Blend tool in Designer

[ashf]

Will wait!!!
At least there's a news to hope for.

[h.ozboluk]

serif is trying really hard to disappoint their users @Ash

since several years now people from all branches are asking kindly to implement the blend tool to affinity

functions that were working perfectly for years had to be reinvented after the relaunch last year and some of them took several month to be bugfree again and make the applications usable again

as the announcement to the beta 2.3 still does not contain this function just let it be clear:
if you don’t plan to implement the very needed function of a blendtool you are invited to say so and people can move on and more importantly away from serif 

no problem!

regards

[krsdcbl]

I'd like to add my +1 & agree with other commenters

Honestly Adobe has destroyed the UX of PS over the last years, and it starts to feel like Illustrator is slowly following suite. After 21 years, I've come down to actively looking for any alternative that checks the core feature set I need, feels good to work with, and isn't OS-locked.

2.0 checks most of those boxes and gets quite a few things down even better than the industry standard - but with functionality like the blend tool nowhere in sight, it makes it impossible for me to fully switch. Otherwise It'd be a no-brainer. Affinity's price point is remarkably accessible and a tremendous deal for hobbyists, but it's peanuts for business/professionals. I'm sitting here, cash in hand, happy to pay you twice or thrice the current asking price, not once but yearly. More than worth it.

But if the software is missing some core vector manipulation features that are essential for my workflow, I sadly can't, as much as I would very very much love to. (And I know, "essential" is still subjective for things like the blend tool, but in the end I want to get away from Apps that require me to compromise on my workflow, not to trade them for other compromises)

----------

Some added constructive input, since the updates sound like this feature might very well still be mid development:

The blend tool in Illustrator is actually pretty basic, when it comes down to its full functionality. The new radial tool is an improvement over plain manual rotate-duplicate workflow, but also rather limited. Both are important functions though, but Ai also just provides a limited, bare minimum in the end.

What I would've loved to see for more than a decade, is a vector editing software that approaches parametric path instancing & manipulation in a similar way to how the MoGraph Cloner works in Cinema4D. A multifunctional node that lets you define step-instancing between 2 or more objects, control their distribution, alignment, per-step-transformations, and provides a toolset of stackable modifiers that enable further transforms of the instances with simple logic, noise maps, and even simple scripts.

I sometimes actually end up bouncing my vectors, doing all the parametric/blending stuff in C4D, and re-exporting those splines to Illustrator (as good as possible at least). It's a sucky & non-streamlined workflow, but the C4D Cloner is so powerful that sometimes it's worth the effort, or even the only solution aside manual construction.

If such an approach would be feasible and achievable, I might actually forget other vector editing tools even exist

[EricP]

3 hours ago, krsdcbl said:

What I would've loved to see for more than a decade, is a vector editing software that approaches parametric path instancing & manipulation

Have you tried using Cavalry, it's great at parametric vector design and a great companion to Affinity Designer. You can easily copy paste svgs between the 2 applications

[2ddpainter]

3 hours ago, krsdcbl said:

What I would've loved to see for more than a decade, is a vector editing software that approaches parametric path instancing & manipulation in a similar way to how the MoGraph Cloner works in Cinema4D.

 

 

Would also recommend to take a look at Cavalry (PC, Mac), its called
the MoGraph for Vector graphics
There is a free Version, you need only an account
Instead of Export or Save you have to Render your result
e. g. as .SVG but is basically the same

Here their Website
https://cavalry.scenegroup.co/

 

[krsdcbl]

@2ddpainter@EricP i did not come across Cavalry so far. Prob better than C4D since it'll retain path fills & strokes etc - but I guess it's still a workaround, having the toolset in your main app and not requiring to single out individual parts of your designs + transfer/cp them around is paramount for a seamless creation process. But it does look great for other applications, thanks a lot for the hint!

[Affinityconfusesme]

Hi @Patrick Connor any updates when a blend tool is going to come to designer since mid-august?

P.S I must say that I am really enjoying the spiral tool so thank you for that.☺️

[dsnaps12]

A blend tool would be nice. I have said before that Affinity Designer is only several features away from being on par if not better then Adobe Illustrator. Maybe a bunch of most requested features will be in 2.5? the .5's seem to be the larger feature updates. 

[Affinityconfusesme]

Hi @Patrick Connor any updates when a blend tool is going to come to designer since mid-august?

P.S I must say that I am really enjoying the spiral tool so thank you for that.☺️

[Affinityconfusesme]

54 minutes ago, dsnaps12 said:

A blend tool would be nice. I have said before that Affinity Designer is only several features away from being on par if not better then Adobe Illustrator. Maybe a bunch of most requested features will be in 2.5? the .5's seem to be the larger feature updates. 

how do you know that?

 

[Frozen Death Knight]

On 10/30/2023 at 11:04 PM, dsnaps12 said:

A blend tool would be nice. I have said before that Affinity Designer is only several features away from being on par if not better then Adobe Illustrator. Maybe a bunch of most requested features will be in 2.5? the .5's seem to be the larger feature updates. 

To me this is the list of things I think Designer needs to be roughly on par with Illustrator functionality wise:

- Raster-to-vector conversion.

- Pure vector brushes/erasers.

- A blend tool.

- Vector pattern tools/fills.

- Freeform vector gradients.

- Some curve modifier tools that affect the shape of curves; i.e. randomise, noise, smudge, smooth, sharpen, and additional node merging options like merge by distance and merge to last/first selected. 

As for making Designer just straight up better than Illustrator in practically every way, then add animation support that works across Designer and Photo. Designer would practically become a more streamlined and well implemented version of Adobe Flash/Animate. That's more wishful thinking, but I do believe Affinity could be a great tool for raster and vector animation if it had a solid animation timeline (as long as it doesn't work like Photoshop's timeline that is :P).

I kind of doubt that Serif are holding out on features just for 2.5. 

[loukash]

2 hours ago, dsnaps12 said:

the .5's seem to be the larger feature updates

Some companies do that if they consider "dot" versioning being decimal or something.
It definitely doesn't look like Serif would be one of them.

31 minutes ago, Frozen Death Knight said:

- Raster-to-vector conversion.
- Pure vector brushes/erasers.
- A blend tool.
- Vector pattern tools/fills.
- Freeform vector gradients.
- Some curve modifier tools that affect the shape of curves, i.e. randomise, smudge, smooth, and additional node merging options like merge by distance and merge to closest. 

That pretty much sums up my Designer feature wishlist as well.  

[Patrick Connor]

8 hours ago, tzvi20 said:

Hi @Patrick Connor any updates when a blend tool is going to come to designer since mid-august?

 

 

[Affinityconfusesme]

+1 for a blend tool.

[mgallegos]

+1 for a blend tool.

[Bit Disappointed]

Let me put it this way: the spiral tool came in handy for a rather complicated illustration I was doing, but I would have done the work without it in a reasonably short time. Spiral tool is great for those rare occasions when I personally need it.

I'm about to generate several hundred shapes in transitions that can only be meaningfully generated by a competent and configurable blend tool. And tomorrow I have to do the same again in another illustration. And again on Monday in a third illustration. And so on. It's a permanent need for me.

So I have to go to another program to do it, but not everything is suitable for this round trip.

So for me, +1 is not enough of a statement. 

I really, really seriously need a blend tool and really, really miss it.

[Ruslan TV]

+1

[baoyu]

On 8/17/2023 at 4:21 PM, Patrick Connor said:

Sorry I do not know for sure. Hopefully, but nothing comes to beta until we think it's ready for beta.

I have an idea that solves all those similiar feature requests like "blend tool", but it will be hard to implement: make a node based tool just like "geometry nodes in blender".

It allows users to pack, save and share self-made presets which can be seen as "features" or "plugins".

What's more, affinity official could pack some presets along with the app itself. Also if it's possible, we could have a market for users to share/sell their own presets.

[bbrother]

On 10/30/2023 at 11:04 PM, dsnaps12 said:

Affinity Designer is only several features away from being on par if not better then Adobe Illustrator

🤔 I'm not a fan of Adobe, but I think your imagination got a little carried away here.

Just to name few from the memory (things in Illustrator that Designer doesn't have):

• pure vector brush creation
• vector patterns
• blend tool
• puppet warp
• extrude tool
• scripting (developers have started working on this, but it is in the early stages and it will take years before it appears in affinity apps)
• symetry drawing tools
• curvature tool
• mesh gradient
• Width tool that lets you change the thickness of strokes.
• free-form gradient
• extrude
• 3d material feature
• more advanced text editing features than AD
• more advanced transformations than AD
• objects along path
• recolor artwork
• simplify path
• much better transform panel
• remain curvature after anchor delete
• advanced repeat tools
• and loth more but i don't wan't to bother peaope that will read this

Just to be clear. Until Serif developers doesn't stop making so many mistakes during production, there is not the slightest chance that they will come even a millimeter closer to what Illustrator has to offer Adobe users.

Too many errors during production force them to prioritize what to fix and limit the time they could use to create advanced features that users have been asking for for years. Better management, communication, strategy for the future, fewer errors/bugs , attention to the smallest details (avoiding stupid mistakes in the UI), more programming resources, in my opinion, are needed in their team right now.

Edit: Ohh i forgot +1  for the blend tool

[loukash]

58 minutes ago, bbrother said:

and loth more

Live roughen vector effect!
That's what I'm missing the most, despite its clunky modal UI, and although there are a few somewhat usable workarounds in Affinity.

On the other hand though, the Roughen effect made me use Ill-frustrator more often that I would have ever wanted, including complex multipage layouts, simply because there's no such thing as a live Roughen effect in InDesign.

In general, the Affinity suite has a major advantage and potential here over the Adobe design apps due it ist universally exchangable document format.
In other words: What's available in one Affinity app is still seamlessly and "losslessly" available in the respective other two apps.

[bbrother]

13 minutes ago, loukash said:

In general, the Affinity suite has a major advantage and potential here over the Adobe design apps due it ist universally exchangable document format.

But it also has one big disadvantage, it is difficult to develop the code while maintaining this level of interchangeability between the three applications.
What can be seen from the number of bugs reported on the forum.

[loukash]

3 hours ago, bbrother said:

But it also has one big disadvantage, it is difficult to develop and maintain the code while maintaining this level of interchangeability between the three applications.

That's just your "uneducated guess".  
Technically, all "three" apps share the common dynamic libraries so that effectively it's just "one app"; only the "unneeded" features are being hidden from the respective UI so that each app retains its main focus. You can easily check that yourself (at least on Mac) if you inspect and compare content of each /Applications/Affinity [app] 2.app/Contents/Frameworks folders: the *.dylib files are identical.

But of course, at this complexity level, maintaing the code is certainly challenging.

[ashf]

18 hours ago, baoyu said:

I have an idea that solves all those similiar feature requests like "blend tool", but it will be hard to implement: make a node based tool just like "geometry nodes in blender".

It allows users to pack, save and share self-made presets which can be seen as "features" or "plugins".

What's more, affinity official could pack some presets along with the app itself. Also if it's possible, we could have a market for users to share/sell their own presets.

Developing the plugin api takes way more time than implementing certain features.
And it has been being planned since a long time ago or already in development if you search in this forum.
Means it's taking years already and still no sign of release.

[Frozen Death Knight]

21 hours ago, tzvi20 said:

@Patrick Connor  out of plain curiosity, are there any updates on one?

Didn't he explicitly tell you not to tag staff?

[Patrick Connor]

10 hours ago, Frozen Death Knight said:

Didn't he explicitly tell you not to tag staff?

I did, sort of. I effectively asked them not to tag staff who are not currently interacting in the thread. Clearly sometimes it helps in order to indicate who you're replying to. 

As head of the testing team I often know about unreleased features, but as head of the testing team it's not my job to say what features are planned or how they are progressing so I'll not be changing that approach here