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nickbatz

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Everything posted by nickbatz

  1. This is v.1. Adjustment layer selected on the left, pixel layer selected on the right.
  2. I'm not exactly sure what you're saying, but this is 100% repeatable. Either you're charmed, I suppose it's possible that my software is corrupted, or you're doing something else. And yes, I only use the Mac version. iPads have a small fraction of the memory what I do requires.
  3. Okay, so I can confirm that this behavior has changed in v.2.0.0 Mac. In v.1.x it doesn't matter what kind of layer is selected, you get the menu with all the options. Not so in v.2.
  4. This is the Mac desktop version. I’m out and can’t check the version, but it’s probably 2.0. Thanks for the replies. It’s not a major hassle to add a temporary pixel layer before merging visible, but I’m pretty sure this wasn’t how v.1 worked.
  5. But if I create a blank pixel layer on top (as shown below) it comes back again. Can someone explain why this behavior has changed? My guess is that it's intentional, and I'm confused. TIA
  6. Okay, I posted about this the other day but I caught it in the act. Ladies and Gentlemen, observe that I have a pixel layer selected and there's no Merge Visible command in the right mouse menu. ...continued next post.
  7. The other glitch - needing a pixel layer or the right-click menu containing commands like Merge Visible didn’t even appear - was definitely a weird glitch.
  8. I take it back. Now that I restarted, it's working normally. There was definitely a glitch, though - I've done both these things literally hundreds of times (and I've posted before that I use the clone brush more than a toothbrush, and I have good dental hygiene). Well, these are computers. As we were...
  9. 1. You need to create a new pixel layer to do a Merge Visible. Right? Why? 2. Am I right that you can't use the clone brush on a pixel layer anymore? If so, I have to voice strong disapproval. But hopefully I'm wrong. TIA
  10. You wait until the software you use is ready. That was only a minor issue through most of last decade (until Catalina broke all 32-bit programs), but it is again. Maybe that's because of the transition to Apple Silicon.
  11. Actually, I'd debate the semantics of that point (not that I disagree entirely). Apologies in advance for being so argumentative - this is something I've been thinking about a lot recently, and no doubt I'm far from alone in that! Anyway, text-to-picture certainly has an intention, and whether or not you call what it does art isn't really important (although I don't). To me the main issue is what I already wrote: we are humans with a deep need to create and enjoy art. AI has the potential to take a lot of that away. Or will it force real artists to come up with things that are beyond a machine? Remember, programs like Midjourney rely on a database of images created by artists. Machine learning is a totally different thing from AI "art." Whether Serif *needs* to incorporate it into the Affinity programs, who knows. Anyway, my hunch is that at lot of this will end up as... I'm not a programmer, but it'll be in libraries of routines that are part of the SDK. You're right that it's the next wave, though. New Macs even have dedicated neural engine cores in their current computers.
  12. I'm afraid you're underestimating the impact programs like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion are already having. But the second sentence of yours I quoted here - yes, in fact it's a tautology to say that unique art is always going to be unique!
  13. It will get better, but I consider that irrelevant. You can come up with 50 billion analogies about other inventions, and they all collapse at the same point: human have a need for the arts (both creating and enjoying it). Having a machine create "art" is totally unclear on the concept, even if it can produce some interesting things at times. I have less utter disdain for the whole concept than I did at first, because there are creative uses for it (for example creating backgrounds). But it will never be art, no matter how hard you struggle to compare the process. Shorter version: I don't give a FF about it. No AI can do what I do, and it's not something I'll ever use - whether it's visual art, music, or anything else.
  14. Oh no, Nick Batt is not at all the same person, and I believe his video reviews are what you're talking about - not that he isn't good at it. He sort of grumbled and barely suppressed a snarl when I accused him of stealing my name and initials (Edit: obviously my accusation wasn't serious). I'm Batzdorf.
  15. DAWs have been pretty amazing for years, but I guess it's true that there hasn't been much significant improvement to them - leaving aside that seemingly small things can be hugely significant if you use a program all the time! Probably the biggest change over the past few years is that the software and hardware (computers) have caught up with each other. Affinity's programs aren't real-time, so that's less of a factor, but faster hardware certainly does help. And yeah, hardware synths are definitely thriving, and the supply chain bottlenecks do seem to have eased. Synthplex, a synth show in Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago, seemed to be very well attended - both by manufacturers and regular humans.
  16. I was a print magazine editor then and now edit an online magazine (SynthAndSoftware). Music and audio technology is a different audience, but we actually do run real reviews.
  17. I should have said you can't *count on* being able to reinstall an older OS. As far as I know that was the case with my previous Mac, a 5,1 Mac Pro, when you installed High Sierra en route to Mojave. That may have been an old wives' tale, though - I didn't try going back. Or maybe it was just that you needed the firmware update to support the Metal-capable video card Mojave required. Anyway, it's moot, because that iMac can't be upgraded and Affinity Photo can't run on it. I sympathize, of course, but that's how it goes.
  18. I just did and would buy the v.2 license just to support Affinity's development even if I didn't care about the features, in fact I bought Designer for that reason (at this point I only work with pixels, not raster graphics). However, the fact that this thread is now five pages long says something about how customers perceive things, i'nit? There are lots of posts from people kvetching, followed by responses explaining why it's a good deal, obligatory car analogies, and so on. And in my opinion the responses totally miss the point! I don't care about not getting a lower price than new customers get, but I do understand the reactions.
  19. By the way, that's in any case, even if you're not doing anything to your system! And I wouldn't recommend trusting only one full backup, because they can fail too. I use alternating Time Machine local backups, a bootable clone in my glove compartment (made using SuperDuper from Shirtpocket Software), and an iDrive cloud backup (which can't do a full restoration, i.e. it doesn't include programs). *** That aside - and what was sticking in my head since yesterday (I know, I'm not normal) - you can't reinstall an older OS if the firmware gets updated. It doesn't do that with every update, but the point is that you only want to do macOS updates with your eyes open.
  20. Understood, but I still wouldn't do it - and in fact I chose not to on my (heavily updated) 2009 Mac Pro. I work on these silly machines all day long, need to run current software, and just can't afford to risk having problems with drivers, etc. It is annoying when a computer has plenty of horsepower and will run everything except a couple of things that are incompatible (usually the main programs you use), but what can you say; I'm old enough to remember when computers were 2-1/2 year investments for people who ran demanding software.
  21. Thanks very much. Actually I do save to an external drive regularly. But now that you mention it, I think I just do Save As when it doesn't want to save, in other words I never realized it was a bug! There are still a couple of music plug-ins I use that have issues with Ventura, but those are going to be fixed imminently.
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