jmwellborn

@Dorothy Bullivant Welcome to the forums Dorothy! Since this is a weekend you may receive help faster if you will post your question in the Forum section devoted to questions for desktop users. I am not familiar with Windows, so am not at all qualified to help. But you will surely receive expert help if you create a new topic such as “how do I get my images into Photo from my folders?” Once you get started you will surely love Photo, and as you browse through that same section of the Forums you will find many, many topics that will teach you so much as you progress!

@DannyBCreative According to my MAC version of Photo, you can make your selection, then use this Shortcut - Shift + CMD + I . You should have an inverted mask. At least it works for me. Hope you will try this before you give up on Affinity Photo!!

@AffinityJules I have also discovered that if you want to change the shape with the node tool to create an unusual effect, you must do it before you drag the shape layer down below the grouped Levels Adjustment layer. It takes some fiddling to do this with the image blocked by the shape, but it works! Example - very unprofessionally done, but the procedure works! Yea'a'a'a'ay.

The images were rasterized and not cropped. However, I had a brainstorm 🤯 (mumble, mumble - brain working on one cylinder) and just checked to see if it will work. The thing works as outlined in the video tutorial IF one then exports the finished product to JPG (didn't try PNG) and then places the image back into a new file in Photo. Not too heavy a price to pay, if one is fiddling with various and sundry super-clever effects. Herewith an example. I hauled the odd shape out at random. Not intended to be a real effort, but just an experiment. 😋 Under the circumstances I don't think I will try to reach Olivio. He probably has lots of other things to do. Thank you so much for trying to help me!!! J

Thank you for your suggestion. Yes, I did try and yes, the bounding box was smaller than the image, but if I drag the bounding box to fit the image, the vignette also stretches beyond the chosen size and shape. In Olivio’s video the thumbnail for the shape layer indicates that it is on a transparent background (tiny checkerboard effect in the thumbnail). He definitely places his shape well within the inside of his image, and the shape layer retains its transparent thumbnail. My thumbnail for the shape layer shows a solid background. I am really stumped.

Yes. I suggest that you send an email directly to support@jixipix.com and see whether they can send you an installer. They were very helpful to me and really want to work with Affinity.

I have just successfully installed plugins this week for two apps from JixiPix (Watercolor Studio and Impresso Pro) after contacting their support team. They very kindly sent me corrected installer software and also let me know that they had revised all of their apps to accommodate Affinity Photo. Both are working perfectly! I have tried uploading an image, but get the 200 screen.

@Multi4G I have been trying very unsuccessfully for several hours to achieve this effect, and have now given up. Each time I follow the steps exactly, and on the screen the image with the new vignette looks perfect. But then when I try to print the image, I get a dark rectangle superimposed on the image (per the attached). Can you give me a clue to why this is not working? I did it perfectly using Photo v. 1.8.3, but yesterday upgraded to v. 1.8.4. Think that is the problem? (Images were printed, then scanned then converted to JPGs. Sorry they are so fuzzy.)

After I contacted Support at JixiPix directly about the problem I was having with their Watercolor Studio plugin for Affinity Photo they immediately sent me an updated installer download. The plugin is working flawlessly now with Photo. I also received an email from them today, which I wanted to pass along to everybody, because if you had purchased this app before this week you might have experienced the same plugin difficulty as I did. Here is what they said: "All of our products have been updated with the latest plugin that now works with Affinity Photo. Our plugins only worked with the Mac App Store version. But now everything is good to go as they are all updated (and live) to work with both versions [Mac App Store and ordering directly from the website]🙂"We do need to update our site to better explain Affinity support as it seems to be more popular now than Photoshop (in fact that is what I use instead of Photoshop). Will add that to the list 🙂"Go ahead and post to the forum that we are good to go. And thanks for doing that because these types of things are quite beneficial to our company since a lot of people do not even know about us. We are a small company, in fact there are 2 of us 🙂 My wife is the long time artist and I have been an algorithm engineer my whole life. Together we create everything on our site. We have a blast doing it too. Of course when things like new plugins come up its a tad stressful on us... doh..Have a great one!Michael" ____ And so here is my very first Photo/plugin/back to Photo attempt.

Thank you everybody. Sounds pretty scary to me, but as previously stated, I am a wimp at “interface.”

Looks like fun, except that apparently it is for Windows users. "Experimental version for MAC" sounds like trouble for a non-geek like me?

Still can't use the Watercolor Studio plugin, but here is a first attempt. I imported the JixiPix-resulting JPG into Photo, and then had a splendid time using layer adjustments to mute some stuff and enhance some other stuff. Levels and Curves work wonders at sorting some of the blandness. (I wasn't trying for a wet-on-wet look.) Don't think Monet will have any competition!

I have set my Preferences back to match yours exactly. Hit Close, and Restart. Then closed Photo down and opened it again. Placed an image, rasterized it, and tried to use the plugin. Same story. It just shows the blank Watercolor Studio screen. I think we should give this a pass for tonight. You have been so wonderful, but enough is enough for one day. I have sent the Tech Support people at Watercolor Studio an email, and suppose that in a few days they may respond. You are a Gentleman +++++++++++++++++ and I do appreciate everything so much!!

@h_d Here is what I got by following your suggested path. I can't figure out how to get the last bit (/JixiPix_Plugins/) into the path. Stumped. Again. Ugh.

@h_d I will give it a try. @firstdefence The "look" has its points, but being female, I am not quite sure how I can wangle the beard. Although in this day and age, who knows?

Too cold to go out with a newly bald head, so I am lurking . . . . inside . . . at my trusty MAC . . .

Last three hairs now gone. Same thing. Get the same result as above. Here are the new Preferences settings.

Will try that now. I do appreciate you sticking with this, but know that it is getting really late at your end. 5:48 p.m. here. If I can't make this thing work, perhaps you would be kind enough to help me tomorrow? We'll see. Now back to the drawing boards . . . .

Am now certifiably bald. I followed your instructions to a T. Here are the results. I tried putting the plugin folder in the top section and then in both top and bottom, as shown.

Thank you so much -- doing it now. Got a little hair left, after tearing most of it out!! I gather I am supposed to put this new folder into the "Plugin Search Folders" section? Best locate your ear plugs in case you hear howls of anguish in a few minutes from across the Pond.

I am afraid I don't understand this. Said I was a Neanderthal. I opened Photo, placed an image, rasterized it, then FILTERS>Plugins>JixiPix>Watercolor Studio appeared. Clicked on that. Got the bar that said I needed to click SHOW to start it. Clicked on it. Up came the home screen for Watercolor Studio with the blank "drag image here" icon. I could not get the image in Photo to show up on the new screen. I am not an insides-of-the-computer whiz, and am really confused about where I "make a folder called Affinity Photo Plugins." In Finder? I have managed to get a single file there for Plugins, but it doesn't seem to do anything but sit there. So discouraged.

@firstdefence This is what my Preferences looks like:

@firstdefence Said I was a Neanderthal! That worked, except that I guess I am still in the 2nd Century A.D. because I can't figure out how to get the rasterized image in Photo into the plugged in Watercolor Studio. It shows me the drag image here screen. Help???

@firstdefence JixPix Watercolor Studio is really nice, and I bought it, based on your entry above. But I am having absolutely no success whatsoever in setting it up as a plugin. I bought it through the JixPix website, rather than the MAC app store, so actually supposedly received the plugin support file. However, when I check Filters>Plugins, I can get as far as JixPix, but then Watercolor Studio is greyed out. I have tried over and over to get this set up properly in Affinity Preferences, and am right where I started. Zero. Granted I am a neanderthal insofar as this stuff goes, so in desperation I wonder whether you could explain how to set this up? In the meantime, I am relegated to opening the app, placing an image, making the watercolor adjustments, saving as a JPG or PNG, minimizing the app, opening Photo, placing the image, and then if I don't like the look after all, minimizing Photo, opening Watercolor Studio, and staringt all over with the original image, etc.etc. Serves me right for being a dolt. I would truly appreciate your help!😧

@joachim, @Old Bruce, and @Alfred Thank you all for a light-hearted chuckle on another dreary social-distancing, mask-wearing, everybody-suspecting day! 😷