ladlon

It would be cool to be able to step up/down through the various brush items in the Brushes panel using a keyboard shortcut, rather than having to move the pointer over to the panel and clicking on them (which, I find, is often a bit finicky as it is... sometimes requiring two clicks to get the selection to register). Being able to step through using the keyboard would allow very rapid jumping through multiple brushes, painting some strokes, changing the brush, painting some strokes, etc.

One small thing I'd like to see is for the primary and secondary current colours switching (temporarily) to black and white when you turn on the Quick Mask feature... since you need to switch to a black or white colour to edit the Quick Mask anyway... why not just save that manual step? Granted, you can click the ALT+X shortcut to restore the current colours to B&W, but then you lose your original colours you had before that. So, why not just have the current colours switch to B&W while you are in Quick Mask edit mode, and then switch it back to the previous colours when you exit out of edit mode? Along the same line, it would be great if the ALT+X was actually a toggle, rather than a one-time reset. Have it remember your current primary/secondary colour, switch to the default B&W colours... but then if you hit ALT+X again, it goes back to your previous colours as the current ones... that way, the shortcut retains it's original/current function (restore to B&W), but also has the additional benefit of allowing you to temporarily switch to B&W if you want, then go back to your previous colour choices.

One nice feature I've seen in another paint program is hotkeys to nudge the luminance, saturation and hue, one way or the other, of the current colour. For example, tap this key to make the current colour a notch darker. This was a really convenient and useful way of quickly adjusting the colour you are about to lay down, rather than having to always move over to the colour wheel/sliders and adjust. It allowed controlled variation of the colours you'd apply. Yes, there's the burn/dodge tools, and dynamic randomization of brush properties... and those are great and should be there. But, this was an additional useful feature, which allowed you to quickly adjust colours you are about to lay down, in a controlled way, without having to switch tools or move over to the palette. I found it a really excellent addition when it was done via keyboard shortcuts. I'd love to see the ability to assign shortcuts to 'brighten current colour a notch, darken current colour a notch, saturate current colour a notch, etc...'.

I would really love/hope to see a proper layer lock feature, which prevents the layer from being painted on. (As opposed to just preventing it from being selected/moved) I don't know how many times now I've suddenly realized I spent the last while painting on some layer I didn't intend to. By all means, also keep the current 'Can't select and move' layer lock, too... as that is useful, too, if you have a larger background layer that keeps getting selected by accident.

Hey, that's actually an interesting idea. I think I have OpenToonz installed, but never thought of checking it for animated GIF capability. Totally slipped my mind! I do my 2D animation in Moho, which is also excellent. That does them to, I think. (...I noticed that late in the game! ANYTHING to not have to fire up Photoshop...) Ya, that sounds awesome. I'll check it tomorrow. Thanks for pointing that out to me. Cheers!

Agreed, but these kinds of features are great for when you INTENTIONALLY want to go back to a particular point (...and, intentionally create that snapshot at that point). All good... But, the benefit of the Revert feature is that you didn't have to set a snapshot (in anticipation, perhaps, of things going wrong with the upcoming actions you planned). You just go back to the previously saved (and therefore 'safe') version... rather than actively creating snapshots before the disaster. (...Unless I'm missing something here) Again, the history features ARE great... No arguement there. It would just be nice to have the traditional Revert feature... as sometimes, when you are deep into your project, and on a roll, you may forget to create snapshots. Granted, you can scroll through the history, and (hopefully) find the point where things went wrong... but that's not always going to be obvious... and even if it were a simple matter of scrolling up to the very top (...with the assumption that the history starts after the last save?), then it could still be argued that hitting 'Revert' is still easier. Have both, since the history/snapshot systems ARE definitely very usesful, and certainly powerful tools.

I would love for something similiar to Moho Pro (previously Animation Studio Pro). I have version 12 (and love it), but I am concerned for their future. Their feature list is actually very impressive, with some amazing stuff I haven't even seen in the pro alternatives.... (which is partially why I haven't just switched over to one of the pro alternatives, like Harmony). A complete, dedicated animation app (with the same type of feature set as Moho Pro) would be of huge interest to me. An insta-buy for me, if it can at least match Moho Pro 12.

Ha! You beat me to it, dotails! I was about to add a post in the suggestions asking if Affinity might consider (for their next app) to do an animation program... something like Moho Pro (Previously Animation Studio Pro) would be awesome. Moho is a real powerhouse (with features that I find even the full-pro versions of other animation software don't have)... but, I fear for their future lately. Seems a bit iffy... If the rumours are true, there may be funding issues. Not much info on that, so I don't know... I have been hoping for some really solid alternative if Moho fades away. If Affinity would pursue that, for their next app, that would be excellent (and, I'd imagine, quite popular). I agree with others, in that perhaps it shouldn't be taked onto Photo or Designer... both because it would stray a bit from their intentions (although an animated GIF feature would be nice)... but also because I would love to see a full-featured, dedicated animation app from Affinity... something with smart-bones/actions, vertex colouring, physics based secondary animation, etc... like Moho has. (If you do, PLEASE make the timeline good... including not using tiny, virtually identical icons for the various keyframe types!)

Additional note: If implimented, please include full settings control... palette size, whether it does the delta-based compression, whether it loops, plays once, or (if it's a thing) plays a certain number of times.

Yep... I think the history thing is actually a great idea/feature... but certainly there should be no harm in ALSO having the standard Revert menu option as well. A quick and easy 'reset' for when you suddenly realize something has gone terribly wrong. Certainly, the history list could be used (and one could argue it gives more control.... sure enough)... but, on the other hand, the classic Revert is quick and familiar, too.

I'd love Affinity P and D to both have the ability to export animated GIFs, including the ability to import a movie file (to be converted), and having a timeline system where you can 'stack' images/frames along the timeline, assigning each a hold duration. Currently, that is the only reason I (reluctantly) have to fire up Photoshop once in a while, as it's the only software I have to assemble a sequence and export an animated GIF with. It would be awesome if AF and/or AP would have a full edit system for assembling/exporting animated GIFs.

I was surprised to see that the GIF format, although present in the Export window, is not available in the New Batch window. Could we get the GIF format available in New Batch, since the system for the export of that format is already present in Affinity Photo?

Hi. I know you can customize much of the UI in affinity, but I am wondering if there is a means to customize the order of icons in the tool properties (Row of icons below the top of screen toolbar). I'm specifically wanting to adjust the icon order of the text tool properties panel, as I have always been visually confused by how the Character and Paragraph formatting icons are hidden amount some other display icons, and I wanted to put them off to the side and together, so they are more easily found and clicked on.

Hi, Chris B. Ya, we've been trying to sort this one out, figuring out triggers/specifications. It seems it might be partially related to a bug that was found where it seems that selection order now (after the recent update) seems to matter when merging (...select the layers in the wrong order, and the merge results in the contents from the pixel layer being erased). I've done some tests over here, and have found some specifications for my particular issue. It seems to be related to grouping (as well as groups within groups). I'm going to do some further tests, and provide support with a specific list of situations and results, but here's what I have found so far (...and this relating to the Merge button on the top right of the Adjustments windows): 1) Adding a targeted adjustment (using the Adjustment icon method described above) to a single, unparented layer (with no childred) and hitting the Merge button works fine 2) Doing the same to one of two grouped layers (each without children, and with their group not grouped/parented to anything.... just two single layers grouped together) resulted in a non-responsive Merge button (Nothing happens to the layers). Note: The command history DOES show that a Merge is triggered each time, but nothing happens to the layers... the adjustment layer child remains) 3) Doing the same to a single layer that is grouped with several other layers, which is also grouped to another set of layers (group within a group) results in the destructive/content clearing bug I noted in my previous examples.... adjustment layer is removed/merged, but the pixel layer's contents are cleared completely, leaving it empty, but still present. There has been a discussion about this (and some other related issues we've been finding) in my thread found here:

@Carl123: I know that was targeted to HuniSenpai, but in my case, I'm selecting the target layer, and then clicking the Adjustment icon to add a layer-specific adjustment to it, which is automatic, so I have no control of how it connects it. In my case, there seems to be a bug(?) related to grouped items (and/or groups in groups), which perhaps the team hasn't run into yet. I'm going to do some more tests, and establish a specific list of situations and results for each to provide to support.

Further findings: So, in my REAL project (as opposed to a simple test one), I found the following: 1) Adding a targeted adjustment (using the Adjustment icon method described above) to a single, unparented layer (with no childred) and hitting the Merge button works fine 2) Doing the same to one of two grouped layers (each with out children, and with their group not grouped/parented to anything.... just two single layers grouped together) resulted in the non-responsive Merge button shown in one of your videos (...Note, the command history DOES show that a Merge is triggered each time, but nothing happens to the layers... the adjustment layer child remains) 3) Doing the same to a single layer that is grouped with several other layers, which is also grouped to another set of layers (group within a group) results in the destructive/content clearing bug I noted in my previous examples.... adjustment layer is removed/merged, but the pixel layer's contents are cleared completely, leaving it empty, but still present. Going to go for a walk, but will tinker around with this further. For now, the workaround seems to be to do the targeted layer method (click on the Adjustment icon, etc).... but rather than hitting the Merge button, you exit, select the pixel layer (which will select both it and the child adjustment layer) and hit Rasterize in the context menu. A bit less convenient, but at least it works for now. Hopefully, I can assign a hotkey to Rasterize (....an annoyance I point out in ANOTHER of my threads, where I am baffled by why only a select few of the commands can have a keyboard shortcut assigned, rather than all of them being available in the shortcut edit window). I'll keep you posted on what I find. Thanks again for your help so far!

Just did a quick test... My three coloured blob layers.... but this time, I grouped them together, and applied a targeted adjustment to the 2nd layer (selected it, clicked the Adjustment icon, selected HSL, made the adjustment and then hit the Merge button). That actually worked, too.... So, it's not specifically/exclusively a bug related to heirarchies... by that, I mean that it CAN work, but in the case of my (real) project, it doesn't. So, more tests will follow....

I'm going to try a bunch of tests with various heirarchies/groupings, and see what it does. You are on to something, even though your results (though also incorrect/bugs) are different from mine!

Ha, we are both responding so fast, this is like live chat! That last video is interesting. Doesn't seem to be what is happening with mine, but that certainly seems like a bug (...in the sense that it should just merge the target layer (adjustment to the donut)) In my case, the rest of the heirarchy remains, but the target layer clears (rather than results in a layer that contains ALL the content of ALL the layers in the hierarchy, like your video does.

UPDATE: I just did a test on a new/test 'project', rather than my actual project. Three simple pixel layers... each a different blob of colour. Selected the middle one, clicked the Adjustment icon (bottom of Layer window), and selected HSL. HSL adjustment window opened, and I dialed down the saturation (making that layer grey). Clicked the dreaded Merge button at the top of the HSL adjustment window.... and it WORKED! Okay, so for some reason, there's some aspect of my (real) project file that is buggering up the merge functionality.... Memory usage??? (I've got 32 gigs, and this isn't a massive project, so that SEEMS unlikely) Nothing obviously odd in my layers.. just a bunch of paint layers... some grouped together... a few with adjustment layers..... but that's it. Nothing fancy or unusual. Yet, it is obvious that something is either stressing the program... or some previous action has somehow buggered up the program's functionality... No idea. But, yes, it is confirmed that the Merge DOES work in a small/different test project. That would explain why many are not seeing this issue. I'm going to close my (real) project, and reload it... to the issue is 'baked' into the project, or if it's related indirectly (duration of the work session, etc).

Seems to be happening since the last update, as it worked the way I expected up to now... unless I have gone completely insane.

I'm on the latest version (1.8.2.620) Win7 Pro. I'm having a few odd things happen... including another quirk I did a thread on (which I think you are also involved in, too) where the square bracket keyboard shortcut for sizing the brush stop working after some random amount of time (yet all the other shortcuts and the program itself continue working!).

It really seems like they broke merging in general with the new update... including that bug previously pointed out about the selection order!

@HuniSenpai: Thanks for all the vids and effort! Yes, that last video shows you doing the thing I'm talking about in the first part of the video... yet, in your case, it works (or at least doesn't clear the content of the layer. I'm doing the same thing, but when I hit Merge, the contents of the layer disappears/clears!

Okay, let me try another explanation.... You have 8 layers. All are lovely, except the 3rd one is too bright compared to all the other layers. Normally, you'd just select that layer, and apply (say) a Levels adjustment (live, destructively), adjusting it until it looks right, compared to the other layers. Unfortunately, it appears that AP doesn't allow for that, opting instead to do a non-destructive Adjustment Layer method... which I am not against (as it does, afterall, offer the benefits of a non-destructive adjustment). However, sometimes, you don't want all those adjustment layers parented inside each of your layers. Sometimes, you just want to bake it, as you are sure you don't want to revert it back or whatever. So, with the current system, you'd normally select the 3rd pixel layer... apply a (non-destructive) adjustment layer (Levels in this case) to it, so when you adjust the Levels dials, you can see the affect of the adjustment live, compared to the other layers, until you find the right setting. You would then (normally) hit the Merge button at the top of the Levels adjustment window you have been using (unless you wanted to keep the non-destructive Levels adjustment layer parented inside the 3rd pixel layer). Normally, hitting this button would bake the Levels adjustment into that third pixel layer, and you'd have a (longwinded) destructive/instant levels adjustment to the 3rd layer. But, that doesn't currently work, now... Doing so causes (at least on my system) the 3rd layer to be cleared when the merge occurs. But, there is no other method to do this type of thing, as putting an adjustment above the 3rd layer will adjust ALL the layers below it, so when you dial down the brightness of the 3rd layer (eyeballing it to the other layers), all the other layers below will also simultaneously get darker, making it impossible to match, since the other layers will 'run away' from their original settings as you approach them.