Confusion with Masks and Blur in a tutorial (split)

[nuptownboy]

I am a newbie user and was following a YouTube free 'tutorial' by "Affinity Revolution", which involves adding a mask which is selected by using "alt/opt"(on a Mac) so it is black  to a fill layer then painting [b] the mask on where the lips were on the background layer of model ladies face (changing the colour of the lips-applying lipstick). This section works ok but then it is necessary to add the fx gaussian live filter to the mask as a 'child layer' so the fix in the tutorial was to drag the mask to the top above the blended-multiply fill layer by moving it initially in a downwards motion and above the fill layer (and it was probably an earlier version of AP to my current version of 1.9.3 but see my first image from left). This enabled the 'solution of dragging the fx blur filter down and up and slightly to the right of the mask'  so it sat as a 'child layer' to the mask (see 2nd image below). Then one is supposed to be able to drag the mask down and to the right of the fill layer as in the 3rd image along. The first 3 images are taken from the video.

In my many attempts I was not able to do this until I managed to achieve a state that appeared to be adhering to the requirements of the fx being a child to the Mask. It is or was fiddly and very hit and miss ? However, the Gaussian blur worked ok on the mask of the lips but when I went and used the next stage of the video - Blend Options applied to the Fill layer  this did not work at all despite adjusting slowly and endeavouring to copy the video see the last photo. So I checked and was highlighting or clicking on the Fill  layer to apply that Blend option and it was though it was switched off. I am not sure if this is a further glitch? The blend options was meant to darken the shadows and lighten highlights or something like that.

Nothing was happening.
Any comments would be helpful 

I am posting on this issue as it does seem to be a problem for beginners.

 

[Dan C]

Hi @nuptownboy,

Apologies for the delayed response here and we're sorry to hear you're having trouble!

Could you please provide a link to the tutorial you're following, as well as a copy of the Affinity Photo document shown in your screenshots so I can look into this further for you?

Many thanks in advance

[nuptownboy]

Hi Dan C

Thanks for your response Dan and I  have been up to my eyes in issues so have not had a chance to response. I was able to get the issue resolved and downloaded the video and guess as a newbie user must have missed a step but here is the link to the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbYVFmxO87U

 I managed to relocate the work in progress ( now attached) I did on this affinity revolution youtube and I took scans pics of the side legend of AP to show the issue on child masks and eventually got it to pop into the right location. You will if you have the time and patience to listen to the young lady hear her say that AP has an issue which I think is quite well documented about having to drag up etc and then down to get the arrangement of mask into right location. She is using an earlier version of AP and not sure if the version 1.9.3 has improved this but as I say got it took work but my humble efforts are no where near what she achieved on the video especially when it comes to creating some shine on the lipgloss. My wife pops in when I messing about with learning AP and she had a good laugh at me with this lipstick one - I know that using a wamcom board? makes things easier but when you are just starting out with AP I would not be rushing out to buy such and often despite my efforts the screen display adjustment is an or can be a significant issue. 

I am struggling with trying to print photos out on my home printer that prints CMYK and get close to the RGB colours on the screen with AP and there is no proper coordination or print menu with a HP Envy printer and the print menu in AP albeit that I have only just seen that there is a soft proof adjustment that I have not even started to use yet or play around with. 

I think that the effort that has gone into and or is going into AP improvement is great and I can live with the minor glitches.

One of the weaknesses is raw workflow with AP that hopefully will be addressed in version 2 upwards as that is frustrating but I use Capture One express to get around that issue as AP raw workflow is not good with no side car file storage etc. 

I did do a Udemy AP course when it was££££ discounted but the AP on line tutorials are not always helpful for the beginner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvesoDALbFo

This so called basics on masks is well not helpful and misleading and could be massively improved if they provided the link to download the image that Ritson works with !!!! I am not stupid and for the life of me cannot follow this guy and then I  look at the comments and it is common amongst the views he has had and AP could do a lot better especially given its success in competing with the rip off PS. 

Any links to good courses or guys to follow would be very much appreciated

TIA 

Nigel Blanchard

 

Woman-Model.afphoto

[Dan C]

No problem at all Nigel, I certainly understand!

Thanks for confirming that for me and I'm glad to hear you were able to resolve this

Many thanks for your feedback regarding the tutorials and the application, it's absolutely appreciated and I will be sure to pass these comments through to our teams here. We're already looking at ways to improve our tutorials for the future, and I can certainly see how providing a sample file to 'follow along' would help, so I'll be sure to make sure this suggestion is heard.

In regards to third party tutorial suggestions, I tend to recommend Affinity Revolution, as you have likely found yourself their videos are well produced, clear and to the point and many of our users find these helpful. I can also recommend Olivio Sarikas, as his videos are also well received and include useful explanations for the steps he takes during the video. Although a little older, he has a video for masking here - 

 I hope this helps!