compound shapes beneath a master outline...?

[SarahEmeline]

In Illustrator, I had a formula figured out in order to break a lower layer into many smaller pieces beneath the form of an outlined layer on top (think in terms of making a color-by-numbers or a jigsaw puzzle or a stained glass window... breaking a lower layer into individual sub-shapes, hidden at their breaking points by a larger stencil shape layer on top).  The goal was to allow independent color selection for each sub-shape, but hide any variant edges or gaps from poking through by having a master outline covering on top.

For the life of me, I cannot figure out how to do this in Affinity Designer.  I'm about to take my files to my sister whose work pays for Illustrator, but I'd rather not bother her if I can figure it out through Affinity first.  Any thoughts or suggestions?

The Illustrator process I used before involved creating the outline layer, expanding the object, then through pathfinder select: unite, make compound shape, and expand again.  THEN I'd create two colored rectangles of the same size, center the outline layer on top of one of those rectangles, then through pathfinder: exclude (to invert the image to black and white), recolor the box, then center the color with the outline layer, click on color, ungroup, and adjust color boundaries.

It's been a while since I've used this process so what I have written above are my primitive instructions from when I first started the process before I had it memorized... and have since forgotten.  Seriously, there has got to be a simpler way of doing this, and I am open to any suggestions.

Cheers,

Sarah

Edited May 31, 2020 by SarahEmeline

[lepr]

Hi and welcome to the Affinity forums!

To reduce potential ambiguity and wild goose chases, can you show us a very simple example of what you are starting with and what you want to achieve? Just some kind of mock-up or sketch should be sufficient.

 

[SarahEmeline]

These are some of the projects I worked on earlier based on that principle.

[firstdefence]

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[lepr]

Here's one solution in Designer: lines to shapes over silhouette.afdesign

The interior shapes are above a silhouette that provides colour where the lines were.

 

if you do need to have actual stroked lines instead of the illusion provided by the silhouette, then delete the silhouette, give the interior shapes a narrow stroke with same colour as their fill to effectively expand the shapes very slightly, and place a duplicate of the initial lines above the interior shapes.

 

[SarahEmeline]

Amazing!!!  Thank you, anon2!!  I would have never thought to do any of that.  I'll keep you posted if I have any further complications, but thus far it seems like these steps are the answers I've been looking for.  I genuinely appreciate your feedback and assistance.

Long live Affinity!