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Found 14 results

  1. I'm currently finding that all my basic brushes have some level of opacity no matter what. I was curious if something might be wrong. Here are my settings... I'm on window's 10 using designer version 2.0.4
  2. I searched a lot and I can't find anything about this, expect some workaround that doesn't work as expected. Is there a way to use a brush/pattern that follow a path ? It's a pretty basic feature on illustrator or photoshop. Thanks
  3. Summary This tutorial: Is aimed users with little or no knowledge of the Equations filter. Explores what “noise” is, in the Affinity Photo filters – particularly how it appears in the Equation filter. What the effects of “Extend Modes” have on noise generated in the Equations filter. What the effects are of using the “a”, “y” or other equations in “y=” part of the Equations. Shows how noise equations can be used effectively on an empty pixel layer. Offers some practical uses for noise equations with macros. Introduction The aim of this tutorial is to explore the inner workings of the “noise” command as it’s used in the Equations filter in a practical and experimental way. I am not a computer programmer or a mathematician – so this is layman’s perspective, not a technical tutorial. The goal is to help users who have only a rudimentary understanding of the Equations filter get to grips with and find uses for the noise function in the Equations filter. Hopefully, any inaccuracies will be picked up by other users in comments. I’d like to thank John Rostron, whose more technical article about the noise function made me curious – you can read it on the forum HERE. Preparation If you want to follow in Affinity Photo the experiments I’ll make in this article, you’ll need to do the following: Open a test image or download mine – link at the bottom of the article. Make sure the image is a pixel layer not an image layer. If it says “Image” on the layer in the layer palette, right-click and select “rasterise…”. Duplicate this layer with Ctrl+J. Create a new pixel layer above the bottom Background layer and fill with a blue colour (eg. R:0, G:0,B250). This will enable you to see any transparent areas made by noise in the top layer. Noise vs Procedural Noise So, what is “Procedural Noise”? In digital imagery like digital photos and scanned images, noise is unwanted artifacts in the form of random variations in the colour and tone of pixels in an image, which are not part of the original image. They are generally produced as a result of electronic interference. If you push the ISO on your digital camera to its highest rating and take a photo in low light, zoom in and you will likely see spots, speckles and coloured patches which were not a part of the scene (see image below). A noisy image produced on a high ISO on an older camera. Usually (and mainly in photography) this noise is unwanted, but it can be used creatively for special effects or for artistic purposes by graphic designers and artists, so software like Affinity Photo usually provides effects filters which let the user add various forms of noise to their images. This noise is produced by a mathematical algorithm or piece of computer code, and so is made by a procedure – hence “Procedural Noise”. Here are couple of examples of procedural noise used artistically: In the image above, I used the Filters>Noise>Perlin Noise filter in combination with the Displace Filter for a quick artistic effect on the right-hand side – the left side is the original image. Both the background and the text textures in the image below were created using noise equations in the Equations filter. Affinity Photo provides the user with four main ways to introduce noise, all found in the Filters menu. Add Noise… and Perlin Noise… are found in the Noise section of the Filters menu. These are the simplest way to add noise, since they have a user-friendly interface. Noise can also be introduced through the Procedural Texture and Equations filters found in the Colours and Distort sub-menus. Both these require the user to enter equations, which can make them seem daunting, if not a no-go area, as there virtually no guidance on how to use them in the help file for those without any technical knowledge. If you want to begin understanding and using Procedural Textures in an accessible way, try my absolute beginner’s tutorials here – which also uses noise functions. Procedural Textures – Key Features The single most important/useful thing about procedurally produced noise is that it can be produced at any scale or resolution of image without degradation. Because it is a random pattern (pseudo-random, if we’re being pedantic) produced by an equation, the pixels it produces are not fixed or ‘real’ until the apply button is clicked. Instead, like vector graphics, the work at all sizes and scales of image. You can fill a 1mp or 100mp image with noise and the pattern will never repeat or degrade. One feature I have discovered, which is often overlooked, is that procedural noise is composed essentially of two areas: areas with the noise pattern and the areas between, which I am calling negative space. It turns out, the negative areas are just as important as the bits of noise, as we’ll see later. More precisely, it seems that there are parts (pixels, ultimately) which are solid colour, and others which are increasingly transparent – which become more evident when using noise in the Equations filter. Let’s take a look at very basic noise in the Equations Filter: Check to make sure the top layer of the test image is still selected. Open the Equations filter dialogue by going to Filters>Distort>Equations. Enter the following equation exactly as it is in the with no capitals or spaces: In the x= box type noise(x,y) In the y=box type the letter a (Which I’ll explain later). From the Extend Mode list, select Full. Coordinate System should be Cartesian, and Angular Units should be Degrees, by default – from now on everywhere I describe inputting an equation in the Equations dialogue the default settings of Cartesian and Degrees will be assumed. DON’T click apply, leave the dialogue open so you can follow the experiments below. To see the noise more clearly, hold down Ctrl and scroll your mouse wheel forward to zoom in. You can now see clumpy, fuzzy blobs of solid colour with fuzzy white patches of negative space. Zoomed out, it’s the coloured bits that we perceive as noise. I’ll explain the reason for the strange colour in a moment. What’s going on? What’s really happening is that the noise command generates random vertical and horizontal bars of tone shaded from white to a solid colour. We can see this by changing the equation. At the moment noise(x,y) is an instruction to make noise in the x and y directions - horizontally and vertically. Change the equation so that it reads noise(x,1). You should see random vertical bars in various tones of colour like this. Now change the x in the equation to a y, so the equation reads noise(y,1). You should see random horizontal bars in various tones of colour like this. This indicates that noise(x,y) is really a blend of the two. What the deal with the colour? When the noise(x,y) equation is used in combination with the Full noise Extend Mode, the filter generate noise which is a kind of average colour of the whole image, though this is not exactly the same colour as would be produced by the Blur Average filter. From my experiments, these white areas are, in reality, appear to be areas of transparent and semi-transparent pixels, depending upon the tone of the pixels. Pixels of the true averaged colour are opaque whilst lighter tones are increasingly transparent, until you get to white which is entirely transparent. At the moment, we are seeing the light pixels as white because, in this instance, the Extend Mode we’re using is Full, which makes the white areas opaque. I’ll explain a bit more about transparency later, when we look at other Extend Modes. There’s more than one kind of noise! Until now, I’ve been using the word “noise” to talk about procedural noise in general terms. In fact, in the Equations Filter the word “noise” is the name of just one particular type of noise. In the programming language used to generate procedural noise in both Procedural Textures and Equations, there are dozens of different types of noise (noise, noisei, noiseh, noisecubic, noisesin etc.), each producing a slightly different type of noise. The differences are, perhaps, more noticeable in Procedural Textures where you can magnify them to create interesting patterns, effects. You can see the full list if you look up Procedural Texture in the help file. Scroll down the page and you’ll eventually come to the lists of different noise types. For a very different kind of noise add the letter “i” after the word noise, so the equation reads noisei(x,y) in the x= box (till with a in the y= box and the Full Extend Mode). This makes noisei type noise, which is blocky and pixelated. noisei type noise Now try substituting the letter “i” with an “h”, so you have noiseh(y,x) in the equations. You should end up with something like this: noiseh type noise You can now clearly see the coloured fuzzy blobs of noise with the negative white areas between. Extend Modes make a MASSIVE difference Let’s prove that white areas and lighter tones are, in fact, areas of transparency. Just to remind you, Extend Mode is last option at the bottom of the Equations filter dialogue. It contains a drop-down list with Zero, Full, Repeat, Wrap and Mirror. Each mode has a different effect upon what the equation does to the image. Change the Extend Mode to Zero. noiseh(y,x) with Zero Extend Mode. Suddenly, you can see the underlying image (the blue layer) through a veil of noise. Experimenting with different extend modes To experiment with different Extend Modes, we’ll use the first noise equation we started with. It should still be open, but if it isn't, set it up the Equations dialogue as follows: That letter a in the y= box essentially activates the Parameter A slider, turning it into a sliding controller. I’ll come back to this later. Try testing out the Equations with different Extend Modes, at the same time as sliding the Parameter A slider back and forth. Here’s what I observed. Zero Extend Mode produces noise with transparent negative areas revealing the layer underneath the current layer. The noise pixels are made more transparent by sliding the Parameter A slider to the left. There is an initial brightening of the noise before it begins to fade, never quite going completely transparent. Full Extend Mode fills the layer with white overlain with noise. The noise pixels are made more transparent by sliding the Parameter A slider to the left. Repeat Extend Mode produces sparse noise (with this image) on a solid field of averaged colour. Moving the Parameter A make the noise and background colour lighter. Note: in one image, I found that the Repeat Extend Mode filled the layer with averaged colour and zero noise. Wrap Extend Mode is unpredictable from images to image. In the image, it averaged colour noise on a background which is the inverse colour of the noise. Moving the Parameter A to the left changes the relationship of the positive and negative colours, intensifying the background colour whilst making the noise more transparent. Mirror Extend Mode, gives identical results to Repeat, in these experiments. Dealing with the “y=” box So far, we have only had the letter a in the y= box. That is because the the y= equation box cannot be left blank. It must contain a value of some kind; either a letter*, a number, or another equation (which I’ll come back to later). If you enter the letters a,b or c in the y boxes then the A,B or C parameter sliders become active, giving customisable control of Equation depending upon which extend mode you use. *note: only letters that have a function in the Equations filter produce a result when used alone in x= or y= boxes. I will list other useable letters at the end of the article. However, if you leave the default letter “y” in the y equation field, you get completely different results with different Extend Modes. Try the following tests using noisei(x,y) in the x= field and y in the y= field. You’ll need to zoom out at little to get an idea of what is happening (hold down Ctrl and scroll the mouse wheel backwards). You should see something like this. Zero extend mode (above) produces random horizontal bands of colours which are averages of the area the bands cover. The negative, transparent and semi-trasparent areas of the noise pattern punch holes through the current layer revealing the layer underneath. Full extend mode (above) produces random horizontal bands of colours which are averages of the area the bands cover. The negative, transparent and semi_transparent areas of the noise pattern are white instead of transparent. You need to zoom in to see this more clearly. Repeat and Mirror, both produce random horizontal bands of colours which are averages of the area the bands cover with little or no noise. The Wrap Extend mode (above) is a weird one. It creates the same horizontal bands of colour, but this time, the negative spaces are of varying colour, perhaps inverse complimentaries? Using noise equations in both x= and y= boxes Adding a noise equation to the y= box in addition to the one in the x= box has the effect of adding a second layer of noise to the image. The resulting noise is now similar to the earlier noise where we put an a in the y= box. If the y= box contains the same equation as the x= then the effect, though, appears to be to increase the contrast between noise and negative areas. However, if equation in the x= box is noise(x,y) and the y= box is noise(y,x), the effect is to increase the overall amount of negative/transparent/white areas. What this means is that you can overlay two different kinds of noise, if you wish. Try for example, using noiseh(x,y) in the x= box and noiseh(y,x) in the y= box. This concludes Part 1 of the tutorial. Part looks at putting all to use with some practical examples. Scroll down for the link to Part 2. Notes Useable letters which can be use in the x= and y= boxes a, b & c – activate the parameter sliders in the dialogue h produces light, near neutral noise - Try h+a and h*a in the y= box with various modes. x & y Noises with the letter “h” in their name like (noiseh, noisehpsin, noisehcubic etc.) create harmonic noise, which has greater negative areas. Special note re. Perlin Noise Perlin noise, which you may have come across in the list of noise types, is a particular type of noise invented by Ken Perlin, who was looking for a way to generate more natural/realistic looking 3D textures. It has a more “clumpy” look to it. When it is scaled in 2D imaging software like Affinity it can create wonderfully versatile natural-looking textures from clouds to hair and even wood grain. Sorry to say, I have yet worked out how to scale any noise in Equations. Nevertheless is still a useful variation of noise. The Perlin noise command requires four pieces of information to work properly. I don’t want to go into any kind of technical depth here, so just try the example below (note the position of the Parameter A, B, and C sliders): Explanation: Perlinsin – a type of Perlin noise. rx,ry – generates the noise. The r before x and y means you can click in the image and drag the noise around. a*10 – Activates the Parameter A slider which seems to control softness and brightness b – Activates the Parameter B slider, which seems to control softness and graininess. /c/2 _ Activates the Parameter B slider, which acts as a sort of contrast control, change the spread of midtone pixels. GO TO PART 2
  4. Hi guys, I just uploaded a tutorial video about how to make brush in Affinity Photo. I hope you enjoy this video. Thank you
  5. Hi guys, I just uploaded a new tutorial video about how to change skin color. I hope you find it helpful. Thank you!
  6. Hi guys, so I made a video about 5 tips in Affinity Photo (Photo Persona/ main workspace). I hope this is useful for you especially for a beginners and new users. Thank you!
  7. This tutorial is for you when you're just starting out with Affinity Photo. This video covers as many basics and essentials which I believe any Affinity Photo user should know. I've added timestamps below the video for EASY NAVIGATION! Keep in mind that this is not an in-depth course. As a bonus I've included my Workflow Booster Cheatsheet (in the video description on YouTube), to at least 3X your workflow. Enjoy! EASY NAVIGATION (simply click the time): 0:00 Learn Affinity Photo in 15 Minutes 0:21 Open New Document 0:45 Create Document Preset 1:13 User-Interface 1:49 Customise Studio 2:19 Import a Photo 2:57 Rotate/Stretch/Resize Layer 4:17 Transform Image (flip, align) 4:39 Customise Tools Panel 5:19 Change Perspective 5:58 Apply FX 6:52 Adjustment Layers 7:58 Rename Layers 8:33 Clipping layers 8:52 Group Layers 9:25 Add Shapes 10:44 Add Text 11:53 Layer Masks 12:49 MOST Important Keyboard Shortcut 13:52 BONUS: Workflow Booster Cheatsheet
  8. Dear Affinity Designer developers, As much as I like Affinity Designer, can you please add this quite important feature as many people have requested for this since 2014?! I have seen this topic on the forums since 2014 and it is quite frustrating that I am not able to use Affinity Designer for print on demand- the major reasons I purchase AD in the first place. I have enjoyed learning how to use AD for over a year from scratch and I'm not an experienced graphic designer as I'm still learning everyday and still enjoy discovering new features but as seen in the forums, time and time again even with examples of blurry images with jagged edges, it's evident I'm not the only one experiencing this. It's not possible that it's because all of these people complaining don't know what they are doing- even experienced graphic designers have complained about this. Below is an example of a 6000 x 6000 px file exported as a PNG at 300 dpi and imported into RedBubble and the 1st image shows the original scale at 57& as shown on the POD platform, however as the subsequent images show, when scaled down to 35% and 25% respectively, the image becomes fuzzy, with any outlines/strokes appearing pixelated/ jagged and with typographic designs, the fonts become less legible and distorted. It's odd because the more you scale down, the worse it gets. Yet other images on the platform appear crisp and sharp and I bet they used Illustrator. What I have learned is that it has something to do with switching anti-aliasing off when exporting the file. A feature other software like Adobe illustrator have but Affinity Designer doesn't. Apparently switching anti-aliasing off prior to exporting the image makes all the difference, producing that sharp crisp image everyone is after and that's why in the forums people keep asking "how to switch anti-aliasing off" in Affinity Designer (since 2014) and it's still not been resolved. What's the point of designing in a vector graphic software if you can't have crisp sharp exported images? If all of us are wrong can please put out a tutorial showing you export a large high resolution PNG image (image and typography) into a dummy RedBubble account as an example? or show us what we are doing wrong! Thank you.
  9. Hi everyone, I just started using affinity designer and I know only some basic stuff. I am wondering if there is any good tutorials out there the will help me get familiar with using this app!
  10. I do repetitive tasks where I have scans that need to be resized and cropped to a specific dimension. In my previous program (you know the one) I would set the px to 500 x 668 in the crop size boxes and so when I cropped it was already the correct size for me. So I guess it was resizing and cropping at the same time. I can't see how to do this on Affinity. I am so used to doing things this way I cannot even work out how to do it a long way round. If I crop first I crop it to the wrong aspect ratio and then when I resize to my specific dimensions I am distorting the image. Help me please! I am very new to this program, I would like to be able to use it but this is my first brick wall that could potentially destroy my resolution to free myself from 20 years of dependence to a company who don't give a flick about me!
  11. Hi, in Illustrator it is easy to save a color. I can not see a possibility to do so in the designer. I need to save the color for my outlines... Please help out THANKS
  12. I recently purchased AffinityPhoto and now making my way through the AffinityPhoto Workbook ( http://a.co/d/bmZJaJH ). While the Workbook examples are easy to follow, the Workbook doesn't explain the "when" and "why" behind the steps taken, and I haven't (yet) found a basic explanation of the impact of the various adjustments, filters and such within AffinityPhoto. Consequently, I don't have a framework to guide me through what feature(s) to use based on typical issues encountered in the RAW file. Does a basic tutorial or guide exist that explains what AffinityPhoto is "doing" through its features to the RAW format? Would a generic book on digital photography answer these kinds of questions (e.g. http://a.co/d/gRrCBe3 ), or does one learn how to image edit based primarily on trial-and error? Thanks!
  13. I have just received the beta copy of Affinity for windows 10. :Like many others - I was looking forward to upgrading from PPX9 and getting something great. BUT my initial experiences are only annoying which has dampened my whole feeling. 1. My login was not remembered on this forum yet I have used it for a long time (12 years) with PagePlus, from X3 to X9. I had to create a new login as mine was obviously there and so I could use it again. 2. I opened a page and started to play around. Let's open a square and give it rounded corners, and fill it. Very basic but I am just starting and learning. (I thought the commands used in PP would work but they seem to have been thrown away). I could make a square and round the corners but only one at a time, not all together. But I could not fill it with color. Stupid me, I thought. Oh well, look in the help. Fill color = nothing. I click on the 'fill' next to the 'rectangle' nothing changes. So I thought I'd try a tutorial, nothing either. There seems to be nothing much to help people who are not full-time illustrators or similar. Is Affinity for them and not for people like me who would use it to make printed brochures and online graphics???? Why does it take sooo long to open a new document?? I draw a line and want to widen it, nothing works. My joy and anticipation at getting Affinity has evaporated. I read in one tutorial that I may need to buy and download another program to make Affinity work, is this true? You may as well say good bye to me and most of those others I talk to, we don't have funds nor the will to buy to make work. I even now doubt you will reply to me. Good thoughts intended only here. Edward Firs
  14. I have been doing car designs on Affinity Designer for a while now, but have never seemed to have been able to colour them in using the fill tool. Any help?Porsche GT3 RS.afdesign
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