otijhuis

It might have been the intended function of the people who designed it however it does not do what the user intended. I'd even argue that users don't even think about grouping adjustment layers. They want to group a set of layers, no matter the type. Basically "these belong together, let's group them". I totally understand there might be use cases for restricting the adjustment layers to the group when there's a pixel layer inside. But to make this the default (and only!) option? It just confuses people. Maybe Adobe got it right in this case and should the design be re-evaluated? This means I suddenly have to care about what kind of layer I put inside a group. From a UX perspective this puts a mental strain on the user. The thing is, nothing in the user interface suggests that it's restricted when you put a pixel layer inside. No option or text. It's really unintuitive. Users wonder why adding some layers work and some don't. Example 1: - Dodge and Burn group -> Dodge (curves adj layer) -> Burn (curves adj layer) - Background layer This works as expected. Example 2: - Dodge and Burn group -> helper layer (hsl adj layer) -> Dodge (curves adj layer) -> Burn (curves adj layer) - Background layer This works as expected. Example 3: - Dodge and Burn group -> helper layer (pixel layer with blend mode)* -> Dodge (curves adj layer) -> Burn (curves adj layer) - Background layer Suddenly this doesn't work anymore. The adjustment layers are being restricted to the group which makes no sense here. The pixel layer is above the adjustment layers so why would I want to restrict them? The helper layer is only for dodging and burning so I really would like it to be inside the same group. Otherwise toggling everything related to dodging and burning on/off with 1 click is impossible. * There's still a bug here. When adding the pixel layer to the group it doesn't update the image. The effects of the adjustment layers are still shown until you turn the group off/on for instance. Personally I feel UX issues like this aren't really taken seriously. Unless it's a bug or feature request the response seems to be "it works as intended, so just get used to it". Even when it's really unintuitive and you have to read the forum or manual to figure it out. At least that is how it comes across to me. I'm a software developer myself and no matter how good your intentions are, you are not the user. When I see the same questions being asked over and over that means there's an issue there. I own the whole Affinity suite and I'm rooting for the company however all those UX issues add up and tend to get very frustrating.

Just wanted to mention that I also had to resort to the forums to find out how to add a curves adjustment on the iPad. There's definitely an UX issue here. @DM1 mentioned "Pretty simple really when you know they are two separate menus". The problem being that this isn't obvious at all. There's no indication that the adjustments list with the previews and the list you get when you tap on "Adjustments" are different. I believe the assumption most people make is that the list that pops up when tapping the "Adjustments" text is a faster way to get the adjustment they want (like a quick filter), instead of having to scroll through the previews (which take up way too much space). Not only that, having those thumbnails/previews actually seems to indicate that those are presets, not the other way around. Mostly because having previews for a lot of the adjustments doesn't make sense unless they are presets. A preview for curves? There's no preview I would associate with curves since you can change the image in a lot of ways with curves, and the default curve doesn't change the image at all. So what is actually previewed? A thumbnail of an edited curve, now that would make sense to me. I also see no reason why you can't combine the two. When I tap curves in the popup list you could show the curves options at the bottom of the screen and the presets in the top left. Then you can pick a preset and update the settings at the bottom or just make an adjustment. You could even hide the presets automatically when you make an adjustment with the tools on the bottom. I believe this would solve the UX problem without introducing other issues.

Ah, thank you for the link. I wasn't able to find a bug so I figured I'd ask here first. Hopefully it gets resolved soon.

Hi, I'm running into the issue where mask previews on the layer panel don't update. If I create a new mask and invert it for instance, the mask preview should turn black, but it doesn't. Sometimes it updates after a little while, most of the time it doesn't. When I drag the mask away from the layer it suddenly updates. Is there a way to make it update in near realtime? I've tried all kinds of graphics settings (opengl/metal, different quality settings) but nothing helps. I'm using a 2015 Macbook Pro 13". Regards, Okke