Hilltop

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.

Welcome to the forums @OMGJeepGirl
That would be nice but, in the meantime, you can ‘do it the other way round’ with the Knife Tool and Vector Flood Fill Tool – see attached video.
2023-12-04 09-11-31.mp4

I recorded this tutorial on how to draw the Torus Yantra in Affinity Designer. The Torus Yantra is a well-know sacred geometry figure. If you guys are interested in the topic, you can take a look.
 

Some reproductions of works of art with the associated vector files: it's up to you to make them your own and recolor them to your liking (according to the color of your living room)...
The new duplication functions in AD 2.2.1 were very effective!...
Quelques reproductions d'œuvres d'art avec les fichiers vectoriels associés : à vous de les approprier et de les recoloriser à votre convenance (selon la couleur de votre salon)...
Les nouvelles fonction de duplication d'AD 2.2.1 ont été très efficaces !...















Jacqueline Schafer Hipster Nr3 I Love you (2015).afdesign Jean Allemand Composition bleue Lot 79.afdesign Liberté Égalité Fraternité Obey Shepard Fairey.afdesign Victor Vasarely Cheyt-Ond (1986).afdesign Victor Vasarely Domo (1989).afdesign Victor Vasarely LIKE_01.afdesign Victor Vasarely LIKE_02.afdesign Victor Vasarely LIKE_03.afdesign Victor Vasarely USA-EG (1986).afdesign Victor Vasarely Vega-WA I (1968).afdesign Yvaral (Jean-Pierre) Progression Plychrome (1971) Wallpaper.afdesign Yvaral (Jean-Pierre) Progression Plychrome (1971).afdesign Yvaral (Jean-Pierre) Structure Cubique B (1973).afdesign Yvaral (Jean-Pierre) Structure Cubique B (1974) Wallpaper.afdesign Yvaral (Jean-Pierre) Structure Cubique B (1974).afdesign

Hi 
Im new here but i wish to share my latest artwork and also I have a question about data entry, how to keep letters and numer horizontally around circle? 
Many thank  

I thought I'd try and do something with Inkscape now v1.3 is out. Cars are "easy" if long winded so I though that would be a good project to try it out on. Even installed Linux to give it the best chance but it's just too slow, clunky (like the coders don't actually use it, but they're doing it for free so not complaining too much) and a bit buggy. So I gave up after a couple of days and opened it in AD v2 then copied it in to AD v1 (as v1 wouldn't open it) and did it in there instead. 
Windows AD was grinding to a halt near the end, should just use my Mac.

In reaction to a recent question, I’ve attached a video showing one method you can use to create a vector ‘Greek-style’ border using various tools in Designer 2 (some of the tools used aren’t in Photo or Publisher, or earlier versions of Designer).
Some of the functionalities/tools used are:
Quick Grid (to get the initial grid of squares); Shape Builder Tool (to join the squares up, not actually necessary in this case); Geometry functionality (to tidy things up and make them easier to manipulate); Warp Group (to create the ‘bend’); Move Data Entry (to create multiple copies). If you need a different number of ‘repeats’, or differently-sized/spaced overall result, then you will need to calculate the Warp Value and Rotation differently, and maybe use a different height/width ratio for the initial design.
I’ll leave it to you to experiment.

2023-11-28 12-29-33.mp4

Hi PaulEC,
I'm glad you like them.
There are 4 brush files. 2 parts to the 'Nature' brushes and 2 parts to the 'Atmosphere' brushes. I had to split them cos the file sizes were so large. I also uploaded images of what each brush stroke looks like and it's name, also a step-by-step tutorial in Word on how I created them. So you can create your own. It covers masking out backgrounds and brush settings... Hope you saw these. Let me know if you don't find the other 'Nature' brushes...
 
DelN's Free Brushes Pt1.afbrushes DelN's Free Brushes Pt2.afbrushes

Hi,
I 've been trying to create a mist-laden forest using masked-out trees, some mist that I painted on individual layers, trees in the foreground which are clear, while those in the  distance are coloured by the mist; many of the ones in the distance I filled with the colours taken from an image I found in Pinterest, which I used for inspiration. I love the mood these ghostly, atmospheric mood pieces evoke...
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/search/pins/?q=misty forest&rs=typed&term_meta[]=misty|typed&term_meta[]=forest|typed
If you find one you like, you can create a colour palette in Affinity Photo really easily by opening an image and, in the 'Swatches' palette, clicking the small horizontal lines (top right), then clicking 'Create Palette from Document', then selecting either 'As Application Palette' or 'As Document Palette'. I use 'As Application Palette' so that I can use the colour palette in other documents. You can always 'Export Palette' if you want to save the colour palette for later use.
I created a few colour palettes from images of misty forests and use them to colour the trees in the distance to get the same look as the image. I also drop a couple of mist and fog layers (that I painted using my 'Atmosphere, Mist and Fog' brushes) between the tree layers, thereby creating the look of a mist between the layers of trees, which, hopefully, I have achieved. Some of my favourites to use are the 'Atmosphere' brush, the 'Wipe on Texture_White' brush and the 'Paint on Atmosphere' brush (see example brush strokes below).
There are quite a few layers in the Affinity Photo file (see below). I also include a screengrab of the 'Swatches' palette and the 'Ghostly Blues' colour palette.
Check out Pinterest page https://www.pinterest.co.uk/search/pins/?q=misty forests&rs=typed&term_meta[]=misty|typed&term_meta[]=forests|typed, which is 'Misty Forests', and https://www.pinterest.co.uk/search/pins/?q=mist and fog&rs=typed&term_meta[]=mist and fog|typed, which is 'Mist and Fog' or do a search in Google...
And a simple brush stroke of one of the Atmosphere brushes makes a great background for text made from the 'Nature' brushes, which I love experimenting with...
 

Hi,
It has taken a while to create these Atmosphere, Dust & Smoke brushes.
There are a few mad brushes thrown in, such as the Pink Glitter Motes, but I think they look great and had atmosphere when used in a wood or forest environment. I use them all the time.. You can change the look of the brush dabs/strokes in the Layers panel.
Hope you like them. I'd love to see the stuff you create using them. I enjoy seeing other people's creative work.





DelN's Free Brushes Pt3_Atmosphere Dust & Smoke Brushes.afbrushes DelN's Free Brushes Pt4_Atmosphere Dust & Smoke Brushes.afbrushes

Updated Version Available (December 2023)
Recently, @christerdk posted in the "Desktop Questions" forum about trying to achieve the engraved look of U.S. currency. He was given a variety of suggestions (including one or two commercial products). Because of this, I am attaching a macro that I created several years ago and have refined a bit more recently. It is meant to approximate the look of engraved currency.
The macro uses a number of adjustments and filters, all enclosed within a Group. Because of this, the effect can be turned on and off by simply using the Hide/Show checkbox on the group itself.
The attached .afmacros file is a Macro Category and therefore should be imported from the Library panel. It contains a single macro (called "Currency Effect"). Once imported, the macro can be moved to a different category, if desired. The macro was created in Affinity Photo version 2.2 which probably means that it will not be compatible with AP version 1. However, since it is provided as a category, it can be imported into Affinity Photo 2 for iPad.
*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
Clicking on the macro will bring up a user dialog in which you can set certain parameters:
1) Set Line Size (default = 20)
The macro uses a live Halftone filter, and this will vary the width of the lines used. In general, use larger lines for larger images.
2) Set Line Angle (default = 30 degrees)
This affects the angle at which the lines are drawn. Try various settings to achieve subtle but important differences in output.
3) Set Contrast (default = 85)
This setting also affects the embedded Halftone filter, and can change the contrast between the dark lines and the background.
4) Adjust Overall Brightness (default = -20)
This affects a Brightness and Contrast adjustment, and will lighten or darken the final image, to your taste.
When you hit the Apply button, the effect is added to your image at the top of the layer stack. Note that the effect contains only adjustments and filters; because of that, it is completely non-destructive. You can make changes to the underlying image and this will not adversely affect the result. Also, you can open the individual adjustment and filter layers to make changes even after you have hit the Apply button.
Here is an example of a Before and After image, with the User Dialog showing the settings used to create this particular variant.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
As always, I am one person using one computer and a single iPad. I have tested this macro on both of my devices, but cannot claim that this testing has examined every possible scenario. Nevertheless, I believe that it will work as suggested. Try it and, if you like it, keep it and enjoy it. It is free for you to use in any project you would like – personal or commercial.
I ask only 2 things. If you've used the macro, please let me know by posting your impressions. Perhaps, even provide a before and after screenshot. Second, please remember that this forum is a wonderful way to learn, and an even better way to share that learning. Pay it forward.
December 2023 Update
The .afmacros file attached below is now an updated category. It can still be imported into the Affinity Photo Library panel (or into the iPad version) but it now contains 3 macros. (1) The original version of the Currency Effect is included. (2) An updated version 2 of the macro is also provided. This update adds a live Ripple filter which makes the engraved lines a bit wavy, better simulating true engraving. (3) There is an Instructions macro, which will place on-screen instructions into your Layers panel.
Please feel free to download the new file, and to replace the previous Currency Effect category with the new one. Have fun!
 
Currency Effects (v2).afmacros

You're the best, Trent! Thank you for these practical and enlightening tutorials!

Text on a path or circle is super easy to do in Affinity Designer. In this video, we’ll check out how to do it and also how to avoid some common pitfalls.
 

Attached is Revision A of my Tutorial on how I process and edit color negatives using Affinity Photo. (See Revision B later in this thread for an updated version). My original tutorial generally resulted in good conversions, but sometimes the deep shadows took on a blue cast. That could be corrected during editing, but was not ideal. Rev. A corrects this problem entirely and results in better, more accurate conversions. The process in Rev A is different, but is simpler to implement. 
I do not own a dedicated slide scanner, negative conversion software or plug-ins. Instead of scanning, I used my DSLR, a 100mm macro lens and an LED backlight to photograph color negatives, which I brought into Affinity Photo in their original negative form. I shot RAW, but full sized TIFFs work equally well.
The approach described in this tutorial works with any brand color negative film and preserves the color relationships in the original negative. No special negative film profiles are required. This method works well for me and I hope others find it useful. There are many ways to process color negatives and convert them to positives, but this works reliably for me and yields an image that is easy to edit. 
Best,
Lou Dina
 
Processing Color Negatives in Affinity Photo-Rev A.pdf

In this video we’ll check out how to create a “distressed texture” effect for print-on-demand designs. We’ll explore how to work with vectors, transparent PNGs, and solid JPGs.
 

The style picker tool is an easy way to copy the appearance of one object to another…but it has some tricky elements to it. In this video we’ll look at how to use the tool and also some common problems.  I use Affinity Designer as a demonstration, but this also works in Affinity Photo and Affinity Publisher. 
 
 

Hi all,
I just posted a video on my channel about a method for making seamless patterns in Affinity Designer (desktop). I have found this to be one of the easiest techniques:
Pros
Works on any canvas size No math or calculation Easy to modify as you experiment with the composition Cons
No live preview method. You need to manually test the graphic as a fill pattern Let me know what you think!
 

Embedding and linked are two different ways to place resources in your Affinity projects. Today we’ll look at how each of these methods work and the pros an cons of each.
 
 

Put vector objects to a spiral or curved path like a text.
Here is example:
 

Hi all,
The team has been making good progress. I don't have any updates on a release date but please be assured we are not sitting on our haunches - we want to get this feature out as much as you want it out!
Naturally we've been exposing more of the apps' functionality to scripts, but we've been working on plugin-specific technology too. For example, there's a new asynchronous file i/o and networking API, initially driven by the Javascript layer but then we thought it would be good for the lower level C/C++ plugins to have access too. Obviously with local and remote i/o, we've had to be careful that a script isn't covertly sending user data somewhere, so we've introduced a permissions system for Javascript plugins - unless you allow a particular script network access, it won't be able to use the networking API. It may not be a big shiny WOW! feature, but it's important to get these things right.
Anecdotally, I can tell you we've actually used some scripts internally to do some genuinely useful stuff that would have taken literally days to do manually. One script I wrote optimised a document and removed about 60000 layers. There have also been relatively simple layout and alignment tasks that scripts can munch through in the blink of an eye. Last week I wrote a script that split a pixel layer into new pixel layers containing the blocks of grouped pixels. Even the pixel processing was done in the script - I didn't have to rely on the app to do the heavy lifting for me because our performance is good enough to implement DBSCAN in Javascript.
Please be patient. We know you all want scripting available yesterday, but we're getting there!

An alternative to the above suggestions could be to have two documents.
The first document contains your text (and whatever else) and the second contains the clipboard image.
Create the first document with a transparent background.
Then Place (linked) the first document into the second document, then rotate and resize it accordingly.
You can then change the first document as necessary and the second document will change accordingly.
(Make sure that “Automatically update linked resources when modified externally” is ON in Settings → General.)
By doing it this way you can use the first document to create the actual material, if needed, while the mock-up changes ‘in the background’.
This will work in Publisher because, in this particular case, the clipboard image looks ‘flat’ rather than in perspective.
If the clipboard image had more perspective then Designer or Photo would be needed to further manipulate the linked document but the same sort of actions would apply.
See attached video for a quickly-made example.
2023-11-21 08-43-35.mp4

Tinsel, pine and fur branches. Pine branches are available as both green image brush and intensity brush if a more abstract look if desired

Christmas Custom Brushes.afbrushes