R C-R Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 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. All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7 Affinity Photo 1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keximus Posted February 7, 2019 Share Posted February 7, 2019 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaftPuzzler Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 It's 2019. How is this still not a feature? Every other major editor I use can do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firstdefence Posted March 18, 2019 Share Posted March 18, 2019 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 iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9 (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum) Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quasiDigi Posted March 24, 2020 Share Posted March 24, 2020 (edited) 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 March 24, 2020 by quasiDigi languidcorpse 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashf Posted May 23, 2020 Share Posted May 23, 2020 +1 for this feature. Deburger 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deburger Posted June 2, 2020 Share Posted June 2, 2020 +1 would be nice to have this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
true_blue1878 Posted December 14, 2020 Share Posted December 14, 2020 +1 Six years and still nothing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
umanoid Posted April 12, 2021 Share Posted April 12, 2021 And seven years later still waiting for this ability. You guys move painfully slowly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
languidcorpse Posted June 18, 2021 Share Posted June 18, 2021 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Jenkinson Posted July 24, 2021 Share Posted July 24, 2021 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. languidcorpse 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wiredframe Posted October 4, 2021 Share Posted October 4, 2021 Well I just ran into the situtation where I needed this too. languidcorpse 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
languidcorpse Posted November 15, 2021 Share Posted November 15, 2021 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GFS Posted November 15, 2021 Share Posted November 15, 2021 I started working with selections automatically as vectors/masks/stencils in 1995. Just sayin'. languidcorpse 1 Grumpy, but faithful (watch out all you cats) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dangerous Posted April 4, 2022 Share Posted April 4, 2022 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phillip Skoric Posted April 19, 2022 Share Posted April 19, 2022 (edited) 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 April 19, 2022 by Phillip Skoric languidcorpse and Dangerous 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GFS Posted April 19, 2022 Share Posted April 19, 2022 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... Grumpy, but faithful (watch out all you cats) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dangerous Posted April 20, 2022 Share Posted April 20, 2022 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! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dangerous Posted April 20, 2022 Share Posted April 20, 2022 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... 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dangerous Posted April 20, 2022 Share Posted April 20, 2022 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????? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GFS Posted April 20, 2022 Share Posted April 20, 2022 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) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dangerous Posted April 20, 2022 Share Posted April 20, 2022 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
v_kyr Posted April 20, 2022 Share Posted April 20, 2022 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. ☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan ☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dangerous Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GFS Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 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) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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