Affinity Photo perspective tool not working

[mjongsma]

I am working in Affinity Photo 2.0.4 on a grayscale photo. The photo shows a building and a sign, and I have placed a second JPEG of a new sign onto the first photo. I'm trying to change the perspective of the new sign to match the first photo. When I select the sign JPEG, then select the perspective tool, the sign is outlined and there are four handles in the four corners of the sign, but when I move those handles only the outline moves. The JPEG stays the same. When I click apply, the JPEG is unchanged.

I can use shear to get the sign JPEG pretty close to what I need, but I really need the perspective tool to match corner to corner. Someone in another thread suggested using the perspective filter rather than the perspective tool, but all my filter options are grayed out when I have my sign JPEG selected.

I know I've used the perspective tool successfully in the past. I'm not sure what would be different about this JPEG.

[NotMyFault]

Hi,

if you placed the image, it is probably a image layer. Before you can use the (destructive) perspective filter, you need to rasterize the layer.

A better option is to add a live perspective filter, as child layer to the image layer. No rasterize is needed then.

[mjongsma]

Hi, thanks. I have tried rasterizing as well as not rasterizing, but the perspective tool has no effect either way. I am not as familiar with the filters as with the tools, and I don't see how I can use them when they are grayed out, but I can try dinking around with that.

Nevertheless, the fact remains that I used to be able to use the perspective tool—in fact I used it yesterday—and now I cannot. Other people in the forum are experiencing the same issue. Your suggestion might work as an alternate, and I'll see if I can figure it out. But it does seem like the perspective tool is broken.

[NotMyFault]

Even if there are some unfixed bugs, the perspective filter works on Mac in general.

It often helps to reboot the Mac if Affinity start to give strange results.

Can you provide a screen recording of you exact edit steps? Please include the full window, layer stack, and navigator panel.

[mjongsma]

Good morning. I'm attaching a screen recording here. Let me know if I didn't capture everything you need to see.

I did shutdown and restart my Mac this morning, and I restarted Affinity Photo 2 before opening this file. What I haven't done yet is to find the other image I was working on earlier this week, where I was able to use the perspective tool successfully.

Thanks for helping me with this.

[NotMyFault]

Thank you for the screen recording.

It really looks like an image layer, so please rasterize the layer „HB new logo“ before using the perspective tool.

[mjongsma]

I had turned off the Assistant, but I turned it back on in this recording I'm uploading now. The perspective tool still has no effect, and something else strange happens that I don't know exactly how to describe. You can see at the end of the screen record, after the later is rasterized and after I try applying the perspective tool, the selection no longer has handles. Or maybe the handles have moved—there's a little cluster of nodules in the lower section of the file. I can grab and spin them, but I don't know what they do.

That's what was happening the first couple times I tried applying perspective to my sign JPEG, which is why I turned off the Assistant, to avoid rasterization.

[NotMyFault]

Any chance you can follow the steps in this sequence:

• rasterize the image layer before you activate the perspective tool?

[mjongsma]

Same result. And it looks like those extra handles show up as a result of the rasterization, not the perspective tool.

[NotMyFault]

For me it just works.

May try to deactivate Metal / Hardware Acceleration in Settings / Performance.

[carl123]

9 hours ago, mjongsma said:

Same result. And it looks like those extra handles show up as a result of the rasterization, not the perspective tool.

If you can upload that Affinity document to the forum, we can then tell if it's a problem with the file or your Mac

[mjongsma]

I'm attaching the Photo file here. I haven't had a chance to try the above suggestion about deactivating those settings.

Honey-Berry_0798_BW.afphoto

[NotMyFault]

With your file, I can reproduce the issue. But when I click one on "select destination", it starts to work.

This button is not covered in the help file. I have no clue what this button does.

 

 

[NotMyFault]

It seems there is an selection active.

It works when using these steps:

1. Open file
2. select layer in layer stack
3. deselect all (cmd-D / ctrl-D) 
4. perspective filter

For unknown reasons, it seems a selection is active when selecting the layer. The perspective filter respects a selections and impacts only selected pixels, leading to no visible effect if the selection is small / outside the layer.

[mjongsma]

I went through the steps you outlined, and when I chose the perspective filter, it gave me the four handles in the corners, which was encouraging. Previously, I was getting a blue square around my sign JPEG, and the edges of the square did not line up with the edges of my image, and there were no handles on the square. So seeing a selection box that matched my image and seeing the selection handles gave me hope.

However, when I move the handles of the box, the image does not move with them. And when I click Apply, no perspective changes have been made to my image.

The image I'm working on is for an ad for a new restaurant coming to our town. Even though I couldn't get the perspective tool to work, I did manage to mock up a sign for them. (I think I converted the layer to curves or something. That allowed me to line up the corners of the new sign over the old sign, but it didn't adjust the perspective at all.) They approved the ad today, so that's good.

I guess I will just hope that next time I need the perspective tool, I'll be working on a fresh image and won't run into any problems!

I appreciate everyone's help. The problem isn't solved, but I appreciate the time you spent and the ideas you offered.

[carl123]

2 minutes ago, mjongsma said:

The problem isn't solved,

Open the document then do Select > Deselect

Things should then work as expected

[NotMyFault]

Another way where it will always work: use the live perspective filter, and rasterize (if needed) when done.

[NotMyFault]

5 hours ago, carl123 said:

Open the document then do Select > Deselect

Things should then work as expected

Interestingly, you need do deselect after the image layer has been selected (not before).

[NotMyFault]

Attention to moderators: there is really a bug.

the non-live filter sometimes get confused and uses a (unsuitable and invisible) selection after activation. 
There is an new undocumented button „select destination“ which needs to be clicked. Please document the functionality, and check why invisible selections come into play when activating the non-live perspective filter.

https://affinity.help/photo2/English.lproj/pages/Tools/tools_perspective.html

No reference to the „Select Destination“ button

 

[stokerg]

Hi @NotMyFault,

There is an active selection present, which is stopping it from working.  If you open the original file and click Select>Save Selection>As Spare Channel and then load that spare channel to a Pixel Selection and you'll see there is a very small amount of pixels selected (screenshot attached).  Also if you just open the file and do a CMD+X and then File>New From Clipboard, you'll see the pixels.   I agree there is an issue here, as even when I make a 1 pixel selection and I zoom in I can see that selection, so I'm not sure why it's not showing in this file.  I'll get this written up and logged with the Developers.

On 2/18/2023 at 9:20 AM, NotMyFault said:

No reference to the „Select Destination“ button

 

I'll get that logged with the Docs team  

[Stub Mandrel]

I have the same problem on my PC. Upgraded to the new version, rasterised layer, perspective tool, move handles, frame changes, image does not. Apply doesn't do anything. Same with mesh. No preview, no effect, nothing.

[zenmom]

Thank you for your various advice. The need to rasterize something that had originally come from Affinity Photo wasn't clear to me, and in my case was the solution to the Perspective option being grayed out. So, thanks!