Affinity Photo 2: Questions about Masking

[Cybergooch]

I'm trying to dig a little deeper into Masking, and have been watching tutorials etc., but still have a couple questions:

1) I know that you can add a mask to a group, and all the layers in that group that are below that mask will be affected by it, but is there a way to have more than one mask layers in the same group? Can they be combined to work together as one, but still be separate layers?

2) Can a shape be used as a mask? I think the answer to this is yes, as I'm able to Mask to Below with a shape layer, but once I've done that, it seems to not be a real shape anymore. (You can't change the fill or line style). However, if I Release the mask it becomes a real editable shape again. Is there a way to have it still be editable as a shape, but act like a mask?

Thanks

[h_d]

Not sure about (1), but (2) definitely yes:

 

 

 

(Drag the shape layer onto the thumbnail of the image layer.)

[RichardMH]

For (1) you could try compound masks. They are  relatively new and can be a bit tetchy.

[Lisbon]

7 hours ago, Cybergooch said:

...is there a way to have more than one mask layers in the same group? Can they be combined to work together as one, but still be separate layers?

By default masks already work together.
The black parts of two masks prevail. Like having a single mask with the black parts combined.

(Black hides)