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In the images below cartoonish vector portraits of Rock & Roll legend Elvis Presley can be seen. This image was created in Affinity Designer. After having worked with Adobe Illustrator professionally, CorelDRAW privately and Inkscape occasionally for decades, I have come to the conclusion that Affinity Designer is better suited to create vector portraits that do not have hard edges in the face, even if it does not include the Mesh Fill function, that is very time consuming and tedious to work with. The drawing and editing process - particularly when editing the drawing at a later point in time - in this program takes far less time and effort. Progress sequence of the portrait on the right can be seen in an other blog entry: https://communicats.blogspot.com/2020/07/this-is-other-vector-portrait-of-elvis.html?fbclid=IwAR1Yp4CNvlXspX1W_S5LV5Q0UzM1sWsn_TibSegexxHwWyH6C7ayKQ3LJG4 The image below this paragraph is a screen dump of the vector outline of the double portrait. Extensive use was made of Affinity Designers Gaussian blur function, which allows to avoid hard edges in the facial features, as are often seen in vector portraits created in Adobe Illustrator. Many of the curves with which areas on the face were drawn are made by applying multiple node gradient fills and gradient transparency. This method allows to quickly edit (also afterwards) of the drawing which is much faster than while using mesh gradient fill tool that isn't present in Affinity Designer. Personally, I don't miss it. A brilliant Russian artist who works with mesh fills in CorelDRAW once revealed that it took him months to draw a vector portrait, while it is possible in Affinity Designer to make the same effect in much less time. I used CorelDRAW for many years, but only after accidentally running across Affinity Designer I was able to create realistic vector portraits a lot quicker, while making editing afterwards easier and faster. Examples of (more) realistic vector portraits and illustrations can be found in my website at: https://vectorwhiz.com/Vector.html To create (gradient) tints and blurs in the facial area of a vector portrait, it often is necessary to draw curves that have a variable level of blur along their edges, meaning that some edge parts are just slightly unsharp, while other parts are blurred and yet other parts are very blurry. To achieve this effect, I apply the following technique that is below this paragraph: In these vector portraits a Gaussian blur trick was applied in Affinity Designer, as can be seen in the third image. Ellipse 3 is clipped inside Circle 2 and circle 2 is clipped inside circle 1. In the image below you see, Circle 1 is transparent, the other two objects are opaque. Circle 1 has a minimal blur rate, Circle 2 has a higher blur rate and Ellipse 3 has the highest blur rate. The result of these settings are that circle one has an unsharp edge, circle 2 has a blurred edge to the left and an unsharp one to the right, while Ellipse 3 has a very blurry edge on the left and a less blurred towards the right. The blur values are indicated in the third image. The circle with the dotted line only serves to indicate the position and size of Circle 1 that is completely transparent, slightly blurred and used to clip the other objects. In the image below the Layer panel is shown containing the hierarchy of the objects in the image above this paragraph. Objects that are indented to the right are clipped inside the ones above them. The object names correspond with those in the Example drawing. The circles and ellipse are at the bottom of the panel. The objects marked with an 'A' thumbnail refer to the text in the Example drawing. In addition all parts can be given a colour gradient and gradient transparency, all settings that are independently editable of the ones described above this paragraph. In doing so the annoying hard edges of shadows in the face of a vector portrait can be avoided that are almost always seen in vector portraits created in Adobe Illustrator. Affinity Designer allows to create more realistic vector portraits in a much easier way that vector portraits created with the mesh fill function. The added benefit of working in this way is that at a later point in time all the parameters can be edited and tweaked to the preference of the vector portrait artist. Working in vectors with this method allows to resize the portrait without any loss of quality. Of course this technique can be applied to any shape you can draw, not just to circles and ellipses, that I used in the example above, as can be seen in the completed vector double portrait at the top of this blog entry and the vector outline view screen dump below it.

Hello my friends! 🐸 How about learning how to create a cute chameleon in 2d? Discover the Vectorize Club and learn simply how to perform amazing arts! 🔥learn more by clicking on https://www.vectorizeclub.com! Kisses 😚 2_Chameleon.mov

Inspired by a photo in a book and made in the form of a poster. Elmdon (Birmingham, England) Airport opened in 1939. This de Havilland Dragon Rapide G-ACPP was the first airliner (up to ten passengers!) to land there. The old terminal building still stands; it's a little different now, bit it's a glorious piece of Art Deco architecture in the form of an aeroplane. The Rapide is an elegant 1930s design, with an elliptical biplane configuration and fixed undercarriage in 'spats'.It was operated by Great Western And Southern Airlines Ltd, but at the outbreak of the War, it was acquired by the RAF; later it was operated by Scillonia Airlines, flying to the Scilly Isles. As far as I know, it's still around and flying. (I've rashly promised to make another with Ryde Airport in the background, as I live on the isle of Wight.)

Windows 10. In the Layers Panel, I cannot tell the status of the Edit all layers button. It would be nice if there were some visual feedback about the status of that button.

Hello guys. I would like to propose a feature that would make snap settings simpler by using some icons/symbols. The current snapping menu is already good but needs some tweaking and additional options, making the menus more visually simple and clear by using icons and hide the advance options in an advance section. 1."Edge/Line Midpoint Snapping" - This is crucial and I hope this would be considered. 2. Better snapping (object to object/node to node,) 3.Additional Snapping areas. Ex: Intersection, perpendicaular, parallel, Quadrant point of ellipses. B. Precision tools like arc tangent tool, simple ruler, and protractor. Very Crucial for a large number of creators.

Hello my friends! 😆 Today I come to show you this beautiful guitar created at Affinity Designer, what do you think? And the most important news is that you are also able to create your own arts, believe in yourself! To learn more about my work, just access the link https://www.vectorizeclub.com! enjoy 🤗 Reels LIVE 33 (1).mp4

In the post https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/154881-a-discussion-of-edition-in-the-context-of-hardcopy-prints-of-digital-art/&do=findComment&comment=873237 I mentioned some graphics that I produced in 2004. I am thinking that it would be nice to order a hardcopy greetings card illustrated using one of graphics. In particular this one. http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/drawing2.PDF The drawing is of size A3 landscape, vector. If I remember correctly, drawing.PDF was my first attempt at producing anyting as line-drawn vector art on a computer. The image drawing2.PDF applied what I had learned. Nevertheless I uploaded drawing.PDF into the webspace. I need an image 2100 pixels wide by 1500 pixels high so as to place centred onto a canvas 2171 pixels wide by 1571 pixels high in order to produce a jpg file to upload. This so that the uploaded artwork is of the fprmat mentioned in the followimg thread. https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/138654-artwork-for-greetings-cards/ I began by opening the PDF document in Affinity Designer. I then saved the document as ladscape_from_2004.afdesign. I then closed the file, then opened it. Maybe unnecessary, but harmless and might possibly avoid some proble. A sort of software unicorn situation, done just in case. File Document Setup... gives 1190.6 points by 841.9 ponts at 72 dots per inch. I want 2100 pixels by up to 1500 pixels at 300 dots per inch, with aspect ratio unchanged. So save as landscape_from_2004a.afdesign in case I need to go back at some point. Close the file and open it again. (I know, I know, but just in case!) Try changing the units to pixels and to 300 dots per inch and OK, then look at the new situation. Ah, 4960.6 pixels by 3507.9 pixels at 300 dots per inch. Open unicorn3.afdesign as this is a file of a correct size to produce a jpg to upload to produce a greetings card. Save as landscape_from_2004z.afdesign then close, open again, remove the image, close, reopen. So now to try to get the image from landscape_from_2004a.afdesign correctly into landscape_from_2004z.afdesign Save landscape_from_2004a.afdesign as landscape_from_2004b.afdesign, close and then reopen. Draw a rectangle 4960.6 pixels by 3507.9 pixels, white fill, line width 0, and send to the back. Click outside the canvas so as to deselect the rectangle and save. Select All using Control A, group, and then copy obto the clipboard using control C. Close the file. Paste from the clipboard into landscape_from_2004z.afdesign On the Transform panel, lock the aspect ratio. Change the width to 2100 pixels, the height goes automatically to 1485 pixels, so that is not above 1500 pixels, so fine. Centre the image horizontally and vertically. Save the file. Export just the selected grouped image as a png file at one third size both horizontally and vertically to upload to the Affinity forum. William

Hello Guys! "I think I saw a kitten" 😸 Today I want to show you some of my work with this cute kitten. Isn't it great to be able to make creations so easy and fun? 🚀 Find out more by clicking the link https://www.vectorizeclub.com! cheers 😻 Reels LIVE 32 (1).mp4

Hey, guys! Look how scary these Vikings are! Want to know how to create a similar Viking from scratch? 🤔 🔥 Find out more by visiting the link in https://www.vectorizeclub.com! Kisses 😚 Reels Live 30.mp4

My personal crest created in Affinity Designer and Photo. Brief tutorial on how to draw non-linear texture (the snakes's scales) at: https://communicats.blogspot.com/2021/12/creating-my-personal-crest-in-affinity.html

How do i flip scale of ruler? I always wanted to move my ruler origin to bottom left side of the document. As we have this feature in AD, but I'm still unable to flip the ruler as it is stuck in the original ways. what my ruler graph should look like (X,Y) plain on top right (-X,Y) plain on top left (-X,-Y) plain on bottom left (X,-Y) plain on bottom right AD does have X-axis the right way, but i want to flip the Y-axis. as when i reset ruler origin to bottom left side of the document. the Y-axis appear to be flipped up. This will help me to create guide line easily. now i'm doing more calculation than designing.

Hi There! 😆 Just listen to this art inspired by the Dark series made for the students of Vectorize Club! 🔥Did you like it? Come learn more by visiting the link https://www.vectorizeclub.com! kisses 😚 Reels Live 29.mp4

Hello experts! Does anyone have any recommendations &/or resources that I could consult for designing in Affinity Designer for printed artwork? I have asked over in the Facebook group, but only got one piece of advice ("Rasterize gradients, transparency, and complex shapes and you should be fine. Leave text and logos.") but would like to ensure this advice is factually accurate and find out more detail. If I should be avoiding specific tools (eg. Gaussian Blur) and doing things like rasterizing, I would think these should be specified somewhere. Many thanks

First in a selection of iconic to lesser known armored vehicles, deployed by both Allied and Axis forces during World War Two. Basically an exercise intended to further streamline a personal workflow drawing with AD via vector and/or raster layers, rendering complex hard surface objects plus incidentally this current WIP has been an off/on project over the preceding 2 month period. It's supposed to be a M-26 "Pershing" Medium/Heavy Tank one of an initial batch of 20 vehicles shipped over to the European theatre in the closing months of the war, designated Operation: "Zebra Mission" as a replacement for the venerable M-4 'Sherman'. Thus arriving too late to make any tangible difference operationally but nonetheless more than held it's own when pitted against German Panthers and Tigers. So at the moment, about 60% complete however hope to have it done-'n-dusted by next update, alongside other artwork I'd posted previously on this board 🙂

Salutations, Affinity Designer - I have text in a text frame, how do I view special characters? I mean tabs, spaces, end of paragraph etc. Thank you...

Hello Guys! Is there life on another planet? 👽 Probably yes! But while we don't have contact with our extraterrestrial friends, 🛸 how about creating your own flying saucer from scratch in Affinity Designer? 🚀 Learn more about Vectorize by accessing the link https://www.vectorizeclub.com! cheers 🤘 Reels Live 28.mp4

I'm having an issue that I'm not really sure is an issue or if I'm just missing something. I'm an organization freak. I like to group my various elements (curves, shapes, etc.) to keep them easy to find. The issue I'm having is, I place my newest curve in a group that I want my next few elements to live in, but then when I create the next curve, it NEVER places it inside of the group that I just created, ALWAYS outside of it. I want them to automatically place them in the group I just created, right above the last element that I made, similar to the way that PS and AI do. Otherwise it makes things more difficult and time-consuming to organize. Is there a setting that I'm missing or is that just an oversight in the app?

Hey guys! 😆 This is a bit of the tutorial I prepared for the Vectorize Club students, where I was inspired by video game controllers 🎮. 🕹️Liked? Then go to the link https://www.vectorizeclub.com and get to know more! enjoy 😚 Reels Live 27.mp4

I have an image that I want to position in the upper-left corner of a text frame so that the text wraps around it -- see attachment, which shows the image and text as separate objects. How can I do that in Affinity Designer? I am using Designer version 1.10.4 on a Mac running Version 12.0.1.

[This is *not* a request for an Affinity animation or motion graphics app. Not that that wouldn't be nice! 👼] Is anyone familiar with/have experience using Affinity Designer and DaVinci Resolve for 2D motion graphics? If so, are there tutorials, YouTube channels, or other resources you recommend that you could point me toward? (I know how to use Google and search, but if you've already waded through the resource morass and have some stuff bookmarked, that would be helpful!) And my more general question is... Does anyone have any informed recommendations on the best mograph app to use alongside AD? I want to completely dump Adobe and right now AE is the only thing keeping me. A free option would be nice, but not if it sucks. So I'm interested in looking into paid (non-subscription) programs, too. I'm especially interested in anything that can support vectors, but I could do without if I had to. Thank you! (Hope this is in the correct subforum. If not, please move!)

Hi there! 😎 This cute strawberry was created to help Vectorize Club students hone their artistic skills in Affinity Designer! What do you think? 🚀 Want to know more ? Access the link https://www.vectorizeclub.com! enjoy 🤘 Reels Live 26.mp4

Just discovered this little issue with Color Picker UI being showed with approx. 1s delay after click. Be it called from Context Toolbar or Character Panel or somewhere in Layer Effects – Color Picker always shows up with that delay now. Seems to be introduced in 1.10.4 (Designer, Photo and Publisher are affected) as I never noticed this before. It was always just as instant as any other UI controls. The only barely noticeable and subtle delay that I ever experienced, was switching between Personas in Affinity Publisher. But I can completely understand this as the whole UI needs to be rearranged. But Color Picker alone...

Searched and can't find answer… Is there a way to turn off the pencil icon when using the Pencil Tool in AD Mac, Design Mode? Instead using crosshairs or circle? I think it's the cause of a perceived parallax issue with my pen display. (Well, I'd like to check anyway.) The Brush Tool just shows a circle for the size. Thanks.

I need to think of a style for non-outline, non-flat, non-boring toolbar icons. They need to work down to 16x16 and as SVG's in addition to PNG's. The SVG's can't be too complicated. So I was thinking that my favourite were Office 2007/2010 and perhaps an updated and simplified version. For a list of reasons I can't use AD unfortunately but it's fine for mocking up ideas. So here's a few in the largest size I'll be doing. Overall good, meh, horrible?