Please have support to easily copy paste on channels.

[BlackSheep-102]

To Affinity devs, Please give us support to copy paste on channels as easily as photoshop can and we will ditch photoshop. This is vital for any video game production. So long as this feature is not available or made intuitive then we can't switch! I've seen users bring this up for a few years now.

Please take this into consideration for your next update and you will start winning over users from the gaming industry.

(Before anyone goes into giving workarounds, no please don't, it should be as easy as selecting a channel ctrl - A on the layer ctrl - C and CTRL-V). 

 

 

[Lluís]

Totally agree!
And add a Normal Map filter, please!!

[ambersand]

It's a bit sad that I can edit a channel with the tools, select all in a channel, but neither copy nor paste it to the active edit channel in the same image or another open one.

Let me point out that AP is now very close being able do this, just please enable the paste. Please! (of course a warning might occur if the copy has more bits than the expected 8bit)

P.S.: Workaround with Spare Channels is just too annoying and wasting A LOT of time.

Edited August 25, 2021 by ambersand

[ambersand]

Thought about this for a moment, how I would programm this into the existing application:

1. If not all channels have edit selected, apply COPY (region selected or do auto select all) to channel.

2. The copy content goes into a default hidden Spare Channel. Depending on how you want the process to work, this has 8 or 32 bits (see step 3)

3.

Variant A (acceptable solution): Now the logic to PASTE can be 8bits into the only ANY ONE editable channel.

Variant B (not preferred solution): Or 8bits into all editable channels (which the user would quickly comprehend)

Variant C (preferred solution): Or 32bits respectively into each corresponding RGBA channel but only those channels that are editable (less comprehendable if all 4 editable it would fall back to layer in this concept, but we already selected not ALL channels in step one).

 

The logic above does not avoid overwriting channels with black content if not defined from COPY in 32bit solution. But the user should pretty quickly adjust even if that occurs.

 

Edited August 25, 2021 by ambersand

[kirk23]

On 8/7/2021 at 1:31 AM, BlackSheep-102 said:

This is vital for any video game production.

If you mean packing into RGBA   you don't need copy/pasting.   Doing it manually after every texture tweak is kind of wrong even in Photoshop.

  Just use procedural live filter to pack into RGB channels   same as in Photoshop " layer properties".    As for packing in alpha channel make  a group with your stuff and  black background on the top of your layer stack . Than make any non black pixel transparent  in that group through "Blend ranges"  and apply "erase" mode to that group.   

Now content of that group or whatever pixel content you could link there through "link" panel  become your  new "composite" alpha of a document.  

For tga files  export  to avoid black backgrounds make a white background in that alpha group instead and set it's RGB to 0,0001 in procedural live filter.  It will force  Aphoto to still "see" and save colors inside totally transparent areas  while  the alpha still be black where it supposed to be black in 8bit tga file.

 

You could do all this through macro in a single click or with saveable procedural filter presets.

ps.  Here is an example:RGBApack.afphoto

And I what I love about APhoto is that you can click and see each channel separately and the soft doesn't turn back into RGB preview after each editing operation like PHotoshop.   You could copy/ past  or rather 'link"  anything  whenever you need that way.

[ambersand]

Well for my part, I need copy&paste. 😀

[telemax]

13 hours ago, kirk23 said:

Just use procedural live filter to pack into RGB channels

Thanks for the idea! It works! Why don't you use a regular mask for Alpha? (grayscale layer > rasterise to mask)

[telemax]

This is a clarification for other users about the Live Procedural Texture:

[Mike_A]

As a new AP user I found this thread having experienced the 'why can I not copy and paste channels' moment...
I'm not a game artist, but I do work in CGI and I frequently need to copy / paste and generally manipulate channel data.
I'll have to look into the 'live procedural texture' thing - but at this moment in time this feels like a real AP roadblock to me...

+1  for easy copy / paste channel manipulation.

[kirk23]

6 hours ago, telemax said:

Thanks for the idea! It works! Why don't you use a regular mask for Alpha? (grayscale layer > rasterise to mask)

Because that way you couldn't link/duplicate  pixel content of whatever  layer from  other group or having "symbol" based transform links with layers from different groups ( if you own Designer too)  and keep all that staying live.   Like normal map /roughness/ albedo layers  .            Rasterization kills non-destructiveness.   But it could be set that way too for sure.  

Photoshop doesn't have pixel content links in between layers and  erase blending mode.   You have  to do much more complex mix of clipping groups and smart objects to recreate same live , non-destructive  approach.   I honestly find APhotos one more convenient.

It's pitty that we couldn't have 16 bit CMYK at least in AP  . A whole one extra channel  to pack things into .  It's so useful in Photoshop.

 

ps. If you prefer copy/paste  you still perfectly can. Just not into channel directly but rather into group  supposed to input in that channel . 

[fde101]

You can also use Apply Image to do this, as long as you are copying data within the same pixel layer.

Select the region you want to swap channels around on (if not the entire image), select the pixel layer you want to modify (if not already selected), go to Filters -> Apply Image, click Use Current Layer as Source, check Equations, adjust the equations accordingly (ex. to replace green channel with blue, change "DG =" from "SG" to "SB" - source blue copied into destination green), the click Apply.