Hilltop

Hi all,
I'm making an "Introduction to Affinity Designer" video. I'll also be offering this free PDF as a download that has some bonus tips. Any feedback would be much appreciated! It is aimed at beginners, but I am posting it here in case anyone finds it useful. I'll post any updates here.
Thanks!
Trent 
 
Affinity_Designer_10_Tips_2024_Jan_01.pdf

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The Paint Brush Tool is probably the most underestimated tool in Affinity Photo. It can be used to paint, make selections, masks, and a whole lot more. Here are 10 tips that you probably didn't know about the Paint Brush Tool:
 

Have you ever wondered what the Curves adjustment actually does? In this video, I’ll explain it and also show the basic curves adjustment that works in 99% of scenarios.
 

If your design has hundreds of objects, select similar objects can be very difficult…but it's easy with the Select Same feature. In this video we’ll look at how to select objects with the same fill, stroke, shape, and more. 
 

A bit of tidying up including adding the external viewfinder. That will do.

A quick one keeping things simple, a few conical gradients etc. Might tidy things up if I decide I like it.
 
 
 
 
 

I wish everyone a happy and peaceful Christmas.

New forum member here. Just wanted to share some art, specifically an alternative movie poster I drew recently. I enjoy the hand-drawn and painted film poster aesthetic of days gone by. This poster is inspired by the tremendous poster by British illustrator Paul Shipper and so includes a few nods to his wonderful work. It is completely hand-drawn in Affinity Photo.
I had been experimenting with other apps (Procreate, Photoshop, Pixelmator Pro et al) and have found that Affinity Photo fits my needs and wants. I had a quick look at the forum and didn't see much hand-drawn raster art so thought I would share. Have included a couple of detail images as well.
Chris
www.theartofadventure.net

Some of this year's reduced tree motives which I use on xmas cards ...




 
If you need some last minute xmas tree resources take a look under the forum resources at ...
Xmas Trees Assets Xmas Trees Xmas Silhouettes ... generally take then a look at the xmas stuff under ...
Retrospective of resources contributions
 
Have a contemplative and peaceful Christmas time!

I think he refers to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%26H_Photo

Here’s an interesting technique, if you don’t mind the result being rasterised, to create a ‘roughened’/distressed version of a shape, or some text, or various other things.
Note: Only for Photo (or the Photo Persona of Publisher), either V1 or V2.
Note: This only works well on simple single-shade backgrounds (because of the Gradient Map).
See attached video.
First add a Live Procedural Texture of Urban Camoflage – the higher the Square Count the smoother the ‘roughening’. Then add a Live Median Blur – setting Preserve Alpha to ON may produce better results. Then add a Gradient Map Adjustment – make sure both middle gradient stops are at the same position. (Maybe add a very slight Live Gaussian Blur on top to ‘take the edge off’ a bit.) Experiment: Try changing the Blend Modes of the various Filters/Adjustments to see what weird stuff you can make.

2023-09-10 12-27-37.mp4

Palettes and swatches make it easy to work with your favorite color schemes in Affinity Designer. In this video we’ll look at how to create them and also explore the power of global colors. 
 

Learn how to create the transparent glass effect in Affinity Photo. This effect is very easy to recreate, perfect for beginners:
 

The Art Deco entrance to the Lowell Pool in Boise Idaho. Designed in 1953 by Wesley Bintz.

Couldn't decide what to do next so did this. People on FB said about the Christine movie that featured a '58 Fury, not watched it but it's now on my list.

I spent a few months abroad working on software projects. But now I'm back home for Christmas (just returned today) and of course I will also create a trilingual calendar for 2024. - So please be patient until I tackle this in the next few days!

Here’s a video which shows how to make a heptagram which looks like it ‘weaves’ into/through itself in Designer 2 (some of the tools used aren’t in Photo, Publisher or earlier versions of Designer).
Some of the functionalities/tools used are:
Star Tool (to get the initial shape) Pen Tool (to draw the basic heptagram) Expand Stroke (to get a thick shape) Point Transform Tool (to manipulate some shapes) Shape Builder Tool (to ‘join things up’) It should also work on most similar figures with a ‘low odd-numbered point count’, like pentagrams, etc.
Important: Don’t forget to move the origin of the curve to where the guides cross before you start duplicating the curve, otherwise the Point Transform work won’t be right.

2023-12-06 12-53-07.mp4

Yes, thorough and super clear!

Quick Grids and Power Duplicate allow you to easily place your objects in cool patterns, including a circle. Today we’ll look at these tools and some tips and tricks for getting the most out of them.
 

The spiral tool has been a highly requested feature in Affinity Designer. With the recently released version 2.3, it is finally here! This tutorial will show you the basics of this tool. Note: This also applies to Affinity Photo and Affinity Publisher. 
 

I am loving the new spiral shape tool in V2.3.  So many uses!  However, one way that a spiral can occur - as a coil or spring - I cannot seem to make with the options currently available in this new shape feature.  I am think of a coil as you would see along the edge of a spiral bound notebook, or a coil spring in a diagram.  Would be great to have that added as another option in this spiral shape tool.

. . . just in time for the holiday season . . . finished version of the 2024 VW Beetle calendar . . . created with Affinity Designer 2.0

My idea of flat, no blurs so tried to blend things in a bit by using shapes and blend modes.