Secret Goldfish

When you draw with a vector brush and do not use the pressure controller (turned off), the pressure attributes inside the brush properties in the chosen brush (ie size/opacity) get turned off in each individual stroke made ........and then have to be turned on manually for each stroke before a custom pressure profile can have any effect The brush properties should probably remain unchanged (even with the controller turned off) and just the pressure profile flattened instead when choosing 'none' in the pressure controller. If you choose one of your previously made strokes where you had the pressure controller set to none, you'll notice that the pressure (size/opacity) in each brush stroke property has been turned off (overriding your original/overall brush properties). In order to add a pressure curve/profile back to these strokes you have to first open the brush properties for each affected stroke and turn size/opacity pressure back on before any curve/profile can be applied. It would make things far less convoluted and clearer if; .......when setting the pressure controller to NONE it changed/flattened the PRESSURE CURVES/PROFILE rather than adjusted the original BRUSH STROKE PROPERTIES. As any pressure curve/profile setting will then have NO effect on these strokes UNTIL each individual stroke has its size/opacity properties adjusted (turned back on to their original brush setting). Leaving brush properties unchanged (regardless of controller settings) and flattening the pressure curve/profile instead when setting the controller to none would make far more sense as the pressure curve/properties unfortunately become irrelevant in/to any stroke when the original/overall brush pressure properties (size/opacity) have been adjusted (turned off) by the controller choice (none). Pressure happens in three places in affinity, the original brush (properties), the controller and the profile/curve which can cause issues like this when brush properties get changed via another setting. A change to Designer's behaviour here (or a changeable preference setting ie...... 'NONE controller affects (creates) curve/profile rather than (changes) brush properties') could solve/clarify this issue. .......which would also keep things consistent with the controller behaviour when set to 'pressure' .......which creates a curve/profile (rather than changing overall/original brush properties/attributes). When the controller is set to none, flattening the curve/profile......and/or remembering the last selected/adjusted brush stroke pressure curve/profile might work better. Adobe Illustrator implements this 'remember' idea in a similar way with its 'new artwork has basic appearance' on/off appearance setting but I'd much prefer to use Affinity ......for MANY reasons.

Thanks for the reply Nathan......I'll create and post a screen recording shortly for the first issue. Edit.....this first issue appears to currently be resolved with a system and Designer restart (I'm using lots of custom brushes which may have caused issues). Edit 2......the problem persists but inconsistently. When going back to the vector brush from another tool, the last chosen/used brush is also sometimes highlighted and sometimes not in the brushes palette. With regards to the second issue; If you choose one of your previously made strokes where you had the pressure controller set to none, you'll notice that the pressure (size/opacity) in each brush stroke property has been turned off (overriding your original/overall brush properties). In order to add a pressure curve/profile back to these strokes you have to first open the brush properties for each affected stroke and turn size/opacity pressure back on before any curve/profile can be applied. It would make things far less convoluted and clearer if; .......when setting the pressure controller to NONE it changed/flattened the PRESSURE CURVES/PROFILE rather than adjusted the original BRUSH STROKE PROPERTIES. As any pressure curve/profile setting will have NO effect on these strokes UNTIL each individual stroke has its size/opacity properties adjusted (turned back on to their original brush setting). Leaving brush properties unchanged (regardless of controller settings) and flattening the pressure curve/profile instead when setting the controller to none would make far more sense as the pressure curve/properties unfortunately become irrelevant in/to any stroke when the original/overall brush pressure properties (size/opacity) have been adjusted (turned off) by the controller choice (none). Pressure happens in three places in affinity, the original brush (properties), the controller and the profile/curve which can cause issues like this when brush properties get changed via another setting. A change to Designer's behaviour here (or a changeable preference setting ie...... 'NONE controller affects (creates) curve/profile rather than (changes) brush properties') could solve/clarify this issue. .......which would also keep things consistent with the controller behaviour when set to 'pressure' .......which creates a curve/profile (rather than changing overall/original brush properties/attributes). When the controller is set to none, flattening the curve/profile......and/or remembering the last selected/adjusted brush stroke pressure curve/profile might work better. Adobe Illustrator implements this 'remember' idea in a similar way with its 'new artwork has basic appearance' on/off appearance setting but I'd much prefer to use Affinity ......for MANY reasons.

Mac OS 14.1.2, hardware acceleration on, Designer 2.3.0 When I draw with a vector brush in Designer, the chosen brush will still be used for each new stroke √ .....but if I leave the vector brush to use another tool (ie direct selection/pen tool) and then go back to the vector brush it acts inconsistently and sometimes remembers the last brush in the category used and sometimes does NOT remember the last brush used ....and instead just appears to choose (randomly) another brush in the same category. X Also..... When I draw with a vector brush and do not use the pressure controller (turned off), the pressure attributes inside the brush properties in the chosen brush (ie size/opacity) get turned off in each individual stroke made ........and then have to be turned on manually for each stroke before a custom pressure profile can have any effect The brush properties should probably remain unchanged (even with the controller turned off) and just the pressure profile flattened instead when choosing 'none' in the pressure controller.

Perhaps for pixel, I'll go and check it out. I'm switching back and forth between Affinity and Illustrator and much prefer Affinity but the 'remember last stroke' ('new art has basic appearance' on/off in Illustrator) would be really handy and prevent me having to adjust each vector/art Brush stroke afterwards. When not using the controller for pressure; The Pencil in Affinity remembers the width profile but NOT the last used vector/art-brush type OR its properties with each new stroke. The Vector/Art-Brush in Affinity remembers the width profile and last used vector/art-brush type but NOT the individual stroke properties (where the variable width actually happens). Having the option to remember the width profile AND brush properties in the vector/art-brush.......and the same in the pencil tool (+ vector/art-brush type) would solve constantly having to adjust each stroke after the fact......and having the option to leave the last vector/art-brush stroke active (like with the pencil tool) would also be handy too (as would a sculpt option for the vector/art-brush).

The pressure is dependant on either the original controller setting or the individual vector/art brush properties (within each stroke) before the width profile can be changed.......and it gets reset with every new stroke. A 'remember last stroke properties and pressure profile' option would help.

It would be great if the pressure-curves/width-settings graph/profile for strokes was based on curves rather than linear points when using the pressure controller (and a tablet). Adding/creating a pressure curve profile to strokes (after being drawn with no pressure controller set) has this non-linear/curve-based feature but using the pressure controller (and a tablet) translates/interprets this pressure information as linear points instead, which can create odd and less natural results than being curve-based (when linear/point-based instead). Being able to add pressure curves to vector brushes later (if you didn't originally use the pressure controller) would be a great addition too, The pressure curves currently display in the pressure graph/profile but do nothing UNTIL you adjust the individual brush settings, which can be confusing and convoluted (I currently create duplicate/copied versions of my brushes with internal pressure/width adjustments/settings). ......the addition of the new 'keep selected' feature (in the pencil tool) being added to the vector brushes too would also be good..

I think the vector brush confusion in Affinity comes from users being used-to/familiar with the 'true vector' brushes in Illustrator, which can also be outlined and turned into pattern strokes (I used to go a step further and make them fonts too) but are also slower and don't display until your curve has been drawn. I really like the speed and instant feedback of the vector brushes in Affinity (they remind me of the great old Creature House Expression vector-painting software which was unfortunately borged and then killed by Microsloth). The speed and feedback of Affinity made me switch most of my Illustration work from Illustrator to Affinity......but it would be good to have true (and outlineable) vectors too occasionally (as well as some of the other useful Illustrator tools like smoothing too).

Is it necessary? It is on by default as you draw each point and if you double click the last point you will then draw a new curve (where the last path is then deselected). The 'keep selection' option would be good for the vector brush though.

With the pencil tool a variable width stroke can be added, adjusted or removed at any time. With the vector brush tool the pressure curve has to be set in the controller originally or it cannot be changed later It would be great if the pressure curve could be adjusted later brush properties could be remembered (or at least didn't display a pressure curve in the stroke tab/attributes which you have to first change in properties before working (which is confusing). The sculpt tool would be good to have in the vector brush too......as would the 'keep selected' option added to the pencil tool in the recent update. EDIT : Current brush behaviour (pencil and vector/art-brush) better explained in more detail in my post below.

Thanks Walt for the assistant advice...You're a legend (in my mind at least!)

Is this auto clean option not in the ipad beta? I cannot find it, the load, auto-load and clean buttons are there but no auto-clean

Thanks Paul, I assumed it was potentially due to the sandboxing (the thing that I loathe the most about the consumption prioritised/gimped ios sandbox).

Thanks Walt, yeah I've been sending the whole document on the desktop App to further edit pixel layers. Publisher might be the way to go, would I start my document in Publisher and just work between the three apps that way? I'm mainly using Designer to build illustrations (vector and pixel combined) and then editing the pixel based layers further with the mixer brush etc in Photo, to avoid the limitations of the Designer Pixel profile. I don't need most of the other personas of Photo (develop, tone mapping) and don't need many of the Publisher features except a single page/artboard. (I'm still using Adobe for my main outputs but like the painting drawing tools of Affinity, particularly the Designer vector brushes and Photo mixer brush). It's a shame the Pixel Persona of Affinity is different than the basic Photo Persona of Photo as I could do everything I need in Designer otherwise. Thanks for the heads-up, much appreciated!

This may be an amateur question. I am using Designer and Photo V2 on desktop (mac os) and ipad (ios) On the desktop version, when I select a pixel layer I can easily go to the 'file' menu and select 'edit in photo' from Designer or 'edit in designer' from Photo to send this layer/document between the two apps where I have more/better painting tools in Photo and more/better vector tools in Designer. How do I do this on the ipad versions? I have been saving the document out to a shared location from one app and then importing it into the other, where I then have copies of each file in each app AND in the shared location, which is really convoluted (and confusing to keep track of). Is there an easy way to send layers/documents back and forth between these two apps on the ipad like with the desktop version? ...or do I also need to buy Publisher (which I don't really need) to have these (now) three apps linking to one another like with the ease/simplicity of the Desktop version? kind regards and thanks for any help in advance, am I missing something simple? (I really loathe the general ios file management)

Yeah those are the same brush options, but they should probably be in the stroke studio too (with saveable pressure stroke settings) like the desktop version/app where it is clear that this is the vector-stroke connected to your currently selected stroke. The (same) brush options in your screenshot are the settings for the next brush stroke..... and are only seen when the brush tool is selected rather than when the selection tool and a previously made stroke is selected. On the desktop version you can simply click the properties button on the currently selected stroke to adjust its brush settings On the ipad version a previously made brush stroke requires you to select the old stroke and apply a new brush, where you first have to switch back to the brush tool, choose the new brush, edit it via the top menu (icon from your screenshot), save it out as a duplicate/copy and then re-apply to the stroke you want to update. Having the existing tools/setting appearing somewhere in the differing versions of the app is good but the differing workflows and differences between desktop and mobile os and apps also probably need to be further considered.