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How do I convert a selection into a vector shape?


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6 hours ago, firstdefence said:

the other advantage is you have total control over your art instead of what amounts to a random guesstimate of the art you want tracing, plus you'd probably spend as much time tweaking the trace as if you done it from scratch.

While some of the existing auto-tracers can, with a certain amount of human input, do a half way decent job of minimizing excessive node creation while still preserving a usable amount of path detail, I have yet to find one capable of grouping & stacking shape layers into the kind of parent/child object hierarchies humans typically create to simplify editing complex documents, or recognizing that a single gradient-filled shape could be substituted for a dozen or more overlaid shapes of different colors, or that a variable width stroke on a single shape would be better than overlaying smaller shapes on a larger one to achieve the same look.

 

I think this kind of 'intelligent' auto-tracing is or soon will be possible due to advances in machine learning, & from a few remarks made by one of the developers around a year ago, this is what they would like to add to Affinity Designer ... eventually.

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  • 1 year later...

I'd love this feature as well - would be a nice way to help with converting a raster logo to an SVG one.

Even if the SVG would be a subject to further adjustments, it'd still save a lot of work, especially for the simple stuff.

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8 hours ago, DaftPuzzler said:

It's 2019.  How is this still not a feature?  Every other major editor I use can do it.

Because this can be done in most other editors, it would make sense to deal with more pressing features first and I can't see a great deal of benefit to having a tracing feature in affinity if it's not better than other apps tracing features, so, use the other apps to process a bitmap for vector conversion.

I personally use Vector Magic and I doubt very much affinity could make a better version of this app for inclusion in Affinity 

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  • 1 year later...

I do not agree. In my workflow I like to switch from vector to pixel and back.It's time consuming and somehow frustrating when you have to constantly export your art to import it again later just to have it vectorised. (+ having to reposition and scale it every time)

Edited by quasiDigi
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I bought all the Affinity package (all three) and have been trying to see if I use it full-time in production. Creating a vector from a selection is essential. A total deal breaker. I don't care what the excuse is, as a visual concept director, I do this much too often to go online and mess with some third party nonsense. I use this for creating 3d masks and a host of things.

Other than a few things I really like the tools but this for any vector software to lack is unacceptable.

I'm doing an edit because I do want to stress how much I really love your software. I very much wish to break free from the grip of both Autodesk and Adobe. Blender has gone beyond in the area of 3D but in the 2D software there is still a hole as long as certain functionalities are still missing. I believe this to be one major failing holding myself back.

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  • 1 month later...

Yes it's surprising that this facility is not available as GIMP has a selection to Path facility which you can then get the brush tool to trace for you.

I was looking for this tool too, as I'm trying to use Affinity Designer and Photo in my work flow, Affinity has some good vector tools but I still find some of GIMPS pixel tools more better to use. 

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I was wanting to convert a selection to a curve. Previously I never needed to as most of the shapes were easily traced with the pen tool. 

Today I had an issue in that the outline was very irregular and not as easy to trace but easy to select. As selections can't be converted withing Affinity I had to find a workround.

This is what worked for me, it may help others. 

1st I selected the object, copied & pasted to a new layer. Shrunk the selection (-5px was perfect for what I wanted), deleted the centre detail leaving only the outline, deselect, using the pen tool it was very quick & east to follow round the outline tracing it, deleted the pixel layer keeping the curve copy. Because of the contrast between the outline & the transparent/white/whatever background the pen curve could be placed exact.

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  • 2 weeks later...

same here,
converting pixel selections to a path or shape NEEDS TO BE built IN.

Like @languidcorpse  , I've been working in the media industry VFX/Game/Print for about ten years as a 2D /3D artist.
This exact feature is used A LOT.
I can't wrap my head around why this is still missing when it should have already been present when the first posting about this was made IN 2014.

WE / User/Customers need this feature to be able to work.
How should we favor an excellent product if essential features as simple as this are missing?
I would love to ditch Adobe products once and for all, but I can't because it's still more efficient to use them in many cases.
That's bad because I love working with the affinity suite but I often can't.

Edited by Phillip Skoric
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Almost 30 years ago...

My demo's a little confusing, because I'm trying to show how versatile this is.  (I made it a long time ago)

Anyway ... you get the point.  This is making a mask from a brush stroke, and/or a drag-shape, then toggling it between Stencil/Mask and copying from one layer to another. Basically it can do everything we could want, very easily.

Almost 30 years ago...

 

 

LP-Mask-Stencil.mp4

 

Grumpy, but faithful (watch out all you cats)

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On 11/15/2021 at 11:23 AM, languidcorpse said:

As a concept artist and visual developer this is a whole missing workflow. Not that it is essential every time I design but it is a great way to stumble across original ideas. Most of the professionals I know utilize this workflow often. 
 

 

But this is Photoshop and not Affinity Photo. With AP you can't convert a selection in to a path/curve/vector whatever you want to call it!

 

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23 hours ago, GFS said:

 

 

Almost 30 years ago...

My demo's a little confusing, because I'm trying to show how versatile this is.  (I made it a long time ago)

Anyway ... you get the point.  This is making a mask from a brush stroke, and/or a drag-shape, then toggling it between Stencil/Mask and copying from one layer to another. Basically it can do everything we could want, very easily.

Almost 30 years ago...

 

 

LP-Mask-Stencil.mp4

 

Are you saying you can create a selection and convert it to a vector curve/shape? I can't find a way to do that! Yes make it a mask or a pixel layer but not a curve. I'm wanting a selection (marching ants) to be converted to a curve with nodes that can be tweaked to get a curve/shape that can be filled and/or have the stroke adjusted. That is not possible now or anytime in it's relatively short life as Affinity Photo.

 

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On 4/19/2022 at 11:16 AM, Phillip Skoric said:

same here,
converting pixel selections to a path or shape NEEDS TO BE built IN.

Like @languidcorpse  , I've been working in the media industry VFX/Game/Print for about ten years as a 2D /3D artist.
This exact feature is used A LOT.
I can't wrap my head around why this is still missing when it should have already been present when the first posting about this was made IN 2014.

WE / User/Customers need this feature to be able to work.
How should we favor an excellent product if essential features as simple as this are missing?
I would love to ditch Adobe products once and for all, but I can't because it's still more efficient to use them in many cases.
That's bad because I love working with the affinity suite but I often can't.

I agree, This is a must and I'm surprised that it still hasn't be implemented if it was 1st asked for in 2015 ish. Can/will anyone from Serif explain why this has not/can not/will not be done?????

 

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10 minutes ago, Dangerous said:

Are you saying you can create a selection and convert it to a vector curve/shape? I can't find a way to do that!

I'm showing what I could do in an app, almost 30 years ago.

Yes, as you can see, paint already has a mask, made as you paint, which can instantly be toggled between a stencil and a mask and also drag-copied to any other layer, as a stencil and a mask.  It's instant. It's easy. It's automatic.  It's a good method.

The point of this thread, is that this cannot be done in AF apps.

Grumpy, but faithful (watch out all you cats)

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52 minutes ago, GFS said:

I'm showing what I could do in an app, almost 30 years ago.

Yes, as you can see, paint already has a mask, made as you paint, which can instantly be toggled between a stencil and a mask and also drag-copied to any other layer, as a stencil and a mask.  It's instant. It's easy. It's automatic.  It's a good method.

The point of this thread, is that this cannot be done in AF apps.

Thanks for clarifying.

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9 hours ago, Dangerous said:

Are you saying you can create a selection and convert it to a vector curve/shape? I can't find a way to do that! Yes make it a mask or a pixel layer but not a curve.

What was shown in that old video above isn't a conversion to vector paths, it's just bitmap/raster image data handling nothing more. There in that old software the term path isn't meant/used in a vector context.

For converting a bitmap/raster selection portion then into vector paths, some tracing/vectorization (bitmap to vector) algorithms are needed. So far none of the Affinity does offer such a build-in functionality yet. - Momentary you will have to use third party tracing tools in order to accomplish that.

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On 10/14/2014 at 5:18 PM, MEB said:

This feature was requested a couple of times already and it's coming soon.

Coming soon? after 4 years you said 'sorry, not here yet'. Now 4 years further on and still not here and no indication whether it will ever be here.

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15 hours ago, v_kyr said:

What was shown in that old video above isn't a conversion to vector paths, it's just bitmap/raster image data handling nothing more.

 

Actually ... it is entirely vector based.  There are absolutely no pixels involved apart from screen-drawing/representation.

 

 

Grumpy, but faithful (watch out all you cats)

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