Vector flood fill tool not working as expected

[No Tuppence]

When I draw using the vector brush tool, the vector flood fill tool is not filling a closed area as expected (see fig. 1 in attached file). It appears that I have to make sure that the lines are literally crossing each other before the area will fill as see in fig. 2. This isn’t very practical when creating a detailed illustration and I am wondering what I may be doing wrong or if someone can confirm that this is just how the vector flood fill tool works?

 

I am working on the I Pad version.

[Bri-Toon]

Hi there,
If you open the Navigator studio, and change the view mode from Vector to Hairline, zoom in good and check to see if the actual lines are connecting. There might be a hidden open area. If so, drag the lines so they touch.

Another thing you can do is expand the strokes, and then the flood fills should work.

[Dan C]

Hi @No Tuppence,

Welcome to the Affinity Forums & our apologies for the delayed response during the holiday period.

The Vector Flood Fill Tool is designed to work in this way within Affinity, you can find out more in the 'Flooding Areas' helpfile page:

Quote

The Vector Flood Fill Tool detects edges in your drawing and then, if a fully enclosed area is detected, it will flood fill to the area's boundary.
(...)

The area to be flooded must be self-contained by a curve's or shape's edges. The concave area formed from open curves cannot be flooded if not intersected by another curve.

I hope this helps clear things up!

[No Tuppence]

I was able to find a solution via YouTube but to provide a bit of feedback this wasn't a massively helpful response. Although the curves look like they are forming a closed area, if you switch to the hairline view of the stroke you are able to see that they aren't. The brush you are using gives the illusion that they are however.

To ensure that the area is closed without having to edit your line work you can select Expand Stroke. I find it's best to duplicate the layer with your line work on and then you still have the original line work to edit after colouring if necessary (for anyone else that encounters this problem).