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Frozen Death Knight
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Posts posted by Frozen Death Knight
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On 5/6/2025 at 10:16 PM, River99 said:
Seems really sad that its 2025 and creative software's across the board still don't support Linux. Any argument that creatives wont use Linux doesn't really hold weight when the option has never been provided. Supporting a product on an Open Source OS seems like a missed marketing opportunity, especially if a popular software like Affinity was the first one to do it. I hope someday someone realizes the immense impact and meaning that supporting their products on Linux would provide the world.
Here is an anecdotal experience I've had. I recently had one guy I work with on the regular install Linux because I showed that it is possible to run Affinity on the platform through Wine. If that wasn't possible he still would be using Windows. There are likely a lot more people in the same boat for various different software.
If an opportunity comes to switch to Linux because of a specific software, there will be those willing to jump through all the hoops to get there. Tech enthusiasts are among the first to try out new stuff before the masses start doing the same thing. Microsoft have stepped on tech people's toes for so long that we are getting absolutely sick of it, so it is not surprising that you are starting to see more and more prominent people beginning to advocate for trying Linux out to their audiences. Just because Windows will remain the market dominant OS for the foreseeable future it does not mean that it would be futile to support other platforms. Heck, the fact that someone like PewdiePie is using Linux now and has to use Gimp because there are so few alternatives goes to show that there is a creative market on the platform that would be more than willing to try a Linux Adobe alternative if such a thing existed.
There is already a big enough audience for Affinity on Linux that active work is being done in the community to run and maintain a Wine version that supports it. Now imagine all the good will Serif and Canva would get for supporting all these people who are willing fork out cash just to run a somewhat buggy but still functional Windows version of your creative software. I am one of those people.
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Pewdiepie made his own video about moving over to Linux and what benefits and downsides there are for doing so. One such downside being Photoshop, since he actually has a background in graphics design before he became a prominent YouTuber. More and more people are going to start trying Linux out in the coming years and having big content creators starting to promote the OS is showing signs of growth.
- rlybigwait, Snapseed, ShadowDrakken and 1 other
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@leshido Very cool! As a game artist I definitely agree about Affinity being very useful for game UI. Very easy to create pixel perfect designs and mass export everything from a single document. Once you have set up your assets it is very easy to iterate on the designs. That VFX through code is a really solid idea for building 2D animations. This makes me even more hungry for an animation timeline to be able to do this kind of work as well, since I think Affinity could be perfect for filling the niche that Photoshop fills in editing pixel/2D animations, storyboarding, UI, etc. Being able to key animate various settings like that filter slider you made would open up so many possibilities.
Thanks for sharing!
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On 4/7/2025 at 11:34 AM, James Ritson said:
@Frozen Death Knight Prior to 2.6, non-pixel layers couldn't be used with Merge Selected if they were the bottom (source) layer—I am aware that there was a front-end issue which made users believe they could (e.g. Merge Selected would be available with a group as the source layer, but wouldn't do anything).
2.6 then allowed Image and Develop layers to be at the bottom of a Merge Down/Selected operation, but it was in 2.6.1 that the front end logic was fixed up to correctly reflect what is possible/not possible (which is why Merge Selected is now greyed out if the source layer is a group, for example).
From initial testing, it seems an easy accommodation to allow other layer types to be the source for a Merge Selected operation—such as a group, text layer, vector layer etc. Can't make any promises, but we'll look into it...
Thanks for such a detailed answer!
I understand the logic. I can just say from my Photoshop background how I use these merging features to help you see my point of view.
While doing paintings I need to cut, copy, group, and merge various layer types to get specific results. A very common practice I did in Photoshop was merging layers and groups together after making backup copies of those layers in case I needed the layer hierarchy again. This was to simplify the painting process after having done multiple edits with Mask Layers, Vector Layers, Adjustment Layers, Group Layers, etc. In Photoshop this process is very straight forward. I just select any layer type I want and use commands like Merge Selected or Merge Down and it would automatically rasterize all layers to do the final merge. Yes, it is destructive editing, but it kept the flow going and it is years of getting used to stuff I took for granted and that I started to miss once I switched software.
In Affinity I have had to build muscle memory to rasterize everything before any merge happens because otherwise I do not get the desired end result. It is those added extra steps that make the programs more annoying to use than the competition. I have gotten used to some of it, but in all honesty I really shouldn't have to.
Personally I would be fine with the current method as long as there was a pop-up to ask if you want to destructively rasterize all affected layers the first time before merging like it is done for rasterizing when it asks if you want to keep FX or not. Most of the time I just want it to do destructive editing due to how I work, but I can see the logic in wanting to put up some safeguards as to avoid scenarios where people. I just am too used to a certain workflow and the less steps I have to do to achieve that workflow the better.
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On 3/3/2025 at 12:44 PM, Chris B said:
I've tried this in a new build and it seems to be OK now using your brush.
I have spent a good 30 mins on countless images, colour modes and whatever else.
If you're still seeing this when you get the next beta, could you please let me know. Also, it might be handy to know what tablet you're using and what driver. I've been using an Intuos Pro small PTH-451 and the Low precision mode in Settings—though it doesn't seem to make a difference what mode I use.
Hey again! I tried the latest Beta builds and unfortunately the issue still exists with certain brushes.
As for my hardware, I use a Wacom Cintiq 13" HD that I bought back in 2013. I have used the latest Wacom drivers provided by the manufacturer. I use High Precision instead of Windows Ink.
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Just wanted to check if my comment about it not being fixed in 2.6.2 has been seen by the devs. Merging anything that isn't a Pixel Layer does not work due to the other layer types not being properly rasterized ahead of a merge, so the issue persists.
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On 3/20/2025 at 6:24 PM, Snapseed said:
GIMP GNU Image Manipulation Program?
I've been trying 3.0 yesterday. It is a massive step up for sure, but it is no Affinity still. Even with some of the bugs I get better performance from running Affinity through Wine on Linux. Also, Krita is miles ahead of GIMP in terms of features and general quality of life like a much stronger brush engine and a very flexible hotkeys system. It even has non-destructive filters long before GIMP achieved the same thing.
Here's my current list of improvements I would like to see in GIMP:
- A better hotkeys system. Again I point to Krita (can change how modifiers work) and also Affinity (switching tools on the same hotkey and using shift as an option).
- GPU acceleration.
- A more extensive brush engine like Krita.
- More vector capabilities.
- A brush selection menu like the one from Photoshop including some features from Krita.
- UI panel placement presets that can be saved and loaded.
- Smudge Tool is not as good as in Krita and Affinity after 2.6.
- The Tool Options panel needs to be completely reworked so it becomes a top bar like how it is done in Photoshop and Affinity. The current version takes up a ton of unnecessary screen space when it needs to be shown at all times to be able to adjust settings on the fly. This issue has long since been solved with having the settings of each tool as a top bar and even other open source software does this like Blender and Inkscape.Also, GIMP 3.0 is crashing on me a ton when making new canvases. It is incredibly unstable in its current form. There is also some weirdness with the window management itself where I cannot use the fullscreen shortcut or adjust the height of the window.
If there is one thing I think GIMP 3.0 really succeeds at it is the new interface. It looks great. It is miles ahead of Affinity V2 by being a lot more customisable with custom icons, colours, scalable UI, etc. The layer locking feature is just as good as in Photoshop and works exactly like how I want it to. If GIMP just fixed those other core issues I listed I would be a lot more willing to switch over.
Hopefully 3.0 will make GIMP more popular and thus lead it to a golden age the way Blender and Krita have been developed over recent years. Non-destructive layers is a massive dealbreaker for a lot of people, so I can see some people jump onboard because of this release.
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@Affinity Info Bot It is still not fixed.
The expected behaviour I have for this operator in every scenario is that it will automatically rasterize all selected layers before merging anything. When I select a Group Layer, Vector Layer, Image Layer, etc. I expect it to rasterize and then merge. It should never be greyed out under any circumstances. This is how Photoshop works since the Creative Suite days and I used it all the time to collapse certain layer stacks in the painting process. I do not want to manually rasterize and then merge since it is a waste of time when it can be done in one single button press.
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8 hours ago, James Ritson said:
@Frozen Death Knight I don't think this got tagged by the info bot, but in the 2.6.2 beta build (3187) this has been corrected, so you'll be able to liquify multiple Pixel and Mask layers again.
Works like before. Thanks!
Would be nice if it could be expanded in the future where you can transform child layers and parent layers simultaneously. I know it was possible in some very old V1 builds until it was no longer possible to select both parent layers and child layers. Would be convenient to make liquify possible to affect child layers with a toggle while working on the main parent layer.
Just an idea.
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7 hours ago, Chris B said:
Are you resizing the brush whilst the pen is down and still painting? That's the only way I can reproduce this. If I just smudge with the brush you supplied it seems fine.
Yes, I resize it by tilting my tablet pen when brushing. Seems like a pretty normal thing you would want to do for certain brush effects.
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As an artist, the new method is a lot better for blending and it has reduced a lot of the artefacts that came with the tool like how it broke the alpha with transparency artefacts on completely opaque layers. Still some issues as I have reported on previously, but a lot better compared to previously. Smudging now behaves more like Krita smudging, which has a really good smudging algorithm.
All that being said, I can understand if someone would like to have the old behaviour back in some way, because the results can be very different. Personally I vastly prefer the results of the new smudging over the old one. The forced spacing is indeed weird however.
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5 hours ago, Chris B said:
Can you share the brush with us? I'm happy to log this if we can get hold of it and reproduce.
Here you go!
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On 2/19/2025 at 12:29 PM, Chris B said:
Thanks! I really appreciate putting the time into this. I'll look into the transparency bit you mentioned but I'm glad we are getting somewhere
No worries! Anyway, I found a custom brush of mine called Round Smudge that produces squares in the smudge when I tilt my tablet pen to adjust the brush size.
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Just to give even more examples, this bug also affects brushes drawn with a mouse. Even smoothing with Stabilize doesn't solve it.
Affinity:
Compare this to Krita:
Pretty stark differences in how each software processes the drawing input. I seriously doubt it is a hardware issue when Affinity is literally the only software that has ever done this on my end. I've tested this on multiple different PCs with vastly different hardware and even using different pen tablets to boot. So hardware being the culprit can easily be discounted from the equation.
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I can confirm that this bug happens on Windows as well. It is quite a big issue when it can consistently be triggered on all lines if you are too fast at drawing. Interesting that it also happens on iPad as well. I originally thought it was a Windows only issue, but it apparently is a general design issue with the brush engine itself. Heck, I was even able to reproduce it on Linux through Wine despite having a lot of extra tools on Linux for fine adjusting the pen tablet parameters to reduce any type of input lag, stuttering, etc.
I really hope it gets a high priority fix. Until it is fixed I will just be doing my line art in Krita and do general painting in Affinity when I do not need as much precision. The amount of time wasted trying to fix these broken lines adds up quite substantially.
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I was watching this video demonstration of all the new changes in 2.6. I got to the portion where certain aspects of the workflow have been improved to better automate operations, so I started going through each one to see how they worked.
One bug I found was that Merge Selected on non-Pixel Layers does not work unless you have a Pixel Layer at the bottom of the selection stack in the Layers panel.
Another (possible?) limitation I found was in that butterfly example of cutting a piece of an Image Layer to move it around after doing a selection. I tried doing the same thing to a Group Layer ańd instead of rasterizing and moving just that pixel selection I instead got it duplicated with the entire thing intact. I am however unsure if you want this to be the case, but maybe something to discuss about adding the option to rasterize Group Layers when you pixel selct and transform.
I'll be trying more of the changes once I get the time. If I find any other inconsistencies I'll try to update this thread.
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36 minutes ago, Pšenda said:
You just need to read the Status bar and Help 🙂
https://affinity.help/designer2/English.lproj/pages/CurvesShapes/select_align_nodes.html
Sure, but if people do not know how to access it regardless, you will get posts like the one I quoted who claim that it doesn't exist. A lot of people do not pay attention to that small bar at the bottom. It does provide the information, but it can very easily be missed if you do not already know of it.
Then there are just general expectations from using other software. Adobe Illustrator has a ton of different tools for editing vector curves and nodes while Affinity Designer is able to condense multiple tools into the Pen Tool and Node Tool only. If you are used to using Illustrator then Designer will feel quite alien to you. Personally I think Affinity does node editing way better because of how the Pen Tool and Node Tool are designed, but there is still a learning curve going into it from Illustrator.
I am of the opinion that it should be possible to select a tool in Affinity and then have a way to list all the commands in a small pop-up window when hovering over it (with the option to turn it off in user settings). This would improve the user experience for newcomers by making it clearer what each tool is capable of with its modifier shortcuts.
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On 2/12/2025 at 6:53 PM, MaGV said:
Don't forget the lazo selection tool for vectors. It's crazy that it doesn't exist
It has existed for a very long time, but it is hidden in the Node Tool. On Windows you need to use a mixture of ctrl, shift, and alt to use it. Ctrl+alt removes nodes from the selection, shift+alt adds to it, and ctrl+shift+alt inverts your selection with a lasso.
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On 2/17/2025 at 8:06 PM, James Ritson said:
@Frozen Death Knight apologies, this was due to all the logic changing to accommodate rasterisation of Image/RAW layers when entering Liquify/Develop/Tone Mapping. This will be changed to restore the original behaviour, so you'll be able to liquify multiple Pixel and Mask layers (but Image and RAW layers will still require a single selection).
Thank you, that's all I wanted to hear. I understand the reasoning for changing it for RAW/Image Layers. Glad that the issue is being corrected for the other layer formats. 2.6 is looking very good!
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On 2/3/2025 at 9:39 AM, Chris B said:
I'm not convinced it should be on the right-click menu in Publisher. I think it was added by mistake for Photo and Publisher... I'm just waiting to hear back from the developers.
Certain features should be working across the board the same way when it makes sense. What does not make sense however is that I can toggle between a transparent checkerboard background and white background in Photo, but not in Publisher or Designer. Same with the menus being different between all 3 software where the Document menu is missing a ton of features that should be available in all 3, or the fact that "New to Clipboard" doesn't exist in the Publisher Persona while the Photo and Designer Personas do have it. Expand Stroke to me is one of those no-brainer features that you shouldn't need to switch to different Personas just to execute, especially when all 3 software use vector shapes with vector lines.
People will still be using each software because of the toolbars having different tools that specialise in either raster, vector, or publishing work. That does not mean that everything has to be stuck inside one software only. The Linked Layers panel from Photo comes to mind.
- blureogroup and GRAFKOM
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On 2/15/2025 at 9:22 AM, carl123 said:
I'm not sure why they removed it but in the example you have posted would you not just need one Liquify Live Filter applied/attached to the primary group (just above the "Troll 2" layer)
I always thought that using the Live Filter was preferable due to it being non-destructive and easier to tweak later
This is just one old file I opened to demonstrate the problem and no, applying a Liquify Live Filter above them all just does not work, since it means merging all visible layers to apply it across the board if you are doing it the fast way. You would have to duplicate and merge the filter to each individual layer if you still want to retain the entire layer stack, something that was not an issue with the destructive Liquify Persona. You do not want to keep painting with this filter active since it distorts how your canvas behaves if you paint underneath it.
The Live Filter is preferable if you are doing photo touch ups and you just need to finalise a composition. This however does not apply to painting where it is extremely common to sculpt your paintings with a destructive liquify to do so. Doing it across multiple layers is especially necessary in Affinity where you can use vector masks to paint inside, thus adding to the complexity of a composition depending on how many vectors you are using.
Not to mention that it is possible to paint across multiple selected layers with any of the other tools simultaneously. That is a feature not a bug in Affinity and something a lot of other art programs do not allow. The same with the Liquify Persona up until now.
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I just found out about this being a thing while trying the recent builds. I really don't understand why you decided to make an error message and disable the ability to liquify multiple layers. I used this all the time to deal with more complex artworks with tons of layers. I could basically sculpt any layers selected with the exception of parent layers and child layers together (another limitation), but with 2.6 I no longer can.
2.6:
2.5:
I would really like to know the justification for removing this. Also, if people are going to suggest that I use the Liquify Live Filter instead, I will just say that it is not as flexible for the type of workflow I use, especially since I would now have to duplicate and apply the same filter multiple times over for every single layer just to get a feature I have come to rely on since 1.7 when I bought Affinity Photo. This is just a downgrade.
If anything, it should be possible to liquify both parent layers and child layers at the same time to make the Liquify Persona more flexible, not less so.
Discussion on Affinity development (split from 2.6.3 announcement)
in Desktop Questions (macOS and Windows)
Posted
We'll just have to see what will happen with Affinity in the coming years under Canva mangement. I do know that a couple of months ago that they did a survey to get information about what Affinity customers are expecting out of the software. I sent a quite extensive list and I know a friend of mine who did the same since he uses Affinity as well for work.
The devs have been fairly quiet on the forums besides the smaller patch updates for 2.6. To me it looks like Canva and Serif are still trying to assess their long term plans for the coming years and how to make Affinity more integrated into the Canva ecosystem. It has been about a year since the acquisition and we won't likely have a full grasp of what to expect out of it until we get more major patches out. 2.6 felt more like what we would typically expect out of a major patch from the dev team, so any changes done behind the scenes we still have yet to see.
The changes might be good or they might be bad. Hard to say at this stage. So far nothing significant has changed, which can be a good or a bad thing depending on how you look at it.