CartoonMike
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Posts
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Joined
Posts posted by CartoonMike
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@GarryP -- thanks for the suggestions. I agree with all of them now that I can "see" it via your perceptions. Going to work on the modifications and may have the revised Raven up soonish.
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Had an idea for a T-shirt design. I guess it could also be used for a cloisonné (sp?) pin or button. I my wife suggested the use of the Raven (due to it's role in folklore and myth) as the main focal point.
What I discovered is that I can drag from the browser window to the Affinity Designer window graphics to use as reference. Sure is easier than downloading them and then placing them. Also shout-out to Pure Ref (pureref.com) for an amazing "digital corkboard" where I can put pix on for reference and have that window float above all other windows. Cool little app. Mac and Windows versions, btw.
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Thanks, looks like I'll have no other choice but the online option. Thanks Affinity Jedi, may the force be strong with you.
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For the past 2 Mac OS X major updates (14 & 15) Affinity Help searches yield a lot of hits, but NOT one for the affinity app that I'm using. I posted on a pre-existing topic on Sunday, and tonight, Tues, have yet to get any reply. Yes, I know that Apple's help app got blamed because it didn't update or get refreshed according to some undisclosed rubric. Um.... if that's the case why on my Mac only Affinity products have this issue? Even old apps that I've updated and new ones that I recently installed have a full working search ability in their Help and it sure looks and behaves exactly like Apples Help ... and there was a line ("killall helpd; rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.help*; rm -rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.help*") on another thread that I copied and pasted into the Terminal app to force a help app database refresh, or something like that, and the response I got from terminal was:
Michaels-iMac:~ cartoonmike$ killall helpd; rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.help*; rm -rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.help* No matching processes belonging to you were found Michaels-iMac:~ cartoonmike$
I'm an Administrative User, on Mac OS X 15 Catalina, and I did something to start using the BASH of preference (Z-something-something). I did that, so maybe the "killall..." line also needed to be updated. Or something. I dunno, I am comfy using Terminal, but not an expert -- Just like driving a car doesn't make me a mechanic...Like I said in the other topic thread, all I want is to be able to search help instead of hunting and pecking for what I'm looking for as if this help is nothing more than a digital dead tree manual with no index. I feel this shouldn't be such a hard thing or such a big deal.
Thanks, I should also mention that it would be nice if the help for the app I'm currently using reads like it's the help for the app instead of for all affinity products. Meaning, if I'm trying to get info on Bleeds in Affinity Designer, then I shouldn't be reading description that fits Affinity Publisher better. (i.e. options on the dialog box matches aPub better than aDesigner).
Aside from the Help search snafu, I am so very happy with all 3 of my affinity apps! I'm only antsy because of the Stay In Home quarantine and my comprised immune system, I'm trying to do a self-printed & published mini-comic during these ... um... novel times we're living in. It's a bit of a challenge trying to find specific things about bleeds and margins that seem to be there in the help but damned if I can find them. However, I couldn't see me trying this without the Affinity apps.
Thanks again for reading this, stay healthy and wash your hands!
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Tried to do the Terminal thing. Somewhat comfortable with it, but (of course!) I got this error:
QuoteMichaels-iMac:~ cartoonmike$ killall helpd; rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.help*; rm -rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.help*
No matching processes belonging to you were found
Michaels-iMac:~ cartoonmike$
I copied and pasted, so if there's any typos, they were in the original post or it just wasn't crystal clear exactly what to copy or if anything needed to be added (like what the "*" wildcard could be [if anything but what it is], for example...)
Part of me finds it interesting that for things like Help, it's always Apple's (or somebody else's). But the help function is hosed only on Affinity apps. Works fine on other apps. Or at least the apps that I use and needed to search help for that app. And that's been the case for at least 2 major OS X updates (14 and 15 for example.).
I would like to do a help search and have it work. That's all. It's "only" computer science. Shouldn't be worthy of sacrificing small animals in the dark of the moon to the elder gods. Or is it...(cue ominous music...)
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Well this was interesting. I tried to open a file in AD 1.7.2 and got an "unable to open because of permissions" error (sorry about not quoting it exactly, I'm a bit busy today and doing a detailed bug report is just one thing that i can't fit on my plate this week.
Anyway, due to the dearth of actual assistance about the importing brush issue and now this unable to open a file that i was able to open in the beta -- I decided to do a bit of searching. There were problems/issues with others opening files and getting the permission error message. Seems that those with this issue all had App Store versions and in one case the user had many fonts active. When the number of fonts went down, the user was able to open files again.
Hmm, I thought, and it seems that those who bought the app from the Affinity Store didn't have the issue. Seems with Apple Appstore apps the @#&%@ sandbox "feature" would cause permission-type errors when too many fonts were active.
Now what if... that stupid "feature" was the cause of my problems ? I thought of it... I bought Publisher from the Affinity Store, the betas were downloaded from Affinity and maybe didn't have the sandboxing feature of their Apple store cousins. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. I mean, I am able to open all the files and import brushes that Designer couldn't in Publisher. The beta RC candidate could import any brush file and Designer File.
I went into Suitcase and deactivated a slew of fonts. Opened up Designer and I imported the brush with no issue. I opened the Designer file with not a single error message.
I add that I am using the Container folder that I renamed with the ".old" extension now and am having no issue. So it seems that the time I spent uploading a 3gig zip file was for naught. Really.
TBH, this whole week of troubleshooting and not being able to do the work in Designer has me very, very, leery of using any Apple App store apps. Because Pages, Numbers and other Apple apps gave me no issues; but Affinity Designer and Photo had issues while Designer (bought from the Affinity Store, remember) had absolutely no issues with opening files or importing brushes at all.
And I feel a bit out of sorts about this, as I seem to recall that Affinity's line is that there's no way to transfer a license from the Apple Store to the Affinity Store (although there has been some companies who were able to do so. There's some kind of file inside the app that acts as a receipt of sorts. But I don't remember the specifics). So my best option to have an optimal experience (that is, not wasting a week dealing with an issue that I could've solved in minutes all because of the stinkin' sandbox that Apple foists on developers) with Affinity products is to just go and re-purchase them via the Affinity Store?
Anyway, I'm a week behind on work and I gotta get cracking.
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8 minutes ago, Alfred said:
That’s interesting, Mike! When I zoom in, it looks as though the ‘verticals’ are truly vertical in the top half but very slightly rotated in the bottom half.
Damn, you have a great eye Alfred! That's what was eventually chosen, as having the bottom half being the only "off-center" bit of text made the entire word look more broken than having both halves rotated.
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17 minutes ago, MikeW said:
Wasn't me...that was GarryP.
I was just pointing out to Alfred I don't see what GarryP did in his treatment as discontinuity.
I claim early-morning-before-coffee excuse. Thanks for the correction and I've edited the post to have the correct name.
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What I did was to make 2 copies of the text, group them. Then I made a jagged line and duplicated that and then made one copy a rectangle with the bottom edge being the jagged lined and the other had the jagged line as the top side. Both of these had NO fill and NO stroke. Then from the layer palette I dragged one set of the title text into the "upper" shape and the other into the lower shape. Since the Jagged line intersected the text and AD treats shapes like a mask when you move things into it -- all I had to do was to rotate the Jagged shape (NOT the text) to get the results you see.
A little bit of adding layer FX for the shading and it's done. I like what you did, GaryP, was it similar to how I did it? I like the method I used, because the title went through a few changes and the text remains editable.
If this was unclear, give me a few days to do a "proper" tutorial.
BTW, the font is "Friend or Foe" from the Blambot.com website. I like BlamBot as it has dozens of excellent fonts that's free to use by indie comic artists and others. Friend or Foe is a paid font, though. It's quite reminiscent of early 70's title lettering in Marvel Comics of that era.
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Here's one page of a short (15pg) story I've been working on.l Originally used the Publisher Beta to begin with and now using the released Version. I'm following the lettering techniques for Illustator from the ComicCraft tutorial I saw on Lynda.com. And i works, even better using Publisher with the Designer persona used when needed.
The art was hand drawn on paper, real old-school. Will be finishing it up (pencils, inks and colors) in Clip Studio (would like to use Designer, but I like CS for pixel drawing/inking and painting a bit better).
this is a WIP, so as I wrap things up, I'll update this thread as i can. One nice thing is that having a link to the file, rather than embedding, allows me to letter rough penciled pages and see If I need to move things around in the roughs to make the panel "read" better as a visual composition. Yeah, it's a comic thing. This is something that most comics don't do, as it's so production-oriented. Y'know, if novelists can do a second draft, why can't comics. And Publisher allows me that flexibility and freedom. Thanks Serif and Affinity!
- Alfred, MikeW, Milos Micatek and 3 others
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Okay, uploading the zip now. It's named "CartoonMIkeBrushIssue_190922"
And to make it clear, even when the affinity designer container folder was empty (using the .old appending to the original folder name) I couldn't import any brush file. NONE were ABR brushes. All the brushes were "afbrushes" and while Photo and Publisher could import them, Designer (with the new container folder) could not.
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I truly think this is a bug in the app itself. I deleted it from my apps folder and renamed the container folder to "old' as per the instructions in the reply. Reinstalled Designer from the app store. Tried to import brushes and got the unexpected format message.
interesting thing: the icon for the afbrush file changed to that of Affinity Photo. Okay, I thought, what if I change the "owner" of the file to Designer. I did so and the icon changed to that of a generic document. And still cannot import brushes.
I find it hard to believe that the problem is on my end. Prior beta RC have worked just fine, like the Publisher RC. But the released version had some thing or another flipped and it didn't work well at all, which was fixed in a point release in short order. So I keep coming back to the fact that in the 1.7.2 RC1 Designer beta I was able to import brushes with no problem. But the released 1.7.2 won't import the very same brush file.
So I guess, due to the time difference between California and Affinity, I'll have to wait another day for a response. So until then, I'll just wait patiently.
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Hi Sean,
I followed your instructions and after starting Designer with a new "com.seriflabs.affinitydesigner" folder, still can't import brush files. I tried multiple brush files from RetroSupply (Vector Sketch), Artifex (the updated Fineline and the Tattoo set [which was pruchased from the serif site and freshly downloaded], and the Frankentoon's vector Marker set) and each one gave me the same "Unexpected Brush format" error.
Interesting thing the RC for Designer 1.7.2 had no issue with importing the Fineliner brush set, but 1.7.1 had the format error message and 1.7.0 imported brushes okay. I didn't report the 1.7.1 issue because (in my mind) the beta for 1.7.2 resolved it. However the app store release of 1.7.2 had the inability to import brushes as did its predecessor.
I have a zip file containing a few sample afbrushes files and my container folder for Designer. It's about 3gig (lots of patterns and textures), and that's a bit big to send to a Dropbox, I feel.So would it be okay to drop it in the Dropbox as is or should I just root around and delete the textures?
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Updated to 1.7.2, most recent version of Mac OS X Mojave. No matter what the vendor (I tried RetroSupply and others) and using the exact same files that Imported just fine in 1.7.1 I get this: (no screen cap, as it's easier just to transcribe)
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Unexpected Brush Format:
Failed to load file '/Users/*******/Downloads/Fineliner Brushes and Textures/Brushes/Fineliner Brushes.afbrushes'.
---I tried restarting AD with the shift key held down, but that did nothing. It seems to me that if AD cannot import brushes from files that it could in a previous version, it's something wacky in the update or something on my side got corrupted. Any clues, tips, hints or suggestions on how to resolve this on my end, if that's possible even.
Thanks
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5 hours ago, Alfred said:
Or as some British English speakers might put it, “colour” should remain spelt that way in all Affinity apps, localisation be damned!
[slow clap] Well played, sir. Well played.
I actually spelt Localisation that way, but the frackin' spellcheck "corrected" me. As far as spelt goes, I didn't feel right to my grammar. And since she's such a nice lady, I went with what felt right. [shrug]
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Saw the affinity live video and was promptly floored. I was feeling this during the beta, but now with the released version of Publisher it's not a feeling any longer -- this is the DTP app I've been waiting for years to use to letter an entire comic book/ graphic novel. I can use the Designer persona for creating word balloons and the Photo persona for adjusting the scanned artwork. So thanks to all the Devs and Testers that made this app what it is today!
Oh and... I'm in the US and I really think that "Colour" should remain spelled that way in ALL Affinity Apps, localization be damned! For me the "British English" spelling (although it's used in many other places) just adds to the ... ah... flavour (
) of Affinity apps.
- AdamW, jmwellborn and Patrick Connor
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11 hours ago, brunhilda said:
As well: Mojave + Wacom. I have to create a Group and then add objects one by one to the group.
And I need to finish a book today
Don't know if this will be helpful, but what language is your Mac set up for? Mine is english and I'm assuming (from his previous posts, correct me if I'm wrong) Bruce's is English also.
I'm also using an Apple Magic Keyboard with extended keypad. Again, just trying to find some thing that could be causing this issue. Are you using any key/type utilities like TextExpander? I had mine set up to automatically close parentheses and brackets and that caused issues when I was trying to increase brush size using the open bracket key. So maybe your shift and modifier keys are being remapped or something ...
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Have basically the same setup as Bruce, not having that issue. Shift and command (for not contiguous item selection from a list, like Layers) work as they always has on Affinity and Mac OS in general. Also using a Wacom intuos pro tablet.
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8 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:
I'm a bit confused by your workflow description, Mike.
No one has removed the ability to Place files in Designer. It is just that they are Embedded, not Linked. And as far as I know, a Placed file in Designer was always embedded, not linked, unless you were using the trick of using Replace Image to get them linked. Were you? You didn't mention that in your workflow description.
The fact that the files are Embedded and not linked, forces me to repeat the Place command for each page. for a 32 page comic, that's a bit of effort that is caused by the arbitrary elimination of Linking to files. Linking allows the source file to be changed (or replaced if the exact same file name is used) and that change is propagated to the doc that is linked to the file.
In essence, just embedding the file is costing me anywhere between 2-3 hours of work per 32pg comic. I didn't know the replace image was a trick, so I didn't mention it. To be fair, All affinity apps have had so many changes, my head is spinning and I don't know how to work around this embbeding thing. So this is me throwing up my hands and I'm just going to work through this and maybe by July, I'll have figured out how to use AD/APub for comics or just revert to using Comic Life (which is a good app), which can export a ePub, PDF and raster formats (JPG, PNG and/or TIFF).
- walt.farrell and Frank Jonen
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One of the interesting things about modern comics, is that the creator(s) have to be mindful of multiple formats: from printing to e-book (PDF, epub and CBZ) to Webcomic presentation. Each requires their own format. Print is 300 DPI CYMK (or RGB if printing via a Print on Demand service), E-book DPI is around 144+ ppi (depending on its specific format) and Web requires 72+ ppi (depending on the venue it's being distributed on).
While publisher is great for Print, it's not geared up (yet?) for anything digital beyond PDF. In the interim, I've developed a workflow for Designer for the electronic side of comic publishing which came to rely on linked files. Basically, I draw my rough drawings, and then I place the image into a Designer doc and do the lettering from the script of the story. Then if I have too much text for the art, I can resize/redraw the art on the originals (on paper usually). Then, once the art is all lettered for the story/batch of strips, I finish the comic drawings with pencil and finally ink it and color it. Then I scan the finished page with the same file name as I did when the page was in rough form. And when I open up Designer with linked files, the files update.
At least that was the workflow. See in my case, because I can't (or don't know how) to export from Publisher a page at a time and at a specific pixel size like I can in Designer (after a fashion, the export personas just always seemed to be overly complicated for something so simple, imho), I have to go back and "eyeball" things again and resort to tricks to fit text in a panel that just can't comfortably fit that much text.
By arbitrarily removing the ability to place linked files in Designer, I just had the legs of my chair knocked from under me. In a bigger sense, this could shake one's confidence in Affinity Apps beta testing. What good will beta testing be, in the long run, if features get added and removed for "reasons" after the Release Canidates but before the actual release? I realize that comics is a niche area, and I can figure out work arounds (like taking screen capures on my 27" iMac for web comic as an example), but between this issue, the non-opened docs issue and the question about iPad only brush sets, well, I've hit a rough patch here and only waiting will resolve things.
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4 minutes ago, Patrick Connor said:
Thanks, we have replicated the problem and I understand this will be fixed in any future Mac betas and release builds.
Just to be clear, this issue wasn't in the last Release Canidates of the Designer and Photo betas, it was introduced in the actual release of 1.7. So please understand that, in my mind, fixing it in the betas won't be important until the actual released point version is released and doesn't have the issue. But I have faith in the devs, in any case.
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Just installed Affinity Publisher 1.7.0.384 (RC1) and it will reopen with the same documents that were left opened in the previous session. So it's fixed there, still not working in Designer or Photo, though.
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I posted this in
And so far not a word from any one from Affinity, so I'm posting it here, hopefully it'll get some attention. Basically in ALL Affinity apps (Desiger, Photo and Publisher) I can have documents open, the preferences set to reopen documents and I close down the app. When I start the app back up, there's no documents opened. This happened with the 1.7 release of Designer and Photo. Other apps on my Mac opens with the documents that I was working on in the previous section, so I can definitively state that this is a Affinity issue.
edit: the reopen documents works in Publisher and still won't in Designer and Photo. seems to me that the Publisher RC1 has corrected this issue. So it just needs to be corrected in Designer and Photo
Any help is appreciated.
KAW -- new work done in Designer
in Share your work
Posted
Here's the revised art. Will work a bit on the text over the weekend, as what's there is more-or-less a placeholder.
Really simplified the wing. Bad habit of mine is to do excessive noodling when I need to be simple and bold. I like it the way it is now.