Newbie layers question

[kryten68]

Hi,

Apologies if this is a dumb newbie question. I just can't see how to perform this seemingly obvious task easily.

 

So I drop a large capital letter I on the workspace. I select it, convert it to curves and make it long - the height of the page (maybe 750px). Now I drop a large capital Z on the canvas, convert it to curves and extend it to be 600px in height.

 

I now place the Z shape over the I. The I is taller than the Z. The top horizontal of the Z shape is in front of the I. That's fine. I want to put the bottom horizontal of the Z behind the I. So the effect is as if the bottom of the Z is going around behind the I but at the top its in front.

 

I know how to rearrange the z-index order of the layers, but not in any way that would allow this effect.

 

Does anyone know an easy way to do this?

 

Thanks.

[Affinity Photo Tips]

You can't do this with layer ordering alone.

 

The quickest way to do what you want is to have another "I" that's the top layer, but mask out the top of the shape, so that only the bottom shows "in front" of the Z.

[DWright]

Hi krypton68,

 

Another way that you can do this is to add extra node to the letter Z and then break the curve using this nodes to separate the bottom of the letter Z and then mode this new shape below the letter I as shown in the screen shot.

 

Regards,

Darren

[kryten68]

You can't do this with layer ordering alone.

 

The quickest way to do what you want is to have another "I" that's the top layer, but mask out the top of the shape, so that only the bottom shows "in front" of the Z.

Excellent. I will try this. Thanks for the reply.

[kryten68]

Hi krypton68,

 

Another way that you can do this is to add extra node to the letter Z and then break the curve using this nodes to separate the bottom of the letter Z and then mode this new shape below the letter I as shown in the screen shot.

 

Regards,

Darren

Thank you. I recall trying to do something like this but could not get the curve to break for some reason. I'll try this again. Many thanks.

[MEB]

Hi kryten68,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

To be able to break a shape, you must first convert it to curves. There's Convert to Curves button on the context toolbar when you have the Move Tool selected (or go to Layer ▸ Convert to Curves. Then change to the Node tool, select the node(s) you want to break and click Break Curve from the Action section in the context toolbar.

So to break a segment, select and break the nodes surrounding the segment individually, then deselect the object and you can now select just the segment or the remaining object individually.