Dennis Nisbet

@walt.farrell Hi Walt, sorry, in my writings I am not always explaining everything clearly. What I am working on is a Macro that everyone can use to create a reflection with water ripples. It requires the use of a Displacement Map, the Displace filter, and it all has to work within a Macro. I have this in PS and it works great. But the Displace Filter isn't working correctly with Affinity Photo. It just makes the image look jagged. I've been able to make a working Macro thanks to carl.123 and others along with some mods I added but no water ripples yet. Someone may have created a Ripple Displacement Map for Affinity Photo. I just haven't found it. The ripple's need to be like small waves not circular.

@p_mac Thank you for the input. Actually what I am working toward is a Macro that everyone can use to create very realistic water ripples in a reflection. I'll need to create a new Action that includes the top image inverted on the bottom and then, using a Displacement Map, create the ripples. Right now, the Macro in Affinity Photo isn't really capable of doing it. I will not know if the Ripple Idea is possible in Affinity Photo until the Macro function works better. I can do this in PS and I even had it made into a PS Script. For now, I want to take this Macro and take it as far as it will go and then wait on Serif to fix the Macro Tool. I've looked at the basic structure of this Macro following the instructions you and V_KYR gave me and I believe I can work from that. It is just a little faster if I have the complete Macro from carl123.

All I can say is, WOW! What a great workaround. By turning off the last step and flipping the image at the bottom, I was able to almost get to the last step. I want to add a realistic Water ripple using a displacement map. It is simple but, according to information and my tests, the Displacement feature in Affinity Photo needs work. right now it just produces jagged edges. By the way Carl123, could you send me the Macro steps for this or is it best that I go through and reproduce them myself? Thanks again for your diligent and effective effort on this.

@v_kyr Yes, the third-party folks are alive and well. What's missing is the level of service and interest that companies like Adobe used to do as a regular part of their business. I want to move away from Adobe. There are things that I do that are not unusual but Affinity Photo does not have a lot of processes implemented. I think that they missed a few steps. I also have a low confidence level in their methods of communication. Adobe still has a one-on-one service available and at no charge in many cases. None of this is a deterrent to me except for my issues with the Macro and my Shadow creation process. If all of these posts are being reviewed and noted for present and future consideration by Serif, great! There are a lot of great ideas floating out there.

@v_kyr Regarding your most recent comments. Too bad, there are such time differences. It makes it difficult to keep track of what represents the last communications between us. I've posted a video this AM showing what I can do in PS and not in AP. As far as I am concerned, that's the end of this project for now until, if and when, Serif decides to make some changes. I have a couple more Actions, Macros/Scripts to test, but for now, because of what I do, it does not look like Affinity Photo is going to meet my needs. I am really disappointed, I thought that the program was a lot farther ahead than it is. It has so much potential and I look forward to the future.

There appears to be a great deal of effort put into making the Affinity Photo interface look like the Photoshop Interface. However, as I dig into the program, that is where the similarity stops. The expression, "What were you thinking" might apply here! Some of what I have encountered revolves around things that can be done to a single image Vs, things that are necessary to create good Macros. You know, those things that make repetitive processes easier! This is number 2 in my attempts to recreate Macros that emulate what I was doing in Photoshop. Number 1 was Shadows. Number 2 is Changing Canvas Size in Percent as illustrated in the attached video. Canvas Size.mp4

Thank you. Forget the Macro for now. I want to set the width of a canvas at 100% and, at the same time the Height at 200% on a PC. For me, it isn't working and I do not know why since others are saying it works for them.

I will try to put this in a single note. PS has a selecting call Percent that you use when adjusting the Canvas size. It is possible to set the width at 100% and the Height at 200%. This is recordable in an Action/Macro, and the Macro can be applied to any image with the same result. At this time, there are no provisions in Affinity Photo to do the same thing. There are things that I do on a regular basis that involve simple Macros that I created and then had them made into scripts. Just like lot's of other people, I would like to move away from PS. But to do so, there are some things I can't abandon. If it helps, I would be happy to create a Camtasia Video of the PS process and post it.

Having spent 5 years involved in the marketing and development of a third-party product for PS, I had the opportunity to talk personally with hundreds of PS users. Only a few of them were professionals that were relying on PS to assist them in production. The vast majority were users at many levels of expertise. In the early days, PS was a driving force for the professional. As such, Adobe spent a lot of time paying attention to and implementing their suggestions. Atso, at that time, communications via phone and written, were at an all-time high. I do not see that in today's market.

@walt.farrell The issue I have is that I want to do the same thing in Affinity Photo that I do in PS. I want to set the width at 100% and the Height at 200%.

@Mithferion The answer to your question is pretty straight forward. Adobe has an estimated 14,000,000 Photoshop users and less than 20% of them are professionals.

In this case, it isn't just the Macro system that's a problem. Even without trying to create a Macro (record) I can't make the changes to the Canvas Size values and have them stay. At least two people have reported that it was working for them. I've done everything I know to do. I still don't know if it is a PC issue only. On another matter, this Forum, all of them, is a copout on the part of Serif. A lot of great people who know a lot about the programs are, in most cases, doing a great job of solving many of the issues. However, without the input from Serif, there are many things that go unsolved and unexplained. That's unacceptable! Personally, I was really excited to see products on the market that could revolutionize how we do our work. Consequently, I've spent countless hours trying to learn a new product and do things I've been doing for years, but now, I might be able to do them in a better way. I am extremely disappointed in what I have experienced thus far. Thanks again for all your efforts. If nothing else, it's been a fun learning process.

Maybe one of you that has lot more influence over the folk at Affinity can get them to clean up and fix the things that are broken before the move forward into something either more exciting or of a minimum value. PS is an excellent place to observe how things are being done and identify the pitfalls associated with how things are working in Affinity now. Of course, it could be that they are happy to keep producing elements that work a little sometimes with the idea that "we will fix it someday".

What has to happen is that I need to set the width of the image Canvas at 100% and the Height of the Image Canvas at 200%. So far, I can't find a way to do that so I can make it into a Macro and apply it to images of different sizes.

I removed Affinity Photo and the Beta version. I went into regedit and removed all the keys that I could find using Affinity Photo as the search. I downloaded a fresh version and installed Affinity Photo. No luck. I uninstalled again, cleared Apdata and again cleared the Registry of anything Affinity Photo. reinstalled-No luck. I am at wits end on this.

I've tried this both on the Release version and the Beta version without any luck. Next, I'll try a complete removal, download and install. My computer is up to date, plenty of power, 48GB Ram, virus free, Windows 10 Pro and zero problems.

@v_kyr Yes, thinking that might be the issue, I tried it several times. Maybe it's a PC issue. With the lock unlocked, as soon as I tried to change the second value, the first value reverted back to the original value.

@v_kyrI made many attempts to make this work. In order for it to work properly, I believe that both the width and height values would have to be changed. For example, the height could be changed to 200% (that part works) but the width would have to be set at 100%. Presently, the program will not allow this. Therefore it is impossible to create a Macro that will work on a variety of different size images.

@v_kyr That's fantastic. Thank you. The more I learn the less I know! Now I need a Displacement MAP that works. I converted my PSD Maps for Water Ripples into png files bot all they create is a bunch of jagged images instead of Water Ripples like they do in PS.

If for example, you want to double the vertical height of the canvas in PS, you select Percent, make the Vertical value 200% and the Horizontal value remains at100%. I use this feature all the time and need it in Affinity Photo.

Thus far, I have observed three significant issues with both the current Beta and release versions of Affinity Photo. They include the following: 1. The Macro has very limited capabilities. Kind of useless except for the most mundane actions. 2. When an image is opened, it appears as a docked image and the frame around it is not collapsed around the image. This is a big pain and time consuming if you want to display multiple images. 3. A variety of settings that should remain set by the user revert to the factory settings. For example. Pixels vs. Inches, Refine settings, and many more. More lost time Affinity Photo appears to be a product advertised as a replacement for PS. While it has many great features, it lacks several basic functions that I suspect go way beyond my little list.

I am very disappointed that the Macro capabilities are so lacking in their ability to record so many of the operations that Affinity Photo can do. For example, I can't record Gradients and I use this a lot in PS. You can find more information in a topic named More about Shadows in the Forum Suggestions for Affinity Photo.

The best guesses are that there are 14,000,000+ PS users worldwide and only 20% of them are in the PRO category. Non-Professionals are at every level of expertise. Thousands of them just tinker for the sake of enjoyment. I don't have any idea how many of those users My experience, dealing on-line and by phone with hundreds of these users indicates that things like good cutouts, shadows, highlight-shadow controls are a big part of what they like. A powerful Macro system, or in the case of PS Actions, is an important part of doing business in this world.

@v_kyr Try as I might, the best way I've found to create the shadow will not work with a Macro. That's OK with me but it doesn't do anyone else any good and it certainly doesn't speed up the composite creation process. That's the big benefit I get in PS. Thank again. I did learn how to make a Shadow that was identical to what I was doing in PS. I can also make a Macro that gets the image ready for the shadow making process. As a side note, It took many months for PS to make a good selection/cutout process and it is still a little clunky. I've cut out hundreds of images in PS and struggled through their many attempts. It was great to use the process in AP. Now, if they can just fix the Macro process.

@v_kyr You overwhelm with your knowledge of Affinity Photo and command of the written English Language language. I am trying to follow everything you have said in hopes that something will fit and make this work. I'll follow up as soon as I take another run at it. Thank you.