GomorrahDotD

Oh and another thing that comes to my mind now that I'd like to add to the feature request list: A brush mode where one can paint tileable textures. To specify it even further: Take a look at Zbrush's way of handling brush strokes with the wrap mode

Hello everyone, I hope you are doing alright. I recently finished another artwork exclusively in Affiinity Photo and during the process I found things that could be improved (from my point of view, obviously). I haven't seen every corner of the program yet and I am eager to find everything but for now let me introduce myself so everyone can understand my points better: I am using Photo mostly for digital painting / sketching etc. and I am not unleashing its full potential in the photo retouching segment. However, I think Photo has great potential for being on par with other software that tackle digital painting / drawing etc. Next, my suggestions: The way of Photo handling the organisation of clipping layers and masks is super uncomfortable and also quite illogical for me and here's why: When I am thinking of clipping layers I am thinking that I clip the layer to the underlying one so I can not draw on parts that have no information in the base layer. Photo makes the base layer the top and sorts the clipping layers underneath it. That is quite confusing because in programs that work with layers you always think, work and read your file from bottom to the top layer. An example: I want to shade a shape I have drawn. My workflow would be something like this: Paint the base shape on a layer. Create a new layer on top of the base layer and clip it to the base layer. Maybe change the blend mode and draw away. I paint from bottom to top. Every wash with watercolor would be the same, but Photo does it in a counter intuitive way. Same with masks. Why get masks organized below the layer they affect? OK in when the layer is collapsed they are on the same level (hierarchy) but you can open the layer and then its a level beneath it what doesn't make sense in my eyes. My feature request list: Please, please, please find a way that the user can control the brush size and opacity on the fly with the stylus (alt + right click + drag for example and a button on the stylus imitates right click). This is so important for painting and drawing! I think it doesn't need further explanation. Locking the layer to transparency. I know that you can lock the brush to transparency - but only the standard brush. I'd like to have the options that affect the layer are set in the layer panel and not via little tick boxes in tools. The smudge tool could be improved a lot. Currently you can only set size, flow and strength but what about strength according to pen pressure? Options to let the brush that smudges scatter in x and y etc. Finally, I also have one bug to report: I am working with a Wacom tablet (Wacom Intuos Pro) and I have experienced that Photo would "lock" the input to the stylus. That means I couldn't access buttons, menus and even the program closing x with my mouse. Only with the stylus input. Closing, I'd really like to know what you guys think about my ideas / my point of view and I'd also like to discuss everything with you Sincerely yours, Gomorrah

Yes I was thinking the absolute same!

Hello everybody. I am not sure if this is a bug coming from Affinity Photo or Windows or if it is even a bug bu here is the deal: I know you can alter the hardness and size of the brush by holding CTRL + ALT + right click and if I perform the shortcut everything works as it should. However, if I want to perform the actions with my pen stylus instead nothing happens. I only get this annoying white ring as seen in the attached picture. My pen (Wacom Pro L) is set to perform right click and it works. Only Affinity Photo seems to not get the right click input from the stylus... Can somebody please help me? It slows down my workflow so much it really gets me angry and frustrated. Is there a way to set the shortcut combination to something different? I tried to find it in the settings but the only thing I can find for brush size ist [ or ] and that does not help me. Thank you in advance for your help! I am really looking forward to it. Best, Gomorrah

Yeah ofc its main focus is image editing but I think that most of my points are very valid for that aswell (see masks, layers and rulers). But thanks for the tip with the eye dropper tool. I will see if it works for me. That you don't get visual feedback is a pity though

I'll also support the idea for white, mids and black color pickers for the curves tool! It is so useful indeed! @Murfee

Foreword Hello dear Serif development team & hello fellow Affinity Photo user, I created this topic to write a little bit about Affinity Photo and what I see could be improved! I worked on my latest piece entirely in Affinity Photo to see how good I can work with it. Note: I have been using Affinity Photo for quite some time now but only to do sketches and a little bit digital painting now and then but I never spend very much time with it. So if there is already a solution for my "problems" than I would really appreciate it if you'd tell me So, before I start, let me give you a bit information about me and why I chose to write this article. I am a 21 year old, German Game Art & Animation student who has a background in digital art - most in digital painting. I started my journey around 6 years ago in Photoshop CS6 and since then I have always been checking out other art programs such as Rebelle, Paintstorm Studio, Clip Studio Paint, Sketch Book and now Affinity Photo as well. I have been using Affinity Designer for quite some time now and I just love it so after Affinity Photo was announced I was all raring to check it out as well. And now with Publisher released I am very confident that Serif and their programs can have quite the impact on the creative programs market and I would like to contribute to make them even more impactful. Because I did a digital painting this time my suggestions and feature requests are more suiteable for the painters but since Photo is a pixel editing program I don't see why it should not succeed in the digital painting sector as well. Room for improvement Rulers First of all I'd like to request rulers. Rulers in general for example to make parallel lines, to constrain the brush to an editable ellipse and some French rulers. In addition to that a tool to create and to constrain brush strokes etc to a perspective grid. And I don't mean something like the perspective warp tool - something more like the options the neaty little program Lazy Nezumi Pro provides. I really would like to use it in Photo as well but the downside is that the developer only focused on a good Photoshop implementation. You will get perspective issues when you zoom or pan the canvas with this tool in any other program so it is not really useful in regards of that matter. Color picking Moving on, I'd like to request something like a toggle to tell Photo to pick a color by just Alt+Click. I tend to just go very swiftly over my canvas and using the shortcut for the eye dropper tool to get colors I've already used but to use Alt+Drag just really kills my workflow. Don't get me wrong, I would just like the eye dropper tool to be active when I hold down Alt so that I can pick my color with just one click and I'd like to drag it after taht to get the exact color I want to. The layer panel Next up on my list are suggestions for the layer panel. I'd like to Make working with the Layer panel a bit more comfortable by giving access to the most used commands for manipulating layers via right click on the layers. For example create a merged version of selected layers on a new layer or clip the selected layer to the layer below. In general the idea that you can drag and drop the layer on another one too create special layer versions is good but you have so many options to create a different versions than what you've wanted to do that it gets quite frustrating + to get the desired result I really have to "aim" with the layer what is a bit counterintuitive to a nice workflow. A simple rightklick on the selected layer and then "create clipping layer to below" (or something similiar (making a mask for example)) would do just fine. Next, I'd like to have a better merge layer method. Something like "Select layers and then right click "create a new merged layer" from the selected ones but keep the origial ones. In my painting I had to select the layers > Document > Add Snapshot, then Layer > New Layer from snapshot. It feels unnecessary and complicated (I figured that out by myself after I searched for a way to do the merged layer thing). Masks After that, I'd like to speak a bit about the masks in Affinity Photo. To be honest I find working with masks in Photoshop is the most convenient thing to do than in any other program I've tested so far. For Photo I'd like to see that you can turn the entire mask black my using the flood fill tool by just selecting the mask and go. Because right now you have to right click the mask > edit Mask and only in this mode you seem to be able to make the entire mask black. Speaking of masks: When working on a mask the colors in your "current color circles" (the one where you can switch between them via x) should turn to black and white automatically and turn back to the previous selected ones by exiting the mask (by clicking on a normal layer). Creating and manipulating layer selections I'd like to have a shortcut to make a selection out of the content of a layer by Shift+Click -ing a layer. I know that there is a function that you can use via Ctrl+Shift+O but as far as I am concerned it only selects the active layer. And with Shift+Click one should be able to load a selection of a layer whether its active or not. You could also make it so that you can alter the current selection by Alt+Click -ing another layer to subtract the content of that particular layer from your current selection. The brush panel Finally, I'd like to give you a few suggestions regarding the brush panel. I find your way of organizing brushes via categories okay but for me its too segregated (of course it depends on how one handles and creates the brush packs). I had the idea in mind of giving brushes tags when you create them. For example I create a brush and give them the tags #scribble #sketch I could use a filter system to explicitly search for brushes with the tag #sketch. Combining this system with a favourite system (like with the fonts) it could sort the search with that even more. Closing For the time being that is everything I noted where I see improvement. As said in the beginning if there's already a way to get specific things I've mentioned done, pleas feel free to tell me! I would really like to learn everything so I can master the awesome program suite by Serif. Also I would really like to hear your opinion about the things I've mentioned and engage in a discussion! As for now, thank you very much for reading and considering! PS If you are interested to see the image I have painted I uploaded it here:

Hey folks, I have painted an item card for a trading card game we are developing in class - entirely in Affinity Photo! Constructive criticism is always highly appreciated!