kterry333 Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 I have acquired quite a few really solid photoshop brush tool presets over the years but I haven't found a way to use them either Affinity product. Is there something I am missing or is this not currently supported? Any plans to add compatibility? Thanks! Cynthiaket 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anon1 Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 You can import .abr brushes. Did you try this and ran into any problems? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kterry333 Posted October 23, 2015 Author Share Posted October 23, 2015 You can import .abr brushes. Did you try this and ran into any problems? yea, importing .abr files works perfectly but some brushes I have are tool presets (.tpl) files. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MEB Posted October 23, 2015 Staff Share Posted October 23, 2015 Hi kterry333, Welcome to Affinity Forums :) Affinity Photo currently doesn't support .tpl files, only .abr as MBd pointed out. As far as i know there's no plans to add support for .tpl files but i may be wrong on this. Quote A Guide to Learning Affinity Software | Affinity Quick Reference Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anon1 Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 I'm sorry, I've no experience with these files but might it be a solution if affinity adds the sticky settings? I'm thinking these files contain some presets and those are kept in there? I'd be happy if you'd tell me what they're about! Thanks in advance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kterry333 Posted October 23, 2015 Author Share Posted October 23, 2015 I'm sorry, I've no experience with these files but might it be a solution if affinity adds the sticky settings? I'm thinking these files contain some presets and those are kept in there? I'd be happy if you'd tell me what they're about! Thanks in advance! my basic understanding on how they work is this: you open the tool preset panel and load a particular set of presets. the preset panel then displays certain option from the loaded preset based on the selected tool. so for instance when the eraser tool is selected it only shows presets for that tool, and when the brush is selected it shows those presets. I think some brush makers use these over standard photoshop brushes as it allows them to change brush opacity, color, and a few other settings that they can't access via the .abr files. Ill try to find a video that explains it incase my explanation isn't clear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kterry333 Posted October 23, 2015 Author Share Posted October 23, 2015 Hi kterry333, Welcome to Affinity Forums :) Affinity Photo currently doesn't support .tpl files, only .abr as MBd pointed out. As far as i know there's no plans to add support for .tpl files but i may be wrong on this. Seems the tool presets are an approach that is much different than what you guys have in mind for the Affinity line so I completely understand. Maybe I can try contacting the brush creators and see if its possible for them to package their brushes as .abr files. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anon1 Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 Ok thank tou for your efforts explaining it, although I think I did not totally get it, I've got another idea: You could ask this smart artist about brushes https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/user/2042-paololimoncelli/ He created these DAUB brushes and does some great paintings! Maybe he also jumps in himself, or you write him a message ;) He just made a request for a special brush feature and it was added afterwards so he has got some great ideas about brushes ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kterry333 Posted October 23, 2015 Author Share Posted October 23, 2015 Ok thank tou for your efforts explaining it, although I think I did not totally get it, I've got another idea: You could ask this smart artist about brushes https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/user/2042-paololimoncelli/ He created these DAUB brushes and does some great paintings! Maybe he also jumps in himself, or you write him a message ;) He just made a request for a special brush feature and it was added afterwards so he has got some great ideas about brushes ;) Alright thanks. I found a few videos that explained it but they were kind of long so I won't waste your time with them lol. I'll send him a message and see what he thinks. I have his brushes and they replaced some brushes I was using before so maybe he can help me out. Thanks again! anon1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmac Posted October 24, 2015 Share Posted October 24, 2015 kterry333, This is not an ideal solution because like you I have quite a few presets but you could assign one of your presets to a brush and save it as a new .abr in Photoshop and then import that into Affinity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paolo.limoncelli Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 A bird told me about this discussion... :) Hi kterry333! What you ask is pretty clear to me. TPL are an "extension" of PS logic and caused lots of troubles in the past. Today it is still very hard to make users understand it easily. Trust me, lots of professional digital painters don't know the difference between ABR and TPL ;) TPL are stored settings of tools (not only paintbrush). If the saved preset is a brush, it embeds ABR (what AD calls Nozzle) and Texture too. To have TPL brushes working in AD i think that any feature and relative settings of current painting engine should be mapped on PS engine. I think it is really hard to be replicated completely... But never say never... Affinity has been showing us terrific solutions since last year :) Affinity way to manage brushes is very powerful and follows the TPL approach. What you save are all settings, including nozzles, textures and Tool assigned too. And can categorise it easily. This is apporach is the preferred one by artists: Do you need a blender? Pick it and blend tool comes along with, without having to select it before. He created these DAUB brushes and does some great paintings! Thanks MBd you're too kind! :) evtonic3, cloudbusting and anon1 3 Quote The white dog, making tools for artists, illustrators and doodlers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madame Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 This is apporach is the preferred one by artists: Do you need a blender? Pick it and blend tool comes along with, without having to select it before. Paolo, can you explain more. Are there some blending brushes somewhere to download? Quote - Affinity Photo 2.3.0 - Affinity Designer 2.3.0 -Affinity Publisher 2.3.0 MacBook Pro 16 GB MacOS Sonoma 14.1.2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paolo.limoncelli Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 On my HD for sure... :lol: Will share them once completed. I'm going to make a quick tutorial to create a Blender customising one of the available brushes. Will post it very soon in this forum. anon1 1 Quote The white dog, making tools for artists, illustrators and doodlers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madame Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 On my HD for sure... :lol: Will share them once completed. I'm going to make a quick tutorial to create a Blender customising one of the available brushes. Will post it very soon in this forum. Wow.. great!! Looking forward to it. Quote - Affinity Photo 2.3.0 - Affinity Designer 2.3.0 -Affinity Publisher 2.3.0 MacBook Pro 16 GB MacOS Sonoma 14.1.2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kterry333 Posted October 27, 2015 Author Share Posted October 27, 2015 A bird told me about this discussion... :) Hi kterry333! What you ask is pretty clear to me. TPL are an "extension" of PS logic and caused lots of troubles in the past. Today it is still very hard to make users understand it easily. Trust me, lots of professional digital painters don't know the difference between ABR and TPL ;) TPL are stored settings of tools (not only paintbrush). If the saved preset is a brush, it embeds ABR (what AD calls Nozzle) and Texture too. To have TPL brushes working in AD i think that any feature and relative settings of current painting engine should be mapped on PS engine. I think it is really hard to be replicated completely... But never say never... Affinity has been showing us terrific solutions since last year :) Affinity way to manage brushes is very powerful and follows the TPL approach. What you save are all settings, including nozzles, textures and Tool assigned too. And can categorise it easily. This is apporach is the preferred one by artists: Do you need a blender? Pick it and blend tool comes along with, without having to select it before. Thanks MBd you're too kind! :) Thanks for the reply, I was gonna message you but just hadn't had a chance yet so glad you made your way here. Thanks for the clarification, i wasn't aware that Affinity was handling brushes so similar to the tool approach. So that makes me feel a little better, i quite prefer that method of accessing brushes over the tradition brush method in PS. I am sure the Affinity team has many more priority things to work than PS tool integration so I won't hold my breathe on it coming any time soon but I'll be using their products daily for a while so if and when it comes I'll be ready lol. paolo.limoncelli 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kterry333 Posted October 27, 2015 Author Share Posted October 27, 2015 kterry333, This is not an ideal solution because like you I have quite a few presets but you could assign one of your presets to a brush and save it as a new .abr in Photoshop and then import that into Affinity. I would but I no longer have PS installed on my computer. And my work computer has PS CS3 and I am not sure what minimum version the brushes work with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paolo.limoncelli Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 ABR file definition has been the same since ages I think... I've successfully exported some CC 2015 ABR to my old Photoshop CS2 and Affinity Designer too :) cloudbusting 1 Quote The white dog, making tools for artists, illustrators and doodlers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cloudbusting Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 A .TPL brush importer would be amazing at some point. I bought some of Kyle's mega brushpacks and would love if I could import them all to affinity for when I eventually cancel my adobe subscription...+paolo.limoncelli I must try your brushes out! :) I like to work over my pencil sketches with digital pencil brushes that match the drawing well, so I can be too fussy for my own good :3 Do your pencil brushes scale well for broad strokes, whilst keeping a fine texture? Or is the texture separate with DAUB? Sorry, I'm not that knowledgeable on the affinity format yet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paolo.limoncelli Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 A .TPL brush importer would be amazing at some point. I bought some of Kyle's mega brushpacks and would love if I could import them all to affinity for when I eventually cancel my adobe subscription... I guess that a TPL importer could be tricky, since you have to clone PS engine to do that... And I'm not sure Serif wants to clone anybody, they stated they want to follow their path reasonably. But who knows, maybe they will find a way to make TPL work... :) Personally I'm happy with Affinity Engine so far. Not yet the same number of features available in PS, but some interesting level of customisation, such as ramps. Also I'm sure we're only scratching the surface of its future capabilities. +paolo.limoncelli I must try your brushes out! :) I like to work over my pencil sketches with digital pencil brushes that match the drawing well, so I can be too fussy for my own good :3 Do your pencil brushes scale well for broad strokes, whilst keeping a fine texture? Or is the texture separate with DAUB? Sorry, I'm not that knowledgeable on the affinity format yet! My pencils have their own texture embedded with preset. You can generate texture in two possible way in Affinity: Embedding a seamless bitmap Using flow and multiple nozzles Obviously you can mix both. If you pursue the multiple nozzle + flow the texture will scale with brush size. If you decide to use a texture you have to scale it independently in the Brush Editor, otherwise it will not follow brush size. You can try my pencils here cloudbusting 1 Quote The white dog, making tools for artists, illustrators and doodlers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ambiroa Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 How does Affinity know which settings in the .abr is what? 1. Is it (almost) a 1 to 1 copy from PS in terms of development, I mean, did Affinity watched the settings in PS, Manga Studio, etc as much as possibly and replicated them in Affinity? 2. What happens with the settings that are not taken over during import, for example because Affinity doesn't have that setting, or the setting has a different name? Creating your own brushes or buying Paolo's is great of course, but I think that many PS artists that are open to switch to AP, have build on the trust on their brushes, and hope that it imports (translates) almost perfectly to Affinity via .abr. Basically without the need to review all their imported brush's settings to see what changed. cloudbusting 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cloudbusting Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 Yeah, I guess I was thinking of a converter that would look at the photoshop preset and just pull the textures and settings into something that resembles it in DAUB, rather than native tpl support would be awkward to do I'm sure. A small one time conversion exe would make me happy too :D Even a community made one. I think Artrage did something like this? Gunna try out your pencils and see how it goes, thanks :) One think that bothered me about the non tool preset brushes in photoshop was the resolution of textures and worrying about large print formats, etc. I think I understand the multiple nozzle principle but when you say flow, do you recommend setting it to a slow flow? Would this somehow build up a high res texture? I notice you have DAUB blenders also which I look forward to trying. One thing I really missed in photoshop was a similar pencil blender to Artrage. It basically creates a frosted blur to the pencil strokes much like a tortillon or similar, rather than blurring it completely. Yeah - told you I was fussy xD I may invest in your full pack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paolo.limoncelli Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 Creating your own brushes or buying Paolo's is great of course, but I think that many PS artists that are open to switch to AP, have build on the trust on their brushes, and hope that it imports (translates) almost perfectly to Affinity via .abr. Basically without the need to review all their imported brush's settings to see what changed. Hi Ambiroa, what you say makes sense perfectly, and this is the reason why you will not find one single topic in this forum where I suggest to buy my tools as an answer to a user question on the brush engine. :) Obviously I'm leaving apart the explicit requests. 1. Is it (almost) a 1 to 1 copy from PS in terms of development, I mean, did Affinity watched the settings in PS, Manga Studio, etc as much as possibly and replicated them in Affinity? 2. What happens with the settings that are not taken over during import, for example because Affinity doesn't have that setting, or the setting has a different name? Since some parameters have the same name it doesn't mean that these are the "same" in terms of coding... The example you're doing is perfect: Rotation sub setting in Brush pose is not Rotation in Affinity. Rotation in Affinity is what PS calls Angle (Brush Tip Shape category). Also I'm not sure settings stored in ABR are exposed/accessible to other applications than PS... But this is a question for developers. :) Quote The white dog, making tools for artists, illustrators and doodlers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paolo.limoncelli Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 On 12/12/2016 at 3:09 PM, cloudbusting said: I think I understand the multiple nozzle principle but when you say flow, do you recommend setting it to a slow flow? Would this somehow build up a high res texture? I did a quick tutorial to create a custom pencil ages ago, it explains the principle of building texture with flow https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/2240-pencil-brushes/?hl=%2Bpencil%2C+%2Bpaolo&p=15402 Here you'll find another tutorial to understand Tilting and ramps. https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/20659-how-to-create-a-dynamic-marker-advanced/?hl=%2Bdynamic+%2Bmarker This is a tutorial I made to create a Bristle brush, useful to understand other parameters. http://www.paololimoncelli.com/bristles-for-affinity-designer/ Quote I notice you have DAUB blenders also which I look forward to trying. One thing I really missed in photoshop was a similar pencil blender to Artrage. It basically creates a frosted blur to the pencil strokes much like a tortillon or similar, rather than blurring it completely. Yeah - told you I was fussy I may invest in your full pack The Blenders you're searching, thanks to Serif, are available for free from the Affinity Blog https://affinity.serif.com/blog/page/2/ Alfred and cloudbusting 2 Quote The white dog, making tools for artists, illustrators and doodlers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cloudbusting Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 Excellent, thanks for all your help :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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