path to marching ants

[chaletart]

Another newbie question!

I am loving the program but am having difficulties with basic things...Here's one that I am having a hard time with now.

How do I convert a path to marching ants? It is a one button process in photoshop but cannot find anything similar in Affinity.

 

Thank you for your help!

[G13RL]

Put a fill to the path then hold down the "Ctrl/Cmd" key and click on its thumbnail in the layers. Then delete the path.

[chaletart]

Hmmm.... that works if I use a rectangle shape or fill.

However, If I use the pen tool it creates a curve layer and if I hold the ctrl/cmd key down and select the layer it created then the path disappears and no selection is made.

Other ideas?

[foto-grafic]

If you are in Affinity Photo,
transform the path into a selection with the Select button on the bar at the top left.

[G13RL]

It works the same way with a line, check the "Use Fill" box in the context bar.

[GarryP]

chaletart: In Designer, if that’s what you are using (you don’t say), you can get a pixel selection in the Pixel Persona.
You can then use the selection back in the Designer Persona.
There may be some ways of selecting pixels in the Designer Persona that I don’t know about, but the Pixel Persona is probably the best place to do it anyway.

P.S. It is normally very useful to us if you say which Affinity application you are using, and on which OS. This helps people to advise you quicker.

[Joachim_L]

4 hours ago, foto-grafic said:

If you are in Affinity Photo,
transform the path into a selection with the Select button on the bar at the top left.

Nice, much faster than the fill method, but the path will be deleted by doing so. I would be good if the path is still there after this action.

[Ray S.]

@Joachim_L, you can copy the path before you turn in to a selection.

[Joachim_L]

2 minutes ago, Ray S. said:

@Joachim_L, you can copy the path before you turn in to a selection.

That would be extra work. I think more of using a modifier key when clicking on the select button to preserve the path and create a selection from the path.

[Move Along People]

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[chaletart]

Embarrassing, cannot believe I was so blind.... thank you!

What an awesome/supportive community... thank you all again!

[Ambros]

Lol I keep ending up at this page. I still can;t find out how to select a curve and convert to a selection UNLESS i remember to do it immediately I complete the curve.

Someone please help for the next time I google 'curve to marching ants' and end up here !!

The manual says "ctrl click on the layer thumbnail' but if do that for the layer which has the curve it does nothing.

 

I am using the pen tool to create the 'outline' (aka marching ants) as it gives the best control (tightest / cleanest selection)

I am using Affinity Designer BTW

 

Ah got it. Go to "edit in photo" then the above works. you ctrl-click on the curve thumbnail and it converts to marching ants

unfortunately you can't seem to do anything with the selection.. cut (for example) just cuts the entire image and doesn't allow just the selection to be cut from the main image.

OK will read manual again. That's obviously intended workflow,

I just need to work out how to 'cut' the selection from the main image./ It's not intuitive

 

It's the difference between an 'image layer' and a 'pixel layer' 

I had imported the photo into the document using 'place'

I'll leave this here in case someone else gets as stumped as me.. the manual didn't help.. but the videos are good

Edited October 8, 2021 by Ambros

[Old Bruce]

14 hours ago, Ambros said:

unfortunately you can't seem to do anything with the selection.. cut (for example) just cuts the entire image and doesn't allow just the selection to be cut from the main image.

 

That cutting the entire image makes me think that the layer is an Image layer and not a Pixel layer. You should make a copy of the image layer and rasterize that and then you should be able to cut the selection out of that pixel layer.

[Ambros]

Thanks Bruce,

Yes, thanks you're right, as I alluded to in my (rambling) post I did suss it out eventually after watching a few of the Affinity tutorial videos.

These Affinity apps are great... ridiculously good value.. It's just hard to learn a new way of doing things after having been a Adobe Devotee since CS2 !!

Suffice it to say, Affinity have created some world beating apps. I just need to get my head around a few core concepts 

 

[Old Bruce]

2 minutes ago, Ambros said:

I just need to get my head around a few core concepts 

I have some software that I have been using heavily for over 30 years and I still don't know all the ins and outs of them.