kirk23

So we could make a dynamically calculating masks for example in simple manner like something like (layer1 R max layer2R - group3) of anything bellow that procedural filter .

The problem is it works ok maybe with such generic subjects . A landscape . But I never do anything like that. I always work with very specific subjects . Like a sky to be bend into spherical projection for 3d scene .AI does repeating wrongly illuminated details . In you picture it's ok because it's just not a complete sky . Not specifically the sky. For me whenever I try to use it , it's something like left bottom corner of your landscape , not consistent shadows and light, arbitrary placed "patches" etc. And always slightly blurry. Maybe not completely useless but still not up to quality standard to be competitive.

I yet have to see something AI in Photoshop that would help me to do something meaningful related to my actual job. Not even AI selection that's sucks really, rather annoying and not improving. Their new "generative" tool is totally useless toy doing blurry and mismatching picture insertions. A dice throwing , a roulette that never really do what you ask. Never tried sky replacement since usually I need to replace everything BUT the sky and it even can't do clean masking along a skyline. I wish Adobe would focus on actual tools. Make something like Substance Designer working as filter creator without destructive rasterization. The filters are outdated like dinosaurs. Procedural masks, content aware move that would allow to puppet wrap image to match neighboring details and so on and on. Instead they stopped to develop the soft and decided to focus on glorious task of killing their own user base by replacing all them by robots. The only AI in Photoshop that I use is chatGPT . it writes simple jsx scripts. Takes it hours although before you get something really working because its also dice throwing and you have to explain it every step thoroughly. No chance it makes it on its own out of a blue.

Some node based noise and patterns generator. Something like Subtsnace Designer. I am so tired of Adobe Substance Designer and wish there would be an alternative. Couldn't care less if it makes tillable patterns or not , just a nice noise mixer + controlled 2d displacement aka "slope blur" which have nothing to do with blurs actually and just a loop of 32 displacements set by grayscale down slope direction. Too bad Affinity couldn't do even such displacement properly . Please Serif , just make procedural filter read a normal map from another layer or channel as a displacement direction for pixels and let us make a sequence of such displacements . Like RG as a vector and B as a distance for pixel shifting for another layer. In a word let procedural filter allow other layers inputs. I believe Affinity would work more efficient with pixels . Substance Designer quickly gets slow as hell. Would love node based interface for CG compositing too. Layers are so inconvenient because soon, after dozens of them you stop to understand a thing in your own mess. Make us nodes as an alternative .

Thank you very much. I tried Vector styler briefly specifically to figure out if it can do it and haven't found any of this. Now my trial is off. So would be appreciated if you answer a few questions: 1.Can scattered objects be easily replaced? For example bitmap representing color to ones representing normal map ? All the same at once staying in same scale? 2.Does it work in 16 bit per channel? For bitmaps or vectors representing height? Like Affinity Designer/photo? 3. Xara was super speedy and quick with lots of bitmap content. Does Styler feels comfortable with bitmaps? Pity Xara 5 I have ( the best one I think) is crashy as hell on win10 now while still very speedy and responsive. Not supporting 16 bit height unfortunately.

Something like Expression had decades ago or Xara . A brush constructed from selected group of objects with option to deform them along the brush vector and alternate , or just scatter with random offset. That text along a path option is so much of a pain.

Like patch tool just working like live effect on layers and working with layer alpha same way it does with RGB (as an option) So we could put a layer over something and it would blend in automatically and do same with Alpha too . Just adapting each of RGBA to what's beneath putting channels in same tonal range. More around edges. Doing in-painting outside edges to connect things when necessary as an option. So we could put several pieces together and they all adapt to each other on their own. No AI necessary. Could be done pretty easily in evry thing supporting blur and nodes. I just want it as a simple layer live filter with a few sliders. I am so frustrated with Photoshop. New beta just added one more useless fancy AI toy. Please Serif lets make Affinity ahead of Photoshop in usability and convenience. So we we would do what we actually want instead of what that stupid AI tries to do.

Just find crypto-matte source code of Blender compositing nodes in archives they regularly publish and do the same. But rather like a procedural mask filter where you could pick something from multilayered exr is split screen preview and get a mask for any layer on top of it . Don't do it EXR-IO style please . Its pretty inconvenient there. We don't need gazillions of layers in our layer stacks.

Can you upload an example please. I meant not general brush strokes but rather vector strokes around shapes in Designer or outline/ inner glow FX. I see no erase blending mode there. I can do it in a separate layer and then group together but it's a tremendous extra pain in my ... and never saveable as a style

Those you already can do.

I loved how I could make a randomly feathered border with "erase" stroke blending mode and random stroke width at the same time In Creative House Expression couple decades ago . Designer is still so much behind . Why not have the "erase" blending mode in here too if the soft is already supportin it for layers.

It's impossible to do physically accurate as GarryP said but you can use displace live effect to fake it . It's not especially "live" and still looks like ortho view although.

too bad it looks like web based only

Totally agree with OP. Why not array on curves at least? Current usage of symbols with text on path is so much pain in your .... but it says it's totally possible and need just an interface as a "tool" or as a "modifier". The image brush in Designer could have been not just start/end and body segments but up to 10alternating segments like in old " Creative house Expression" Ironically all this is perfectly possible in Blender in real time and it's gradually replacing all the 2d image tools for me.

Now that Substance Designer get it I have lesser and lesser need of Affinity Designer . I would still prefer Affinity one . It's so much more artist friendly in general . Why not just have it here. It's a pain in your a.. in Adobe products.

Where we could put a spline over an image and make it deform underlying image . Its just a few clicks in Blender for example . Simple like 2x2 . Why not do it here . It doesn't require 3d axis really . Like projecting image on Spline generated UV/mesh and deform it in sync of spline editing gradually within set distance. Would be better that Photoshops puppet wrap which always been a toy not a tool really .

Like displace in couple pixels distance repeated along underlying vector/flow map number of time gradually fading out or not . aka "Slope blur"

Photoshop does it so right . why not here.

Since Photoshop introduced it I can't do it in Affinity anymore. Those options even when look weird provide so much less repeating, copy/paste from neighboring place look.

and ability to make it work in layers alpha too same as with rgb as an option . Better color adaptation of edges with a sliders . Meaning how much blur it applies to channels intensity from original layer and in what distance from edges. Could be so much better that Photoshop both patch and content aware move . No need to fill the previous place with blurry something .

I tried that Generative fill and it always does something low res and never what you actually asked it to do . Still feels like a toy mostly . For cool instagram pictures. I would be more interested in more clever content aware fill better recognizing patterns and less repeating but it's all the same as before . Ai selection is still same annoying selecting random things around that you need manually clean after anyway.

I miss this so much after Photoshop. The only reason I still pay their subscription. This and pattern preview which is much more convenient than pattern layers here. And perhaps scripting. As of every other thing I prefer Affinity Photo. Tried their recent "generative fill" in photoshop betta. What a useless thing. As well as AI selection that selects nothing you actually need .

I love those options in Photoshop. It eliminates those repeating patterns in inpained areas I often see in APhoto inpainted areas.

I disagree. Both Designer and Photo are still seriously lacking in features. I only happy they are not pursuing AI path. Still struggle to find anything useful AI I could use for my actual job.

With a set amount of colors /gradient stops. So as input we have just RGB image then the filter turns it into grayscale one + gradient map filter . Thus we would have color info stored in one channel and a gradient. Working like sort of indexed colors. So we say the gradient should have 100 stops for example and it makes 100 gradation of gray with corresponding stops in the gradient.