Affinity Photo Masking a selection on Bigger size layer then project dimensions.

[euronesia]

Hi All,

I'm a photoshop user trying to learn Affinity Photo and there are so many little things I can't figure out on how to do in.

Can someone please explain to me how to make correct selection masking in Affinity Photo.

What happens is when ever I try to make the mask based on the selection on a layer which is bigger then the project dimensions, the mask is only based on actual project dimension of the project. not to whole layer size.
Example as seen on the attachment.

My question is how do I make that selection mask only at the selected area, as it works in photoshop.
Is that possible in Affinity Photo?

Please advice.

Cheers

[Ron P.]

There's a few ways to deal with this.

1. Before you make your selection, Right-Click on the layer that you need trimmed, and choose Rasterize and Trim.
2. OR Go Document>Clip Canvas or Unclip Canvas.
3. Then make your selection and mask.
4. One other thing you could do is just scale the layer down, by grabbing a corner with the Move tool so it fits the document size. Either of the above 2 are much easier and quicker.

Photo Online Help

Rasterize and Trim

Changing Canvas Size

[firstdefence]

Have you considered just using a rectangle to the dimensions of the image as a mask

[euronesia]

31 minutes ago, Ron P. said:

There's a few ways to deal with this.

1. Before you make your selection, Right-Click on the layer that you need trimmed, and choose Rasterize and Trim.
2. OR Go Document>Clip Canvas or Unclip Canvas.
3. Then make your selection and mask.
4. One other thing you could do is just scale the layer down, by grabbing a corner with the Move tool so it fits the document size. Either of the above 2 are much easier and quicker.

Photo Online Help

Rasterize and Trim

Changing Canvas Size

Thank you for the suggestion,

But using that technique it clips the original oversized layer, meanwhile I need to maintain the layer original size. 

So far to the only way I found out to achieve what I was looking for is to create a new blank image or rasterised layer from fill layer, based on the mask selection I want to create and then drag that layer as a mask on the oversized layer I intend to use it on.

But that's so many steps to achieve such as simple mask layer effect. I was wondering if there is an easier way to do it.

[euronesia]

5 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

Have you considered just using a rectangle to the dimensions of the image as a mask

Thank you @firstdefence Actually that's a good idea,

That also did the trick I needed, Used the layer image inside the rectangle selected the area needed and created the mask using mask icon, and I can still preserve the original layer size.

Still too many steps to achieve it but If there's no other way I guess that's the workaround to do it in Affinity Photo.

[lepr]

11 hours ago, euronesia said:

My question is how do I make that selection mask only at the selected area, as it works in photoshop.
Is that possible in Affinity Photo?

 

Affinity has two variants of raster mask:

• Mask - this has a 'white' infinite surround and is initialised with size equivalent to the document size.
• Empty Mask - this has a 'black' infinite surround and is initialised with no size (or possibly size 0 x 0 pixels).

To get a mask in Affinity as you had in Photoshop:

1. make selection
2. add Empty Mask
3. fill with 'white' while the selection is still active

 

Edit: altered description of Empty Mask

[euronesia]

7 minutes ago, ,,, said:

 

Affinity has two variants of raster mask:

• Mask - this has a 'white' infinite surround and is initialised with size equivalent to the document size.
• Empty Mask - this has a 'black' infinite surround and is initialised with size equivalent to the regular bounding box of the pixel selection.

To get a mask in Affinity as you had in Photoshop:

1. make selection
2. add Empty Mask
3. fill with 'white' while the selection is still active

 

Thank you @,,, for the reply,

Yes that's even much faster to do it. 👍🏼
Thank you again.