Need to hide part of a map

[Ensley G]

So I'm working on a map for a game, and I need to obscure certain areas while leaving others visible. Ideally I'll want to be able to go back in to the Affinity file from time to time and adjust the obscured area to reveal more of the map as the players discover it. How would I go about doing this in Designer or Photo?

[firstdefence]

Welcome to the forum

There are several ways to "Mask" an area or area's. One is to use a shape that can be resized, if you want blurred edges you can use filters in Affinity Photo, the other way is to create a mask and paint on that mask with either a white or black brush.

This anything like what you want?
Set the layer to 70% opacity to show what it's hiding.

[Ensley G]

Yep, that's what I'm after, but with softer edges. I the using a mask might be the best for what I'm wanting to do. I guess I'll need to put a fill layer under the the background to keep from just making the blanked areas transparent when I paint?

 

[firstdefence]

2 hours ago, Ensley G said:

Yep, that's what I'm after, but with softer edges. I the using a mask might be the best for what I'm wanting to do. I guess I'll need to put a fill layer under the the background to keep from just making the blanked areas transparent when I paint?

 

Yes you would do it in reverse so mask off the part you want to keep and add a fill layer below, like this.

[Catshill]

Apply a Gaussian blur to the part to be hidden?