Rendering changed by grouping?

[BeauRX]

On occasion, I have noticed rendering changed just by grouping layers (without any group attribute changes). Trying several permutations I found the following example changes color simply by grouping the layers and reverts by ungrouping.

I believe masked layers (large indent on layers panel) are evaluated top down as opposed clipped layers  (small indent on layers panel) are evaluated bottom up.

I would like to understand if this is the intended behavior and if so what is the behavior heuristic, or a bug? Thx

Grouped.afphoto

[Chris B]

Hi BeauRX,

This is by design. A recolour adjustment recolours the layer below, however when it is in a group it affects the contents of the group. This is slightly diffeerent to how Photoshop does it I believe.

We did raise this with the developers a while back but the above was explained the the report closed. 

[lepr]

On 9/13/2020 at 5:41 PM, BeauRX said:

On occasion, I have noticed rendering changed just by grouping layers (without any group attribute changes). Trying several permutations I found the following example changes color simply by grouping the layers and reverts by ungrouping.

To make Affinity Passthrough mode work sensibly and consistently like Photoshop's Pass Through mode, put a white Fill object (or vector Rectangle covering the canvas) with Multiply mode as the bottom object inside the Group.

On 9/13/2020 at 5:41 PM, BeauRX said:

I believe masked layers (large indent on layers panel) are evaluated top down as opposed clipped layers  (small indent on layers panel) are evaluated bottom up.

Yes, that's another inconsistency that is probably deliberate for some inscrutable reason.

 

[BeauRX]

Chris, I would be a giant help, especially to new users (and probably PS converts) to document known design behaviors/limitations. Currently there is documentation for what something is and how it works, not so much for behavior. I realize part of these issues is simply the learning curve of a fairly complex set of tools that can be used many different ways/combinations. I am sure Affinity Photo is also undergoing change give it is 1.X software.

That said I find myself spending a fair bit of time with issues like above trying to figure out, what is the general Affinity Photo behavior, and is the current issue a special cases, operator error, or a bug.  This turns into a trip to the forum.

Even mature multi-decade products document version notes (example attached). I expect the effort to create these notes in the help could offset the corresponding forum support for the same issues. Thanks 

[Chris B]

That is actually a good point and not one I've personally seen someone make before. I'm happy to feed this back for sure.