A few questions/comments about vector brushes

[skylamar]

Hi. I have a few questions and comments about Affinity Designer's vector brushes:

 

1. I created a simple drawing using a vector brush (number 18). When I exported the drawing as a PDF, the lines I'd made with the vector brushes (there were actually no other lines in the document) were rasterized. Do you plan to allow for vector export of vector brushstrokes in the future?

 

2. When I double-click on a vector brush, a little window opens letting me customize the brush. However, I can't seem to make changes to any of the parameters in the bottom half of the window. Am I doing something wrong or are those parameters not yet changeable in the current release?

 

3. I mentioned in a previous post: I have never used Illustrator but I do own and use a Mac drawing application called Lineform. It was released in 2007 but it's no longer being developed. It has the best implementation of vector brushes that I've seen; in Lineform, they are called "artistic strokes."

 

Just like Affinity Designer's vector brushes, Lineform's artistic strokes recognize the pressure sensitivity of a graphics tablet. However, unlike Affinity Designer's vector brushes — at least at the moment — objects created with Lineform's artistic strokes can be exported as vector objects (when exported as PDF or SVG).

 

I also think that Lineform's strokes look more natural than Affinity Designer's vector brushes, because its strokes are more clearly tapered at the ends and thick in the middle. 

 

Anyway, I would love to stop using Lineform altogether — and replace it entirely with Affinity Designer — because I anticipate that Lineform will eventually no longer be compatible with an upcoming version of Mac OS (I have not tested it under Yosemite but it works under Mavericks).

 

I'm also guessing that you (Serif's developers) have never used or seen Lineform since it's a fairly obscure Mac application.

 

So, just so you can see how Lineform's artistic strokes work, I've made a short video. I will probably delete the video in a week or two (I published it temporarily in Dropbox). Also, I'm not a professional artist by any means, so the drawing I've made in the video is very simple:

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/614124/lineform.mov

 

I've also uploaded a PDF export of the drawing so you can open it in Affinity Designer and see how Lineform's artistic strokes are rendered when exported as vector objects.

 

Also, I'm not programmer, and I don't mean to seem critical of Affinity Designer's vector brushes, but, as I said, i would love to stop using Lineform and you may find inspiration from its artistic strokes.

Thanks!

 

Skylamar

exported lineform drawing.pdf

[MEB]

skylamar,

The vector brushes in Affinity Designer are still in a early stage of development. The issues you're having are mostly related to this. You have to give Affinity developers some more time until you can see improvements. The problem you mention in point number 2 is a known bug and should be fixed too.

[GRScott]

Thanks Skylamar, I love the simple way lineform works. If Affinity could do this with their brushes, I would be a very happy camper. 

[MattP]

Hi there,

 

Points 1 and 3 are hopefully going to be fixed extremely soon - we've got all the code to be outputting variable width vector lines as vectors and I thought we were using it - but obviously something is broken higher up and we're never calling it, so it should be an easy fix. We should be able to make exactly the same shapes as you're seeing in Lineform - try it in the coming beta as I've worked on the tablet input quite a bit

 

Thanks,

Matt

[Dave Harris]

Points 1 and 3 were fixed on Friday after Matt went home :ph34r:, so will be in next week's beta. I do think our default vector brushes ought to be more vectory. At the moment, switching from solid lines to vector seems to make no difference, and I've noticed people using vector brushes by accident because they didn't notice.

[skylamar]

MEB and Matt: Thanks for responding. It's good to know you'll be improving the vector brushes. That was the response I was hoping for. I'll be patient. Thanks again. 

[skylamar]

It's me again. Only just now did I figure out how to change the Pressure profiles for lines and brushstrokes. I had tried to draw inside the little grid that appears for changing pressure — nothing happened so I assumed changing pressure was not yet implemented. But I just figured out that I need to drag the line representing the pressure graph and that the line starts out flush with the top.

 

Anyway, I'm now able to make lines that look a lot more like the artistic strokes in Lineform.

 

However, I am confused by one thing still:

 

How do I choose a pressure profile and have that profile remain selected while I draw multiple lines/brushstrokes? What's happening to me is that I'll draw a line with the pressure profile I'd created. But then the next line I draw will use the default profile setting, not the custom profile I'd just used. So I have to select that new line and then apply my custom pressure profile to it. is there a way to have a pressure profile stay selected so that I can draw multiple lines with it?

 

Thanks!

 

Skylamar

[MattP]

Hi Skylamar,

 

Select the object with the pressure defaults you'd like to adopt, then click the 'Synchronise defaults to the current selection' button on the top toolbar (next to the different Persona icons on the left) and the next things you draw will also have that pressure profile. If you're using the Pencil Tool or Brush Tool, you must remember to have the 'Controller' (on the context toolbar for that tool) set to None otherwise it will override the pressure you asked for with the curve generated by your current velocity or pressure input (depending on what it was set to).

 

Hope that helps! :)

Matt

[skylamar]

Matt, thanks! Clicking the button was the solution.

 

I should add, though: I wish there were a way to use the pressure profiles with the pressure sensitivity of the graphics tablet (setting the Controller to Pressure). Then I think I could mimic most of the lines in Lineform. I love the tapered lines I can make in Affinity Designer with the pressure profiles, but because I can't combine those profiles with the pressure sensitivity of my tablet, the lines I draw using the pressure profiles are not varied much.

 

The pressure profiles seem more like line-width profiles to me. Or maybe you could call them something else that would make combining them with the Pressure Controller less confusing.

[skylamar]

One other thing: I'm able to apply the pressure profiles easily to lines I've made with the pencil. But I'm having more trouble adding a pressure profile to a brushstroke. I thought I had done it before, but I can't seem to do it again. Is there a different process for adding a pressure profile to a line made with a vector brush?

[skylamar]

Okay, here's what a noticed:

 

If I create a line with a vector brush and Controller is set to None then I can't later change its width with the pressure profile. 

 

If I create a line with a vector brush and Controller is set to Pressure, then I can later change the line's width with the pressure profile.

[MattP]

Hi Skylamar,

 

Ah, I see what you mean now about combining the profile with your pressure input from the tablet - it's because Lineform offers you the line shape as its artistic stroke, then you affect it with pressure. At present, we only have a profile which affects a standard (i.e. full width) line. We will add proper vector brushes in due course, but not within the next few months as I have so many other things as a priority right now, but I do definitely value the feature greatly and will get there as soon as I can :)

 

With regards to the differences you're spotting with brushes and the controller settings, I think we can do some simple things to make all of this confusion go away and we'll try to sort that out really soon

 

Sorry for the confusion in the meantime!

Matt

[GRScott]

Thanks Matt, some good information.

[skylamar]

Yes, Matt, thanks again.