Over time and with all the layers combined I am over 150 MB!

Right now the Image size is about 2400 x 2400 pixels with about 15 - 20 layers. Which seems large but not 150 MB large! I beleive there are people that blow there pics up 200% and work on them like that without problems.

What sizes do your images peak at? What sizes do you usually work with? in terms of Pixels and such? And what would you recommend as a target # of layers to keep within?

Thanks to any suggestions in advance

But you have to take in mind that a image you work with is uncompressed.
All images of the same size (pixel wise) are taking the same amount of memory when not compressed.

Also every layer is like a new picture, so with each layer the mbs nearly doubles.
When the layer contains additional informations like blendmodes it can take even more ram.

Also a bigger image is more work for the cpu of a computer couse he has to calculate the effect of a filter for example on the whole image.

So there are a few solution for the problem.

First you must find out where the bottleneck is.
Does your harddrive starts to work when you make changes to a huge image (excluding saving ofcourse)?
Then your system hasn't enough ram and you have to upgrade it (but keep in mind that Win9x/ME only support up to 512mb).

Is the harddrive not working but things are still extremly slow, especial when the image has to be redrawn, than your cpu is propably too slow and this could need an upgrade.

Ok that are the major fixes (ofcourse they cost money and in my opinion are components where the quality is more important than the prize).

But for some cheap tricks do this.
Make sure you dont have any programs running in the backround like mp3player or filesharing programs (they steal processor time).
Also think about the resolution your image will have in the end and work with an image that is not more than double the size.
Merge layers where ever it is possible.

Ok thats all I know about it hopefully it helps a bit.

--------------------
Wer nicht vom Meister lernt, lernt nie etwas.

Usually final CGs come to about 6 - 20 MB tops. Those ones are usually 1500x1200 pixels, and later reduced to about 30% scale for web use after a little jpeg compression, they come out as 100-200kb

my elexis pic is 3328x2552 with 32 layers and takes 312.1mb in ram, the cool thing is that it takes only 14.8 mb on harddisk in this state.

maybe PS does some kind of compression while working on pics to free some ram (after all it was designed for high resolution printouts).

Do you mind to post a psd file with layers and stuff and the ram it used in PS.
Than I check how much PSP stats the file.

--------------------
Wer nicht vom Meister lernt, lernt nie etwas.

P2 400 Bugsy? holy crap, I sure hope you have more than 64 megs of ram, that would be a pig to work with! I think with 2D art RAM is what I'de want more than a faster CPU, down to a certain point at least (I certainly don't take a celeron 800 for granted!).