DavidMac

Stupidly I didn't keep it after my test. I'll try to do another later in the day.

Something does indeed seem to be strange here. Obviously you can't open native 3dm files in Affinity Designer you need a Rhino export. So I tried the following. I exported a model (a simple cube in perspective view) from Rhino to both AI and EPS, both of which Affinity Designer should be able to open. In both cases opening or placing in Affinity Designer produces an empty blank layer. They don't import properly. I then opened the same two exported AI and EPS files in Illustrator (CS6) and they import fine. So then I re-saved the successfully imported file from Illustrator in AI format (it gets saved with the suffix '[converted]') and tried opening this in Affinity Designer and it opens fine with all the Illustrator layers intact. It's sounds from your post as if you have Illustrator. If so - this could give you a workaround until the problem is solved.

Me too. Growing older is no fun ......... ......... but better than the alternative .......... :o

Probably a Serif cat walking across the keyboard while coding ..............

Hmmmm .... I see what you mean now. Deciding whether to make an action record a layer name or a relative layer was always a problem in PS too as actions didn't provide the wherewithal to stop and input a name on playback either. (At least not up to CS6. It may have changed since). Many PS actions depended on you being on a particular layer type or layer before being run. I have always simply accepted this a limitation of actions and have accepted it as a limitation of macros too. That being said however, nine times out of ten PS would bail out if it came across an error such as 'layer not found' and the action would stop (with an error message) exactly as you are requesting. This takes me back to my earlier comment in this thread about AP's tendency to plough on regardless if you ask to do something it shouldn't. The failure to stop on error is not a failure of macro recording or playback per se - it is a general failure in AP's rather weak error trapping. There are lots of instances of AP's failure to stop on error and I am certainly not the only one to have mentioned this in the past. I think what this exchange between on us macro recording has done is to highlight something much deeper rooted ....... that I perceive as AP's Achilles heel. ......... in which particular instance he is perhaps a many legged creature ......... ;)

I am rather lost as to why you seem to need this so complicated. This particular macro breaks down a layer into it's RGB components. Why is it problematic to simply select the layer you want to do this to before running it? Yes it would lovely if it could tell if you don't have one selected and bail out. But macros are not scripts that can make conditional choices and they are not supposed to be. They are simply recorded sequences of actions with very limited feedback (Photoshop actions have far less interaction than AP's macros). Certainly if AP's own error checking were better, when it comes to asking it to do things it shouldn't, then some of what you seem to be seeking might exist as an intrinsic part of the app regardless of whether called from a macro or performed manually. I have frequently complained about AP's tendency to plough on regardless and fail if I ask it to do something it can't (like trying to apply FX to a mask layer) instead of sending me a warning. This is something that needs improving - but it is not macro specific, it's global. AP (and all graphics utilities) demand to be used with a certain degree of respect for certain basic requirements - like having layers selected if you want to apply FX or filters to them. Macros are no exception to this as they are simply a dumb sequence of recorded steps, warts and zits included. Dumber than even us poor befuddled users .......... :(

Well yes - that may be. But no macro can be expected to run correctly if run under incorrect circumstances. Error checking and avoidance lies more in the province of full scripting. It's kind of axiomatic that you need to start with a layer selected for a macro to work on. Not sure there's a way out of that. ;)

OK R C-R ..... Surprise!! Here is your macro duly modified to work on any pixel layer, with any name, anywhere in the stack. Given my meagre macro skills I am rather chuffed about this! B) Whilst there is little you can do to insert or remove lines in macros I have discovered there are two things you can do to modify an existing macro. You can switch instructions off by unchecking them and, once you have it open in the editor, you can hit Record and start recording again to append extra instructions onto the end. I never realised this until I tried it today. So this is what I have done: I have turned off the last three lines of your macro which deselected the blue layer, selected the 'Background' layer, and turned off it's visibility. This causes the original macro to terminate with 'BLUE' layer selected. I have then appended the following two lines: Move down one layer relative to selected, Turn off visibility. That's it. As far as I can see it works perfectly. I hope so and that there isn't some pitfall awaiting. I am reasonably confident it is watertight. So it's my thank you for teaching me something about channels that I didn't know. :) NewRGBChannels.afmacro.zip

Ah! Not an embarrassing forehead slap 'cos I missed something I knew. Something new learned instead. Very interesting. Thank you! I now I have an idea for your macro. Not being terribly macro literate it may not come in a mad rush .........

Er Yes ......... and No ........ ;) I follow your reasoning entirely but I still find it odd. The thing that caused the poster difficulty (and me too) is that you would expect the node to first appear when you click and then to move as you displace. This is how it happens in 'the app that must not be named' and it seems entirely logical. I still find all of AP's pickers rather disconcerting in this respect. :unsure:

R C-R I am curious. I hope I am not going to curse my own stupidity when you reply, but how do you clear colour channels for a single layer at a time without affecting all layers?

Difficulty is it's very hard to see what's going with AF macros as there is no real way to debug. The history palette shows only the macro name and not the steps, and the macro recorder/player has no single step debug function. I love the way the AF macro recorder can handle Dialogues but in other respects (no multiple layer select, no functional cut, copy, paste, and numerous other basic steps) it still has a way to go. Lets hope this is one of the major improvements in the next release.

For the transform panel to be active you must have both a layer selected and the move tool selected. The blue transform rectangle must be showing in the image.

Allison welcome! Another filmmaker. How nice. I have been a DOP for over fifty years. Since you are looking for animation and (presumably moving) post FX, which Affinity does not do, you could look here: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products. Black Magic produce two full professional film apps that might interest you. Fusion is one of the major industry standard apps for animation, tracking, FX, rotoscoping, etc. Used on tons of huge movies. Da Vinci Resolve, is probably the most widely used colour grading app worldwide. I have worked with it (using professional colourists) ever since it's inception. They make their money on the expensive hardware. So they offer the basic software for free download to anybody. Its exactly the same as the professional versions but without 3D, VR and things such as network rendering. Be warned - it is serious professional software. Although they claim it is very easy to learn you won't find much in the way of tutorials etc. Only manuals aimed at professional colourists and animators etc. Unlike Photoshop, Affinity or After Effects, which are layer based, these two apps are node based. It's a principle that takes a bit of getting used to, but is generally considered far more flexible once you have got your head round it. Both apps are available for Windows, OS X or Linux. They are quite demanding in hardware terms. You will need a reasonably up to date machine. However, since both are completely free, you can try downloading them and running them. If your hardware is not up to the task it will give you a warning. You many be able to use some aspects but not others. So there we are. Depending on your level of knowledge and determination to learn they could be nightmare or could be bliss! If you fancy dipping your toe into some seriously professional waters you might enjoy the challenge and acquire the kind of toolset you appear to be looking for as a filmmaker. Neither of the above apps are applicable to still images. For that Affinity Photo is still one of the very best available!

I not very good at macros yet but, if you want to add steps at the beginning, couldn't you write a tiny macro which performs those steps and then calls the original macro? Not sure if you can do that but it seems worth a try?

Try it here: iPad Questions and Feedback Forum

It's a rather unexpected behaviour that got me to begin with too. ;) Incidentally I think I am right saying it applies to all AP's pickers.

The history panel is the same in both AP and AD. Since I am very mistaike pron I keep mine open all the time. It's a real lifesaver. Especially while learning the app.

I can't help you as I don't use iPad, but you may get a quicker answer to this here iPad Questions Forum

Tsk Tsk .... naughty .......... :lol: :lol:

I presume this is Affinity Photo you are talking about. Yes it has quick mask too. Either go Select > Edit Selection as Layer, or keyboard shortcut Q, or click the Quick Mask button on the top toolbar. (Silver square with a black circle in it).

This is clumsy and convoluted but it does do what you want until something better comes along. Select the layer in question Right Click on it and Cut. Now File > New from clipboard. You will now have an open image with just the layer in question where you can paint on the mask in the manner you wish. Once you are done Right Click and Copy/Paste the layer back to your original image. You can keep the temp file open for further modifications or simply close it. Very, very far from ideal .......... :( .......... but does what you want .......... :)

Excellent advice! :)

Light Science and Magic is very specialised on all aspects of lighting but not much else. It is entirely studio based and does not touch on exterior photography at all. Within the studio It is confined entirely to tabletop, still life and close up portraiture. If those are areas that interests you it is indeed a truly exceptional source of very comprehensive explanations and detailed worked examples. Lighting (for cinema and TV) is my profession for over fifty years and within the slightly specialised fields described above I can thoroughly recommend it.

The difficulty with books and tutorials of this kind is that they tend always to be written around a specific app. They tend to focus on specific techniques rather than general photographic principles. If you want more general principles then, as already been suggested, search for articles and books on traditional analog photography. I do have one really excellent book in French on the general artistic and technical aspects of digital colour photography by Michael Freeman. It is Published by Evergreen who are a division of Taschen who publish a whole range of excellent books centred around the arts. Looking inside the cover I see it is also published in English under the title "The Digital Photography Expert, Colour". You could go to www.taschen.com and see if you can track it down. That being said, if you are posing the question because you already have Affinity Photo, then their basic tutorials will also help you grasp some basic principals of photo adjusting. https://www.lynda.com/ also offer tutorials on Affinity Photo by the excellent Steve Caplin. This might be considered by some to be an inappropriate forum in which to be recommending Photoshop ....... ;)