Question regarding filling a vector curve

[zBernie]

In the tutorial below at 01:33 into the video, James fills the vector curve by simply dragging the sliders in the color panel.  When I move the sliders the lines of the vector curve change color, but there is no fill color.  In the video James changes the fill color to all white.  This is using AF 1.9.1

Any idea why I'm not seeing the same behavior as in the video?

Pen tool | Affinity Photo for desktop tutorials (serif.com)

[v_kyr]

Toggle (select) the other color circle above first. - The little color circles you see there are like switchable toggle buttons, clicking on one brings it to front and activates it. One is for the stroke color and the other one for the fill color!

See: Color panel here

[zBernie]

4 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

Toggle (select) the other color circle above first. - The little color circles you see there are like switchable toggle buttons, clicking on one brings it to front and activates it. One is for the stroke color and the other one for the fill color!

Thanks, I missed that!  I know you can press the X key to toggle between them.  I'm glad you pointed this out, because I thought I resolved the issue by highlighting the base layer THEN drawing the vector curve.  But evidently I just got lucky and had the fill color selected.

[v_kyr]

Also remember a vector curve has to be closed in order to be filled!

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, v_kyr said:

Also remember a vector curve has to be closed in order to be filled!

Sure about that?

filled open curve.afdesign

[v_kyr]

That's a polycurve here, the fill is inside the area defined by the outermost nodes, aka the invisable line the end nodes create a boundary that will encloses that area. Draw the same with the pencil tool in one go (without altering nodes) and fill it! - Further it might not be filled the way the OP wants, thus better always work with own closed paths.

[h_d]

Like this?

[R C-R]

8 hours ago, v_kyr said:

That's a polycurve here, the fill is inside the area defined by the outermost nodes...

Actually, the fill area is defined by all the nodes, just like with a closed curve. If this is not obvious, just move one of the nodes that are not the outermost (end) ones & notice that the fill area changes.

8 hours ago, v_kyr said:

Draw the same with the pencil tool in one go (without altering nodes) and fill it!

I can do that easily, even though it is an open curve, simply by ticking the "Use Fill" box in the context toolbar, or in the usual way using the Color panel.

There is no question about these shapes being open curves because if you select one with the Node Tool, in the context toolbar, the "Close Curve" button is available (not greyed out) as it is for closed curves. Also, the "Show Orientation" option shows nothing for open curves while it shows a very short red line for closed ones.

[v_kyr]

2 hours ago, R C-R said:

I can do that easily, even though it is an open curve, simply by ticking the "Use Fill" box in the context toolbar, ...

The bloody "Use fill" box was hidden due to small window size und unchecked (same for the Pen), thus haven't recognized it. I've always used the separate color panel. - I wonder that the Pencil context bar doesn't have a fill color selector as the Pen tool in contrast has.

[R C-R]

4 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

I wonder that the Pencil context bar doesn't have a fill color selector as the Pen tool in contrast has.

I wonder about that too, or why the Pencil Tool context toolbar just has a popup width slider while the Pen (& Node) tools get the more elaborate popup with styles, end caps, etc.

[v_kyr]

20 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I wonder about that too, or why the Pencil Tool context toolbar just has a popup width slider while the Pen (& Node) tools get the more elaborate popup with styles, end caps, etc.

Hmm good point, there would be enough place left on the context toolbar for the Pencil tool too, in order to keep that more unique. - Even in the old DrawPlus it looks to be more unique when looking at screenshots of these tools.