How to add your own custom shape in Affinity Photo?

[Asterix00]

How to add your own custom shape in Affinity Photo?

Thanks.

[PaulEC]

Unfortunately you can’t add new shapes to the default ones that come with the Affinity Apps.

[walt.farrell]

But you could draw your shape as a curve, and add that to the Assets panel so it will be available for use later.

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, Asterix00 said:

How to add your own custom shape in Affinity Photo?

As has been said, you can't. But what kind of custom shape would you want to add if you could & what, if any, adjustable parameters would you want it to include?

[Asterix00]

9 minutes ago, R C-R said:

As has been said, you can't. But what kind of custom shape would you want to add if you could & what, if any, adjustable parameters would you want it to include?

Shapes like these. Thanks.

https://blog.starsunflowerstudio.com/free-photoshop-custom-shapes-tags-2/

 

[PaulEC]

These appear to be simple, basic shapes, not the same as the dynamic/customisable shapes in Affinity. If you want to use these, you could download the png version (I’m not sure about using the psd versions) and add them to the Asset’s Panel. 

[R C-R]

12 minutes ago, Asterix00 said:

Shapes like these.

Those (or at least the PNG versions) appear to be pixel (bitmap) objects, not vector shapes.

[Pšenda]

20 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Those (or at least the PNG versions) appear to be pixel (bitmap) objects,

... which you can try to convert using an external Autotrace application (such as an online service) to vectors. 

[PaulEC]

1 minute ago, Pšenda said:

... which you can try to convert using an external Autotrace application (such as an online service) to vectors. 

Or trace them yourself with the Pen Tool! It really depends on what you want to use the shapes for.

[R C-R]

30 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

... which you can try to convert using an external Autotrace application (such as an online service) to vectors. 

True, but they would not include any adjustable parameters like there are for essentially all of the 'quick shapes' in Affinity, nor their built-in & custom presets.

[Pšenda]

8 hours ago, R C-R said:

True, but they would not include any adjustable parameters like there are for essentially all of the 'quick shapes' in Affinity, nor their built-in & custom presets.

Yes, but the shapes, which OP linked, to don't allow that either. So it's not what the OP would need, and the Shapes Tool was only used as an example of use and the ability to add custom shapes.

[carl123]

If you can create the shape you want by combining some of the existing "quick shapes" you can turn this into a Compound shape (or just a Group) and save that as a (vector) asset.

Each shapes individual adjustment parameters will still be accessible in the Compound shape, if that is an important requirement

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, Pšenda said:

Yes, but the shapes, which OP linked, to don't allow that either.

My point is just that those pixel objects are not custom shapes in the same sense as those created by the vector shape tools shown in the OP's first post; thus they can not be added to that set of tools.

[v_kyr]

18 hours ago, Asterix00 said:

Shapes like these. Thanks.

https://blog.starsunflowerstudio.com/free-photoshop-custom-shapes-tags-2/

 

That's pretty trivial to do and handle either way via reusable vector assets via the Affinity assets panel!

 

And related to Photoshop custom shape (csh) files, you can convert those to SVG and then reuse the SVGs in Affinity via making your own asset sets with the Affinity assets panel if needed.

• Online CSH to SVG Converter

 

[thomaso]

18 hours ago, Asterix00 said:

Shapes like these.

While the shape creation is not so difficult you might miss the mentioned parametric features of the Affinity Shape Tools for easier edit of shape properties after creation. With your linked custom shapes it may be additionally disturbing if they change their shape when they get stretched. So, just in case you want to use those frequently / as assets: If you create them as Constraints Group they behave differently …

[Tommycore]

I'm currently looking at designing a few card decks. There's a shape tool for hearts and diamonds, but no tool for clubs and spades. Also both heart and diamond tool could do with a few more parameters. Having the ability to define custom tools for parametric shapes would be super useful for me. Sure, compound shapes are somewhat of a compromise, but they don't measure up to the ease of use of having a specific tool that allows me to adapt a shape with a few sliders.

[v_kyr]

4 hours ago, Tommycore said:

but no tool for clubs and spades

Well the net is your oyster ...

• vector-playing-cards
• https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ace_of_clubs.svg
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Card_spade.svg
• ... and so on, do a web search after such vectors ...

... and add the vector representations as your own custom assets category for whatever reusage then.

4 hours ago, Tommycore said:

Sure, compound shapes are somewhat of a compromise, but they don't measure up to the ease of use of having a specific tool that allows me to adapt a shape with a few sliders.

Drawing and building them yourself (the way you want & need it) gives you most flexibility and freedom here, so offers you much more possibilities here than just adapting shapes tool based with sliders!

[thomaso]

6 hours ago, Tommycore said:

no tool for clubs and spades. (…) up to the ease of use of having a specific tool that allows me to adapt a shape with a few sliders.

Affinity offers drawing tools for manual illustration and design, rather than for parametric shape creation. The possible number of geometric shapes and their variations would be vast to endless, from clubs and spades to leaves, flowers and trees, vegetables and fruits, dishes, cutlery, tools, furniture, architecture, vehicles, not to mention organic shapes of animals* and human body parts… – This software area is more developed for CAD, 3D and additive manufacturing.

*Affinity Cat Tool shapes aren't parametric, e.g. for turning a kitten into a lion