Learning the workflow of Affinity products

[arifg]

I have bought the Universal license. Individually each program working so well but the connection between other Affinity products confused me comparing to other programs. so my question is if I am making a story book(which requires all 3 products) how to use all of affinity products efficiently? what is the suggested workflow in general? if there are videos for that I really appreciate it.

to clarify, here are some questions:

when do you jump between affinity designer to photo OR to pixel persona?

how should I prepare my files for linked file workflow (instead of embedded)

how to do a good project folder for all 3 products.

AFP and AFD has pen tools but the usage is slightly different. Does AF products pushes me to use them in order ( do vector first then go to photo and paint for example)

and so on... so I am open for any advice. please tell me how do you use AF products and what for? technical? painting? designing? because all of them should have different workflow.

[walt.farrell]

A lot really depends on what you need to prepare your images, but I would suggest you try working in Publisher, where you can easily switch between the Designer Persona (main Persona of the Designer application) and the Photo Persona (main Persona of the Photo application). This will allow you to use all functions of Designer except the Export Persona, and most functions of Photo (a few from the Photo Persona are missing, and also the Liquify Persona, Tone Mapping Persona, and Export Persona).

[Old Bruce]

46 minutes ago, arifg said:

how should I prepare my files for linked file workflow (instead of embedded)

Most important have all your files on your computer, not in the cloud, not on a networked hard-drive.

48 minutes ago, arifg said:

how to do a good project folder for all 3 products.

Again, do not use the cloud or networked hard-drives. I set up a folder/directory structure with folders/directories for the three applications plus folders/directories for any none Affinity files as well. This is inside the Main Project folder. The Illustrations folder holds the Photo and Designer files as well as the TIFFs generated from those documents. I make use of symbolic links to link folders full of TIFFs into the Illustrations folder as well, on Mac these are quite similar to the Finder's Alias files.

[thomaso]

• when do you jump between affinity designer to photo OR to pixel persona?

I prefer APub and switch the persona if the tasks require a switch (e.g. to the Appearance Panel in AD / for pixel image edits to APh). – For mainly illustration projects I use the separate AD.app, for major image edits the APh.app. Especially pixel masks may disturb in APub by the layer thumbnails since they affect the entire page or spread, not a certain image or other layer only.

• how should I prepare my files for linked file workflow (instead of embedded)

They don't require special preparation to get used as linked. You can also toggle between linked | embedded any time. And you can turn a Pixel layer created in APub into an Image layer and make this linked (APub will ask you for file name + path).

• how to do a good project folder for all 3 products.

This "good" maybe individually quite different, it depends on your habits and desires. I have most image files stored in about 5 main parent folders on my drive, separated for instance by photos versus manual artwork. Sometimes I link from there, other times I create a separate Image folder within a project folder – whereas commercial projects for clients do always get their resources stored within their project folders, similar to @Old Bruce like so:
1 parent Project folder with .afpub files, plus subfolders …
… 1 folder 'Input' for client's information (briefing, feedback, emails, fonts, design manual, etc.)
… 1 folder 'Images' for client's image resources, incl. my possible edits
… 1 folder 'Research' for my searched information, inspirations, ideas, sketches, etc.

[walt.farrell]

5 hours ago, thomaso said:

Especially pixel masks may disturb in APub by the layer thumbnails since they affect the entire page or spread, not a certain image or other layer only.

That depends, of course, on where you nest them in the layer structure.

 

[thomaso]

25 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

That depends, of course, on where you nest them in the layer structure.

Hardly. In APub a Mask layer may cover the entire spread + pasteboard. For example, you can't create a gradient mask layer that is limited to the size you drag it to affect a placed image; instead, it starts at the edge of the current page or spread. This gives it an unexpected shape (aspect ratio) in its thumbnail view. – If you then try to adjust the Mask layer size by dragging its bounding box handles it may get more confusing ... not only in the mask thumbnail.

[arifg]

thanks for all of your useful thoughts. As in the name itself describes Publisher is really useful for books, etc. As I mentioned for a child's book you have many layers; Background, Characters,Foreground,Text(story). I believe that the more I use this "with Publisher" workflow I'll get used to it.

but I do other jobs too.

Packaging from paper needs different workflow but mainly what you do is to design the "Knife Mold(s)", packaging design, explanations, the template of the company. the thing is these could be changed by the customer and you have to be ready for it, always. like they can change the size,which changes the knife mold and so on.

General Object/ Industrial design. this too I believe is heavily relies on Designer because you have to keep things readable/simple, but does this workflow eliminates Publisher? i don't know.

shortly the question in my mind is how does Affinity Products wants me to use them? so I can build a workflow for each medium I'm working on, to get the most of my invesment on Affinity products

[thomaso]

2 hours ago, arifg said:

for a child's book you have many layers; Background, Characters,Foreground,Text(story). I believe that the more I use this "with Publisher" workflow I'll get used to it.

but I do other jobs too.

Packaging from paper needs different workflow (…) but does this workflow eliminates Publisher? i don't know.

shortly the question in my mind is how does Affinity Products wants me to use them?

It varies with the project and its required + your desired layout tasks. Affinity doesn't want any specific use but is rather quite flexible with your preferred workflows, tools and order of tasks. For instance, to your previous question, you can paint with a pixel brush on top or underneath a vector layer and you can change the layer hierarchy later. Or you have the option turn vector into pixel at any time – but never vice versa within Affinity.

So, certain ways often have certain consequences you should consider while working, ideally when planning the process. For instance the difference between paragraph and character text styles or between leading and leading override or the difference between the 1 outer and the 4 corner bounding box handles, especially when scaling frame text text frames. Also you should be aware about the differences between vector & pixel and their consequences for workflow and output options.

What you need to consider depends both on your skills and your individual habits – some users want to achieve an efficient, fast workflow and don't mind complexity while others prefer it simple even if it requires more steps or objects to create and adjust.

Since you mentioned "Knife Mold(s)" in particular: Especially for cutting curves a switch in APub to ADesigner's "ContourTool" is helpful to achieve an even distance of the contour for objects other than simple squares, for instance:

[walt.farrell]

14 hours ago, thomaso said:

Hardly. In APub a Mask layer may cover the entire spread + pasteboard. For example, you can't create a gradient mask layer that is limited to the size you drag it to affect a placed image; instead, it starts at the edge of the current page or spread. This gives it an unexpected shape (aspect ratio) in its thumbnail view. – If you then try to adjust the Mask layer size by dragging its bounding box handles it may get more confusing ... not only in the mask thumbnail.

 

That happens in all three applications; it's not specific to Publisher.

And in any case, the effect of the mask is limited to the layer you've nested it into. And isn't that important thing for the workflow?