Affinity Photo fill opacity and fill slider (split)

[Smee Again]

There has been a running discussion on the "fill" slider which is sorely lacking in this and previous releases of Affinity Photo.

 

Over 2 years without a single reply from Affinity developers except a video that claims "fill opacity" in the FX options is the same as fill --- actually, no, it is exactly the same as opacity. The video only proves that they do not understand the value of a fill slider nor its difference from an opacity slider.

Please at least extend the courtesy to users of a direct answer to the question: "Do you plan to incorporate a fill slider that works appropriately with the 8 special blend modes?"

It will help with decision making when the time comes to ante up in the future. Do I stay, or do I return to Photoshop?

[Xzenor]

2 hours ago, Smee Again said:

There has been a running discussion on the "fill" slider which is sorely lacking in this and previous releases of Affinity Photo.

Over 2 years without a single reply from Affinity developers except a video that claims "fill opacity" in the FX options is the same as fill --- actually, no, it is exactly the same as opacity. The video only proves that they do not understand the value of a fill slider nor its difference from an opacity slider.

Please at least extend the courtesy to users of a direct answer to the question: "Do you plan to incorporate a fill slider that works appropriately with the 8 special blend modes?"

It will help with decision making when the time comes to ante up in the future. Do I stay, or do I return to Photoshop?

I actually have to disagree with you there. It is definitely not the same as the Opacity slider.

Here. I'll prove it to you
https://youtu.be/bsEhMJZd1Sc  

I do not know if it worked like this in 1.8.x or before that but it does in 1.9

Edit: As Patrick mentioned in his comment below this one, this isn't the right place.
There's already a thread going on. over here. Thanks @Patrick Connor for pointing it out and keeping the thread clean

[Patrick Connor]

@Smee Again this post does not belong in the announcement post, and I would have let it go but I fear it will spark a longer discussion, for example this reply by @Xzenor (who from my reading is saying the same as you and may have misunderstood your post)

[Smee Again]

1 hour ago, Xzenor said:

I actually have to disagree with you there. It is definitely not the same as the Opacity slider.

Here. I'll prove it to you
https://youtu.be/bsEhMJZd1Sc  

I do not know if it worked like this in 1.8.x or before that but it does in 1.9

Edit: As Patrick mentioned in his comment below this one, this isn't the right place.
There's already a thread going on. over here. Thanks @Patrick Connor for pointing it out and keeping the thread clean

Dead wrong, unfortunately. You are comparing apples and oranges. The magic with fill vs opacity comes when you use one of the 8 special blend modes. With any of the other blend modes, they are SUPPOSED to act the same. When you kick in something like "Vivid light mode" or "Linear burn" you are talking an entirely different effect on  your color layer.

This video will prove that the "fill opacity" slider has been misnamed. It is simply an opacity slider that does not affect underlying layers. In the following video, if it were actually a fill slider, then the rectangle on the right would be different from the one on the left --- but they are exactly the same in regular or special blend modes.

 

[Xzenor]

You are correct in that it's not working for blending modes.

However, someone said " it is exactly the same as opacity" and that's just not completely true. If you use layer styles then the styles stay visible if you decrease the fill slider. If you decrease the opacity slider the styles disappear with it.

I was trying to prove that there actually is a difference between the two. It's not finished yet, as it doesn't do anything in the blending modes but it is definitely not 100% the same as the opacity slider. The differences can be useful the achieve certain effects.

[Smee Again]

BUMP!

[Murfee]

Finally we have this in V2.... not in the announcement notes or in the layer panel but under blend options, yes it works 😀

 

 

[Xzenor]

Maybe I'm missing your point but we've had that dialog in V1 for ages...

[MEB]

@Xzenor,
But it didn't had the Fill Opacity control (right below the coverage map).

[Xzenor]

Ah that's what I was missing!

[loukash]

On 11/11/2022 at 3:55 PM, Murfee said:

Finally we have this in V2

It's exactly the same Fill Opacity slider control as in the Layer Effects window. Note that if you change the Fill Opacity in Blend Options, the exact same value is being shown in the Layer Effects as well. You can open both windows side by side to observe it.

What has changed is that the "Special 8" now use the same math as in Photoshop when applied as Fill Opacity, so that no workarounds via Layer Ranges are needed. (We did such experiments last year in this thread.)

For the record, on the iPad apps V2 the Fill Opacity slider is located only in Layer Effects, not in the Layers panel, but the "Special 8" work there as well

[Xzenor]

special 8?

[loukash]

9 hours ago, Xzenor said:

special 8?

affinity.help/photo2/en-US.lproj/pages/Layers/layerBlendModes.html

[loukash]

Also discussed in excessive depth with many, many examples (and my workarounds for v1) in the aforementioned thread 

 

[Xzenor]

2 hours ago, loukash said:

affinity.help/photo2/en-US.lproj/pages/Layers/layerBlendModes.html

Oooh "blendmodes", like the rest of the world calls them 😂

Edit: ah no wait, I see what you mean. There's a specific set of 8 blendmodes that the documentation even refers to as  "special 8"

Edited November 16, 2022 by Xzenor