Ability to apply adjustment layers to vector objects

[n_shcherbakov]

It's great that adjustment layers allow you to create not-destructive art with the ability to have control at any stage. However, what is missing is the ability to apply these adjustment layers to get vector objects for export. 

For example, I have some vector complex image with many colours and I need to shift the colour tone of the drawing a bit. I can easily do this with a recolour adjustment layer, but after that it will no longer be possible to easily export the vector image. The ability to "bake" the colour change into vector objects without using rasterisation is required.

 

[loukash]

14 hours ago, n_shcherbakov said:

I have some vector complex image with many colours and I need to shift the colour tone of the drawing a bit.

In the Vector Universe, that's what global colors are for.
The major downer here is that global colors don't work with gradients (yet). Serif needs to fix this first.

[Bryan Rieger]

42 minutes ago, loukash said:

In the Vector Universe, that's what global colors are for.

Not necessarily. While global colours work great for compositions with limited colours, they tend to get a bit unwieldy with larger compositions. I recall when I first saw adjustment layers in Designer (in the main Designer persona) I imagined they behaved much like Phantasm from Astute Graphics, allowing for full the adjustment of colours while retaining the vector geometry on export.

Sadly, it doesn't work this way. Hopefully one day, Serif might revisit this decision and provide support for true vector adjustment layers, especially with Adobe now providing the ability to generatively recolour artwork natively in Illustrator.

[loukash]

1 hour ago, Bryan Rieger said:

like Phantasm from Astute Graphics

Uh-huh. Yeah, let's ask Serif for features that other companies sell for $140 a year. Good luck with that.  

1 hour ago, Bryan Rieger said:

Serif might revisit this decision and provide support for [insert your wet dream fantasy plugin here]

No offense, but Serif is primarily years overdue in fixing bugs. I, for one, still have quite a few on my list.

As for… 

16 hours ago, n_shcherbakov said:

vector objects without using rasterisation

… the major culprit here is how pdflib handles these rasterization challenges.
Spoiler:
Still badly, after all these years.

[Bryan Rieger]

8 minutes ago, loukash said:

Uh-huh. Yeah, let's ask Serif for features that other companies sell for $140 a year. Good luck with that.  

No offense, but Serif is primarily years overdue in fixing bugs. I, for one, still have quite a few on my list.

I'm not asking Serif to implement this today (if ever), as there are far too many significant issues that need to be addressed in the short/mid term. Long term, it might be something worth exploring…

My main point was that by including adjustment layers (much like vector brushes) in a vector drawing application you might end up inevitably setting some user expectations that don't align with your actual product features.

[loukash]

15 hours ago, Bryan Rieger said:

My main point was that by including adjustment layers (much like vector brushes) in a vector drawing application you might end up inevitably setting some user expectations that don't align with your actual product features.

Fair enough. The user manual is not explicitly clear about this upfront.
As I said, there are many things on the list that Serif needs to fix first.

[n_shcherbakov]

On 10/4/2023 at 5:31 PM, loukash said:

In the Vector Universe, that's what global colors are for.
The major downer here is that global colors don't work with gradients (yet). Serif needs to fix this first.

Global colours are not at all the same as what I'm talking about in the post and exist for a different type of task: imagine you need to recolour an object with 150 colours. 

[loukash]

14 hours ago, n_shcherbakov said:

imagine you need to recolour an object with 150 colours. 

Sure, that's quite a lot of work.

While I would certainly enjoy "the magic of Generative Recolor" in Affinity much as the next guy, keep in mind that it took Illustrator a whopping 36 years to get this feature. Not to speak of the budget and resources that Adobe has, compared to Serif's. Quite apparently, developing such a feature is not a trivial task…