Gort Posted April 7, 2021 Share Posted April 7, 2021 Hi folks, I need some guidance from you more experienced users of AD. My apologies in advance if I fail to explain what I'm trying to do very well; I'll do the best I can. I'm trying to make a mask that I can use from my assets section, that basically blacks out the underlying image except for a semi-circular section at the bottom where it fades out smoothly. The result when used would look like candlelight, or a small torch in the dark, revealing the the image closest to the torch clearly but fading out to black. I'm probably going about it all wrong, or maybe there's a simple way to do it, but whatever way I try, I can't get a workable mask, and if I do, the transition from transparent to black is unsatisfactory. Does any one have any advice on how to produce this effect? Bare in mind that I would be using this as a temporary mask on many images, so if I can make one it will save me a huge amount of work. I've found this image that might help show what I'm trying to do, not a very good image I know, but it should give you some idea. The transition to darkness is a little too sharp for what I need, but it's close enough. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted April 7, 2021 Share Posted April 7, 2021 1. Create a masking shape with the Ellipse Tool or the Pie Tool: 2. Soften the shape by applying a Gaussian Blur effect: 3. Put a black rectangle at the bottom of the layer stack, drag the shape in the Layers panel and drop it onto the thumbnail of the image layer to get a result like this: Quote Alfred Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h_d Posted April 7, 2021 Share Posted April 7, 2021 Another possibility: Create a white rectangle that covers the entire document, above the image, and set the blend mode to Colour Burn. Apply a live Lighting filter to the rectangle and play with the settings and effects until happy. Drag the white rectangle (along with its live Lighting filter) into your assets. Rinse and repeat... Quote Affinity Photo 2.0.3, Affinity Designer 2.0.3, Affinity Publisher 2.0.3, Mac OSX 13, 2018 MacBook Pro 15" Intel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pšenda Posted April 7, 2021 Share Posted April 7, 2021 (edited) 4 hours ago, h_d said: Apply a live Lighting filter In ADesigner? 5 hours ago, Gort said: from you more experienced users of AD. Personally, I would also use APhoto to edit "photos". Edit: If OP changed his mind and wanted to use APhoto for it :-) https://affinity.help/photo/en-US.lproj/pages/Filters/lighting_effects.html Edited April 7, 2021 by Pšenda Quote Affinity Store (MSI/EXE): Affinity Suite (ADe, APh, APu) 2.4.0.2301 Dell OptiPlex 7060, i5-8500 3.00 GHz, 16 GB, Intel UHD Graphics 630, Dell P2417H 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155. Dell Latitude E5570, i5-6440HQ 2.60 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics 530, 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155. Intel NUC5PGYH, Pentium N3700 2.40 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics, EIZO EV2456 1920 x 1200, Windows 10 Pro, Version 21H1, Build 19043.2130. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h_d Posted April 8, 2021 Share Posted April 8, 2021 8 hours ago, Pšenda said: In ADesigner? Whoops sorry. 8 hours ago, Pšenda said: Personally, I would also use APhoto to edit "photos". Me too. Especially as if you Edit in Photo from Designer, place my white rectangle with lighting filter, then return via Edit in Designer, the live Lighting filter is now usable in Designer: And can be added to Designer's Assets panel for repeated use. Pšenda 1 Quote Affinity Photo 2.0.3, Affinity Designer 2.0.3, Affinity Publisher 2.0.3, Mac OSX 13, 2018 MacBook Pro 15" Intel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gort Posted April 8, 2021 Author Share Posted April 8, 2021 Hi all, Thanks for all the info, and I have to say none of which I tried quite in the same way! But I will be trying out each one later today, see which one works best for me - I'll let you all know how I get on. Thanks again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmwellborn Posted April 8, 2021 Share Posted April 8, 2021 @Alfred And turned loose with someone like me, your method can result in things like this. Zowie!!🙄 On the other hand . . . Alfred and firstdefence 1 1 Quote 24" iMAC Apple M1 chip, 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 16 GB unified memory, 1 TB SSD storage, Ventura 13.6. Photo, Publisher, Designer 1.10.5, and 2.3. MacBook Pro 13" 2020, Apple M1 chip, 16GB unified memory, 256GB SSD storage, Ventura 13.6. Publisher, Photo, Designer 1.10.5, and 2.1.1. iPad Pro 12.9 2020 (4th Gen. IOS 16.6.1); Apple pencil. Wired and bluetooth mice and keyboards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gort Posted April 8, 2021 Author Share Posted April 8, 2021 12 hours ago, h_d said: Whoops sorry. Me too. Especially as if you Edit in Photo from Designer, place my white rectangle with lighting filter, then return via Edit in Designer, the live Lighting filter is now usable in Designer: And can be added to Designer's Assets panel for repeated use. I think yours must a little different to mine. I don't seem to have 'Live Lighting', but I do have 'Lighting'. Everything works fine up to when I need to somehow get it over to Designer so I could use it. Your explanation on that I didn't quite understand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gort Posted April 8, 2021 Author Share Posted April 8, 2021 On 4/7/2021 at 6:46 PM, Alfred said: This worked really well for me, but it affects the image I'm working with, and I wouldn't be able to repeat its use on all the other images I want to work on, which means I have to do this from scratch again and again - unless I'm missing something... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted April 8, 2021 Share Posted April 8, 2021 40 minutes ago, Gort said: This worked really well for me, but it affects the image I'm working with, and I wouldn't be able to repeat its use on all the other images I want to work on, which means I have to do this from scratch again and again - unless I'm missing something... I noted that you mentioned in your OP that you wanted something you could add to the Assets panel: you can do exactly that with the blurry shape. Open a different image, drag the shape from Assets and adjust its size and position to suit. Go to the Layers panel, drag the shape and drop it onto the thumbnail of the image layer as described in my earlier post. Quote Alfred Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h_d Posted April 8, 2021 Share Posted April 8, 2021 8 minutes ago, Gort said: I think yours must a little different to mine. I don't seem to have 'Live Lighting', but I do have 'Lighting'. Everything works fine up to when I need to somehow get it over to Designer so I could use it. Your explanation on that I didn't quite understand. I'm on versions 1.9.2 of Photo and Designer, running macOS (but Windows should be more or less the same). I'll try to be a bit clearer... Starting in Designer, place your image. Now from the File menu choose Edit in Photo: This switches you and the Designer document into Photo (it sounds as though you have it?) Draw a white rectangle over the image and set its blend mode to Colour Burn (I actually changed mine to Overlay later, see. below): With the rectangle selected, from the Layer menu, choose New Live Filter Layer - Lighting: This will give you a new Live Lighting filter, nested under the rectangle: Close the filter settings dialog and from the File menu in Photo, choose Edit in Designer to switch you and the document back to AD, then double-click on the (still Live) Lighting filter in the Layers panel. (This is where I changed the blend mode on the rectangle from Colour Burn to Overlay): Adjust settings, colours etc as required, then close the Live Lighting settings box. Open the Assets panel, select the rectangle, pull down the so-called "Hamburger" menu in Assets and choose Add from Selection... This will give you a "lighting controller" in your Designer Assets which can be dragged over any image (and adjusted if need be): Hope this makes sense! Gort 1 Quote Affinity Photo 2.0.3, Affinity Designer 2.0.3, Affinity Publisher 2.0.3, Mac OSX 13, 2018 MacBook Pro 15" Intel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gort Posted April 8, 2021 Author Share Posted April 8, 2021 1 hour ago, h_d said: Hope this makes sense! Excellent!! This made perfect sense and worked a treat. Many thanks h_d for your time and your explanation... h_d 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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