Examples of Masking Techniques in Affinity "Punisher" 👀

[Chris26]

Just Three Questions:  I know I can move layers around to achieve different effects....but.....

1.  Have I covered the 3 basic foundational aspects of Publisher's masking?  Are there any concepts that I have missed"

2.  Can anyone improve upon what they see or offer any tips or information so that I may become a little more proficient here.

3. BBB and CCC are vector masks yes?  AAA is obviously a Raster mask?  Correct?

(The bottom one - I wrote "Leave blue on top outside of group"  I must have moved it but it still has exactly the same affect as when it lays in the group at the bottom"  So no worries here).

[Alfred]

1. You’ve covered pixel masking and two types of vector nesting operations. What else is there?
2. I wouldn’t call the third example ‘masking’, I would call it  ‘clipping’, ‘nesting’, or ‘clip-nesting’ instead. Vector masking, as in the second example, is cropping rather than clipping: note the little ‘Crop’ icon on the thumbnail.

[Chris26]

3 hours ago, Alfred said:

1. You’ve covered pixel masking and two types of vector nesting operations. What else is there?
2. I wouldn’t call the third example ‘masking’, I would call it  ‘clipping’, ‘nesting’, or ‘clip-nesting’ instead. Vector masking, as in the second example, is cropping rather than clipping: note the little ‘Crop’ icon on the thumbnail.

A bit confused here Alfred, you say third and second, are you referring to these in the layers panel or in the actual images because the tird group in layers panel has the crop icon which you called the second one? ,could you just clarify them by their titles please, IE, AAA or BBB or CCC.  Thankyou.  BBB is clipping I know.  But to change the terms from mask to crop is confusing for a photo editing mentality.  Especially when all three have had MASKS applied according to Publisher's terminology.

[lepr]

35 minutes ago, Chris26 said:

BBB is clipping I know.

BBB features a vector mask (with the crop symbol on its thumbnail).

CCC features clipping.

 

[Chris26]

38 minutes ago, anon2 said:

BBB features a vector mask (with the crop symbol on its thumbnail).

CCC features clipping.

 

Strange but accepted.  Only thing though is that I saw tutorials demonstrating  what I did in BBB and calling it a clippingmask.  I even have a note from this forum from ages ago writing this somewhere.

[lepr]

3 minutes ago, Chris26 said:

Strange but accepted.  Only thing though is that I saw tutorials demonstrating  what I did in BBB and calling it a clippingmask.  I even have a note from this forum from ages ago writing this somewhere.

Yes, some people do refer to a vector mask as a clipping mask, but that can result in confusion in discussions because Affinity has clipping and it has masking.

[Alfred]

8 minutes ago, Chris26 said:

Strange but accepted.  Only thing though is that I saw tutorials demonstrating  what I did in BBB and calling it a clippingmask.  I even have a note from this forum from ages ago writing this somewhere.

I suspect that what you’re referring to is JPEGs that include a so-called clipping mask which results in the rectangular image being cropped to a shape. When (as in such a case) the shape is entirely contained within the bounds of the rectangle, there is no visible difference between clipping and cropping.

 

[Chris26]

2 hours ago, Alfred said:

I suspect that what you’re referring to is JPEGs that include a so-called clipping mask which results in the rectangular image being cropped to a shape. When (as in such a case) the shape is entirely contained within the bounds of the rectangle, there is no visible difference between clipping and cropping.

 

No, absolutely not.  Cropping by definition is the total eradication of any excess image or object that is unwanted in the final image and it is gone forever.  This is cropping.  Clipping by definition has both the underlying object being constrained by the top object.  There is a clear dividing line between the two terminologies.  They are mutally exclusve. 

[Alfred]

26 minutes ago, Chris26 said:

Cropping by definition is the total eradication of any excess image or object that is unwanted in the final image and it is gone forever.

Bitmap/raster cropping usually works as you describe but I’ve never known vector cropping to work the same way: it’s always been reversible.

[Chris26]

12 hours ago, Alfred said:

Bitmap/raster cropping usually works as you describe but I’ve never known vector cropping to work the same way: it’s always been reversible.

As I understand it if you press the 'alt' key in designer whilst clicking yes it is then reversible, is this what you mean, forgive me, but in cropping you can simply press the undo button.  I am almost hesitant, but I think I may mis-understand what you mean (Technically) by 'reversible', I am simply intrpreting this as 'Undo' a mistake?  Or do you have something else in mind Alfred?

[Alfred]

39 minutes ago, Chris26 said:

As I understand it if you press the 'alt' key in designer whilst clicking yes it is then reversible, is this what you mean, forgive me, but in cropping you can simply press the undo button.  I am almost hesitant, but I think I may mis-understand what you mean (Technically) by 'reversible', I am simply intrpreting this as 'Undo' a mistake?  Or do you have something else in mind Alfred?

Pressing the Alt key — or Option on a Mac — when clicking on a button (‘Add’, ‘Subtract’, etc) in the Geometry section of the Toolbar will give you a Compound layer/object, which is reversible, but that isn’t what I’m talking about. I’m referring specifically to the result of the vector cropping/masking operation; i.e. what happens when you drag a vector shape in the Layers panel and drop it onto the thumbnail of another layer. If you drag the shape back out again so it’s no longer a child layer, the parent layer reverts to being uncropped.

Edited November 16, 2020 by Alfred
Corrected typo

[Chris26]

3 minutes ago, Alfred said:

Pressing the Alt key — or Option on a Mac — when clicking on a button (‘Add’, ‘Subtract’, etc) in the Geometry section of the Toolbar will give you a Compound layer/object, which is reversible, but that isn’t what I talking about. I’m referring specifically to the result of the vector cropping/masking operation; i.e. what happens when you drag a vector shape in the Layers panel and drop it onto the thumbnail of another layer. If you drag the shape back out again so it’s no longer a child layer, the parent layer reverts to being uncropped.

Ok I'll give this a go, thankyou for clarifying Alfred.

[Alfred]

4 minutes ago, Alfred said:

that isn’t what I talking about

Oops!

[Chris26]

2 hours ago, Alfred said:

I’m referring specifically to the result of the vector cropping/masking operation; i.e. what happens when you drag a vector shape in the Layers panel and drop it onto the thumbnail of another layer. If you drag the shape back out again so it’s no longer a child layer, the parent layer reverts to being uncropped.

Hallo Alfred, well I am not able to perform any operation according to your description, that means I am obviously not understanding this process.  I spent some time dragging and dropping vector shapes all over the place and not seeing what I imagine you are trying to describe.  Could you perhaps, when you have a moment to spare demonstrate this please?

[Chris26]

3 hours ago, Alfred said:

Oops!

Don't worry in some languages you don't need the "was", maybe if you start a trend now - the Scots will drop that verb in 100 years and give linguists something to waffle about.

[Alfred]

2 hours ago, Chris26 said:

Hallo Alfred, well I am not able to perform any operation according to your description, that means I am obviously not understanding this process.  I spent some time dragging and dropping vector shapes all over the place and not seeing what I imagine you are trying to describe.  Could you perhaps, when you have a moment to spare demonstrate this please?

Herewith some screenshots from my iPad:

 

 

 

 

In the first screenshot I’ve set the opacity of the circle to 50% so that you can see its position relative to the underlying image, and in the second one I’ve restored it to 100% to avoid getting a semitransparent result. The third screenshot shows the move and the fourth one shows the outcome.