rui_mac

Getting much more acquainted with the tools and processes :-)
Here are the hand-sketch and the start of getting it drawn in AD.

Here it is. Finally had the time to finish it. It didn't took long, once I had another go at it. Working with AD is really a pleasure :-)

Like hum... a new beta?  :rolleyes:

Node Tool Actions:

 

Discoveries in Moving and/or Aligning Entire Objects using the Node Tool

 

To select all of the nodes on any given object/path you must first click on either any part of the path or any node of the object to highlight all of the individual nodes on the object. Then you can drag a selection rectangle around every node to select all of them or individually do a “shift-click” on every node to individually select them all or just the one you chose.

 

Once this is done you may then drag the object and/or the selected nodes by placing the cursor directly over any selected node and drag the object/nodes to a new location all at once

 

You can also use this technique with the “Snap” option turned on to directly ‘snap” any given node of one object to any given node of another without distorting the original object.

 

If the object/path you are trying to move as a whole with the cursor on any given node is overlapping another object the selection rectangle drawn by the “Node Tool” will only select the nodes on the selected object and not those of the underlying object. This is a big plus.

 

Downside?

 

Using the above method to move and snap an object/path without distorting the original only works if you move the object with the node tool directly over a node.

 

If you accidentally happen to place the cursor over ANY line or curve segment and not directly over a node while trying to move the object (regardless of how many nodes you have selected) two things will happen.

 

1. If the cursor is on a curve segment it will modify the curve.

 

2. If the cursor is on a straight line segment it will convert it into a curve segment (immediatelyi use “command-z” to undo that action).

 

Both of these options is an undesirable side effect that will unintentionally modify the object when your initial intent is to only move it in tact or just the selected nodes.

 

Obviously this is an unintended consequence but something you should be completely aware of. I have one suggestion as to how to handle the accidental modification of a path at this point that might work.

 

Possible Solution:

 

If two or more nodes on a path are currently selected then DO NOT allow the tool to modify individual line or curve segments as this node selection would be a indication that the user is only interested in moving the individually selected nodes and not modifying any of the segments.

 

Hope these discoveries are of help to all.

 

Max

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Yeah, Rui, in Germany Apple Motion is 44,99 €. I confused it with Apple MainStage 3, which is just as great and sells for 26,99 €.
But even though music and graphics are intertwined I don’t think this belongs in this forum …  :)
 
But we don’t know – maybe Affinity is already working on an Apple Watch version of a movie editor …

Create Text Outlines
 
Back in 1988, after successfully being able to send AI line drawings directly to Pen Plotters I quickly found out that I could not print the outlines of fonts. After a call to my friend (Jim Von Erh of Fontographer fame) he sent me the information I needed to reverse engineer the system type 3 founts created with Fontographer back into their original outlines and shortly thereafter I created a program called “FontLiner” which was the first of its kind to decode all the characters of any type 3 font back into their outlines in an Illustrator file format. This was the first time graphic designers had access to the outlines of fonts.
 
Several months later I got a call from Adobe Systems that the owner, John Warnock, wanted to talk to me. Since I lived in the area at the time I agreed to meet with him personally. He was deathly afraid that I had also cracked the encryption of Adobe’s Type 1 fonts which they considered a very big trade secret and was about to hand the whole world their outlines too. I told him I was not at liberty to say whether or not I had. They were very worried though. Their font sales had fallen off because designers would not buy new fonts they could not get the outlines to using “FontLiner” or Illustrator. The toothpaste was out of the tube once designers were able to get hold of outlines. On the plus side I could now plot out any font characters.
 
Needless to say the next version of Illustrator (Version 3.0) came out with the new “Create Outlines” option under the Font menu and the rest was history along with my program but it turned out best for all designers from that point on. Designers around the world would groan now without that option.
 
Meanwhile my plotting program turned into “SighPost” which became the first and most popular program for the Mac for Vinyl Sign Cutting companies at the time.
 
Just a little history on the beginnings of access to font outlines with the help of Jim Von Erh from back in 1988.
 
Max
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Scripting! Scripting! Scripting! :D

Being able to only drag guides from the ruler with the Move Tool is not desired.
We should be able to drag guides from the rulers even when using any other tool.
Being able to create guides (while using other tools) with Alt+click on the ruler is nice but not accurate enough and doesn't work with snap.

Yes, I opened some.
They need to have .fh10 or .fh11 extensions.

In that direction I would like this feature (photoshop) and i miss it.
 

 
Having the possibility or using an anchor to decide in witch direction you want to to resize it and how much.

I was a terrible student at maths. Until I got my first computer (a ZX Spectrum 48K) and started programming and "visualizing" maths.
Now I work with matrices, trigonometry, indexed lists, lookup tables, etc. ;-)

Just to be a terrible tease... take a look ;)
 
rotate_canvas.mov
 
Oh, I hasten to add that it's only this slow because it's my debugging build which is about 10 times slower than the release build - it's late and I can't wait for it to rebuild before going to bed!

Yes, it's a multiplier of line width that is used to determine the longest distance the 'point' could be away from the line centre before a bevel would be introduced instead. The default 1.41 (sqrt(2)) value allows for a 90 degree corner before changing to a bevel. Higher/lower values can now be specified as required.

Affinity Designer is a Mac OSX only application at the moment. iPad applications will come but only after the Mac range has been established.

This already works :) ...but I've disabled it... I wrote the view stuff to cope with arbitrary transforms at any stage, so we could even perspective-transform the whole view and everything would work okay... However, I would need to clip the quads that are making the checkerboard background appear and at the moment I don't do it, so that's why it's not enabled...
 
I've actually got the 'rotate' gesture recogniser hooked up to it already in the build you're all using, but it just returns at the top of the function to disable it! :) (I can spin the view using my trackpad and a rotate gesture on my version!)
 
So, it's definitely something we considered from the beginning (rui_mac is absolutely right that if we hadn't written it with this in mind it could be a potential nightmare to add!) and will be added one day, but for now it needs a small amount of work and I haven't got chance at present... Keep watching this space!
 
Thanks,
Matt

I've added the modifiers to zoom in/out with Space+Cmd/Alt. This will be in today's beta - let me know how it goes :)
 
Cheers,
Matt

Missed this post.
 
Yes - we may well add this in the future.  All part of future snapping improvements.

Hey folks,
 
Here's another creature created solely in Designer. Unfortunately I couldn't paint the fur texture properly using the pixel paint brush (I could have used the vector brush tool but thought better of it) so cheated a wee bit with that, but apart from that, I'm pretty happy with the results.
 
Hope you like it.
 
George
 
 

There is another thread related to the dragging of curve sections. After thinking about it, I can see some useful additions:
 
The current mode, dragging a curve from a point, and changing the tangents at the ends.
Dragging a curve, preserving the tangents but changing their length.
Moving the curve section (effectively moving the on curve points either side).
 
I think these are all doable, and we have the modifier keys free when dragging curve sections. I think you should still be able to drag a straight edge to create a curve, but perhaps if you have the Ctrl key down (same as we do with the fill tool) you move the intact curve section. This way the behaviour is user selected, rather than dictated by the current section type. Some section can look like straight edges, but may not be. The second variation comes from another suggestion we had, and I can see it as quite useful. We just need to figure out how to implement it.
 
I suppose the third variation is already possible if you select the on curve points either side of the curve section, but this addition would avoid the need to select points.

Yes, that is me, Cristobal :-)
It is a small, small world. Well, we live near each other... we are practically neighbors :-)

Hi Rui!
Your name is very familiar to me. I suppose you are this Rui, right? :-)
I remember reading about your tools, utils and tutos from the C4D Cafe forums.
Glad to meet you around here :-)

Ok - next Beta, I've gone one step further - expect the following improvements to off-curve handle snapping:
 
- Snap to tangent for cusp nodes.  If there is an opposite off-curve it will smooth the point (as it did before) otherwise it is left as a cusp.
- Snap to normals (right angles to tangent).
- Snap inline with next on-curve point.  Helpful for correcting to straight lines.
 
All the above now also use colour highlighting to show when a snap is made.  Also have right angle and inline indicators between respective points.
 
Have a play, it will all make sense.

No, we don't have that yet - it's not hidden away! ;)
 
It will come...

I think it's on the list.   :)

well, I don't focus on software much, if I can help it - rather the techniques and methods. Trying to vary the software shown.
So I'll point students to the custom shortcut settings, rather than going into depth here. My courses don't allow the time for it and I put priority on everyone finding their own workflow ;)