kirk23

Any news about layer linking ? How it will suppose to work? And when? I love AP and looking forward to make it my main image soft but inability to use Photoshop styled layer linking with "chain' make it mostly unusable for me. In fact I would love to se much more advanced interconnection in-between layers, not only transform linking.

I never use the feature for stitching actual panoramas so perhaps it works better in PS for the subject. But I very often have to stitch several macro pictures of certain object into a bigger one and have to say AP is less demanding to having enough overlap and similar camera angle. So often when PS fails , AP does just ok. Also AP works better with some complicated subjects where PS just can't figure out the right order and AP can. Beyond that PS's adaptive wide angle is just a useless thing mostly and AP mesh deform allows to fix any distortion very precisely and surprisingly takes less efforts. Too bad they haven't developed that mesh deform feature into something a bit more advanced. I wouldn't say AP does it worse, just a bit differently. Same with "inpainting" I'd prefer they keep it as it is

Please add this scale feature. It's a very basic necessity for precise composing. Absence of it makes Affinity Photo an interesting new toy still behind Photoshop. Can't believe it's a hard to do thing.

Would be nice to hear something about how linked layers would work. Would it be just transform link in-between layers like in Photoshop or maybe some extra features? I am dreaming about some formula based interconnections between layers, not only transform links. Would eliminate an advantage node based image editors usually provide over layers ones.

1. I meant scaling from a center of transforms placed in a certain random position. Not corners only. Like it works currently with rotation. The feature was already discussed many times actually and somebody from Staff promised it. Yet It never showed up. It's very basic thing that should be in every image editing soft imo. I could name a few : Photoshop , Xara, Fusion, Photoline. Usually it works only with numerical input . So when you change value in "height" or "width" fields the soft would respect center of transforms current position. Do it same way please if it's easier. 4, I have , but it's not a replacement. It does what it says: Snapshots in time. Once I edit document further those snapshots are instantly outdated. Besides they don't respect embedded document states. I need exactly compositions, based on layers visibility and live effects through the whole stack ,within embedded docs too. The later is not possible in Photoshop and you would have a room to overtop it. Xara does it pretty cool too, by means of inheritable "name" tags. So it super easy to switch the document showing only objects/layers with a certain tag.

1. ability to scale from a scale center (center of transform) I's it really so hard to do ? 2. linked embedded files. So we wouldn't push "replace document" any time the source file was updated. Do it as a single command for every embedded files . Kind of re-embed all the embedded files. I feel a bit tiresome do it manually for every one separately. 4. Please do a kind of savable layers compositions in export persona having such compositions remembering same kind of compositions within embedded files. ie. what layer is on and off within embedded files, contrary to Photoshop. Maybe a kind of tags for all layers/objects with option to show things only with specific tag.

Thanks a lot for Windows version. Having it not on a Mac toy but rather modern beast working PC with a lot of RAM and decent GPU is so relieving.

With brushes having separate depth dabs/nozzles and layers, having Add, Subtract and Max( Lighter) depth mixing modes beyond regular ones. That Max mode should be making "live" mask for color channels too ( by subtracting depth of layer 2 from Max of both layers , then some levels adjustment) Layers part, I hope, could be done by a user himself probably after layer linking will be implemented . Still would be nice to have it just a part of regular layers.

I would love to see same idea in Affinity Photo and Design too. For example for layer linking, live effects , filters etc. Never understood why it's always should be either layers or nodes and not both

I have a pretty good DAM on Windows : imatch5 photools.exe . It's super flexible and feature rich and at the same time it makes it too complicated to use, too much checkboxes and buttons I forgot how to use constantly. Imo it's a problem with any modern software. To make something you have to push this button and that , make sure some checkbox in some window behind a window, behind a window is checked in. It's like damn matryoshka doll. You have to be a software expert instead of being an expert in art you are doing. It really should be as simple as a brush, a palette and an easel . So please make the DAM simple and still not being as a useless toy as mac Photo. And not one more Lightroom please. Looks like it does everything except what I need. a. Ability to just drag'n'drop without export b. Have a quick, off-line on map appearance , with rotation , schematic map, etc c. simple and super quick ,hot key keywords appointing , pretty much like Photo. With automatic smart suggestions etc . Could be million innovations here over Lightroom. d. easy category/keywords sub tree with super quick search interface, Scripted/automatic categories based on chosen parameters. e. ability to see 3d files like fbx. blend. max. ma. obj and show their thumbnails + corel Painter riff And most important thing. Be super quick thumbnails / preview scroller So I could browse through hundreds items like watching a movie , 25 frames per second . I know, it's probably impossible and never come true based on all those countless DAM applications. Should be a reason why all them are so slow and inconvenient.

Is it still in plans? The program is pretty useless for me without the feature. I need it to do depth based tricks while composing layers. Would like to hear something , can we expect it this year? Something went wrong with it?

I 'd love to see a companion software with all those pre-processing and other limitations done but working purely within GPU pipeline with a speed of light. Having convenient and simple interface. No brushes, just composing of bitmap objects plus all those "live effects" modern games able to do with frame buffer. After all those real time shadows and reflections are 2d "image editing" too, considering depth Z buffer is also a 2d image . Would love to see depth channel at least. Maybe a separate "gamey" preview and a final rendering/export to a picture with higher resolution. Just do all necessary sacrifices and do it as simple as games are for its users. With convenient onscreen interaction and your cool export persona. I don't want any new Fusion or Nuke , a flexible solution. Always shudder when hear word "flexible" from a programmer . Instantly know it would be something nobody would able to comprehend and would require years to dig things out. I believe such layers based 2d composing companion would have its market share since I don't need all those too complex things Nuke does and many don't too I believe. Still sometimes It looks like we sooner have Unreal editor to be a nicer image soft than a regular one.

I wonder why any modern game has shaders that able to do so complex per pixels calculations , pretty much similar to having a huge stack of "live" effects, for a huge screen resolution sometimes up to 3 screens at the same time . Doing all this in a fraction of second and any given image editing program do it so painstakingly slow. Even proclaiming GPU support.

Art rage, Corel Painter, etc have a depth channel allowing to simulate impasto brush style and some other tricks I would love to see it In Affinity Photo too. Painter has a pretty good realisation for example, but for some crazy reasons they never did it true usable, no export, no 16 bit support.

I am not sure what exactly you would like to be explained . If an exact process of getting a normal map from height one I can't explain it very well , with math details, I don't know how, it's just a regular procedure . Crazy bump does exactly this. The only problem it does it from height it "guessed" considering darker pixels deeper and brighter ones higher while it's never so all the time for any given random photo and even if the photo resembles "height" image somehow it usually have wrong gamma curve to represent shape of the details correctly. It's right only for actual height map rendered/ baked with at least 16 bit per pixel precision from true 3d geometry. Any "guessed" normal map would look ok probably but only till so popular in modern games "golden hour" or sunset conditions with low sun. At such lighting condition you would see the fake nature of "crazybumped" things immediately and everywhere.

There is much better approach in Xara. So called "names" which are in fact an inheritable tags . So you could set whatever many tags you want for an object/layer and then if you duplicates it the copy inherits those tags. So why we couldn't have something similar within AP and AD . Mac OS have it for files already.

I am doing all my normal maps from sculpted or photogrammetry produced geometry. Crazy bump and similar fake methods result in unrealistic appearance, kind of swollen and bubbly, once you have a light coming with a sharp angle , like sunset /dawn. So basically I need an adjustment layer that would generate "live" normal map over height image. Let it be a slow one, it's not that important. What's important is having it hi-res ,sharp and precise. Not the blurry mediocre thing from Filter Forge or Photoshop. Switchable Photoshop styled "layer compositions" would be very helpful for that purpose too. Plus an ability to export such compositions as .tga files

Would be nice indeed . Especially as a live effect over grayscale layer or as adjustment layer. Using GPU to process it in real time. The one Photoshop has is a joke.

I use it pretty often in Photoshop. Would be nice to have in AP. Would be nice actually if it would be a bit more advanced, working like a live effect . So while making a collage of layers , each new layer put on the top would match colors with composition beneath . A kind of patch tool working with layers. Let it be slow as hell , I would tolerate it .

What's going on with layers linking? Is it still in list ? Could we get a preview of how it's gonna work. You tube video maybe

Is there something like Photoshop's "match colors" in Affinity Photo?

What about other soft/hardware? Anything no more working? My colorimeter and printer are not working even in ElCapitan, even having official mac drivers. They are just too old.

Does it work better with Affinity Photo and Design? Can I expect older soft and devices would work ok too? Coming from Windows side I can say an OS upgrade is not necessarily a good thing. My i7 8gb ram macmini 2014 is slow as hell comparing to a random modern PC. Could OS upgrade make it even more slow?

New advantages I discovered: Patch tool works better than Photoshop one in general. You can re-scale and rotate patch before applying. To bad not to mesh-deform it . Would be 100% perfect. Hipass live filter have Luminosity and other blending modes. As all others filters too. Helps a lot to keep layer stack not so overcomplicated with redundant layers and unreadable even for file creator, as Photoshop one. You can even paint on a layer with live filter instantly. Not after you open smart object first , then waiting forever when Photoshop save it if it's big 16 bit file. Macro saves brush strokes and has simpler and much more convenient record/play interface than Photoshop actions. Too bad it can't execute the same strock with other brush or other nozzles at least. Would be super cool if we could paint some nozzles on one layer and then recreate same strokes on a layer representing depth or normal map or whatever propertie. I asked such feature from Corel Painter for years but it never came Mesh deform is much better in AP, even over silly "puppet wrap" . Probably best available in image editor. Still nowhere close to what Blender or any other 3d soft would give you for mesh deforming: multi vertex selection and editing. rotation around specified center and so on and on. I am still use Blender or 3d max for mesh deforming images when need something precise. I am looking forward for what layer linking would be in AP. It's where it's way behind Photoshop yet

Why Affinity Designer haven't copied a few very cool features from Draw 1. ability to feather bitmap edges with a quick slider 2. 10 alternating parts in image brushes Would be illogical to drop them for otherwise a lot more advanced soft