before.

6. Color Constructor

The Color Constructor takes the guesswork out of choosing your palette. It taps into powerful 3D visualization tools and instantly gives you a realistic palette to work from depending on your color source.

Simply pick the light source color and the shadow color for the scene you are painting.

Then you can choose up to four base colors and get instant shading results according to your lighting system. Next screenshot the result, copy it to Photoshop, and you’re ready to start painting with an accurate color palette.

The plugin requires no 3D knowledge and is simple to use.

You can repeat the process as many times as you want to create detailed scenes with multiple light sources.

Tap into the power of 3D lighting systems without ever having to open a time-consuming 3D program. If you want more details watch this video to see how well it works in action.

7. Prisma Palette

By using the Prisma Palette plugin you can automatically calculate the colors of your scene based on light and shadow.

It does not give you a pre-visualization but instead adjusts the color of your brush according to the lights you have.

Right off the bat you can choose your ambient color and then a light color and begin painting with your base. It works with algorithms so the whole process may feel a little clunky at first, but you’ll get used to it with some experimentation.

The plugin is still in the Beta stage and the creator is busy creating detailed tutorials, but it’s still a worthwhile investment if you want to find out more about color theory.

Watch this brief tutorial to see how it works and why it can help introduce a more realistic color palette to your artwork.

8. The Animator’s Toolbar

Animating in Photoshop is a frustrating and time-consuming task.

A simple project can quickly turn into a confusing mess of layers. PS drawing tools are superb, but the lack of timeline management leaves animators pulling their hair out.

The Animator’s Toolbar speedily organizes the chaos with tools that can move, duplicate, order, label, and merge layers on one timeline.

The most powerful feature of this plugin is its ability to process multiple layers simultaneously while speeding up your workflow.

The Animator’s Toolbar contains a separate toolbar that has many of the features you expect in other 2D animation programs. You can create holds, introduce new video layer groups, and reverse the timing on selected layers.

If you are a serious animator looking to create frame-by-frame animations directly in Photoshop, this is a must-have plugin.

9. AnimDessin2

This plugin is completely free and is perfect if you want to explore your animation options within Photoshop.

Like The Animator’s Toolbar plugin, you can use

Coolorus Photoshop Cs6