drippy cat

Daniele. If you want to learn about Affinity Designer then I'm afraid my courses on Affinity Photo are of little use to you. I don't like to think that you are out of pocket on this. I believe you can apply for a refund within 30 days on a Udemy course and here's the link that explains that: https://support.udemy.com/customer/en/portal/articles/1507981-refund-a-course?b_id=3056 . If you have no luck there send me a private email and I'll see if there's a way I can refund you myself. Regards, Drippy Cat

Hi Daniele. This is a tricky one. If I adjust the course to account for a beta build, I may then have to readjust it for the next beta build, and the next one, and so on. I'm worried that I'll end up with a course that's impossible to keep both up to date and consistent. I think it best if I base the course content on what has been officially released by Serif. I believe that the 1.5 release will be the first official PC release and I'll be all over that when it happens, and will be updating the course accordingly. If the official release still does not contain a clone brush tool then it would be something I'd address then. I'm sorry if this is a disappointment for you. ***UPDATE*** Since my courses deal with Affinity Photo and not Affinity Designer I assumed Daniele was referring to Affinity Photo in his question to me. I got that wrong. Different products have different tools, which is a very good reason why the clone brush tool would not appear in the 1.5 beta of Affinity Designer for Windows. I'm keeping the first part of this post as it originally was rather than editing it to say something else, so that the thread makes sense.

Hi, I wanted to let people know that I've added about an hour and twenty minutes of practice videos to the course, which takes the total time to about 9 hours worth of content. I've uploaded all the photos that I use so you can have a go at the exercises. I recently added most of the photos I use for the original videos so you can follow along with those as well. The course price won't change and of course this is all free to existing users. I just wanted to make the course better. You can check it out here: https://www.udemy.com/affinityphoto-solid-foundations/ Thanks for your time, Drippy Cat

Hi mahabob66. You're most welcome. Hope they help.

I just wanted to let you know that I've created some new practice videos for the course which is available here: https://www.udemy.com/affinity-photo-five-steps-to-better-photos/ The course feedback so far has been very positive, but if there was one area which some felt could be improved it was in the practice activities area. So I wanted to make the course better, and that's why I've done this. I've uploaded about an hour's worth of new videos, and a series of .jpg images that I use in the new videos for people to download and follow along with. This is all free - you don't pay any more for these new videos. They will also be included in the 'Affinity Photo: Solid Foundations' course along with other practice videos specific to that course as soon as they are ready. Cheers m'dears Drippy Cat

EdD! I'm blushing! Could I just state for the record that I've never met EdD and that I am humbly, humbly grateful for the kind words. Regarding the background in education and course development, as it happens I was a teacher for a while and my degree title was Design for Learning, and that's enough of me blowing my own trumpet. As it happens I am designing some lectures to be added to one or two of the courses in order to consolidate the points made in the videos. One I'm planning is how to change the colour of a Porsche to any colour you want... Thanks again EdD. It really means a lot on a personal and professional level to receive words like these.

Bribes again? So; so far I have to bribe a bewildering variety of people with: One Porsche in - lavender or puce? Can't remember. A kiss on the lips from Sandra Bullock. A guaranteed place in the finals of the X Factor. Me actually watching an episode of the X Factor (O please no...) and one crashing bore who just wanted money. So how about you EdD? What's your fancy? Thanks for the endorsement; it really does mean a lot to hear something nice from someone who didn't have to do it.

Hello everyone, With Summer fading and a whole heap of holiday photos to get processed, I thought it was a good time to have a one month sale on my courses over at Udemy. So there's at least 50% off on all the courses when you redeem a coupon until 30th September. Here's a link to an overview on their site: https://www.udemy.com/courses/search/?q=Affinity%20Photo&src=ukw〈=en . The complete beginner Five Steps course is here - https://www.udemy.com/affinity-photo-five-steps-to-better-photos/ - 50% off, with the following coupon code: SEPTEMBER16STEPS , or follow this link - https://www.udemy.com/affinity-photo-five-steps-to-better-photos/?couponCode=SEPTEMBER16STEPS The Solid Foundations course, which goes into greater detail is here - https://www.udemy.com/affinityphoto-solid-foundations/ - and can be had for one third of the price - not 50% off, it's 67%: SEPTEMBER16SOLID , or follow this link - https://www.udemy.com/affinityphoto-solid-foundations/?couponCode=SEPTEMBER16SOLID The RAW processing series is here - https://www.udemy.com/affinity-photo-raw-image-development/and is half price with this coupon code: SEPTEMBER16RAW , or follow this link - https://www.udemy.com/affinity-photo-raw-image-development/?couponCode=SEPTEMBER16RAW ... and the Little Box of Tricks course which takes you beyond the basics and into intermediate/professional territory is here - https://www.udemy.com/affinity-photo-the-little-box-of-tricks/and can be had for less than half price - 57% off with this coupon - SEPTEMBER16TRICKS , or follow this link - https://www.udemy.com/affinity-photo-the-little-box-of-tricks/?couponCode=SEPTEMBER16TRICKS I've tried to anticipate how many people will sign up but there are a finite amount available, and once they're gone, well, you know the rest. This offer is up until the end of September 30th, so if you want to learn Affinity Photo with a comprehensive series of courses that are designed to work separately or together, there's never been a better time to do so. Cheers, Drippy Cat

... so that's a Jag in rainbow colours, a Porsche in puce and a bouquet of lotus flowers. Bribery has got a lot more expensive since Brexit. Oh; and yeah. I've taken some quite good pics on my Samsung S6. So an aviation mechanical engineer and now working the rigs? Man! How many Yorkies do you chew through in a day?

A Lotus man? Should've said. I'll contact Interflora and get a bouquet of them sent over.

Hi Rigger73 & now I get the user name (and the owl? Night creature? Clever!), Oh thank goodness! I'll wring out the towel I used for my tears & take the pins out of the wax doll. Ok; so me being flippant aside, absolutely no offence was taken and I know what a nightshift feels like so my sympathies. I thought you asked a perfectly reasonable question. I should also say thank you because you did me a solid favour. I got the chance to explain what my courses are about in answer to a fair question. Tell you what; if you go here https://www.udemy.com/affinityphoto-solid-foundations/ and scroll down you'll see some reviews and hand on heart, I didn't bribe anybody. I tried to with the Affinity dev team but there's over a dozen of them and they get a bit precious with their demands. When one complained that the Porsche was the wrong shade of lavender I told him to go fix the colour in a decent image editor if he could find one and man! The pouting I got back?! Not worth it. So all good things to you and I hope you're not feeling too knackered. I also hope we see some offshore rig photos at some point. I bet they'd be interesting...

Well said MattP! Oh, and for the record, a huge amount of respect from me for the in house videos. I think a lot of companies bringing out software don't realise how important it is to have quality training videos to back up their software. I know that when I'm looking at new software one major factor for me is how good I perceive the training videos to be; the less time I spend scratching my head trying to figure things out the better. I think Serif have really taken the bull by the horns with the in house videos. They are clear and informative, and it's clear that whoever created them knows about photography.

Hi Rigger73. I'm not going to claim that my videos are 'that much better'. The in house videos are very good and it's for the people who write the reviews of my courses over at Udemy to say what they think of the courses, not me. That said, the average user rating for a digital photography course at Udemy is 4.3 out of 5. The Affinity Photo courses I have on there have, at the time of writing, all time averages of 4.65, 4.67, 4.78 and 4.83, for which I am very grateful. I think the main difference between the in house courses & mine are that the in house courses do a very good job of explaining the features in Affinity Photo. My aim and philosophy is to explain how to develop & enhance images and in this instance I use Affinity photo to do so. I explain what you should do, in what order you should do things and why you would want to, along with a few gotchas on the way. And in this case I use Affinity Photo to do so. The way I look at it, given I've been a designer for over 25 years, why not put as much experience from that as possible into the videos, as well as what a particular button does. But ultimately it's up to you. I hope I don't come across as loudly blowing my own trumpet here because I'm a not a natural marketing man & I find all that stuff a bit cringeworthy. I just wanted to explain how I tried to make my courses a bit different. If anyone who has done one of my courses decides to chip in with their own thoughts on the matter I'd welcome it.

Quick update. I've revised the start of the tutorial over at Udemy and included the steps where you change the colour mode of the Merged layer to luminosity. It's more effective that way. I've also done the revised tutorial myself in case changing the colour mode to luminosity had a knock on effect later in the tutorial and it all worked for me.

Hi Digbydo. I've done the Low Key tutorial which as you know leads into the Dragan effect and I noticed something. On the file I created in the low key tutorial the Merged layer sitting on top of the layer stack was set to Normal mode at 100%. But the Affinity Photo file I've loaded for the Dragan effect has the same Merged layer set to 33% opacity. If the Merged layer is set to 100% opacity & normal mode you won't see any colour changes because it will simply not let any layers beneath it show through & that's where the colours are. If it's set to 33% opacity you will see colours showing through. On the thread over at Udemy I gave the opacity of the Merged layer as 33%, Normal Blend mode but it was with a whole load of other settings so you may have missed it. So double check the opacity of your Merged layer. If it's set to 100% try lowering it's opacity down to 33%. If that works then that's the solution and my fault. For some strange reason I finished the previous tutorial with the opacity of the Merged layer at 100% but started the Dragan tutorial with it at 25%. If you'd followed the previous tutorial correctly there'd be no reason for the layer to be anything other than 100%. If you look at the Dragan tutorial at 1 minute 8 seconds you can see the Merged layer selected in Normal Mode and 25% opacity but that would be a very easy thing to miss. In fact, here's a better way of doing it. Set your Merged layer Blend mode to luminosity. That way it can be 100% visible and you'll get all the intensity of the dodge brush highlights but the colour from the underlying layers will show through no problem. Try it. I jusy did and it works. If it works for you let me know and I'll redo the start of the Dragan tutorial to correct that stumbling block and improve the tutorial.

Cheers Digbydo.

Hi Digbydo, Thanks for updating me over on the Udemy thread with the new information. It is odd that when you did the tutorial it worked when you used my file and not yours. If, and I stress the word 'if' it's a technical problem then it's beyond me to figure it out. But just so you know, I found out about this thread when one of the moderators very kindly emailed me saying that a user was talking about a problem on a Udemy course and could I provide some illumination etc. Then again, it doesn't surprise me that they did since the Affinity people seem red hot at providing support. So they are clearly looking into your troubles. For my part I'm stepping through my own tutorials again to see if there's something there I could have got wrong. The issue you mentioned about whether you need the merged layer active is something I'll also look into. In the meantime, would it be an idea to keep the messages to just one forum? This forum and the Udemy forum are both public forums, but maybe this one would be better since more people can see it, including the Affinity moderators. The reason I ask is that I don't want to accidentally miss any posts from you because I was looking in the wrong place.

Jeff! Thank you so much! I've just got back from holiday to read this and what a nice way to come home! Thanks again! Too many! exclamation!! marks!!!

MattP and James, thanks very much!

Hi everyone. Just to let people know that I had some feedback off someone who said they had wanted things about landscape photography. So I've just published two videos on the course which deal with landscape photography.

Hi all. Just a quick update. After receiving a few requests I've uploaded most of the images I was working on to the course so you can download them and work on the same images in the videos. Please note that this is for over 90% of the images but not all. The reason is that I sought permission of the people in the images for use as part of a tutorial, not to disseminate the pictures themselves. In 90%+ of the images that was not a problem. In some cases where I'm just using an image and talking about something there's really no point. But where I was adjusting something in the picture then the image will 90% likely be there now for you to follow along with. Cheers, Drippy Cat

Hi all, I've produced one more course for beginners which has just gone on sale here: https://www.udemy.com/affinity-photo-five-steps-to-better-photos/ . It expands on a course I put on YouTube about the 5 steps to take to improve your photos which has had rather a lot of views. That video is around 17 minutes. The new course is a bit over 1.5 hours long, goes into more depth and covers a few more things like selecting photos and exporting files. It's aimed squarely at beginners and casual users who have a copy of Affinity Photo and who want to make their photos better without going into all the complexities of the software. I show you what I believe to be the best tools for the job for a newbie. But it's not just 'here's a few tools, isn't it great?' No. I show a simple workflow and explain why you use the tools and why you do things in a particular order. If I'm learning some new software I need to know why I'm using a tool and how it relates to other tools in the arsenal, and I've tried to reflect that need in this course. For those of you who have already purchased Affinity Photo: Solid Foundations, thanks very much for that. And to say that there's no need for you to buy this course. I cover the topics in the new course in greater detail on the Solid Foundations course. The new course, Affinity Photo: Five Steps to Better Photos is like a lite version of the Solid Foundations course. It's designed so that, if a beginner wants to take the next step, The Solid Foundations course is the natural follow on course to take. The Five Steps to Better Photos course gives enough detail to make good decisions about editing your photos, is brief enough for a casual user not to spend a few nights getting up to speed, and is priced at the minimum price Udemy will allow me to ask. Having said that, at the moment Udemy appears to be having a sale on all the courses so now would be a good time to take advantage of that offer. Thanks for your time, Drippy Cat

Hi Timber. I think Udemy are already running a sale discount. at the moment (which I didn't know about & I don't know how long it will last.) So maybe now would be a good time to get the course. nhannomad, the next thing I'll release will be a very basic course which expands upon the 5 steps to better pictures tutorial I have on YouTube. It's intended for casual/beginner users of Affinity photo and covers ground already covered in the Solid Foundations course but without all the extras things like selections, layer masks and blend modes etc. For that reason I will be sending out an email with a coupon to all existing Udemy customers so they can get it for free is Udemy lets you do that, or discounted if they don't.

Hi Chipotle. I'm glad the first course is proving helpful for you. I suggest that you make sure you are comfortable with layers, layer masks and layer blend modes before you consider The Little Box of Tricks. There is a video right after the introduction in the new course which is intended as a refresher for those topics.

Hi everyone, The course I've been working on is out and right here: https://www.udemy.com/affinity-photo-the-little-box-of-tricks/?src=sac&kw=affinity . It's a collection of 25+ projects from simple to advanced covering a whole heap of different topics. Things like combining images, spot coloring, tonal separation, advanced dodge and burn techniques, high and low key lighting, emulating the looks popularised by famous photographers, soft focus effects, artistic effects, restoring damaged photos, coloring vintage photos and beauty retouching techniques. This is the third Affinity Photo course I've put on udemy.com, and the three were always meant to work together. The Solid Foundations course was for beginners, the Raw Editing course for people wanting to understand and develop Raw files, and now this. This course assumes you know the basics of Affinity Photo, although the first thing I do after the introduction is to give a brief primer on layers, layer masks and layer blend modes. That way you should be able to get a handle on the things we'll be using the most. Affinity Photo: The Little Box of Tricks is intended to build on top of the Affinity Photo: Solid Foundations course and build up your skills in terms of technique and good working practices. Practices based off my 25+ years experience of working as a designer doing a variety of different work for a variety of different clients in a variety of different places. So why not click the link and check it out? Cheers, drippy cat