Group behaviour

[Pixelatedvertex]

Hi,

coming from Photoshop, I´m used to organizing my file into groups,  having a group on top of my file, that contains a lot of "helper" layers, from composition quides (which work in Affinity Photo too) to overlays and adjustment layers to help me check contrast and colors of my image. Also, some global adjustments can be neatly tucked into their own group on top of the layers list, to keep the list tidy.

This seems to not be possible in Affinity photo. I´ve wanted to ask, how to do this, but then I came across some threads answering similar questions, that this was by design and there is no way to affect anything outside the group by changing the blending mode of a layer or adding an adjustment layer.

So I hope the first paragraph shows, how using groups as an organizational tool can be quite helpful in some workflows and maybe there´s a chance you might find a way to implement some kind of similar behaviour or tool in Affinity Photo. Basically, having a bunch of layers neatly tucked away and hidden inside a single group/folder/layer, but still behaving, as if they were standing on their own, affecting everything lower in the Layers list.

 

Cheers,

Ivan

[Pšenda]

Exactly as you write (organizing objects, applying adjustments and effects to only a part of objects), I use groups in Affinity Suite.
So it would probably like an exact example of what doesn't work for you. Otherwise, I doubt that the developers could accommodate you.

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, Pixelatedvertex said:

Also, some global adjustments can be neatly tucked into their own group on top of the layers list, to keep the list tidy.

One intentional difference from Photoshop is that if an adjustment is in a Group, and there are any pixel objects in the group, too, the adjustment is limited in scope to the pixel objects within the Group. Therefore, it's fine to group adjustments, but if you want the adjustments to apply to objects below the Group, make sure you have nothing but adjustments in the Group.

[Pixelatedvertex]

Ah, thanks Walt,

at least I kind of get what´s happening now.

Well... it´s a bit heavyhanded, but better than nothing, I guess... At least I know why this didn´t work. Still This seems like a really counterintuitive UX decision to make. Basically, adding a Pixel Layer changes the Group blending mode from Passthrough to Normal without telling you and without a chance to make it behave like Passthrough.

So I´ll just have to keep two separate groups, one for Pixel layers with blending modes, one for adjustment layers, and make sure I don´t mix them.

Based on all the other threads I found about this, saying "it´s not a bug, it´s a feature", I guess a change is not coming any time soon.

 

Cheers,

Ivan

[Pixelatedvertex]

Ok... found in another thread, I´ll just leave this here in case someone else struggling with this comes across this thread.

If you put a white fill layer set to multiply blending mode as the bottom layer inside your group, both Adjustment layers and Pixel layer blending modes seem to work as one would expect them to.

 

This might be some variation of Hens´s example above.

 

 

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, Hens said:

You sure?

I said pixel layer, but you used a vector object. Still, it may be more complex than I have understood.

edit: Also, I was not talking about the Passthrough blend mode differences (as @Pixelatedvertex discussed in another thread) but about the basic isolation effects of adjustments when placed in a group with non-adjustment layers).