Vector mask description in Help file and one more question

[Chris26]

Two quick questions:

1.   I read the chapter on masking and found nowhere how to invert a mask, if this is possible in designer.

2.   QUOTE: """Vector masking: this involves using a line or shape as a mask over another object that crops to the line or shape's outline""" 

Vector masking: this involves using a line or shape as a mask over another object - Understood

that crops to the line or shape's outline  -  Not understood

I can not work this out, I wish to blur the edges of an object, I used a stroke and blurred that stroke and this achieved exactly what I was looking for.  Unfortunately I can not use this same tactic on one other shape object within my design.  So I looked into pixel mask and vector shape masking, but the latter I do not know how to create, and the former I do not know how to invert in designer so that I may paint with white over a small area.  I have no idea if I am even approaching this in the correct way, but I am doing my best after only 10 days in designer.

 

[Move Along People]

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[Chris26]

37 minutes ago, haakoo said:

Vector masking is like clipping; the underlying shape dictates the object above
 

Ok that is clear, vector mask is another term for Clipping then.  Two terminologies with the same meanng then.  Based on that I tried clipping that narrow shaped object to the top of the red and black join in order to place a gaussian Blur on the narrow shaped object - it does not work.  

Here is my headache:  I can not figure it out and I would lke some clue? perhaps?

  

[prophet]

Would a regular mask layer with some soft brush work suffice?

[Move Along People]

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[Chris26]

1 hour ago, haakoo said:

Use gaussian blur in fx  panel

It already has one doing a completely different job and besides this I already tried it before I posted, it simply blurs the whole floor.

 

 

prophet

the mask feature in Designer eludes me at the moment, I have thumbled with it but it is not as simple as a mask in A.photo, or Adobe's dare I say, sorry Haakoo, this is not a comparison.  The following has always been the routine over 15 years  --- I place a mask on a layer, invert it and apply my edit to a portion and paint with white to reveal the chaged area.  But this does not operate like this in Designer and obviously there  s either another step I have to perform or another difference in Affinities approach to the mask here.  Sorry, but dumbness is not the reason I can not work it out.  It is affinities mysterious principles that I am grasping desperately to understand.

My design here is complexed I provide a screen shot of the outline mode as well.

 

Ok I just figured that you can only use the two transparency tools to sort of act as a brush and it is easy to make a mask when dealing ith solid colours but in this graphic is not so straight forward, I will have to tweak something to get things to work before I can build in a mask.

 

EDIT : Ok I give up it can not be done, I will have to start the whole graphic from scratch again.  Clipping masks won't work and neither can one apply a blur and allow the mask to hide most of the blur, which was the original idea., but I can not figure this one out either.  Give me two squares of different colours, then masking is easy with the transparency tools, but my layers are far too complexed for this.  

 

 

 

[prophet]

38 minutes ago, Chris26 said:

the mask feature in Designer eludes me at the moment, I have thumbled with it but it is not as simple as a mask in A.photo, or Adobe's dare I say,

Indeed. But with the pixel persona in Designer, it can be done well enough once you get the hang of it.

- Make a new Layer
- Rasterize to Mask
- Switch to Pixel Persona
- Paint with black or white per a usual mask

[Chris26]

10 hours ago, prophet said:

Indeed. But with the pixel persona in Designer, it can be done well enough once you get the hang of it.

- Make a new Layer
- Rasterize to Mask
- Switch to Pixel Persona
- Paint with black or white per a usual mask

Many appreciations prophet.  I really was trying to minimise the amount of raster elements in my design after reading many topics about exactly what is and what is not rasterised, such as vector brushes for example, that was a surprise -  anyway I was aimng to high for a beginner in Designer to get purely vector, I do not need to worry about Fx edits being rasterised since I print my own stuff (only if it goes to pdf apparently will Fx layers be rasterised I believe)  no matter - yes I will resort to the pixel persona and thankyou for taking the time to amplify by means of the demonstration. Have a nice day.

[prophet]

Happy to help.

[Dazmondo77]

Not sure if this is of help, but I find using vector masks super flexible and also can contain raster elements - the problem is a mask including vector mask will be rasterised on output whereas a clip (place inside vector shape) will retain vector information on output - I find a good workaround is to combine the two so mask for hair and then place inside a vector container with no fill which will retain a vector path on output to pdf

Couple of examples detailing a vector mask and how to invert and an example which shows a vector clipping path with masked hair

[Chris26]

1 hour ago, Dazmondo77 said:

Not sure if this is of help, but I find using vector masks super flexible and also can contain raster elements - the problem is a mask including vector mask will be rasterised on output whereas a clip (place inside vector shape) will retain vector information on output - I find a good workaround is to combine the two so mask for hair and then place inside a vector container with no fill which will retain a vector path on output to pdf

Couple of examples detailing a vector mask and how to invert and an example which shows a vector clipping path with masked hair

Screen_Grab_2020-12-16_at_13_11_27.mov Screen_Grab_2020-12-16_at_13_26_32.mov

This is brilliant, absolutely thanks for this, and good to understand how raster is being used in Design.  I will take a good look at what you have done in a moment.  thankyou Dazmondo.

In the meantime I was just about to post this so I will post it in this message, someone remarked to me that despite the basic amateur nature of a question and my own answers others might find the simplicity informative.  But a lot of my misunderstanding appears to be coming from the interchangeable use of the terms MASKING and CLIPPING and CLIPPING MASKS, these terms often being used on many of the videos I watched and so no wonder poeple like myself may become bewildered by these terms.  Anyway, here is an excellent video for anyone who is just trying to grapple with Designer's use of clipping and masking, it is the best one I have ever seen and clinched in 5 minutes what I have been grappling with for days and days.  And here is a screen shot of my reference file for cementing everything.   My experience with teaching is that it is not about someone's ability to learn or how much they can assimilate in an hour, but how information is delivered and presented to them.  Yeh, just throwing in another quick rant. 😀

 

 

 

 

 

[Alfred]

17 hours ago, Chris26 said:

Ok that is clear, vector mask is another term for Clipping then.  Two terminologies with the same meanng then.

Not so, Chris! Please review this recent thread.

[lepr]

59 minutes ago, Chris26 said:

[...] And here is a screen shot of my reference file for cementing everything.   My experience with teaching is that it is not about someone's ability to learn or how much they can assimilate in an hour, but how information is delivered and presented to them.  Yeh, just throwing in another quick rant. 😀

 

 

 

"Green Eclipse [sic] Masks Blue Square" should be named "Green Ellipse Clipped To Blue Rectangle"".

"Red Eclipse [sic] Clipping Yellow Square" should be named "Red Ellipse Masking Yellow Rectangle".

[Dazmondo77]

1 hour ago, Chris26 said:

Designer's use of clipping and masking

Chris26 - great example vid - sorry boss, I have to remember to be a bit more descriptive in my grabs, as once you get used to the way clipping and masking works, you tend to not think about it as it becomes second nature - I just love the way Affinity does this

[Chris26]

2 hours ago, Alfred said:

Not so, Chris! Please review this recent thread.

 

1 hour ago, anon2 said:

 

"Green Eclipse [sic] Masks Blue Square" should be named "Green Ellipse Clipped To Blue Rectangle"".

"Red Eclipse [sic] Clipping Yellow Square" should be named "Red Ellipse Masking Yellow Rectangle".

Both Alfred and Anon, yep 🙄 that is exactly what I mean, I watched that video 3 times at least and made sure I could do it with my eyes shut.  And still I got the terminologies mixed.  Masking for me has always simply been about painting in either black or white.  I do remember that post and have it still. My original problem came with applying what I thought that I knew to what seemd to be straightforward onto what became a complicated set of layers. thanks for the correction highly appreciated.

1 hour ago, Dazmondo77 said:

Chris26 - great example vid - sorry boss, I have to remember to be a bit more descriptive in my grabs, as once you get used to the way clipping and masking works, you tend to not think about it as it becomes second nature - I just love the way Affinity does this

Thanks, I did look at your movies,  the last two were easy, but the first one went too fast, I slowed it down to its slowest and then could not read a couple of things.  I will have to go through it again and again because it is difficult to grasp what you are attempting to do and what the goal is, as an end point.  But I am sure I can work it out....eventually.