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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! :)

 

 

post-4613-0-56209600-1460916149_thumb.png

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  • Staff

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

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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! :)

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  • Staff

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.

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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.

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  • Staff

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.

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  • 10 months later...

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.

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  • 1 year later...

A workaround for those who have both Photo and Designer is to use Live Filters from Photo:

  1. Create a live Gaussian Blur filter in Photo, then copy and paste it into Designer
  2. Create an object the size and shape as your desired blur (use an opaque color for the strongest blur effect)
  3. Place your object above the live filter in the Layers panel, then right click and select "Mask to below"
  4. 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.
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