Erase blending mode for inner glow layer effect

[kirk23]

To feather vector shape edges  saveable as a style

[loukash]

9 hours ago, kirk23 said:

To feather vector shape edges

Use Gaussian Blur effect with Preserve Alpha turned off.

[kirk23]

6 hours ago, loukash said:

Use Gaussian Blur effect with Preserve Alpha turned off.

it blurs the shape content too  and I'd like to use it only for alpha.  For a shape with bitmap fill for example

[Max P]

If you insert a vectorial shape as a child of a pixel layer. And you select it only, and blurring, it will be the edges that will be progressive but it will not be a vectorial shape  anymore, (switch to pixel ) any more , but still selectable with a rectangle shape (layer + child).

But not feather vector shape edges  saveable as a style 

[kirk23]

17 minutes ago, Max P said:

If you insert a vectorial shape as a child of a pixel layer

yeah,  but you couldn't save it as a style  for quick applying .   Lots is possible in Affinity  aps  but often requires so much of redundant tedious clicking.    I compare it to old Xara for example .    It has just "feather" slider , all bitmap images are instantly tillable like a pattern or re-placable  in mass for whole document, no difference if it's fill or just image .  Tags panel you could use instead of layes  , Scattering along vectors    All this just in a couple clicks  with savable presets  while in Designer  you have to do lots of tedious job to recreate same things.

[Max P]

I totally agree with you, I spent some time just yesterday on this topic.

But it's not so usual for Seriff to listen to the evolutions requested by the users, however...

[loukash]

5 hours ago, kirk23 said:

it blurs the shape content too 

Fair enough, it does. But you have explicitly asked for "feather vector shape edges". Blurring a vector shape fill won't change the fill.

5 hours ago, kirk23 said:

For a shape with bitmap fill for example

Yes, then it'll be an issue.

4 hours ago, kirk23 said:

Lots is possible in Affinity  aps  but often requires so much of redundant tedious clicking.

Many Affinity functions are modular, in that you can "stack" them in different ways to achieve different and unique results, depending on the stack order and hierarchy. That's a feature, not a "flaw".

4 hours ago, kirk23 said:

but you couldn't save it as a style  for quick applying

You can additionally save more complex object groups as assets, i.e. object templates. That may still save a few clicks.

[loukash]

22 hours ago, kirk23 said:

Erase blending mode for inner glow layer effect

^ Back on actual topic: I actually wonder why Erase is not available in the list of layer effect blend modes. I thought that it has to do with the extraordinarily "destructive" nature of this blend mode, in that it would also affect objects below in the same layer stack.
But then again, it is available in the Appearance panel with the same destructivity, yet affecting only strokes and fills from that respective object.

Speaking of the latter…
Here's another "crazy" modular workaround which can be pretty useful for unexpected effects:

[loukash]

9 minutes ago, loukash said:

another "crazy" modular workaround

… which also works directly on an image object:

Note that the exact stroke width is not really relevant, it just has to "pave the way" for the gradient inside each stroke. I.e. it has to be wider than the position of the middle gradient stop, otherwise you'd see the stroke edge unfeathered.

And once we'll finally have gradient fills that can go along the shape outline (I'm sure there are already a bunch of feature requests active), we can say bye-bye to this workaround as well.

[loukash]

In fact, two strokes with linear gradients going from edge to edge will suffice. You can also have nice asymmetric feathering:

[kirk23]

thanks

2 hours ago, loukash said:

In fact, two strokes with linear gradients going from edge to edge will suffice. You can also have nice asymmetric feathering:

thanks  loukash   A cool idea indeed.    But not working for anything  arbitrary  shaped   like it's often a case when I want to collage   images  from  fragments or re-shuffle  a photogrammetry of rocks for example with depth being a counterpart set invisible behind    .   I always loved to do it in Xara because of vector soft non destructive nature.

   That odd "erase"  omission in inner  glow effect drop down  could solve all of this at once .       I recall in Expression  I blur outline separately from the fill  and having that blurred outline  with erase blending  did the trick too.  But I believe it's impossible in  Designer

[loukash]

1 minute ago, kirk23 said:

not working for anything  arbitrary  shaped

It works, but you may need to stack several linear or radial gradients at various angles. Could be a p.i.t.a. to set up, so you may be better of to just use a blurred clipping shape layer instead…

5 minutes ago, kirk23 said:

I recall in Expression

For a while there even was a free Mac version from Microsoft until they just killed it because reason. It looked promissing, now it's hanging around with fellow greed victim Freehand in the software heaven…

8 minutes ago, kirk23 said:

blur outline separately from the fill  and having that blurred outline  with erase blending  did the trick too.  But I believe it's impossible in  Designer

I'd have an idea…
Hold on.