rawedge49@gmail.com

I agree for deform to substitute for puppet warp it needs: To be able to rotate points - see PUPPET-01 & PUPPET-02 (a shot of my dog masked in Affinity & exported to Photoshop, converted to a Smart Object[with mask], points placed and head point rotated). To be able to add points to a already deformed mesh without the mesh deforming excessively with just the add - see PUPPET-03 ( points added and moved after initial deforming, in deform this makes the mesh go wonky). To be a non-destructive live effect/filter which can be modified/undone - see PUPPET-03 (a shot of the layer palate in PS which shows the result of the warp, a smart filter which can be totally edited including painting the effect mask to remove the effect selectively & incrementally, also the smart object can be opened and the mask edited. Ideally Affinity Photo should be able to import & export a psd with smart objects intact including live puppet warp. The other issues I keep wanting are: 1-way better channel & mask access! To be able to view and edit (WITH ALL TOOLS - dodge/burn, curves/levels[applied directly to channel/mask], etc.) a copied channel both before and after it has been made into a mask! 2-Smart object support! I like a lot about Affinity Photo & the rest of the suite but to be a suitable Adobe replacement it really needs these issues fixed(at least for professional work).

I use puppet warp extensively in my finishing work. The ability to lock areas with point while precisely moving other areas is indispensable, as is being able to see the other layers and lowering opacity to see below the layer you're adjusting for exact placement. The only way to achieve this with warp is to cut the object into multiple pieces and distort each piece separately, then deal with the alignment/blending issues of each piece. Tedious. Liquify could do this sort of except it opens to new window with just the object you're working on, so aligning to the rest of the images in the file is pure guess work. My other main complaint is the lack of a direct way to edit channels. Sure you can make a copy of one of the RGB channels, but you can't view and edit that copy. You should be able to use all available tools including curves, dodge, burn, blur, etc. without having to create a layer to do so. And the same for layer masks, all the tools should work when the mask is selected and active (whether it's visible or not), burning the darks to tighten up the mask, blurring to soften hard edges, you get the idea. The ability to move the rotation/origin point when transforming would make that more efficient.

Hi everyone, I'm new to Affinity and also bought the suite on the sale. There's a lot to like and it could be an excellent alternative to Adobe, but it's crippled by some unfortunate decisions in the UI and some glaring omissions in functionality. I've worked with Photoshop professionally since 1992 (before it even had layers!) and that's my area of expertise so I'll limited my observations to Affinity Photo. First, the layer palate is non-standard and needlessly obscure. I like that clipped layers are hidden until you click the main layer carrot, but they should appear above when you do, not below! And the mask thumbnail should remain in position next to the layer thumbnail, not drop below. The stacking order in the palate should coincide with the stacking order in the file! I've also had an issue with some or all of the thumbnails disappearing in the layers palate The channels palate is arranged well and has the ability to copy 1 or more of the RGB channels to the spare channels, then it drops the ball, giving no way to view or edit the copied channels (applying adjustments, dodging/burning, painting, selecting sections & transforming, etc). Also no way to overlay the spare channel on the work image. No Puppet Warp! The last major improvement to Photoshop IMO. I use this extensively compositing images together. On a smart object it's non-destructive and you can adjust the layer opacity to view the alignment with the lower layers as you manipulate it. Liquify is limited by comparison. At least Affinity Photo applies Puppet Warp to smart objects when you open a PSD unless you choose to keep them as smart objects. No option to change the modifier keys for mouse/pen actions like resize brush, rotate canvas, etc. Radial blur is rotation only? There's a lot I like about Affinity besides the price and lack of subscription, I love the look, the interconnection between apps, many of the tools and functions. But the screwy layer palate and the lack of direct editing of channels severely limit it's usefulness (at least for me).