[AutoTrace (convert raster image to vector)]

Well, right now, the painting tools are imo more important (to complete and perfect) in both apps (AD and AP), and even if auto-tracing a lot raster images in whoever's day tasks, if you want to do a good job with it, good finishing, no amateurish, then no matter how much you'd configure and fine tune the settings, both with a GUI or command line, with any third party or integrated tools (and I know quite about it, long experience with Potrace and its gui/reduced version inside Inkscape, solutions among the best available, and I used quite Illustrator's and third party tools, as well ! during years)  , you will have to -in 90% of the cases- re-paint/draw many of those lines as a final touch (and there's where you need painting tools and node tools to be perfect (reacting proportionally to pressure, having enough flexibility in nodes, etc): You could do all the work with just those!, but not with only the autotracer, instead), need to perfect the contours, and often will be faster to do so by hand with just firm pen drawing, after enough training, which is quite needed in the long run, anyway. Unless it's very detailed designs, auto ain't worth it. And even with those complex designs, the cleaning and/or shapes improvement can get way to long and clumsy, too (a workflow and pace enemy), when auto tracing. Also, ensuring that all color managed stuff works smooth, accurately and perfect, every feature you can export in a PDF for print, etc, all that needs to be ensured that is in a golden state. You want to ensure those things and similar stuff first of all, as no matter if you create your designs by autotracing, tracing by hand, or directly painting and/or mouse adding and fine tuning nodes (I rarely do tracing and even less auto tracing (as with enough practice, you end up faster and more perfect and getting efficient vectors doing it by hand), and I've been decades working as the only person for all works mmedia (I mean, icons and other UI things for apps), graphic design for web and print for very busy companies, covering every area one could think of. Knowing widely the typical tasks ...not saying it might not be the daily tool for some specific workflows in some area, for some people : But I seriously doubt tho it's daily stuff for the vast majority...

 

Inkscape in Windows has its crashes, yep, but tend to be repeatable, you easily learn what triggers (and most are bugs) them (so, can avoid them: I do. ) . The tracer in Inkscape is all you need to do a decent job, and once you get to learn which are the best settings for your usual purpose/usage, is pretty easy, fast and efficient, IMO. Still, even with the best settings, if you want a work well done, you have to edit quite the resulting nodes, maybe only with the nodes tools, or drawing directly some curves, depending on the type of the design, requirements or style. If you can be good to go with the direct output of an auto tracer from ANY of the available ones in the market, then... I will only say that then we work in very different manner and with very different output requirements... So, I think basic tools are way more important . IE, drawing/brush tools, node tools, distributing/aligning, the base of any vector package, and still there's a lot of other basic stuff that is essential and requires priority, attention and love (like in any starting package(it is, compared to the competing old dinosaurs))  IMO, before even considering an autotracer is a total must to consolidate them. Now... resources are limited here (and the main targets seem now improving AD and AP and works on the incoming APub. Remember, an autotracer is an ENTIRE 4th application what you are asking here.), we all know that... Couple it with the fact that the developers have already said is not a priority now for them... You first get a package that solidly cover all essentials to do art, design, (photo and general image editing in the case of AP), color managing, import and export in both. Compete with the basics of other suites, as that's what professionals (we) are going to be interested on. And then imo you might think of extra functionality for stuff that can be done with the basic tools... but would be the way of the Dodo to do so before consolidating  the basic pieces, IMO... 

[What software do you use for gif animation aside from Photoshop?]

I believe these days there are a bunch of other apps producing gif anims, even free...  (in Windows)

 

About the PSD -> imagemagick workflow (I also encourage using that app, extremely useful for batch, there's binaries for windows) , I'd really consider flattening all layer effects first (obviously not flattening all the file to a layer!), simplify your file as much as possible in just mere flattened layers, and even save in compatibility with old versions mode (maybe if all fails, save as layered tiff...). Or you could go no where, if not. Of course, text , smart objects, shapes, all rasterized. At least in the latest time I used imagemagick it couldn't import PSDs (indeed, not found any app doing it) with advanced stuff on the layers. I doubt there's any non adobe util that can open a fully featured layered PS CC 2018 (or any other version CC, maybe even CS6)  PSD file with all the crazy effects non flattened (imo, expected in any native proprietary format that is not intended to act so, as is one of the selling points for the company, having all the market...). 

 

 

[Line Style Help]

I'd do just by hand... also is not like 's gotta be super accurate with a reference, and you'd have more room for expression by doing it by hand.

[Brush Engine: GPU or CPU intensive?]

 

I am not sure if despite not seeing the CPU/GPU taxed to 100% is a proof that you can't get better performance. I mean, despite those values, I'd be almost sure that a newer CPU/main board (as all has an influence, the bus, ram speed, etc, not just the cpu alone or the video card alone) you would notice improvements, you could get more out of it, so to speak. That the card or cpu is not at the limit, imo does not necessarily means it wouldn't run smoother in certain tasks with more power. 

 

I don't have a clue about how the brush engine and/or graphic engine works, I don't work at Serif, and I'm not even a programmer, but in games handling bigger textures gets direct benefit from bigger video card vram (I say, in case the brush texture is being somehow stored in the card memory, or some operation is related to it). Yours is a bit old card, its replacement I believe is the 1050, and indeed, a considerable difference between this and a 1050ti 4gb. And not just because of the 4gb versus 2gb, though in some applications is crucial. But with 2gb only models, the difference in performance bteween 950 and 1050 is not remarkable (unless the code is using some newer hardware feature! That'd change everything). It'd still be a low end card. Of course, speaking of gaming. But in applications, if the app uses the card intensively, it could affect (for apps only, what I'd look would be the memory size, cuda cores, speed and it being quite modern. If possible, get to know what hardware features use more my favorite application, go for a card supporting that !). A 1060 is much more powerful, but for image editing -other than video editing- I wouldn't go farther than that, a 1060 has plenty of capability. The handling of larger resolutions in screen is also getting benefit from video card memory. Also, is probably not something one could apply here, but in current games, gamers wanting to play at large resolutions typically opt for the 1070 or 1080 cards, which are crazily expensive now. We're speaking around 160 bucks for the 1050 ti 4gb, and around 300 or below for a 1060, it seems the lack of stock for the 1060 from the miners has recovered from a horrid situation. A 1070 o specially a 1080 can cost as a full rig themselves. Not justified unless one is 100% certain there's going to be a 2x or 3x time better performance in an specific usage.

 

The cpu is an i5, 4 cores and 4 threads. An i7 offers 8 threads (and an AMD Ryzen 7 or +, at least 8 cores and 16 threads ! ). The speed is not bad at all, 3.4 in base freq., 3.8 in turbo. But in applications maybe is more about cpu features, bus/ram speed, video card, etc. Software like Photoshop benefits strongly from peak single core speeds over multiple cores. Reason why you can check reviews with mere (recent) pentiums (2 cores, most of them) scoring higher than a middle machine with more cores. (but if you do launch several apps at a time, that's a different story, and the OS is always multitasking by itself, just to run....). I am not sure how AP handles it, but I'd be to think it makes better use than PS of multiple cores and multiple threads.

 

I mean : I'm almost 100% sure that with a more modern rig you'd get less lag. The type of memory you can make work with that cpu can't go over 1600 GHZ (and can't be ddr4, only ddr3), while today 2133 is almost a bare minimum, becoming very usual 2400, 2666 and a ton of gamers wont go for anything below 3k or 3.2k. For intensive cpu tests, it seems that in extreme loads it does affect quite. In this... I dunno, but imo is an orchestra, all counts, and many bits playing well together can change entirely the whole experience. Indeed, if the main board or cpu bus can't operate at that memory speed, no way. And if you buy now just a super powerful video card to improve the situation, you would improve it till certain extent, where the CPU or other component would bottleneck the real card capabilities. But surely still there could be significant improvements.

 

RAM, in quantity and speed tends to benefit largely any high res illustration work, in my experience (I work at a minimum of 5kx5k pixels canvases, and tons of layers). Also, I noticed always in PS that the more ram, the more fluid painting experience. This is often because with that one the canvas size did matter a lot. I don't seem to find which canvas size are you using. If it's around 10k x 10k pixels, it certainly would be tasking the whole thing, specially if you are doing it so with a certain number of layers. But unsure on how this really affects the brush lag in AP.

 

If someone had cash to burn...yep, an i7 of the latest gen, coffee lake, 8700k, with 16 GB  (32 if you can) of fast ram (2400, 2666. But 3k can make the price go too high), and latency is not as important, imo (ie, among CL 15 - CL18 is fine). Indeed, I'd go for 2400 if that allows you to put more ram. I love the new ryzen offers, but to play safe with this specific issue, I might go with a rig like this, intel, as has better single core capabilities, higher top speed. And then a 1050 ti 4GB, or the 1060. The ~300 bucks is the 6GB model (I only think in that one as Blender Cycles can make great use of GPU memory), but like 80 bucks cheaper you'd find the 3GB model, and it's same chip.... Again, fully dependent on if the brush lag can get benefit from memory, or instead is number of cores, or card speed, or GPU unrelated, and just RAM or CPU related...

 

Still, is a shot in the dark. I don't know how much is it -the lag- a software issue or even a bug, and how much hardware depending. My take, and is only a very personal guess, is that the brush system has probably quite some room for optimization just yet, specially in the relatively new AP Windows version, so, one of those cases where you'd definitely would see improvements with better hardware (thus the big difference already reported among different users, but then again, they're not making an identical test sample, and persons judge stuff subjectively, that's human), but probably you'd find out a bit later on, maybe months, a jump in performance for the better, with some app update. That wouldn't be terrible, as your machine would be faster in literally everything than your current (I mean WAY faster), besides AP, or besides painting inside AP, in other AP tasks. Your disk is fast, if no mechanical disk is bottle necking the windows memory/disk handling, specially if the mechanical HD disk does not have a frequent defrag.

 

Anyway, a large brush ends up lagging, no matter what software. The difference is some do that sooner, some with larger brushes. Also, an OS can be configured in many ways, this affects too, I've seen largely unoptimized systems (this is a Windows thing, mostly) or even some in very poor state, for zero or horrible maintenance. But I believe there might come optimizations to the AP and AD brush system, at some point. We'll see.

 

 

[*.afphoto files are getting bigger and bigger]

4 hours ago, totoff said:

"Save under a new name to reduce file size" reminds me off Windows 2000 somehow, especially if it has no effect on file size at all.

 

Not sure if Ben really meant a new name as the only option. He said a "save as" . Anyone let me know if I'm wrong, also as this could be an interesting matter: I think I understood that it streamlines it just by doing a "save as", but even with the same name, which would be an overwrite, not duplicating the file with another name, exactly the same thing/result than when you hit fast your ctrl + s or hit the save option. It just will show the file dialog window and you'd just hit intro (or however it's done in Macs, I don't remember now, a few years till I used last) twice. If it is so, IMO is not a matter/need to be doing it constantly, but from time to time, ie, specially once the very final version is to stay untouched for months. 

[*.afphoto files are getting bigger and bigger]

 PSD does very good compression, or whatever it does keeping files really small, for lossless images of that size. Still, I've managed at companies files of GBs of size, even being PSDs, and I don't want to remember some times being forced to handle crazily huge multi layered TIFFs (even with compression ON). Of course, not every machine would handle those. Dunno, I don't see this, and specially in the tests referred, as a show stopper, by any means. Other matters seem more important to introduce or address. As mentioned, storage (except SSDs ) is quite cheap.  I still remember an old tape backup device I had... extremely expensive per MB compared to today's possibilities... 

 

This is an alternative to subscription, and I see not only as a single advantage, it's two: You can actually purchase it and so not "pay a rent", but also, the price could be expensive, in a prohibitive number for any indy, freelancer or hobbyist. But is not. Is at the cost of one month of your Internet/phone connection. Really affordable. People saying they're back to Adobe seems they think they would be to expect all the advantages of one type of thing, and have also all the advantages of the other.

[Affinity, we need clarification: are you or aren’t you working on a DAM?]

I don't see any priority for doing this until Photo and AD are totally polished, and even A. Publisher has a first release.  Again we'd be covering too many fronts.

[Wacom Tablet for AD - which suitable for those (See sample)]

And you also can play with the pressure sensitivity in the Wacom Control Panel. Maybe set it to be very sensitive. (depending on the software, some will take well the "per application" customization at the wacom control panel, but some others wont be affected and will only be looking at/tracking the "main" general wacom tablet settings.) 

 

Intuos Pro L Paper, really a top purchase (without surpassing the 1k and 2k $ barriers), congrats ! Very round purchase.

 

About adding details : In Krita  or Affinity Photo, you work in raster, not in vectors,  you work with vectors with Affinity Designer. But Krita and Affinity Photo are raster tools, not vectors based tools. So if you want more detail in a raster file, only need to set a much higher image size when starting your white canvas illustration. IE, instead of leaving the image size at the default size from the app, you need to set sth quite bigger, usually 5000x5000 pixels or so. Then you can zoom and still not see the pixelation.

 

 

[Affinity for Linux]

On 20/12/2017 at 6:43 AM, Enjoae said:

 

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Just to have an idea were you are going or not, may I ask what is your target with affinity?

 

I believe that one of the possible takes (but is just what I suppose) it might be to make a suite of 3 applications (at the possible pace and in the long run, which is the interesting one) to cover the needs of professionals and hobbyists making DTP work, general image editing, huge focus on Photography, design work and providing certain painting functionality (but not being the main focus, as IMO, it neither was PhotoPlus, in the case of the raster software, Photo.) There are a number of apps doing some of these things in most platforms, but rarely one this complete. Specially being already in two platforms. Which is, despite the critics here, a royal lot if one look at the real competition (Adobe, Corel, Xara)

 

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When I was told about a photoshop equivalent with ocio support I was pretty damn sure it was for vfx and post production, 

 

No offense, but that was too much of a guessing.  Also, I don't know you, but I got the news about the apps as usual, by reviews and word of mouth. And in the reviews, and all what was being said, pretty much was very clear which was the focus and fields it aims to. (the general area I mentioned above). It is different if one wishes that it'd be all about each one's favorite field...But that's like disconnecting a bit from the real scenario, I wish it were mostly a painting focused tool but capable of all image editing. But then again, Photoshop is neither greatly optimized for painting (I should know, am a designer, but also an illustrator using PS in every company I land at, been painting with it decades). Plus, the market in general 2D is way larger. Again, a matter of numbers. You might tell me no as is what your direct environment is telling you, but things are like that : I learnt this lesson with several of my favorite fields in the past. One might be surrounded at the work place by linux people doing graphics, but is needed a more global view.

 

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Like many others freelancers, I would head for the torrent sites for the latest version of Adobe Creative Suite

 

Guess what, despite the obvious legal (and in the end, practical) issues this has, there's some aspects to consider. Specially for painting : Performance is WAY different between PS and other tools, specially for painting. Of course, an OLD CS2 runs in almost  any Windows 7 without lag , but CC, and specially the latest ones, are pretty darn heavy, memory eaters and really not handling that nicely. Don't take me wrong. PS and Illustrator are BEASTS on what they allow you to do, but at the end of the day, for me value is a global equation, and really, Photo and AD are much, much lighter in that department. In old machines, or simply, not very powerful ones, painting can be pretty laggy in PS. This , after some clever configs, is not a huge problem while just doing pure image editing, (though when the load is extreme on resources, this really have its impact), but in painting...it can ruin the experience. Affinity products, CSP, Krita are much lighter in memory and similar matters.

 

Not only this is a time were the top apps are not the one and only option... Is a time when the alternatives can be even MORE convenient for a lot of individuals. So, in the end is mostly related not only to your money situation, or your inclination to put more money where you could avoid some excessive costs, is also in how sustainable you want your hobby, or freelance activity to be. Same reason why some people prefer to go PC instead of Mac. Again, nothing wrong in one way or the other. Freelancers we tend not to be in that situation, but people earning 5k - 8k a month, might be able to pay all the regular bills, and so that a  certain spending per month in software and in hardware very often, getting the top edge stuff always, well, is not an issue at all, but time is, and they prefer to invest their time in their day job and relaxing, and not needing to learn new tools, or use time in adapting workflows to get same performance with new ways and tools.

 

Thing is, you get (when purchasing AP or AD) fast applications, high performance, in low/mid machines, you find your self doing the advanced stuff you know is advanced as is what you used to do at companies (with Adobe suite, Corel, etc), same advanced tasks, different software, with mid/low cost (or even free tools; the general trend of considering the 100% of free software as impossible to be "pro" is quite a wrong way of  thinking. With some special tools, is just harder). If you are capable of adaptation, you are really making a good business there. My view on the matter is that there are two ways of earning money, one is just getting paid, and the other is not expending like crazy. I know is an incorrect way of putting things from a semantic pov, but you get the idea. It's a global balance. Also, the machine is not the single criteria. Even if you have a great machine, the better efficiency ends up being great for a number of projects which are really resource hogs, and which even in a great machine, will find its limits. This limit will be much farther in more memory and cpu efficient software. I can tel you, among the two, seems to me a lot more effcicient Photo than PS, or at least, needing less memory in general for everything (and despite the critics, PS can lag quite even more in painting). Again, no issue at all with people with recent, and top machines. IE, any Ryzen 7, or even more, a coffee lake 8700k with at least 16GB of fast, new ram, will do more than fine with any app today. But working constantly with huge files in pixels dimensions (print, etc), you want to be able to paint without lag, for example. (note aside : Also, to present work in contests, stock sites, administration, etc, the torrent "versions" will put you in quite some big problems. It'd be not very intelligent while having a software like Photo or AD for just 50 bucks each with free updates, to go for torrenting  (if that word exists, lol) the other suite; apps not so sure to be better for you in the first place !..And for strictly painting, but not capable of doing the complete thing like AP does, there's a ton of free/low cost tools...so, no point, at all. I know everyone says, Adobe is better... well, not always, not every application/usage, and I know this not just as a theory.)

 

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Sorry to put a bit of my disapointment in this message. I thougt for few days that a revolution was going on, but.. Nah...

Then...think again.  It IS a revolution. Of huge magnitude, specially for those of us working doing graphics since '95, gives you the right perspective. Does not fit as you wish your specific field? Neither does mine (main being drawing comics/illustration, reason why I 'm pairing the tools with my previous ones, no issue in that) . But I would be not sincere if not recognizing this as quite some great find. (for now Photo is not my painting tool, but will for sure be my integrator tool. And AD is already, totally my vector, design tool.)

 

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Feeling let down by Apple, I decided to revisit Windows only to conclude once again that without powerful hardware, it was not suitable for running open source web apps or a demanding web server. To my surprise, I was also told by Affinity they would not transfer my licenses to Windows and that I would have to buy them again. (cough, torrents are available).

 

Indeed, what I've done, for many years as a web designer/developer (till relatively recently), is to work with a Windows machine for doing all my graphics work, and even code (heh, after so many years, I'm rather comfortable in the platform, have my tricks), then upload to the cloud, or samba servers, git windows clients, putty, scp, etc. Many flavors, finding out my favorite workflows for each matter. And I can say, after some training, no issue at all. Even more, I see certain advantages on having at least two machines, one for the server stuff and etc, and a dedicated one for graphics production. Today I don't do massive work for the web, the typical small gig of graphics/code can be done just in my windows machine, no real need for linux for that (not a frontend developer any more. But have been, and saw that as a winning formula. Or could have been just the same having a Mac, and the linux server besides or in the servers room, remote connecting by many, many ways and systems.). 

 

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So once again I find myself looking at Linux and once again I find that the graphic choices are less than ideal. 

 

I have worked with Gimp quite, and really, for just web , sorry but is way less demanding (also in knowledge/training needed) in everything for graphics than it is in print media. I dislike quite the UI, coming from PS, but is VERY capable for just web design. Far from ideal does not mean is not capable. I myself see no point now, tho, being so possible to purchase easily AD and AP. And it really is worth the money ! (with this I mean : the money for both 50 + 50, AND a Windows license, which is also somehow cheap, and which you can very easily have installed in multi boot with your Linux, or have a linux VM, or... as efficient as is Linux with low hardware, you can have your test server in a cheapo second hand machine, to test the developments)

 

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As a web designer I need good illustration tools for logos, comps and layouts. I need export options for jpg, png and these days more usually for svg. As for photo editing I just need basic tools such as cropping and exposure adjustment.

 

You have all this in Gimp....Edit: and export as SVG, you could use instead then Inkscape (and do the photo work in Gimp), It has its strong points. There have been places where all the software I'd get access was Gimp & Inkscape, and other open source of several flavors for video. Stuff can be done, there are limits, but there are also workarounds.  I'm against subscription models or excessive license costs, but 50 bucks per software is absolutely no reason to not purchase such complete packages.

 

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The price point of Sketch is similar to that of Affinity. And like Affinity they also have a fairer understanding of the subscription model than Adobe. Customers get to keep the software they have invested in, whilst repeat subscribers benefit from new features and ongoing support. 

 

Probably you meant it differently, but just in case: In Affinity it's even better, then, as you get free updates for a long time, is only with major version releases when you get to purchase again (if you'd wish so). Couple that with the fact that is really cheap, it's a win-win situation.

 

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Of big interest to me is that there is now a new kid on the block. Gravit Designer is free and it is available for OSX,

 

I believe it has been mentioned/linked several times in this thread. My question is : If it is that good for their purpose, the people who mention it in this very thread and pushing for getting a Linux version of Affinity.... why don't just use it, why all the hassle of claiming here a Linux Affinity version ? Dunno, makes me think.

 

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Windows, Linux, Chrome OS, iPad, Android and also as a web app that will work in the browser! Gravit Designer is a cutting edge product and is probably

 

This has already been also object of conversation several times before in this same thread, but I seriously doubt the so top level of performance tasks a lot of us need to accomplish (fast, without lags, etc, pro work requires this), are going to use the hardware just as efficiently , things so tied to the GPU, CPU, the wacom drivers, the full RAM and disk usage for multi layered huge print files, etc, etc, running on a browser,  If that is equally possible in an app over a browser, than with a completely native code based application, that I would have to not just see in a conference, experimental test on youtube or event : I'd need like 5 weeks checking that doing my own every day work with it... then I might get convinced about that. Seen that kind of speculation before, I'd need to see it proved in real life scenarios.

 

[Affinity products for Linux]

-- Edited --- (by me, SrPx)

[Photo or Designer. Which is for me ?]

There's a ton of different ways in Affinity Photo to do that design (and even more complex ones), with marquee or another tools. I do use Paint.net as is the only tool certain children of a friend of mine seen to be willing to use (teach them by using a remote desktop utility, which adds to the difficulty), and I can tell you, that free tiny jewel is extremely limited compared to Photo...  Not a pun against Paint.net, which I have always liked, but as an example, layers handling is like years in distance of capabilities what you can do with Photo's layers compared with Paint.net's. And even in its simplicity, somethings could be more streamlined in Paint.net, a PS user notices that very fast. And practically in every department of the app happens so...

 

Okay, digging in your particular case. By all what I can see, you are making mods or fan art for Minecraft (for those not knowing, a massively adopted game in *very* low polygon count that really was and is successful with its blocky aesthetic, and apparently extremely popular among the young ones. I have made fan art as commissions for Minecraft servers, both pixel art or high end 2D illustration but rendering kindda that blocky style). You basically are needing a 2D tool to make textures. Allowing you to do sharp edges and pixel art. Both things pretty possible in Photo. You are not forced to do those designs with booleans!   IMO, Photo is indeed better than Designer for this. And as you said, yep, is a replacement for Photoshop, while Paint.net is a bit too far from that (you might like to see the global advantages in that), features-wise, and in level of complexity of projects that you can engage with one or the other. Indeed, I think Photo as is now is particularly fine for working zoomed in, as one mostly works while doing pixel art. And I should know about the matter, I worked a full year just doing pixel art for mobile games at a studio (and later on in other places.) In Photo, that'd be using the 1 pixel tool. But you don't seem to do pure pixel art (you could, and then scale up in a very specific way that wouldn't add aliasing, I've done that even for large posters to be printed, and t-shirts, but that'd require another line of explanation now about how to do that well), but instead, seems is just chopping and adding shapes. Indeed, you could do designs like these easily in Designer, but as you like to do a lot of boolean operations....well it also could be... well, I'll just say that I definitely could use both apps for this. But each person is a world apart...

[Sheared Shadows Please]

Yep, like in the thread where ACD Canvas is mentioned, basically do not try every application to behave like another one (even more if it is an older one), as that'd be a much harder path (doing so, trying to get its own philosophy, you get to enjoy the power behind a ton of applications that are very functional but have a different UI style). Is better to see "its ways" , get used to those, and see where reside its workflow advantages.   After a little more switching among applications, you see even very common ways between apparently different approaches; Each time, the switch gets easier, till a point is not hard, at all.

 

Like in most stuff in life, is best to remember what says that Japanese proverb :  " The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists " . 

 

 

[Adobe Photoshop & InDesign Alternatives]

--edited--- nevermind, wrong post. 

[Sheared Shadows Please]

I see... Affinity Photo and Designer are professional applications, a step quite big from a specific function application. But you will benefit from their flexibility. IE, in the shadows case, I knew the trick from doing it in Adobe PS, and also with a ton of extra realistic tricks that you can do when is not an automated or pre-made effect... . For example, a transparency gradation, so that the shadow diminishes as it goes farther, and/or a blueish very slight tone mixed with the shadows, as an almost transparent gradient (but use with caution!), as shadows tend to be colder, all depending in light surrounding, etc. Indeed, I also tend to do a gradation in strength of the application in the blur effect, as tends to affect more in the head (farthest point) in that shadow, than in the initial side borders near the feet, where is more solid and sharper, typically, in real life. Even sometimes if there's an extra lighting source from a side, it can produce extra lighting  over the shadow : A decreasing intensity from that side then, using another transparency mask (with a gradient), selection or whatever, then. For a not super realistic work you don't need all this. 

 

In general, the time lost in the rough first learning stages is only needed in more quantity at the start, later on the thing is quite smooth and practical.  (and actually, these UIs are pretty standard. My transition from Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator habits was specially easy...)

[Pressure Sensitivity with Budget Drawing Displays (Parblo Coast, Artisul, XP-PEN/Ugee and HUION)]

Do you have for a chance "E" key set in your tablet driver control panel, set to delete, in any of the pen device buttons, or tablet buttons ? As other than a software bug, what I am thinking of (which is kind of a bug too, unsure if Affinity or tablet related, or in their combination) is that the tablet could be "understanding" separating the pen as an "action", which triggers the programmed key, surely "e" key. If i were in your shoes, I'd try to (for the sake of eliminating factors, mostly) reset/delete that key in all software configs in your driver (I am a Wacom user, and long since I used non wacom tablets) , VERY specially if you have it in your STANDARD, main general settings, at least in Wacom, you have a general setting, and then specific settings per application (which should override general ones but NOT ALWAYS happens). 

 

EDIT :  An easier test would be to set a different key in Affinity other than "E" and restart Affinity. But might not be conclusive... This is all a shot in the dark, but is what I'd try (first this easy method, if does not work, the above explained)...as I can't see other solution at user level...

 

Weird as it sounds, the bug could be caused for that. So, disabling it would be a first step to find a solution (and probably a good clue to developers)

 

Also, very stupid thing I'm thinking of, but I've seen it happening in companies.... sometimes side tablet buttons in the tablet margins are over sensitive....be sure that you are not triggering those with your resting hand.

 

Last thing I can think of : Some drivers DO assign gestures to actions. Just like one can set side button to be ctrl + z , a pinch, a fast circling gesture (maybe you do certain gesture by habit when separating the pen) , and is somehow programmed by default in the driver to activate the eraser. 

 

Well that wasn't the last... If some other drawing app, driver, or anything special for the pen is resident in memory or active, try to fully eliminate it (even as a process in the task manager, if you are on Windows) to see if is some sort of weird conflict.

 

My strongest bet is fidling with your huion driver control panel settings, as if is a Affinity bug with the Huion (I believe they have tested to work Huions, dunno what model), you can't solve that one, anyway

 

[Sheared Shadows Please]

CA  users ?

Canadian people ?

Edit: Seriously, no idea what CA stands for here...

[Wacom Tablet for AD - which suitable for those (See sample)]

and...yep, I had seen that video, and a ton more.... Thing is, once you get one of those on your hands, experience tells you everything. I spent 45 minutes drawing non stop with one at a demo in a commercial center in my city. No way... It is ok, but the pen accuracy/response is not that better compared to an Intuos pen. I thought it was! And...probably it is... but the tiny tiny size penalizes vastly the whole thing. Is just 12,9 inches... Mostly is, that it is not as accurate and responsive as it seems in the youtube videos.... Anyway, if Apple (which will happen...never, to be precise) would develop at least a 16 inches model, I might be interested... But IMO, for drawing seriously, even just for an advanced hobbyist (let alone a pro) anything below 19 or 22 inches is working with way less comfort and damaging your work specially for complex compositions/illustrations. Also, the tracing, the line art, is able to be way , way more precise at those sizes. An Intuos Pro XL like mine is using more or less that desktop space. A medium is a bit too tiny for line art, IMO, and if is a pen display, 12 - 13 inches make things too crammed. Not just the illustration, also the menus, everything. A L size is a good compromise between space used and accuracy/space for your illustration. With small sizes like 12,9 or 13,3 , if you are illustrating, or drawing comics, you need to resort often to work zoomed in, and almost never zoomed out. In a cintiq 27, to put the most extreme example, you have no real need to zoom, so you can control all what you see while you illustrate, just like when one paints an oil picture, and needs to constantly see the color harmony, lighting balance, composition as a global thing, etc. of course, you would zoom as well in a 27 if want to get really freaky details done at micro detail level, you will have that freedom. In the case of an Intuos, is not a problem as you  have your monitor apart, you are not drawing over a screen, and your monitor can be a 23 inches one (or a gorgeous 27 - 32 one), for example. The only problem there (with a cheap Intuos medium) is with line accuracy, but can be compensated with line stabilization by software (still, this does not solve the accuracy of the line not landing as you want, so , you will need "more tries"-> slower workflow. )

 

Size of 12,9 is great for some people. I draw, paint and illustrate all day. Not 24/7 (I sleep ) but yep a normal full day work. You can't seriously do that and be comfortable over a ~13 inches screen, Ipad or pen-display. I had one Cintiq of that size during 8 months for my work, I know it was far from practical. Apart from the fact that a lot of people dislike the heat and close noise (this happens with some flavors of the Wacom Studio. But certainly not with iPad). Not my issue, but yep the fact that drawing is way less controllable than with my Intuos XL, specially line art, that menu fonts and everything are too small and crammed, and also, space left inside your application for your canvas is tiny, or in the devices having more resolution to avoid this, the fonts are ultra tiny. Far from comfortable. Knowing most of this, I was ready to purchase it, and even telling everyone iPad Pro was the best of the best (the Pencil surely IS the best drawing device, but not that much better as I thought...If it were a global purchase of like 400$, then it'd have sense for me. Expensive for a sketching tool.. or an 800 one but for a 17 -22 inches drawing device, as that could easily become a "mobile" (heh, you can move it ;D ) workstation, the way I see it.)... Until I tried one for almost an hour. In the other side of things, I know how good, useful and durable is an Intuos Pro, specially L and XL sizes, for decades of experience using it (and similar previous tablets) since the # 1 version. So... I recommend it instead. . maybe if apple release a bigger iPad I'll change completely my opinion...The thing is Dell has done its Dell Canvas (basically a 27 QHD without some details not essential for artists ! but great device)  , Microsoft its huge Studio (quite deceiving, tho, would require a large post about it), a pity that Apple wont go for competing with a device like that (yes, not a tablet-computer, but a drawing screen. If they care that much about designers and artists...) now that they have such amazing drawing technology for screens, and the Pencil.

 

You don't go wrong, IMO, always is just my opinion, buying an iPad Pro. Is an outstanding tablet, very powerful in its processing, it can do everything, and is surely lovable for fast sketching. If that's the only use. But only for that, I see 800 + 100 + 100 bucks way (and very very limited storage), way too much money for the function. Also, I dislike with a passion the iOS file system. if I were to call it so. I was also not liking the fact that color profiles and calibration in the first 12,9 generation was just limited to live with (kind of) sRGB color gamut and few options, and that'd be it. I work with sRGB a lot, as provides very good compatibility, but very often you need to work with wider gamuts. Luckily, now 2nd generation of 12.9 (previously was only 10.5 and 9.7) supports P3 gamut. And I believe I read you can color calibrate the device. Still, the size is a very huge issue, for me, even for portable sketching... But surely is just me.

 

 

[Wacom Tablet for AD - which suitable for those (See sample)]

Yep, I'm really bad at writing short, readable posts ! Trust me, I know... ;D 

Sorry, I had forgotten to reply here.

The L size is the one I always recommend for illustration. The Paper function, imo is quite fine for manga line art and any sort of fast sketching. Even so, for drawing being with you instead of having to be on the computer desk, in the living room, or etc, I could even see as a better option, if it is just for sketching, just a plain pencil and paper, and a big moleskine or better, those wooden pads (which I prefer as is better to draw over very few paper sheets and a rigid surface below) with a pin at the top to grab and release the paper. For inking the final work, is where Wacom's Paper could come most handy. Actually...for sketching too, but might be easier just a the traditional pen and paper (of course, using the scanner every home printer comes with (fine for scanning sketches), these days, to get the drawing into the computer. And in the computer, ink it, using Paper or just using the Intuos Pro L as a standard Intuos, maybe setting in Affinity Photo the line stabilization (or in whatever painting application she uses ! )).

 

If she draws like 50 drawings a day (then she should start a side job as a comic artist ! ;D ) maybe the Paper function comes handy, as scanning more than 10 drawings can get boring pretty fast...  But in any case, the difference in price between an Intuos Pro L and its Paper version, is not huge (around 70 $? can't remember...), and what is important is that she gets in both cases a fantastic Intuos Pro L (she can use it without the Paper function), which with some training (of the hand-screen coordination in the non pen-display tablets (intuos))  is from my point of view, the best tablet for an illustrator or comic artist. I mean, the best for serious work, of high level, and it is very comfortable to use, you can sit at a good distance from the monitor screen, unlike with a pen-display. The best of the best is as mentioned the Cintiq 27" QHD Touch. But that's a crazy load of money, and still forces you to draw too near of a screen.

[Affinity Publisher - Sneak Preview]

Edited by me:  I didn't realize how long was it really what I posted (I have saved it apart in case some crazy soul was intending to read it and was in the midst of it, in case some web design info there was of the reader's interest). Summarizing: I have worked in frontend teams at companies, and I firmly believe a wysiwyg editor has not much use these days anymore, everything is done by dynamic chunks of different sources, is not about static pages (except landing ones and some super simple personal pages) you need to have at least a grasp of CSS and HTML, and still can/should make your design as a global thing in your raster or vector tool, then crop and chop graphics as needed, do the code (is a mark up language and a specification, not rocket science), helped by browser extensions allowing certain WYSIWYG-ish interactions in real time, and also helped by the pre-made libraries and frameworks available today to keep current with browsers and responsive design without killing your time in just fixing constant issues and specifications/browsers updates (also, if done well, can make easier maintaining sites and its design coherence). And also, as is mostly the only way when integrating with jQueries and a thousand other matters that are of different nature, in web development, things that and have become a must.

[Affinity Publisher]

It's looking great 

[Image Trace - Raster to Vector conversion]

On 11/12/2017 at 10:45 PM, Wizaerd said:

Because it takes time to download a new app, and a learning curve to try and learn that one special function you downloaded it for, and then don't touch it again for several months, so that when you do need to use it again, you're once more having to re-learn it. 

 

I'll probably switch back to ACD Canvas X, which handles most of what illustrator does, as well as most of what photoshop does all in one single application.  Yup, vector and raster capabilities in a single application.

 

 

The only solid reason for me in all that would be one not mentioned (I believe) here, mostly in Windows : Installing constantly apps makes the system unstable and slow, as it is adding registry entries, and due to lazy programming, or Windows failures, leaving back unneeded libraries, and/or conflicts. Still, a system can be partially cleaned (yeah, this would be very far from a casual user or casual hobbyist, but not from an advanced hobbyist. It could be an interesting conversation, as I was that before being a pro (and initially a casual user), the difference among the two is maybe just the extra experience, specially acquired under pressure and constant capability of being sufficiently paid for your work. Other than that, an advanced hobbyist skills are very similar.) This kind of user, me and a bunch of friends of mine (coders and graphic grunts) have usually been able to clean our OS, or just maintain burned to DVDs images of the whole system (now in other supports, I just don't do that anymore) and its apps, including every settings, data, etc. So that a full OS is formatted and back to every app, driver, etc, in less than an hour (provided is the same machine, or another machine with same hardware pieces : IE, used working as tech support in a college center, same image for a bunch of machines). Also, you don't go growing that set of apps. You discover which excel for its use. I discarded quite a number of tracers once I discovered my way with potrace, and later, even with the version embedded in inkscape (but console has certain advantages. With a GUI, that you can preview easierly)

 

The re-learning... ehm, sorry, have to disagree here as well, a little bit. What I have discovered through a lot of.. years, is that re-learning only makes your brain more capable, and makes learning and adapting new stuff each time easier. In the long run, this habit is an absolute winner. Learning Blender with the UI it had back in 2002, that was pretty hard if you ask me, but allowed me to be able to jump to any UI in 3D apps. I was too used to 3DS Max, Truespace, Organica and Lightwave. At some point, one starts noticing a new UI is a matter of an afternoon if the UI is pretty different and unexpected. (still, bad designs do exist, no matter how flexible one is, if a workflow needs 10 interactions when could be done in 2, or small icons, or inconsistencies, etc. But Affinity excels specially in this field. )

 

Reason why this of having several tools is not just super convenient results-wise, and so to get the flexibility not just professional projects needs: Any indy (heck, these are pro projects in my book, should not include here... at least a bunch of them) project, any advanced hobbyist work, specially as funds are not infinite needs a ton of switching. So it benefits the final output, benefits the projects, and also great as a gymnastic exercise for the brain, than in th elong run makes you much much faster in whatever the tool used, even when back to a fully standard, professional software. This is not a theory, is one of my most proven facts in my every day since decades.

 

The OS am using while I'm writing these lines, and which I use for all sort of 2D, 3D and whatever project, is, as seen in the signature, very old and cr4ppy. With TONS of apps and utilities (even stuff like Windirstat to fast check files getting to big, etc). Yeah, is slower than a vanilla windows with this poor machine, and I tell you, it eats HUGE print files with almost two hundreds of layers without any serious issue. I'm not even doing things "right" as in the past (reinstalling by a saved image with all needed essential apps and drives,or better said, just dumping back, unattended while having a coffee, to a clean state in one hour), have not uninstalled in years... runs like a charm. Is also about being able to go cleaning a bit stuff, and do proper uninstalls.

 

 

On 12/12/2017 at 9:26 AM, Medical Officer Bones said:

But the drawing tools, although much better than Canvas X, still can't compete with the likes of Affinity or Krita.

 

I tested several times the app, and I do agree with that.

 

 

On 12/12/2017 at 7:44 PM, Wizaerd said:

 

When I first started dabbling with illustrations and image editing back in 1999-2000, I used Canvas exclusively. 

 

Sorry if I'm very wrong, is just curiosity... I used from time to time old versions in magazines covers ( I was very fan of getting even several brands of magazines, pc related, linux ones, and graphics related, for many years till all begun to be available (free tools and info) on the inet) , of sth called Deneba Canvas. Is it that one, evolved ?

 

On 12/12/2017 at 8:49 PM, Medical Officer Bones said:

Although the result of auto-tracing is much better/cleaner in dedicated tools, of course.

 

Like happens in general with a bunch of specialized tools (I'm thinking of UV mapping in 3D, for example...)

 

On 12/12/2017 at 10:01 PM, Wizaerd said:

Besides autotrace, the two other features I use a lot of, which Designer doesn't have, is converting a path to a selection, or converting a selection to a path.

 

Funny as it might sound, and while Photo I plan it to end up as my main raster graphic editing tool, I'm still using the apps I was using previously, but have purchased Designer, and the thing is I used very, very intensively Photo in the public beta times. I think it has quite some workflows for this : I made tutorials about that for new users to go from its "vector" tools to selections, and viceversa. Not exactly same workflows one has in PS, but quite functional, in my opinion. Indeed, I can't find the threads right now, but I believe my tuts even involved going to mask and "quick mask" (called so in PS) too, back and forth to vector and selections. Similar results, but different steps as I always did in PS. If you are using selections, I guess your output is planned to be raster, anyway....And you can very easily import stuff as raster from Designer, as well...

 

[Affinity Publisher - Sneak Preview]

Are in your current projects things you can't do, or even entire projects that you can't accept due to having anything more advanced than iStudio Publisher 8 ?  Clients can ask very varied type of things, but sometimes they are very basic matters, it depends, and varies a lot. Is it that ? Or... the desire of have something more modern?... Is just curiosity

[Affinity Publisher - Sneak Preview]

Scribus has a stable version for Mac OS X Lion (always has for a bunch of platforms). Free, obviously. I know what you are going to answer, but , hey, for using it in the meantime...

[Affinity Publisher - Sneak Preview]

Oh... I see. I don't know why I thought you were on Windows....

[The Illustrations by GraphicMama]

GraphicMama, I like both your art and your nick, but very specially your art. I'm an illustrator, and I recognize top quality, solid drawing and professional finishing where I see them.   

 

Congratulations