bayustudio

Here's a link to a recent series of fun and colourful retro inspired objects and toys. All done in vector using Affinity Designer. Designer is so great for this kind of work. Cheers Serif!
https://www.behance.net/gallery/180858837/Retro-inspired-objects-and-toys-series
 

I've tried photoshop generative fill and it was enjoyable.
however, the process is done in the cloud with the trained model from millions of adobe stock photos.
if generative fill really happens in affinity (as core features), it would likely turn Affinity into a subscription-based service, right?
Not sure the majority of users will be happy with it

I believe Generative fill is just impossible with Affinity.
It would be challenging to handle the costs associated with cloud processing and training photo dataset licenses.
Photoshop can do that because its subscription-based, has huge cloud infrastructure and own Adobe stocks.
It would be more feasible to integrate Affinity with a third-party AI generative images provider, which allow users to have the choice to subscribe to such services if they want.
So Affinity can focus on their thing.
I would still be excited to see basic AI tools integrated into Affinity, such as object selection, sharpening, enlargement, etc
those are useful for photo editing and does not rely on cloud processing.

I agree. That is the most logical assessment for Affinity not making a direct commitment.
Indeed, there are still other opportunities to leverage the technology. Furthermore, I still think finishing their APIs for plugins/scripting may be the fastest path for us to benefit from some of these capabilities as the community and 3rd parties can start making some of these capabilities available via integrations.

I believe Generative fill is just impossible with Affinity.
It would be challenging to handle the costs associated with cloud processing and training photo dataset licenses.
Photoshop can do that because its subscription-based, has huge cloud infrastructure and own Adobe stocks.
It would be more feasible to integrate Affinity with a third-party AI generative images provider, which allow users to have the choice to subscribe to such services if they want.
So Affinity can focus on their thing.
I would still be excited to see basic AI tools integrated into Affinity, such as object selection, sharpening, enlargement, etc
those are useful for photo editing and does not rely on cloud processing.

I experienced the same issue. After a while, Designer 2 get laggy, and any operations even simple one like selecting, deselecting object takes ~1-3s.
The only solution for me is restarting the app periodically when it start to feel laggy.
Also when closing app, i often need to to do "end task" manually in task manager because the app seems to crash.
Looking forward to stability improvement on v2 🙂
 
*Designer 2 on Windows 10. Ryzen 7 3700X + 16GB Ram + GTX 3650 Super.

I experienced the same issue. After a while, Designer 2 get laggy, and any operations even simple one like selecting, deselecting object takes ~1-3s.
The only solution for me is restarting the app periodically when it start to feel laggy.
Also when closing app, i often need to to do "end task" manually in task manager because the app seems to crash.
Looking forward to stability improvement on v2 🙂
 
*Designer 2 on Windows 10. Ryzen 7 3700X + 16GB Ram + GTX 3650 Super.

i think this is also the reason why Affinity can achieve such great performance in each supported platform 🙂
Also good marketing exposure from Apple or MS by using its tech.
Yeah unfortunately no Linux.
Maybe when affinity introducing web app version, Thats when it finally available for linux.

Wondering where you got the misleading info about the free update.
I got AD 1 year ago and AP 6 months ago. both are already in the last major version of 1.x. So unfortunately I never experienced major feature updates as well
But I was aware that free updates are only until version 2 becomes available, it is stated somewhere on the specs page.
Yes it's like a gamble because serif doesn't inform V2 release schedule 🙂

If you use chrome and just want to treat photopea as an desktop "app" (with shortcut & dedicated window)
In chrome, Choose menu - more tools - create shortcut
then name the app and tick "open as window"
haven't tried in linux but works well in windows & mac
This way you don't need electron wrapper (huge stack of chromium+nodejs) just for running photopea.
And just utilize your already installed chrome browser.

Keep in mind the known bug: any zoom level >200 crashes designer in pixel view mode. No other triggers required. And the video shows zoom level far above this treshhold.
 

Today, Celsys (the developers of Clip Studio, another creative suite) announced that an upcoming update will incorporate 'an experimental AI feature based on the Stable Diffusion model.'
They claimed that they do not and will not share user data with the AI, but SD already has and uses a library of data sourced and scraped from artists across the web, without their consent or approval. As a result of this, they are 'getting they ass beat in the QRTs' and many users - myself included - are looking at competing products.
Does Serif already have such tools, or have any plans to incorporate similar features in the Affinity suite at any point in the future? I don't want to invest in a new product only for it to do the same shit I'm leaving Celsys/Clip over. Artistic integrity is a huge deal for many creatives, and having our and others' work sampled/scraped/stolen to amalgamate into some techbro's latest AI 'artwork' isn't something we want to be a part of in any way.
Apologies if this has already been clarified or answered elsewhere, and please link me to it if it has - I wasn't able to find it myself with the short time I had to search.

Hmm, I saw the same post as you today. I'm apparently not keeping up with the ethical issues you've described. I had no idea about the SD situation as far as data scraping 💢 I just know that increasingly more people clamor for AI features and know people have used them to create new works with prompts. Though, I think the AI features that are generally requested relating to image restoration, preexisting data the user possesses. I've not seen it suggested for creating brand new media or pulling from a library? I don't see Serif being the type of company to add anything like you've described here either. It doesn't sound like something they'd consider. I'm not a fan of AI, personally, except in limited usecases such as restoration. I just don't see the point otherwise. I'm not against people using it in their work. I just prefer a handmade feel is all. However, I do agree data scraping of any kind crosses major ethical lines.

That's unfortunate, but you did get the later features. Some of us had to wait a bit for current tools. Though it is nice to be part of something as it changes over time. So yeah, you'll get to enjoy that feeling with V2.

Such good news, JS is also a reasonable choice.
Just hopefully this scripting & extension coming in v2.x 🙂
in my opinion, affinity has a solid foundation with good popularity, once it is extendable enough, there will be a growing extension ecosystem around it...

Such good news, JS is also a reasonable choice.
Just hopefully this scripting & extension coming in v2.x 🙂
in my opinion, affinity has a solid foundation with good popularity, once it is extendable enough, there will be a growing extension ecosystem around it...

But Affinity is cross platform apps for both Mac & Windows creatives & pros. which need to maintain UI consistency between OS.. Some degree of compromise is unavoidable 🙂 just like Adobe, blender, etc
Hopefully, UI things get improved soon based on user feedbacks.
But I still appreciate that all apps are built natively
Lot of other companies doing much worse cross-platform implementation by using a kind of web/electron, flutter, java or own platform that clunky, eg: Adobe XD, Ms Onenote, Teams, Evernote, etc...

But Affinity is cross platform apps for both Mac & Windows creatives & pros. which need to maintain UI consistency between OS.. Some degree of compromise is unavoidable 🙂 just like Adobe, blender, etc
Hopefully, UI things get improved soon based on user feedbacks.
But I still appreciate that all apps are built natively
Lot of other companies doing much worse cross-platform implementation by using a kind of web/electron, flutter, java or own platform that clunky, eg: Adobe XD, Ms Onenote, Teams, Evernote, etc...

@R C-R and @carl123
 
I  can only completely agree with both of you. When I bought the Affinity Suite years ago (I have two licences), I received a nice discount for one of them for which I am grateful. I find the hugh 40% discount for everybody very generous and fair from Serif.
Am I more important with my 2 licences than somebody with 1 licence? Definatelly not! When I look around on this community, I see people helping people voluntarily to a great extend, I see astonishing artwork created and shared by members here. That are the people who earn even a much greater discount than myself.
The discount is a true bargain for everybody. And above all, people receive new features and tools which makes their workflow easier and faster. Instead of whining, people should explore these new tools, see how much they can push them to the limits, start creating and earning money! That is the only way to go to let Affinity pays itself back.
Creativity is the answer to succes, not the discount you received. Even at full price, Affinity will pay itself back for me.
I want to close this subject by telling to people who feel disappointed because others receive the same discount:
"be happy and gratefull for the nice discount you receive and grant other people the same joy!".
Be happy and positive!
Chris

If no backward compatibility is by design, Maybe it's a better idea to differentiate the extension to avoid confusion
because both v1 & v2 has same extension .afdesign
for example for v2 file, it can be untitled.afdesign2
like what Microsoft did with .doc and .docx

If no backward compatibility is by design, Maybe it's a better idea to differentiate the extension to avoid confusion
because both v1 & v2 has same extension .afdesign
for example for v2 file, it can be untitled.afdesign2
like what Microsoft did with .doc and .docx

If no backward compatibility is by design, Maybe it's a better idea to differentiate the extension to avoid confusion
because both v1 & v2 has same extension .afdesign
for example for v2 file, it can be untitled.afdesign2
like what Microsoft did with .doc and .docx

It's not the most feature-complete app (there are common features that surprisingly still missing)
but in other areas, there are a lot of things Affinity Designer feels modern & innovative.
eg: vector+pixel hybrid, performant engine, studio links, etc
The foundation looks solid, they just need to keep adding features...

I think v1 has been around too long, and 6 years of free updates give a false impression of a lifetime update..
There's a stereotype that adobe subscription= greedy evil, so one-time affordable alternatives like Affinity, Procreate, and Clipstudio is the loved one by the community. Besides the good quality of the software itself, the pricing is the factor that gives them a lot of popularity.. people happily recommend it to others even without a referral incentive. 
when there are changes related to pricing or spending more, it will be resulting a lot of vocal dissatisfaction that happens organically.
A worse thing happened to Clip Studio Paint a few months before, when they announced the upcoming app version and told perpetual 1.x owner will not get updated features anymore. plus the introduction of optional subscriptions makes them kind of got canceled on social media. 
Imagine what could happen if Serif announced a subscription plan 😀

Such a great comparison here! worth as own article.. thanks for sharing
Yeah depending on the use case, In various real-world scenarios, I also found that affinity is comparable enough with adobe apps.
The only dealbreaker for me is its compatibility with Adobe format otherwise it can be such a perfect companion app.
Regarding CS6 vs AD, for someone who is an AI veteran like you, it might need habit adjustment.
But for someone who just starting, then AD is like an app from a different generation. much easier and intuitive to use despite the lack of features.
I also can't bear to use recent adobe CC apps with how slow it's been today.
I get a lot of things done faster in AD.