[How to use one shape to subtract from another?]

9 hours ago, afinally said:

...... and it did what it should (basically burn a hole through the white).

 

 

An alternative:

You can also just set the black bits to the Erase blend mode. That'll burn a hole right through multiple layers of any type (if you want it to ).

(this assumes you don't mind a rasterized final output)

 

As far as the Boolean Subtract method goes.... a little tip.

Select all (or a lot) of the black "to erase" bits at once, Boolean Add them together and do just one (or at least fewer) Subtract(s).

(rather than subtracting one at a time)

[Text On Path Handles Not Working: AD 1.6.0 Beta 7 & 8]

On August 24, 2017 at 11:12 AM, Alfred said:

 

...All a bit drastic, and probably unnecessary since @MEB has confirmed the issue!

 

 

Thanks. Yes, a bit drastic. That's why I was avoiding it until after posting.

 

Thanks MEB.

 

And I see now that Beta 8 is out. Fingers crossed .

(Edit: I see MEBs answer below. Will amend the title so people are aware... and won't repost for 8.)

[Text On Path Handles Not Working: AD 1.6.0 Beta 7 & 8]

When using artistic text tool the orange/red triangle handles do not work at all: AD 1.6.0 Beta 7 (and now 8).

 

I'm a bit surprised I don't see others reporting this so I'm guessing it might be on my end.

(I've restarted the program several times, but haven't done a hard restart. What is it again? Hold down cmd?)

[How to modify an Elliptical Gradient angle in Affinity Photo?]

29 minutes ago, MEB said:

JimmyJack,

You can input a specific angle/value for the Gradient Overlay FX. The issue here is that will be exported as a rasterised gradient, which doesn't happen with the regular Gradient Tool (depending of the type of gradient/export settings).

 

Yes, that is the trade off. I should have started with "If you don't mind using an FX....."

[How to modify an Elliptical Gradient angle in Affinity Photo?]

2 hours ago, rubs said:

Thanks!

 

There's an angle input field in FX Gradient Overlay. 

But all the controls there are input.... nothing on canvas.

[Detect Edges]

5 hours ago, John Rostron said:

I just tried repeating the process,  adding the Preserve Alpha check in the Gaussian Blur. When I apply Detect Edges, everything goes black! A bug indeed.

 

Thanks anyway.

 

Hmm. I used your file (minus the problem result layer posted above).

Turned on Preserve Alpha.

Merged visible

Ran Detect edges.

 

Result:

 

And with a simple blend mode change you can go in either direction:

 

[Vector brush and Text clipping]

My workaround of choice is to use Precise Clipping. It's never off when I work anyway. I just noticed the rough edges in the original examples.

 

The whole thing with the Reverse Curve wasn't meant as a practical solution.

It was more of a diagnostic exercise to figure what the heck was going on if interested eyes are watching.

 

Not sure how (or if) simply turning on Precise Clipping affects a single curve direction, but that, at least, seems to be the issue when it's off.

[Vector brush and Text clipping]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

I am not sure what you mean about reversing the curve -- did that involve creating a compound object or what?

 

Nope, never made it compound. (not even sure if a vector pen clip is doable in a compound. Bitmap fill yes. But I digress).

 

Donut > convert to curves (gives you a curveS layer) > divide: you get two circles (I went straight to divide from the donut to skip the middle step).

Grab one circle and click Reverse Curve (Node tool). 

 

Re-subtract the two circles to go back to a CurveS "donut" shape.

 

Clipping now works.

 

 

[Vector brush and Text clipping]

14 minutes ago, R C-R said:

It is not working for me either when I convert the donut to curves & add nodes to create the notch. It does work when I add a rectangle & boolean add that to the donut to form the notch, converting the donut to a Curves object.

 

Ah. Interesting. Yesterday both did nothing, but today I'm getting the same as you.

So I surmise that the boolean is reordering points. 

To test:

1) I used the Donut, Divided, re-subtracted....... did not work.

2) I used the Donut, Divided, grabbed one (either) circle and reversed the curve, re-subtracted....... worked.

 

So I'm thinking that the Donut tool, and not the Cog tool, has opposing curve directions upon creation that don't play well when Precise Clipping is off.... for some reason. If the same experiment is done on the Cog, clipping will break and act like the original Donut.

[Vector brush and Text clipping]

17 hours ago, Pšenda said:

MEB: This is a bug. 

The problem with inside clipping is only with the inner circle/elipse.

If the circle is disturbed, clipping works well.

 

Thank you for reporting a bug.

 

This isn't working for me. Maybe just a PC thing? How did you perturb? Add points/move? Boolean? Precise clipping is still off right?

Can someone else try on Mac?

[Detect Edges]

I believe this is happening because Preserve Alpha is not checked on the G Blur adjustment.

Seems like a bug to me.

 

[How to make smaller object with same side dimensions]

Another non transform panel/input solution.... as nice as that is.

 

For a Rectangle:

All you need is a 45º line. With snapping and CMD constrain, super simple.

Readjustable on the fly.

 

1) Draw rectangle. Duplicate (CMD J).

2) Draw line. Snap to corner, drag while holding CMD (mac) to constrain to 45º. (Doesn't need to have a stroke (in fact it's better that way)

 

3) Resize the copy with CMD (mac) held down (snap to geometry needs to be on). If you're anywhere close to the line it'll snap all the way through the resize.

 

Resut: Can be any size. Readjustable.

 

[Vector brush and Text clipping]

The basic brushes, for me, get anti-aliased regardless of the clip quality setting. (It's a little dirty but AA nonetheless.)

But, I've given up on asking "why?"... in this case, one and not the other.  

 

Which leads me to the next point:

42 minutes ago, R C-R said:

....but I still think this is a bug in the implementation of the donut shape. Otherwise, the behavior would be the same for the Cog shape, right?

 

Certainly seems that way.

Why one and not the other? Bug .... oversight ... aliens, I dunno. 

 

[Vector brush and Text clipping]

Turn on "Use Precise Clipping" in Preferences > Performance.

 

(It'll solve the non antialiased clip issue (for text & brushes other than basic) also.)

[Create an 80s style vanishing point perspective grid?]

What is quickly?..... or easy ? Did the below in about 5 minutes. But it certainly ain't no vector distort...

 

1) Draw rectangle

2) Power duplicate it down in size

3) Add a centered star with 0 inner radius (double star works too). The only tricky thing here is that in order for the star lines to line up with the corners (I think) it has to be rotated 90º.  (star proportions should match the rectangle)

Throw the star into a copy of the biggest rectangle to clip it.

4) "Mask" out the center with another simple rectangle.... or add a couple points and mask out whatever section/piece you want (pictured).

Or clip it with the inverse.

 

Still somewhat editable.... i.e. the star is still editable as a star.

 

 

 

[Confused about croping vector drawing]

53 minutes ago, JimmyJack said:

A vector erase tool is essentially a knife tool with dimension.

We should have one. Today please .... holding breath.

 

38 minutes ago, Chris Ludwig said:

HI, 

 

Yes please exactly what I need. Pretty please make this happen soon!. 

 

Chris

 

 

Actually, more accurately i guess, it's a combination of dimensional knife and real time boolean subtract.

 

All hopeful wishing aside... It's a huge hole (pun intended) in Designer and one of the things (top five) that keeps me from full adoption. 

[Confused about croping vector drawing]

A vector erase tool is essentially a knife tool with dimension.

We should have one. Today please .... holding breath.

[Dissolve option or an alternative]

In AP.

Live Filters  > Diffuse.

Works on vectors too!

(there's also a destructive version under the Filters dropdown)

 

 

[Converting orphan Annie eyes to real eyes]

15 hours ago, toltec said:

That's odd. I would do the same thing. What no mask?  

 

 

Ha!! It's all inpainting . 

 

15 hours ago, gdenby said:

.... FWIW, that's the worst digital image I've ever worked with. 

 

All the more reason why it's advisable to find replacement parts from the image itself. That way one doesn't need to try and match imagery coming from a different source to the overall image quality. 

 

Yeah, looks like a scan/photo of a printed piece. A little too tight to be a newspaper, so I'm going with.... a yearbook .

[Converting orphan Annie eyes to real eyes]

I sincerely hope you still have those Jaguars!!  

Gotta be late 60's right?

 

As far as the eyes go, I'd pirate the eyes from the other guitarist.

 

I added a levels adj, and set the layer to darken.

 

Distant Sounds - v1_jj.afphoto

[How to blur backgrounds in AP (requesting instructions)]

51 minutes ago, toltec said:

 

Ah.

 

That's that problem resolved them. I had been wondering about that one.

 

Thank you 

Ah good!!

 

I was just coming back to post the right stacking.

I took a little time  in the selection refinement process. Take a look at how tight the B & W view is (of the mask). Tight but not hard.

(Frankly it could even be a lot tighter!! )

 

 

hello *no* halo JJ.afphoto

 

 

 

[How to blur backgrounds in AP (requesting instructions)]

Completely resolved. I simply had the (second) blur filter in the wrong position in the layer stack. It was outside of the mask. 

[How to blur backgrounds in AP (requesting instructions)]

On July 29, 2017 at 7:32 AM, toltec said:

 

Absolutely not. I would very much like to see if you can solve it with a mask. Obviously without any sort of inpainting :)

 

Haven't we been doing this the past 5 pages?

 

On July 29, 2017 at 7:32 AM, toltec said:

 

No offence to MEB but his method requires you to make a mask from the original selection. That denies you the option to use Refine Edges.

 

No and no.

(take a look at MEB's mask in black and white)

 

On July 29, 2017 at 7:32 AM, toltec said:

I also wanted to avoid creating and editing a separate mask. 

 

Again, you are already doing every bit of work and editing in this regard. Your selection method and refinement is everything you need (well hopefully)... IOW, the quality of the result using a mask has everything to do with the quality of the initial selection/refinement process (notice I didn't say mask. Ultimately they are one and the same. (Although a mask is non destructive and super easy to tweak down the road if needed.))

 

The semitransparent thing in refinement is, imho, a non issue in this particular case. But, if you want a harder edge you can use the ramp to get rid of a lot of it. Personally I think a hard edge is going to look worse, but that may boil down to personal preference.

 

Cheers.

 

[How to blur backgrounds in AP (requesting instructions)]

22 hours ago, toltec said:

 

Dear JJ

 

I think to some extent, we were talking at cross purposes. You thought I was Cloning and Inpainting as something to do with masking. In fact it was all to do with avoiding the halo from the lens blur filter. ...

 

Good Morning T,

 

Thanks for posting the file!

(BTW, To the above: not at all. I completely understood what the cloning/painting was being used for. )

 

So MEB explained why you were getting the halo. Is that issue now off the table?

 

 

 

3 hours ago, toltec said:

There is absolutely no need to make a mask in Affinity Photo and it is totally non-destructive and editable afterwards. Unlike that inferior Adobe product.

 

Definitive background blur method.  (I hope)

 

Select the girl, Refine Edges and from the Refine Edges box, Output: to a new layer.

 

On the background layer, use the same selection and delete the girl........ etc

 

 

Well at least we got rid of all the nasty terrible  inpainting (Seinfeld: not that there's anything wrong with that ). But the above IS destructive. (not picking on it, just pointing out.)

And at this point in the process, you have already, faiap, made the mask. So that work is done.

[How to blur backgrounds in AP (requesting instructions)]

i Hope I can deliver .

 

On a related but different issue I wish the blur above was a bit more even. 

There are a couple hot spots...