Frozen Death Knight

@smadellThanks for the help! I tried it and it works okay on images with only one layer. However, with several layers it becomes way too cumbersome to apply to every area. I guess we just have to ask the devs to add it in, since it could be pretty handy to have from time to time. : )

Just saw this video where you use the Photoshop layer Divide to neutralise the colours of an image. Couldn't find any layer setting named Divide, so wanted to ask if Affinity has something similar to it?

@Jowday Me neither. When I first started using it I found it a bit jarring that Affinity had all these great features already in place, but of some reason they were stuck in really awkward places despite having the infrastructure to support a more efficient workflow. The devs have become better at fixing little UX problems with 1.7 and 1.8, but there is still a bunch of room for improvement. I hope Serif will do a thorough review of all their tools in the toolbar for Photo at some point as well, since I can think of more than a few tools that could really need some extra polish to make them pretty much perfect for any project. Most of the stuff I can think of they already have implemented in some form in the software, they just need to deal with some of those little UX annoyances that break workflow. For example, the Brush tool colour picker and the actual Colour Picker tool are two separate tools in Affinity, with the alt version not being possible to edit. The Colour Picker tool actually has some really good features like Current Layer colour picking and Radius, but because the Brush tool doesn't use the settings of the other tool, we're stuck with the baseline version when working for the most part. Not very practical to switch to the Colour Picker tool every time you want to sample from your painting or image. I'm thinking of writing a more thorough review of Affinity Photo's tool set at some point that I hope the devs read and consider. It would make Affinity feel so much better. : )

I know the P.S. is a feature request, but since it I was talking about the Crop tool already I didn't feel like making a new thread for just that small comment. The reason I put it as a bug report was because the freehand crop feature felt very inconsistent with how the Crop tool normally behaves. It only works on your very first cropping action and if you use up that first action, the Crop tool stops you from doing it freehand style. It just feels so strange having to reset the tool every time just for doing this. Having a mouse shortcut would certainly make it more consistent and less confusing.

This is a pretty old request that I have been asking for nearly 3 years now. I also reported it way back last year during the 1.7 Beta. Only a couple of them have been addressed and those were features that got added in 1.7, like rasterize & trim. So yeah, we're still missing merge selected and create new fill layer. I know that the devs have many issues to address, but when such a simple change that improves workflow so much gets unaddressed for nearly 3 years, I would again ask the devs to take a look at this.

The Crop tool in Affinity feels a bit wonky in terms of controls. Only when you start using the Crop tool or reset it are you actually able to freehand crop your canvas, something which I rely on a lot. While I was finally able to figure out how to perform a freehand crop multiple times without exiting the Crop tool every time, it was still very confusing for a long time. When I did another crop action that freehand cropping stopped working altogether. Having to use the Reset button every time doesn't feel very intuitive. Here's a video comparison between Photoshop and Photo showing how Photoshop allows you to free hand crop using shift. I would recommend that Photo adds something similar like on alt since the modifier doesn't do anything. Desktop 2020.03.26 - 15.03.31.02.mp4 P.S. The Crop tool in Affinity is missing an R click menu, which would be very useful to have.

This is a thing that can drive me up the walls when working on larger projects. I use groups a lot when dealing with complex compositions, so opening and closing them are a way for me to handle and process all the visual information. Because of this however it can get a bit hard knowing which group a layer is in, especially when Affinity itself doesn't highlight the group when selecting any layer in it. The bigger problem however is that Affinity doesn't respect the user's actions of having open and closed groups from session to session, meaning that when you close and open a project file, all the groups will be closed. This makes it a massive pain since I will have to manually search for the layer I worked on last time and it disorients me every time for no good reason. Affinity needs to remember when a group is open or closed every time you open a project file. Desktop 2020.03.26 - 01.36.36.03.mp4

First off, really nice image! Second, I fully agree on that part about locking layers. I have the exact same problem in Photo when I paint. The Lock Layer function doesn't actually lock your layer, just the transformation tools which isn't good enough. You can still paint on a locked layer by accident which is not what I would expect out of such a feature.

Nice initiative! Already own everything on Windows, but I might try it on my Macbook Air just to cover my bases. 🥳

Thank you for the reassurance! Makes me very optimistic about the future. : )

It's good that WinTab is an option now, but I hope fixing Windows Ink so it finally works as intended remains a high priority. Just feels bad when you use it and all mouse shortcuts don't work at all. Can't even add to selection with the Lasso tool using R click with Windows Ink because of the bugs.

1.8.3? The latest builds I have found are the 1.8.2 ones that just released. As for the newest release, I sat down and tried it just now. It works again, so whatever was done in the Beta period seemed to have solved it. Thanks! : )

Tried it yesterday. Seems to work fine now, thanks!

Both of these features are something I have come to miss after using Affinity for a while. While you can use Protect Alpha on some brushes, it is not quite the same as alpha locking layers, since doing that actually works on more than just brushes. I used the Smudge and Blur tools combined with alpha lock to avoid bleeding over my finished silhouettes, which I think would be very useful in Affintiy as well. Edit lock just speaks for itself, but I'm doing it anyway. When you feel that you're done with a layer you should be allowed to permanently lock it to avoid accidental edits like brush strokes. I think this is pretty straight forward.

I do hope you over at Serif will still put high priority on fixing the shortcuts for Windows Ink. Been enjoying Affinity so much with the feature so I wouldn't like to trade functionality to use it.

I don't really agree that it's uglier since I prefer the high contrast colours for better readability of the shapes. The filter is pretty excellent for pixel art where readability is super important. Would find it a lot easier to design a character with the high contrast colour palette than the blurier one. That said, having any alternative pixelate algorithm certainly wouldn't be bad either.

Moving layers around in the latest build causes Affinity to freeze. Desktop_2020_03.07_-_16_47.16_03.mp4

One benefit would be that the layer would be completely locked from doing edits on since you can't draw or do any destructive editing until rasterising, something that the current layers system in Affinity lacks. That said, it would be more efficient to just add an edit lock button to solve that issue.

@Hilli Seems like the alt+R click+L click shortcut for mice has been fixed in the latest build. At least I have not experienced any freezes yet.

Did you try the latest Beta build? The patch notes mentioned the lag being solved now, so try that out and see if it works better.

@Mystical Try the latest Beta. I tried it last night and didn't experience any crashes with the alt+R click+L click command. Some extra confirmation that it is actually fixed would be appreciated! : 3

The difference is actually pretty big. This is an old test I did back in the 1.6 Beta: At very fast drawing speeds the old system broke down fast. Jagged transitions in curves, input lag at the start of the stroke causing the line to break sharply and then become smoother, and poor pen pressure quality at the ends of every line drawn. To avoid most of these issues you had to slow down your drawing speed to get reliable quality, which was quite unbearable for me who draws lines super quick. Here are the same actions taken in 1.8 when I tested the Beta: So yeah, a lot better.

Tried the Beta a bit and it seems like the latest patch solved an issue with the alt+R click+L click shortcut while using a mouse. I seem to be able to use the shortcut now without Affinity freezing. Still doesn't work with tablets, but it's a start. Thanks! : )

Sure, but what I would want from a potential Affinity Animate is more akin to After Effects styled animations of vector art, which I think would be quite useful to have supported. It's just very useful when creating prototypes of websites, user interfaces, video banners, and more. The collaborative power between Illustrator and After Effects make it hard to find a good alternative in that department since After Effects has a lot of great tools for handling Illustrator files. Also, just having a proper timeline that can be supported in both Designer and Photo would leave open opportunities to do things like animate pixel art, cleaning and colouring of unfinished animations, and just general animation stuff. It doesn't have to be anything revolutionary, just a solid system that provides animation capability with all the tools that Designer and Photo provide. It would fill a solid niche for UI/UX designers and artists who rely on Photoshop when working in the animation industry.

Windows Ink produces better quality lines than the old method which allows you to draw faster, so it's a good idea to leave it on if you're an artist. It's why I keep using it over 1.7 despite the bugs. Had to resort to using the keyboard shortcut for changing brush size. It works for now, but the issues need to be solved asap as everyone else has said.