Johnnymycat Posted April 17, 2016 Share Posted April 17, 2016 Hey, I'm trying to get things blurry when they are under a certain transparent object. In the picture you see a picture under a transparent rectangle and I want any picture to be blurry, when it is under the rectangle. Could you help me to find out how? Thank you a lot! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crabtrem Posted April 17, 2016 Share Posted April 17, 2016 Have you tried using the FX on the rectangular object? There is a Gaussian Blur FX, along with some others you might also consider. You could also place a Live Filter on the rectangle too. But I find the FX are often overlooked and under appreciated. joeycastellon 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MEB Posted April 17, 2016 Staff Share Posted April 17, 2016 Hi Johnnymycat, Welcome to Affinity Forums :) Currently there's no way to dynamically apply a blurry effect to an underlaying layer but you can fake it using the Layer Effects as @crabtrem suggested. I've attached a sample file for inspection below. Assuming you already have an image as background: 1- first draw the shape you want to use to blurry the background; 2- duplicate the bacground image and drag it over the shape in the Layers panel (NOT over its thumbnail but over the area on the right otherwise it will not work). We are using the shape as a clipping layer for the background, so only the part of the image that lays inside the rectangle is visible. To avoid this duplicate changing it's position in relation to the "real background" select the shape layer, go to the context toolbar and check Lock children. 3 - with the shape layer still selected click on the Layer Effect (FX icon) button on the bottom of the Layers panel and check/select the Gaussian Blur. The value you have to apply it varies depending on the size of your image, so adjust it until you are happy with the result. Make sure you check Preserve alpha to apply the FX up to the boundaries of the shape. That's it. You can now move the shape and it will "fake" a dynamic blur being applied to the image as long as you don't add new objects between the shape and the background image. blurry_effect.afdesign joeycastellon and Johnnymycat 1 1 Quote A Guide to Learning Affinity Software Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnnymycat Posted April 18, 2016 Author Share Posted April 18, 2016 A big thank you for your help and your long answer! This works perfectly fine - unfortunately just for one picture, but its great anyways. Is a "blur-beneath"-effect planned for Affinity (Designer/Photo) in the future? Even if i can't use it in my webdesign (because i wanted to do slideshow, where a little part of the pictures is under the website menu) I learned a decent new function of Affinity Designer. Thanks and have a nice day! :) Megnusin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MattP Posted April 18, 2016 Staff Share Posted April 18, 2016 Is a "blur-beneath"-effect planned for Affinity (Designer/Photo) in the future? Yes, it should be in both applications in the future :) Johnnymycat, Megnusin and mikeswarts 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helmi Posted February 19, 2017 Share Posted February 19, 2017 So as nearly a year is gone since this thread was started - any changes on this topic? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mabel Posted December 22, 2017 Share Posted December 22, 2017 the ability to drag out a transparent shape to blur underneath would be really useful. Creating mockups for user interfaces would be much easier. mikeswarts and Megnusin 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 15, 2018 Share Posted August 15, 2018 Any news? It's over 2 years now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeswarts Posted September 14, 2018 Share Posted September 14, 2018 Definitely excited about the blur-beneath feature. Would be a time-saver! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gafvert Posted March 25, 2020 Share Posted March 25, 2020 Another two years later, I'd also like to see a blur behind effect! Like Mabel posted it would be very useful for making UI mockups where this kind of frosted glass-type background is now quite common Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlavaUX Posted June 3, 2020 Share Posted June 3, 2020 I don't want to complain to much about otherwise great design tool, but every time I need some feature from Designer I find a thread like this where it is already requested for years. gafvert, lepr and drysoup 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MEB Posted June 3, 2020 Staff Share Posted June 3, 2020 Hi SlavaUX, Pretty much almost all possible features were requested in the first couple years after the app's launch as soon as people started discovering about them so that's not really surprising. If you happen to have Affinity Photo you can easily reproduce this effect using a vector shape/closed path nested as a mask to a gaussian blur live filter (or any other type of blur filter or live filter you may want for other effects) and move as if it were a single object to wherever you need. You can copy the gaussian blur + mask layer to to Designer and still adjust the gaussian blur filter there. Here's a sample file showing how to achieve it: gaussian_blur_effect.afphoto To move the circle, select the ellipse (the shape used as mask) in the layers panel clicking on its thumbnail and move it to where you need the effect. SlavaUX 1 Quote A Guide to Learning Affinity Software Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lepr Posted June 3, 2020 Share Posted June 3, 2020 17 minutes ago, MEB said: Pretty much almost all possible features were requested in the first couple years after the app's launch as soon as people started discovering about them so that's not really surprising. OK, but when a developer replies "coming soon", many readers are frustrated when still waiting 4 years or more after the "coming soon" was posted. So many times we have been told "soon" by Serif people (developers or support staff), and then nothing materialises after many years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MEB Posted June 3, 2020 Staff Share Posted June 3, 2020 I agree with you and understand the frustration. That's why we have (mostly) stopped doing it and simply refer to the Betas for new features or just say there's no eta to avoid causing false expectations. That post is from 2016 and there's probably quite a few more around. Serif used (and tried to) to be more transparent/open about the development plans from the beginning. Most users did understand/accept the (inevitable) changes/delays to these plans as a part of software development/growing of the apps and worked with what they had until new features were introduced, others may have had some trouble (understandably) accepting them and end up frustrated with the lack of dev. Nobody said we did everything right - we also learn along the way - and nowadays we try to avoid doing the same mistake but my reply above was specifically to address SlavaUX comment about requested features and (try to) provide some help. walt.farrell and lepr 1 1 Quote A Guide to Learning Affinity Software Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petersen Posted April 15, 2021 Share Posted April 15, 2021 It has been years, I bought Affinity Designer for all three platforms, Mac, Windows and iPad hoping to see the background blur "Like Sketch" one day and still nothing. I wonder if they listen to their customers at all. Going through the forum articles and it surprises me more the way they answer these requests, just apply FX, etc. this is so frustrating, I really believe I wasted my money and the time learning application, keep on going back to sketch for just one feature as a UX designer, I cannot do without background blur not they way they would have you believe, the background blur where you can still move your background and whatever part is under the rectangle, remains blurred. Alpakat2 and Megnusin 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Megnusin Posted March 9, 2023 Share Posted March 9, 2023 A workaround for those who have both Photo and Designer is to use Live Filters from Photo: Create a live Gaussian Blur filter in Photo, then copy and paste it into Designer Create an object the size and shape as your desired blur (use an opaque color for the strongest blur effect) Place your object above the live filter in the Layers panel, then right click and select "Mask to below" That's it, you now have a live blur. One caveat is in order to move or reshape it, you have to select the mask inside the live filter, not the live filter itself. Another caveat is that it doesn't work well with groups, but for a simple live blur on top of an image, it works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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