kirk23

I wish there would be "same tagged" and "same named" in auto select options

Thanks a lot NotMyFault The problem is although those 8 bit per depth is not enough , even 7000 value I used is marginally enough actually and still gets stepped sometimes when you convert this depth into a normal map. The original purpose of all this was to composite materials and to get usable normal map too. I am close to give up on the whole idea 🙁 It still would be possible if keep the color and height on totally different layers and in different groups but producing necessary dynamic masking for color ones would turn the whole layer stack into a huge undecipherable and unusable mess. I think v2 with transform links makes it a bit easier but still it will be a monstrosity. I tried it couple years ago.

Well, at least I figured out I can use symbols from designer and a macro that would do 8 extra copies and shift them around . First one up and next ones clockwise if selected down from the top in the layers pane. Share them here if anyone need it. You can save the symbol as an asset and then replace the image with your own. symbol1.afphoto pattern shift 2048.afmacro

it's basically what I try to do but get something weird. floor4.afphoto

Thanks a lot for the example. That expression syntax is something I don't understand quite well. Those spirals are 16 bit integer screen captures from Zbrush . So black pixels are just 0. My guess it could be a proper render from 3d soft where black pixels get deep negative value but my purpose is not to simulate actual deep Z buffer , rather just a small depth to do depth based blending of materials. Small pebbles and a sand and such matters. So having an option for just a subtle up and down and your formula works perfectly. Another challenge is how to make this subtle up and down by a brush with manual input . Something that would multiply on integer part of values or only on after comma part for color editing . So far nothing I tried is working. Ideally a combination of hand painted mask and levels/ HLS filter that would do it for integers /height or after comma part(color) separately. Hoped just procedural "floor" layer after any normal layer would do the trick but seems it doesn't. ps. I added mask on top of the spiral image and it solves blacks RGBGrab05.afphoto My goal is to make a non-destructive version of what Zbrush calls 2,5D canvas.

Here I tried to recreate a technique from Substance Designer used to height blend objects. Each of two layers have its height info stored in integer part of floating point values, and color values after comma. So a pixel with value 7000,34 consist of 7000 which is height/depth info and 0,34 as a color info. Then I use floor operation like R-floor(R) to see only color , like 7000,34 -7000=0,34 in top procedural filter . It all works only if on screen resampling is set to nearest neighbor so pixel values stay the same. Now a question: how can I modulate the height of layers with real time visual feedback. Like sending some object forward or backward by modulating only integer (height) part of pixel values. What should be an expression for this in procedural filter? floor2.afphoto

Thanks walt.farrell it's exactly what I was looking for

or any specific way? I mean not during export but rather for what we see on screen.

I vote for Ai trained to do two things. 1 Shadow removing and de-lighiting . 2 de-noise height maps from Reality capture

It's so much more convenient than pattern layer in Affinity. Best feature in Photoshop for years . I'd love to see it in Affinity photo . Working same non-destructive way for a hole document. Affinity Photo already have affine filter. It just needs to be live as a first step.

I use my homemade method. In LUT adjustment layer I hit "infer LUT" and select original photo of the color charts and secondly edited photo of same color charts where I edited all colors squares to their proper numeric ( target) values. Like spectral red be 255,0,0 etc. Those values is written on the back of charts card. DONE . You have LUT transforming layer/preset you can apply to all photos you did in same session/lighting setup you took your original image of color charts card. IMO it works no worse than automatted X-rite soft for image/camera profiling I used before . Before I misplaced my X-rite color "pasport" charts somewhere and bought non-name cheap charts card

Would be nice to have a node interface where we could just build our own FX . Maybe just using 3d party , Filter forge , Substance Designer or whatever and have it not be rasterized instantly but rather like live filter or FX

Well, I do want but they are pretty useless in Affinity . It splits them into a mess of individual layers and what I want is basically to work with all those info accessible from a single layer . CMYK provides a nice compromise. Would be nice if we could use cmyk brush nozzles too . It's tremendously more convenient when you operate with a single layer at once instead of of a mess of linked ones.

Yes, we have . All same 5 channels . The issue is that with 8 bit per channels you couldn't keep enough precision for the depth to make a nice impasto . It would look ugly as hell . Same with UV channels . they are unusable in 8 bit

I would be happy if they would just copy Xara or defunct Creative House Expression approach for this where you could use vector spline to place vector or bitmap objects along in random or any other order. It's so a basic option in many vector editors.

it's actually 5 channels in Affinity . you forgot alpha one. It's rather CMYKA What I am asking is not related to printing. I couldn't care less about printing. It's all about extra channels . And gamut is irrelevant also. I can do my own LUT in Affinity that would show me whatever colors I need. CMYK is all just same value numbers and 16 bit gives us more of them . Would allows to use extra channel for impasto painting , special ID masks. Keep UV values in K and A . Have distortion values in extra channel and gazillion other appliances necessary in 2d compositing . If they make 32 bit cmyk like in Photoshop it could be actually 10 channels in single layer since 32 bit allows to keep different images before and after comma. In a word I am asking for all those things people still using Cmyk in Photoshop for after printing industry have died basically.

Using Text tool for that is so damn inconvenient .

So we could have 5 channels for each layer instead of just 4 . Would be so helpful for so many things.

+1

Like Photoshop. Not because I need the CMYK itself. I couldn't care less about printing . I just need one more channel at least. I subscribed back to Photoshop just because of this while I generally prefer Affinity over PHs.

No, I absolutely don't want to use Photo for this . I just need a tool that can scatter both vector or raster objects along a vector spline , randomly or in certain order. And still be ABLE to replace the objects , use symbols , re-link bitmaps. If I want . Not immediately rasterize it in document resolution as what Photo would do most probably. Like what Xara or old good Creation house Expresion could do decades ago So bitmap nozzle brush is not ok and text tool is such a pain in your a.. for that

some other live filters can access a layer bellow so it seems really weird why PT can't do same .

I am talking about stuff 2d compositing soft like Nuke do. It doesn't have to be full scale ray tracing , or ray marching or whatever. Just a depth channel you could use for deforming a logo on a flag in one click instead of mesh deforming manually. Or adding some mist, compositing in some particle effects . splashes , volume light, fog layers etc. t's nothing complicated really . You could call it 2,5D as Zbrush named it. Or what Corel Painter does for impasto . It's all perfectly re-creatable with current layer system , just inconvenient as hell since requires a huge messy pile of groups , layers and in-between linking . What I offer is to make it easier on UI part. That's all. Some phone cameras already include depth channel to its photos , why not make it usable.

They have CMYK right , it's basically 4 channels + alpha , so 5 channels . The only thing to make it work is to support 16 and better 32 bit in CMYK mode , like Photoshop does. The rest is just color management and support in brush nozzles . Well, the later is optional probably . In Photoshop the idea would be perfectly workable right now if it would have same live lighting filter to visualize the depth on the fly somehow. Again , I am not talking about turning Affinity into Nuke. Just a few features like impasto painting for example. People sometimes forget that there is no difference in between 2d and 3d in computer graphics . 3d is also 2d on your screen surface or camera plane + a bit of 3 century geometry. Same as any perspective drawing starting from antiquity.

No need of actual 3d features IMO. Would be nice if they just add some 2d compositing features to work with CG images , to combine them with photo properly etc. 1. cryptomatte live filter with a mask on demand ( not like exr-IO plugin for Photoshop with gazillion layers at once, just one exact necessary mask at a time on demand) 2. RGBDA channels mode with depth channel. Just convert CMYK to this one please. Or make CMYK to support 32 floating point like Photoshop. 3. A few special layer blending modes for depth combine . Like where depth is using lighter blending and other channels use a mask produced on the fly by subtracting underlying depth from combined one + threshold. 4. UV live filter that would sample UV AOV or manually made UV gradients to remap pixels over it. So we could replace rendered materials in one click without messing with mesh deforms etc. 5. Proper live AO and shadow ray tracing from depth channel as a live filter. 6. Brush nozzles with depth channel . A vector way to scatter them in Designer. Imo it should be all easily possible, just a few small interface fixes here and there. Please don't waste your time on something like Adobe Stager . It's totally useless. Just make some basic 2d compositing abilities , preferably Blender compatible . So we wouldn't have to buy Nuke just to make a nice one frame CG picture. No need to make a mess of node based interface for that too ( while would still be nice indeed).