How to cut objects with vector brush tool?

[MartyD]

Hello, 

I've produced a grungy t-shirt design using objects and vector brush strokes.  For screen print, everything needs to be vector but when I export as pdf or eps, grungy vector brush strokes are actually not cutting the objects below, instead, they are gradients in raster format.  I have spent hours looking for a solution.

I believe I need to convert the brush layer to curves but it does not allow me to do this in publisher, designer or photo.  Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks

Martin

[MEB]

Hi MartyD,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
The brushes you are using rely on  a raster texture that's stretched or repeated (depending on the brush settings) along a path. They are not fully/pure vector brushes thus cannot be exported as (or converted to) vectors. You can check this switching to the Vector Brush Tool, selecting the brush you used then clicking on the More button in the context toolbar - if you see an image/texture on the bottom (below the Head/Tail offset input fields) then it uses raster data/texture. Currently only the first two brushes in the Pens category are pure vector based brushes (no texture used) and thus can be expanded to curves (menu Layer > Expand Stroke). We hope to improve the vector brush engine to also support object based vector brushes.

[MartyD]

Ah, I'm new to Affinity. Thanks for clarifying this.

BTW, I should clarify, the brush layer is actually a mask. Is there a way to convert a mask layer to vector?  In the end, I just need to cut the grungy brush affects away from the lower object layer.

I guess I need to find a vector layer, then cut that from the lower object. Know of any vector texture sources?

Cheers

 

Martin

[MEB]

Hi MartyD,
There's quite a few sites where you can find vector grungy textures for free. Just search for those same words on Google. Here's one i just found there (scroll down for the links to the sites providing them).

[GarryP]

To add to the advice above, you might have some luck with a Texture pack that used to be available for free from the Serif store (maybe only for people who bought an application via the store, I don’t know).
It is (or was) called “Heavy & Subtle Grit Textures” and it comes with AFDESIGN versions which are basically Curves layers which can be Subtracted from a vector design.
P.S. You cannot convert from raster to vector in any of the current (1.8.4) versions of the Affinity applications.

Edited August 21, 2020 by GarryP
Fixed version number.

[appearsharmless]

@StuartRc generously posted a set of Vector textures he created in the Resources forum. You might find some of the grunge patterns useful:

Vector Texture Toolkit 2.0

[MartyD]

Thank you all!  I was able to get a texture and do what needed to be done.  Really appreciate you guys for jumping in so quickly.

 Cheers,

Martin