Not dedicated to art?

[AdamStanislav]

Not sure this is the right section of the forum, so please move it wherever it should be.

I just finished watching a video about the best digital art software, in which he dismissed Affinity Photo as not dedicated to art (right about 20 seconds in). I was wondering whether to post a comment under the video and mention that Affinity is an entire suite of art tools, so it is  not fair to dismiss an individual affinity app.

But I wanted to hear (well, read) what you think, so here is his video:

 

[jmwellborn]

@AdamStanislav  It probably wouldn't do any good, because if he hasn't tried Affinity Designer he is already prejudiced.  But I hope you will post a comment all the same.  At least people watching his video may Google Designer and Photo and find out for themselves what they are missing!!  

[AdamStanislav]

6 hours ago, jmwellborn said:

@AdamStanislav  It probably wouldn't do any good, because if he hasn't tried Affinity Designer he is already prejudiced.  But I hope you will post a comment all the same.  At least people watching his video may Google Designer and Photo and find out for themselves what they are missing!!  

Thanks, Jenifer. I followed your advice and posted the following comment (my YouTube handle is RustyTube if you want to see it under his video):

Quote

Hello Aaron. Thanks for your video. As always, it is very useful.

I hope you don’t mind me mentioning that Serif has designed the Affinity products as a package more than just individual applications. Affinity Photo combined with Affinity Designer is indeed dedicated to producing art. I use Affinity Designer a lot, have been for years. During the pre-Christmas sale last month I bought Affinity Photo. I still mostly use Affinity Designer, but installing Affinity Photo on the same computer expands the functionality of Affinity Designer, so now I can use Designer for both, vector graphics and bitmap graphics.

 

[sacboi]

Nice, hopefully your thoughts may introduce a degree of objectivity which personally in my humble opinion, Affinity holistically encapsulates a viable art flow pipeline, when stacked against other comparable solutions currently available. Alternatively, perhaps he might at some point peruse user generated content shared on this forum.

In a manner of speaking, determine 'first hand' the broad range of subject matter, aesthetically.    

[BarKeegan]

21 hours ago, AdamStanislav said:

Not sure this is the right section of the forum, so please move it wherever it should be.

I just finished watching a video about the best digital art software, in which he dismissed Affinity Photo as not dedicated to art (right about 20 seconds in). I was wondering whether to post a comment under the video and mention that Affinity is an entire suite of art tools, so it is  not fair to dismiss an individual affinity app.

But I wanted to hear (well, read) what you think, so here is his video:

 

You can paint digitally in Affinity Photo just as well as you can in Photoshop

[Frozen Death Knight]

On 12/12/2021 at 6:01 PM, AdamStanislav said:

Not sure this is the right section of the forum, so please move it wherever it should be.

I just finished watching a video about the best digital art software, in which he dismissed Affinity Photo as not dedicated to art (right about 20 seconds in). I was wondering whether to post a comment under the video and mention that Affinity is an entire suite of art tools, so it is  not fair to dismiss an individual affinity app.

But I wanted to hear (well, read) what you think, so here is his video:

 

In fairness to the author of the video, he also left out Photoshop which is widely used for digital painting. Though, as a counter-point I would argue that leaving Photoshop and Affinity Photo/Designer out is a bit of a blunder when a program like Photoshop is a standard among professionals. Just for a point of reference, pretty much everyone in my class who studies game graphics (2D and 3D) uses Photoshop, with only myself using Affinity and a couple of others who use other programs like Krita. As a former Photoshop user, out of all the softwares I've tried Affinity is the closest to the Photoshop experience on the market. If you come from a Photoshop background it is either Affinity or going Krita as a 2D artist pretty much (not because Krita is like Photoshop, but because it is a well rounded package that is free).

I also noticed that Aaron heavily values authentic realism when it comes to brushes, something that I really don't value much at all. While I can understand why some would value having that kind of experience, I simply am of the opinion that the strength of digital art is that it is not traditional. You can pretty much create any type of texture and make it a brush in digital and you can also take big shortcuts to speed up workflow. Most art programs can already do this, so I have come to value other aspects of an art program instead.

If I would rate the value of an art program it would be on these criteria; a) the responsiveness and accuracy of the brush strokes, b) strong layer management (i.e. clipping masks, merging/separating, linking layers together, etc.), c) strong non-destructive image editing capabilities in the form of adjustment layers, liquify, etc, d) overall performance, and e) solid selection tools. That's it. Sure, there are other things that are also important to have, but if a program lacks in any of these specific categories it just isn't good enough in my eyes.

So yeah, Aaron and I are just on completely different sides of the spectrum when it comes to the topic of what is a good digital art program. Which is honestly fine. People can create whatever art with any tool they like as long as it fits their needs. One thing I think both he and I can agree on is that Photoshop is no longer a necessity when it comes to wanting to become a digital artist. There are plenty of choices to pick from nowadays. Even my own school allows for Photoshop alternatives and I was able to pass my introductory 2D course with distinction using all three Affinity programs.

[VectorVonDoom]

Just another useless youtube video, nothing new there it's full of them. As everyone except this type knows, emulating natural media isn't the be all and end all to digital art neither is raster a prerequisite. Now if he had called it the best natural media apps then that would be different.

[AdamStanislav]

Looks like he deleted my comment. Wow!

[Ali]

If he deleted your comment, that's out of order, but a review like this is wholly subjective, therefore what he chooses to include and exclude in his top 7 is entirely his choice, whatever his reasoning.

[NotMyFault]

YouTube and YouTubers live from clicks and views - like almost all “social media”
This often lead to using click-baiting tittles, images, and provocative statements. Exaggerating, negativity, and other propaganda methods help to get more views. 

I initially enjoyed watching tutorials to learn photo editing , but after some time you find out that it’s far too much of the same, and often little actual information buried in emotionalized overblown none sense to stretch runtime and place more ads.

If a video is advertising “best method”, “secret sauce”, “magic trick”, “xyz failure”, “x mistakes to avoid”, “y essential techniques to” you know what is coming.

Never the less, there are some exceptions like DM1 and others who still prioritizing actual content over show.

[AdamStanislav]

On 12/13/2021 at 8:10 AM, BarKeegan said:

You can paint digitally in Affinity Photo just as well as you can in Photoshop

Still, I have yet to be able to do things in AP I used to do in Photoshop. Such as select an area that is exactly 16:9 (width:height, not absolute size), then crop everything else out. Maybe it is possible, but in Photoshop it is obvious how to do it.

[NotMyFault]

4 hours ago, AdamStanislav said:

Still, I have yet to be able to do things in AP I used to do in Photoshop. Such as select an area that is exactly 16:9 (width:height, not absolute size), then crop everything else out. Maybe it is possible, but in Photoshop it is obvious how to do it.

We have a wonderful discussion ongoing about cropping 

 

[firstdefence]

Affinity Photo brushes aren't as capable as photoshop brushes, the PS brush system is substantially more feature rich, so to compare them is just unfair.

[AdamStanislav]

9 hours ago, NotMyFault said:

We have a wonderful discussion ongoing about cropping

Thank you, though it still does not cover how to constrain the selection to the 16:9 (or any other) ratio.

[NotMyFault]

35 minutes ago, AdamStanislav said:

Thank you, though it still does not cover how to constrain the selection to the 16:9 (or any other) ratio.

As a workaround: use a rectangular shape, set its size to 16x9, lock aspect ratio, resize and move where you need it.

If you want a selection, create selection from layer  

If you want to crop off unwanted areas:

Set fill to white

pixel layers:

• nest rectangle to layers, rasterize & trim

Curve layers:

• use rectangle as clipping mask, or clipping path
• use rectangle for layer>geometry > intersect

[AdamStanislav]

23 minutes ago, NotMyFault said:

As a workaround

Oh, thanks. I just opened the image in my old Photoshop CSS 12 and did it in a few seconds. I have never upgraded from that version because Adobe switched to a monthly subscription.

I am still learning Afinity Photo, so I am sure I will eventually find my way around it.