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Butler To Cats

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Everything posted by Butler To Cats

  1. Go back to the Home/Gallery. Tap the little question mark in the top right area. In the top left search area, type in Move. From the quick results, tap to select Move Tool.
  2. After holding down the two finger modifier, if your next action is interpreted as a tap, you get polygon selection. If your next action is interpreted as contact-and-dragging, you get lasso selection. Need to be sure your Pencil doesn't bounce or your finger isn't tentative. I must admit I prefer the on-screen keys: Preferences > Interface > On-screen modifier keys: On > Done. Select the object first with the Move tool then change to the Node tool, or alternatively select the object by tapping it with the Node tool. Click the little arrow to the right of the context-specific options at the bottom of the screen (I'm using a Mini, so possibly on larger screens this might not be necessary) - it reveals the Constrain and Ignore Snapping on-screen keys. When no nodes are selected, they have selection functions instead. For Lasso selection, hold a finger on the Ignore Snapping key and then drag a lasso selection with the Apple Pencil or your finger. Raise the Pencil or finger first (tends to be moderately intuitive as you've finished drawing your selection), then take your finger off the Ignore Snapping key. Notes: The Constrain key allows multiple cumulative rectangle node selection areas. Once you have dragged your selection, the keys do what their labels suggest.
  3. I find it easier to enable the on-screen modifier keys. Preferences > Interface > On-screen modifier keys: On > Done. Select the object first with the Move tool then change to the Node tool, or alternatively select the object by tapping it with the Node tool. Click the little arrow to the right of the context-specific options at the bottom of the screen (I'm using a Mini, so possibly on larger screens this might not be necessary) - it reveals the Constrain and Ignore Snapping on-screen keys. When no nodes are selected, they have selection functions instead. For Lasso selection, hold a finger on the Ignore Snapping key and then drag a selection with the Apple Pencil or your finger. Raise the Pencil or finger first (tends to be intuitive as you've finished drawing your selection), then take your finger off the Ignore Snapping key. Notes: The Constrain key allows multiple cumulative rectangle node selection areas. Once you have dragged your selection, the keys do what their labels suggest.
  4. @bfritts, Frankentoon has some great examples of these types of thing in Affinity Designer: using only the Pixel Persona and raster tools in Affinity Designer to create a cartoon digital painting vector outlines and flat colours, raster texture and volume another detailed tutorial example of mixing vector and raster tools vector inking (free chapter of a paid but inexpensive illustration ebook) (Disclaimer: No affiliation, just a fan and occasional customer)
  5. @Pbernardon/Pascal, use a Recolour adjustment and adjust Saturation (intensity of output colour), Hue (which output colour), and Lightness (for increased fading). Sepia is not a single preset, sepia formulations varied and the exact effect will depend on how you wish to replicate exposure to light, temperature, contact with covering material, and other factors (for example, if my understanding is correct, well protected sepia photographs tend more to a darker reddish brown hue, less protected photographs tend to be lighter and more yellow). See the first minute of this example on YouTube using the desktop version of Affinity Photo (credit: Drippy Cat), but the same effect can be reproduced easily with the iPad version of Affinity Designer. Yes! Especially now that Affinity Designer runs on the new iPad Mini.
  6. If you purchased the earlier version directly from Serif, the new version is under your Serif/Affinity Store account (this is different from your Affinity forum account). https://store.serif.com/account/ If you purchased the earlier from the Apple/Mac App Store, you'll need to upgrade from there instead (Apple doesn't release their customer information to Serif). Note: app store updates are staggered (not all servers update at the same time), so the new version might take several hours to appear in the app store for you. From Serif (Patrick Connor): ALSO In the Mac App Store go to the updates tab and press CTRL+F5 or CMD+R (as this is basically a Safari window and may need refreshing) I think another user also posted that restarting their Mac helped show the new version in the app store.
  7. 1.7.0.367 is the first very new shiny public release of 1.7.0, so there were no previous notifications - earlier versions before .367 were opt-in beta test versions (see the Beta sub-forums to participate in beta releases). If you purchased from the Mac App Store or the Microsoft Store, you'll need to download/install from the appropriate online store. Note: store updates can sometimes lag several hours behind the new version being available from Serif. If you purchased directly from Serif, head to https://store.serif.com/en-gb/account/ (or https://store.serif.com/en-us/account/ if you prefer that particular spelling variation). Login with the same email and password you set up when purchasing. There is a Forgot password? option if you have forgotten your Affinity Store password (note: the store password is different from the password for this forum) Click on Downloads & product keys. Scroll down to your Download button. (Might be a good idea to make a note of your product key while you are there). Download 1.7.0 Technical tip: While some browser and OS combinations allow running an executable installer directly from a download, this is a BAD idea. Always download completely first, then run the the completely downloaded file (usually in your Downloads folder) from the Windows File Explorer (or macOS Finder). The Windows download for Affinity Photo is a fairly large 351.71 MB - make sure your installer has completely downloaded (I suspect the Mac download will be a similar size, more or less) - this might be between you and your Internet provider if large downloads do not complete (I'm in a rural area, this once used to be fairly bad, but is much better in recent years). A partially downloaded installer might result in errors when trying to install. After the download is complete, try restarting your computer before installing. Check your anti-virus is not trying to block the installation (a decade or so ago, there were a couple of brands that were notorious for blocking software installs). I don't know if you need to be online when you are installing, but it wouldn't hurt (in case extra pieces need to be downloaded by the installer).
  8. Hello, and welcome! I believe the Affinity Store version is identical to the Microsoft Store version, only the registration and update processes are different. Note: Part of the reason you are probably having trouble is that, unlike FireAlpaca and Medibang Paint, Affinity Designer is, at its heart, a vector program rather than a paint (raster) program. There is a Pixel persona, which is more like your paint/sketch experience, a raster/paint environment within Designer. You could use only the Pixel persona, and create only pixel layers to paint onto, which would be more like FireAlpaca or Medibang Paint, but you would be missing out on much of the power of the Designer program. Choose between Personas by clicking on the Persona icons at the top. Here's a tutorial example of only working with the Pixel persona (credit: Frankentoon). Oh, yeah, Personas - think of two artists working closely together, one cuts out pieces of paper and pieces of string and pastes them onto layers (the Draw persona), the other one (the Pixel persona) paints on those paper shapes or onto transparent layers (your previous experience). Each artist uses different tools and has different ways of working. You've only ever worked with the Pixel persona in your paint programs, now you are also dealing with its more technical sibling, the Draw persona (draw as in using a pencil with various shaped rulers, or even scissors with paper, more or less, not draw as in freehand sketch). From a painting viewpoint, you might start by thinking of those vector objects as permanent selection areas - you are firstly creating your selection areas (vector shapes, pieces of paper), then manipulating them or painting onto (into) them - it's not exactly true, but it's one way to start thinking in vectors. If you've made good use of the curve snap, panel material, and panel tools in FireAlpaca and Medibang Paint, those are a couple of baby steps into vectors. Working with vectors, the Draw persona, can be incredibly powerful once you've got your head around it, then combine it with raster tools - see a similar approach in video here (both examples by Frankentoon (Enrique Figueroa) - I'm a big fan of his work, tutorials, and brushes - hmm, the Gallery is broken for me at the moment). A few starting points: Affinity Designer official (Serif) tutorials (for the desktop version, not the iPad) The Affinity Designer Workbook (available in print only, no ebook)- information and project-based tutorials for the desktop (not iPad) version The free vector inking chapter from the paid but not expensive Advanced Illustration ebook (yes, Frankentoon again) 2 hour, 42 minute tutorial on YouTube There are several Affinity Designer courses on paid platforms like Udemy, Skillshare, etc Points you mentioned: The undo equivalent is Ctrl+Z or Edit menu > Undo, or use the History Panel to pick any point to undo to (you could multiple undo with a single click) or use the History slider. No, there is no undo button. The gradient fills are very powerful (not just linear or circular, multiple colours, and you can edit them at any stage of your artwork, not only when you first create them). You still have "normal" layers in the Layers panel (they are labelled "Layer"), but it also shows each object on that layer - instead of "painting" on a layer (remember, you can still do that), a lot of the time you're sticking many paper cutout shapes , or strands of wool or wire, "onto" (into?) the layer, and you can still have access to any one of them (you can also paint on them). Colouring "normally" - you could create a new Pixel layer, change to the Pixel persona, then paint as "normal", as shown in previous links, or you can learn to do it the vector way: first you create a coloured shape with your vector tools (it's like a selection already filled with a base colour), maybe change it to a gradient or other fill rather than a flat colour, then maybe paint onto that shape. Sketching: Probably use the Pixel persona for that.
  9. http://www.modbook.com/ Admittedly, it's a third-party modified MacBook + Wacom digitizer Frankenstein's monster. On the plus side, it should run the Mac(desktop)OSX versions of Affinity products.
  10. I'm not sure if you can do the equivalent of "new from clipboard" on iPad to get the dimensions automatically, but you can follow up the Paste operation demonstrated above with: Document icon > Canvas > Clip Canvas to get a document the size of the newly pasted content.
  11. Can Adobe Animate handle SVG? That should work from Affinity Designer. Otherwise, you can use raster artwork (PNGs and slices are your friends) - you'll be limited to cutout animation, mesh deformation, and element switching, but you can do a lot with that.
  12. Possibly "free or (not free but) cheaper(-than-the-instructional-videos-already found)"? English is a painful language at times, but its complications, subtlety, and ambiguity do make for great wordplay. Here's a start, perhaps: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=digital+portrait+painting&safe=active&hl=en&tbm=vid and also: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=affinity+digital+portrait+painting&safe=active&hl=en&tbm=vid
  13. Yes! Many, many ways. How will depend, as formerly suggested, on your software knowledge, artistic skill, and envisaged output. For example: Take a photo of a cat, draw on (raster or vector) antennae, as per My Favorite Martian. Ta-da! Alien cat. Paint green spots or stripes on a photo of a cat, maybe using @Wosven's fur brushes, painting on another layer above the photo and experimenting with blending modes: Ta-da! Alien cat. Your green cat with purple ears is a good example of this technique. As per @Alfred's instructions for the astronaut cat, merge a cut-out photo of a cat's head with a photo of an octopus, or a close-up photo of an ant. Ta-da! Alien cat. Paint it as original art. Use your own pencil sketch of an alien cat and @Pariah73 's painting tutorial.
  14. Yes! Affinity Photo (iPad version): All official (Serif) tutorials Basic Operations tutorials Placing images Layers Studio Paint brush tool Affinity Designer (iPad version): All official (Serif) tutorials Basic Operations tutorials Placing images Layers Studio Paint brush tool
  15. For those new to working with vectors, Vector Basic Training is hard to beat. More about general vector graphic technique than specific software or graphic design. Haven't read it myself, but I've heard good things about The Non-designer's Design Book for introducing non-professionals to design principles.
  16. Not exactly true. While Adobe abuses a metadata field to include vector path information, this has never been a standard feature of the JPEG standard or accepted implementations. It's an Adobe-specific customisation (which is why "Save for web" from Photoshop strips out the path information for compatibility). ITU T.81 - the standard on which JPEG files are based ECMA TR/98 - the generally accepted implementation of the JPEG standard for .jpg/.jpeg files (JPEG/JFIF) For completeness, here is a starting point for JPEG/EXIF, another implementation using the JPEG compression standard, mainly used by some cameras.
  17. Video regarding point 3: Pencil tool: shows drawing without fill and turning on the fill later, or drawing with a fill (see from about 2:00 onwards, talking about sculpt). Sorry, don't know about setting to no stroke (0 width? no colour?), don't have my iPad with me. (from the general list of Affinity Designer for iPad tutorials)
  18. Agata Karelus (gagatka) has a hair pack and a fur pack (both pixel-based) and a couple of free sample brushes on Gumroad. You can also see some of them in use in her artwork.
  19. Excellent point! Conversely, unguarded moments are just that, moments, which do not necessarily reveal the overall personality - a laugh at a joke is also an unguarded moment but does not reveal a complete personality. I would not base such a decision as you postulate on a static photograph, neither of them. To that extent, both photographs are lies. It is only with hindsight (and, sometimes, popular belief or perception) that we match the image to the personality. As you state, a privately abrasive personality might provide the right public personality for the time (and be completely unsuitable for different circumstances requiring intelligent diplomacy). Alas, too true. As an individual, I can understand that great or terrible people are so in the context of being human (which both inspires and horrifies). As a herd, we expect our leaders to be superhuman (which, in context, often means being less than human as well as greater). What was that quote? Often attributed to Bismarck, but known earlier in various forms (e.g. John Godfrey Saxe, according to Wikiquote): "Laws... like, sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made". Feel free to substitute government for law. Possibly my opinion is somewhat different because my original background is in science, where the idea "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants" [1] appreciates that new knowledge so often develops as innovation based on past knowledge. [1] (Isaac Newton, derived from an earlier form attributed to Bernard of Chartres, derived from the Greek mythology of Cedalion on the shoulders of the blinded Orion) Even portrait photography can be seen as a derivation or simulacrum of performance art by the subject. To me, properly acknowledged/attributed derivative art in no way detracts from the original, which still exists in its own right. It is like an annotated literary work - the annotations can add value or insight or modify our understanding of the original work, and do it well or poorly, but they do not intrinsically change the original. An annotated spoof of the Mona Lisa does not detract from the original art. Also sprach Zarathustra played on a piano accordion can be hilarious or can be an honest attempt (or sometimes both), but does not detract from the work itself. These variations, including colouring back and white art, good and bad, add to our information and understanding - as you say "Who would gainsay the notion that more information is better than less?" I'll finish with two thoughts: A quote attributed to Churchill: "Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse." And lastly, some tongue-in-cheek controversy in a quote (well, paraphrasing due to time passed and my poor memory) from a personal source who would probably prefer to remain unattributed: "Black and white photography is the melodrama of the photography world. It adds drama and emotion, but that does not always make it more truthful."
  20. Warning: conclusions based on minimal testing. Fusion is better for motion graphics and video effects (a powerful particle system, for starters) support for images e.g. PNG, but no support for SVG or PSD, according to https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=72250 Synfig Studio is better for character animation (character as in perople/animals/anthropomorphic objects, not fonts/letters). SVG import (possibly not all SVG files), PNG import, PSD but no support for layers. (Moho [Anime Studio] or Toon Boom Harmony are more polished, but a little expensive for the hobbyist animator DragonBones seems like a good character rigging system for feeding into a game system or game programming. No real lipsync capability, not great for animating multiple characters together. haven't really looked at it
  21. I've never really liked that darker photograph - while it is more famous, I've always thought it showed Churchill as more brutish rather than determined. Maybe due to the elements of anger and disapproval at Karsh's rude plucking of the cigar from Churchill's lips. The photograph GabrielM has chosen, also by Karsh (who really was a superb portrait photographer), with more light and more detail to his jacket and vest, is (in my opinion) a more sympathetic treatment, still showing determination but revealing a hint of some of the intelligence and (often barbed) wit Churchill was also known for. GabrielM's colouring also helps brings out that more human perspective, showing him as merely human rather than as historical or mythical "giant" - a great person perhaps, a badly behaved person perhaps, but as human as the rest of us. I suspect that's why the colouring of historical photographs is popular - it makes the subjects more human and we can relate to them, rather than seeing them as distant historical icons or mannequins - it helps us to see them as a record of people rather than "art". Perhaps the two photographs together reveal a better portrait of the real Winston Churchill than only the one?
  22. If this is particularly important to you, definitely go for the Surface Book 2. I love the iPad Pro as a fantastic solution for lightweight portability, and with iOS 11 it is making in-roads on inter-app communication, but (in my opinion) it still doesn't match the overall flexibility, power, and general utility of a full OS (MacOS or Windows). More from reading and some limited in-shop previews than personal experience: I suspect the i7 is a minor advantage in speed but not a huge advantage for 2D work and non-gaming applications. The extra memory may add to speed and responsiveness, especially when working with very large multi-layered projects (the more you can run in-memory before swapping to disk, the better). If portability is extremely important, I'd say consider the Surface Pro, but from what I've read/seen, the Surface Book's screen is sufficiently superior to tip the balance for design work.
  23. Miguel (@MEB) has gathered together many of the third-party tutorials (mostly available as static web pages) in a great list here: http://www.miguelboto.com/affinity/designer/third-party-tutorials/ (although I don't think he has had time to add all the newer Frankentoon Toon Lab tutorials or the paid "Advanced Illustration" ebooks (ebooklets?) in the Frankentoon Store). I get the impression the "manuals" in Resources are mostly the application help files extracted to PDF format, although I think there are one or two good starter guides from other users also published to PDF (although these are for Photo rather than Designer, if I recall correctly). You can also access the same help directly from Designer or online here: https://affinity.help/designer/en-US.lproj/index.html The printed workbook is excellent quality and worth the price - great introductions to the tools and concepts, and sample project-based application of the tools.
  24. Like @toltec, my reply was meant to assuage your worry over the delay, and urge you to be patient for a few more hours to get an official answer. Licensing is an area best answered by Serif. As users we can offer guesses, but they are not definitive answers. My guess would be that you can simply install on the new computers, using your existing licences, and uninstall from the old machines. However, I am neither Serif nor a licensing lawyer and this is merely a guess on my part. I could be completely wrong. I was intending to be informative and helpful as a fellow user assuring you that there is reason you have not yet seen a response, and I am hurt that you would consider my reply antagonistic and combative. As an Australian not far off the elderly category myself, I regard New Zealanders as friendly relatives and elderly as experienced, in their own specific fields if not in mine. My hopes for a rapid official response to your first issue.
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