Chris26 Posted November 12, 2020 Share Posted November 12, 2020 Searched high and low for tutorial, you tube has only two tutorials and they are not very in depth and are short. No written ones either. SO I am back again, fedup with this one and only one thing in publisher that I have never understood. Clipping masks I use quite a lot, they are simple. years of avoiding publisher's mask feature and now I need to be shown how it works please. I have demonstrated in this video what I can not understand, 1. The refine mask and the edit mask, How on earth does one edit an 'edit mask' How did he paint that the and how do you edit this black on the mask he has over the cover photo? 2. The refine mask simply baffles me, I have never in 2 years been able to get it to do anything? Please please can someone be kind enough to put me out of my misery and demonstrate how publisher uses these two tools? Quote Microsoft - Like entering your home and opening the stainless steel kitchen door, with a Popup: 'Do you really want to open this door'? Then looking for the dishwasher and finding it stored in the living room where you have to download a water supply from the app store, then you have to buy microsoft compliant soap, remove the carpet only to be told that it is glued to the floor.. Don't forget to make multiple copies of your front door key and post them to all who demand access to all the doors inside your home including the windows and outside shed. Apple - Like entering your home and opening the oak framed Kitchen door and finding the dishwasher right in front you ready to be switched on, soap supplied, and water that comes through a water softener. Ah the front door key is yours and it only needs to open the front door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lepr Posted November 12, 2020 Share Posted November 12, 2020 Edit Mask command makes a selected raster Mask (or object with built-in raster Mask, such as Live Filter or Adjustment) appear as if it was a greyscale raster layer. It isn't useful in the Publisher Persona because that persona has no brushes or destructive filters with which you could edit the mask. Chris26 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris26 Posted November 12, 2020 Author Share Posted November 12, 2020 1 hour ago, anon2 said: Edit Mask command makes a selected raster Mask (or object with built-in raster Mask, such as Live Filter or Adjustment) appear as if it was a greyscale raster layer. It isn't useful in the Publisher Persona because that persona has no brushes or destructive filters with which you could edit the mask. So you are saying that the masks I see in this magazine cover were created in A.Photo and that really one can not create a mask (as in the proper definition of a mask) in Publisher unless one has A'photo, apart from the clipping mask of course. And that refine mask, (which is then called "Refine Selction' when accessed) is in fact useless in publisher without A.Photo? I have the magazine cover from the Affinity publisher example shown on the welcome screen, it s a mish mash of complexity that re-defines masks all together. That cover image, after I stripped it of all text and adjustment layers and tried for 2 hours to reverse engineer is absolutely horendous and to my experience uneccessarily complicated. I simply can not fathom the logic behind it. It infuriates me 😖😠We have un-editable masks, three split half bodies of that man, one chopped off half head from his face, three skies and AAaaaghghghghg...and accessing any refine or edit mask to see what is happening well that's a joke. Now I have finished my bottled up volcanic chin wag of a rant, I hope you will overlook my tantrum. Quote Microsoft - Like entering your home and opening the stainless steel kitchen door, with a Popup: 'Do you really want to open this door'? Then looking for the dishwasher and finding it stored in the living room where you have to download a water supply from the app store, then you have to buy microsoft compliant soap, remove the carpet only to be told that it is glued to the floor.. Don't forget to make multiple copies of your front door key and post them to all who demand access to all the doors inside your home including the windows and outside shed. Apple - Like entering your home and opening the oak framed Kitchen door and finding the dishwasher right in front you ready to be switched on, soap supplied, and water that comes through a water softener. Ah the front door key is yours and it only needs to open the front door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarryP Posted November 12, 2020 Share Posted November 12, 2020 If you only have Publisher, you can draw a curve around the thing you want to mask, then fill it in white. then use Rasterise to Mask, then apply the mask layer to the image, then use Refine Mask, as in my quickly-and-crudely-done attached video (where I have already drawn the curve, to save time). It’s not ideal but it might save you from having to buy Photo for some simple jobs. 2020-11-12_13-31-10.mp4 Chris26 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lepr Posted November 12, 2020 Share Posted November 12, 2020 1 hour ago, Chris26 said: So you are saying that the masks I see in this magazine cover were created in A.Photo and that really one can not create a mask (as in the proper definition of a mask) in Publisher unless one has A'photo, apart from the clipping mask of course. No, I did not say that. 1 hour ago, Chris26 said: And that refine mask, (which is then called "Refine Selction' when accessed) is in fact useless in publisher without A.Photo? I did not say anything about Refine Mask. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris26 Posted November 12, 2020 Author Share Posted November 12, 2020 1 hour ago, GarryP said: If you only have Publisher, you can draw a curve around the thing you want to mask, then fill it in white. then use Rasterise to Mask, Hallo Garry this is very much appreciated, 15 years using all sorts of complex masks in Photoshop but Affinities masks in Publsher threw me off balance despite watching A.photo's masks which are similar to photoshop, but different in peublisher all together it seems. It is easy to reverse engineer masks from a layered image in Adobe, it all makes perfect sense, but this did not. I have made a gif video with just one question please. I threw away all text and adjustments and have gone down the layers as you will see clicking off and on, the layer I can not ubdersatand is the last one where he has placed a black mask to cover the sky on the left. My confusion here is/was the use of the word "REFINE MASK" on right click I find this totally misleading based on what the word 'Refine' actually means, and then have that same dialogue say "REFINE SELECTION", the wording led me to believe that I could actually edit that black mask. Which of course is impossible to do since I have tried. And there again that word "EDIT MASK" is confusing seeing that once again you cannot actually do anything to it. Or am I mistaken? I have not found anything, but since masks are availbale I thought it about time to understand affinity's confusing use of these terms, I might have a use of them in the future. - I do not need to complicate publisher with masks, the image on this cover I could do in photoshop with just THREE LAYERS (One man, one sky and one wall), ONE MASK for the sky and just a couple of aesthetic adjustments - bobs your uncle its done. So why all this nonsense of three bodies two heads one body split in half half a dozen masks and two skies and one grey background WOW 🤣 on that cover eludes me. Quote Microsoft - Like entering your home and opening the stainless steel kitchen door, with a Popup: 'Do you really want to open this door'? Then looking for the dishwasher and finding it stored in the living room where you have to download a water supply from the app store, then you have to buy microsoft compliant soap, remove the carpet only to be told that it is glued to the floor.. Don't forget to make multiple copies of your front door key and post them to all who demand access to all the doors inside your home including the windows and outside shed. Apple - Like entering your home and opening the oak framed Kitchen door and finding the dishwasher right in front you ready to be switched on, soap supplied, and water that comes through a water softener. Ah the front door key is yours and it only needs to open the front door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lepr Posted November 12, 2020 Share Posted November 12, 2020 (edited) 5 hours ago, Chris26 said: The refine mask simply baffles me, I have never in 2 years been able to get it to do anything? The first page of the example document contains no Mask (note the capital M) object on which the Refine Mask tool can work. It has Pixel objects being used as masks (note the small m). Edited November 12, 2020 by anon2 inserted "first page" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris26 Posted November 12, 2020 Author Share Posted November 12, 2020 41 minutes ago, anon2 said: The first page of the example document contains no Mask (note the capital M) object on which the Refine Mask tool can work. It has Pixel objects being used as masks (note the small m). I am sorry Anon, but I have no clue what you are talking about. I do not see any M's, big or small, and also I have no idea what you mean anyway with this: It has Pixel objects being used as masks (note the small m).. A mask for me is always on any object regardless of whether it is vector or pixel, a mask is a mask, you hide, or you reveal. You have an object and you hide or reveal parts of it accordingly. This is how I have worked for 20 years. So forgive me if I am displaying an ignorance fit for a toddler at pre-school. Clipping in publsiher is a doddle, the refine selection tool has been wonderfully demonstrated by @GarryP and now that I have understood how this is intertwined with making a selection, filling with white, moving the layer etc etc .....so please tell me what you are referring to now. 🙂 Quote Microsoft - Like entering your home and opening the stainless steel kitchen door, with a Popup: 'Do you really want to open this door'? Then looking for the dishwasher and finding it stored in the living room where you have to download a water supply from the app store, then you have to buy microsoft compliant soap, remove the carpet only to be told that it is glued to the floor.. Don't forget to make multiple copies of your front door key and post them to all who demand access to all the doors inside your home including the windows and outside shed. Apple - Like entering your home and opening the oak framed Kitchen door and finding the dishwasher right in front you ready to be switched on, soap supplied, and water that comes through a water softener. Ah the front door key is yours and it only needs to open the front door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lepr Posted November 12, 2020 Share Posted November 12, 2020 35 minutes ago, Chris26 said: I do not se any M's, big or small, I was referring to the M and m in my message, where Mask is the specific type of object named Mask, and mask is an object of any type that is mask-nested in another object so that its opacity modulates the parent object's opacity. A Mask object is seen in the Layers panel with "(Mask)" appended to its name. Your example has Pixel objects being used to mask other Pixel objects. Page 5 of that document has a Mask object being used to mask an Image object. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris26 Posted November 12, 2020 Author Share Posted November 12, 2020 52 minutes ago, anon2 said: Page 5 of that document has a Mask object being used to mask an Image object. Pixel objects? Ok I understand this. So that Black Blob on that last layer, it is NOT a mask, it is a shape object done with the pen tool and filled with black then, Am I correct now?. Hi Anon, well I will take another look at page 5 in a minute, thankyou for pointing things out to me, I do appreciate this. However I have here a screen shot PLUS a comment from the Help manual of Publisher: Just trying something out here. QUOTE: To create an empty mask layer: From the Layers panel, click Mask Layer. By default, a created mask layer is applied to the current layer, but it can be moved by dragging outside the current layer, applying the mask to all layers below. Alternatively, the mask can be moved onto an object, applying the mask just to that objec So what did simpleton muggins do here? He followed instructions, created a mask, on the selection, added a BW adjustment for fun with the intention (since there are no brushes) of then manipulating the handles of the mask to cover only half of that bag. Now how helpful is the Help here I ask? I could not drag it, access it, move it. I followed the instructions, I moved layers into different positions, I rasterised it, smiled at it, fed it. No it don't wanna play! Am I really to blame for not getting it? I can not be the only one. I watched many tutorials from A.photo yesterday and the day before on masking and pro masking and whatever masking I could find in the hope that they would shed some light on Publisher's treatment of them, A.photo makes sense, a little different from Photoshop but that is not a bother, I get it. But not here! Sorry I forgot to say, yes mask to below worked and I understand that one, but not the obvious use of them nor these instructions. Oh and last thing, I understand a vector mask for mask to below, so if a vector mask is created with a shaoe or pen tool, what the hell is this stupid thing I am trying to create? Oh my temper........... Quote Microsoft - Like entering your home and opening the stainless steel kitchen door, with a Popup: 'Do you really want to open this door'? Then looking for the dishwasher and finding it stored in the living room where you have to download a water supply from the app store, then you have to buy microsoft compliant soap, remove the carpet only to be told that it is glued to the floor.. Don't forget to make multiple copies of your front door key and post them to all who demand access to all the doors inside your home including the windows and outside shed. Apple - Like entering your home and opening the oak framed Kitchen door and finding the dishwasher right in front you ready to be switched on, soap supplied, and water that comes through a water softener. Ah the front door key is yours and it only needs to open the front door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lepr Posted November 12, 2020 Share Posted November 12, 2020 Chris, my recommendation for making sense of the various masking methods and tools is to get yourself Affinity Photo, ask the forum for links to good tutorials, and do plenty experimenting. Chris26 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris26 Posted November 12, 2020 Author Share Posted November 12, 2020 1 hour ago, anon2 said: Chris, my recommendation for making sense of the various masking methods and tools is to get yourself Affinity Photo, ask the forum for links to good tutorials, and do plenty experimenting. I have been watching A.photo tutorials for over a week now, there are many excellent ones out there and I have no issues with understanding them, after all, a.Photo masking has simply gone about it slightly differently than Photshop, no problems there, but one has to admit, publisher masking is very different from A'photo. No matter, we'll leave it there. Thankyou for your input, it has not been entirely hopeless, I promise. Quote Microsoft - Like entering your home and opening the stainless steel kitchen door, with a Popup: 'Do you really want to open this door'? Then looking for the dishwasher and finding it stored in the living room where you have to download a water supply from the app store, then you have to buy microsoft compliant soap, remove the carpet only to be told that it is glued to the floor.. Don't forget to make multiple copies of your front door key and post them to all who demand access to all the doors inside your home including the windows and outside shed. Apple - Like entering your home and opening the oak framed Kitchen door and finding the dishwasher right in front you ready to be switched on, soap supplied, and water that comes through a water softener. Ah the front door key is yours and it only needs to open the front door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lepr Posted November 12, 2020 Share Posted November 12, 2020 2 minutes ago, Chris26 said: but one has to admit, publisher masking is very different from A'photo Masking is the same in the three Affinity apps. The apps are fundamentally one app, but different features are made unavailable in each. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.