How to draw different shapes in one layer in Affinity Designer 2

[Sreng Pagna]

Hi, I am new to Affinity Designer 2. I wonder how to draw different shapes in one layer in Affinity Designer 2. I look for tutorials on YouTube but I can't find it. Please help me or give me the link to the tutorial on how to draw different shapes in one layer. Thank you. ❤️

[NotMyFault]

4 minutes ago, Sreng Pagna said:

Please help me or give me the link to the tutorial on how to draw different shapes in one layer.

Shapes from the shape tool must stay in separate layers to keep their shape properties, like adjusting number of nodes etc. You could group them to modify position, size, fill etc in one action.

What is the reason you need them in one layer?

If you want to export as bitmap this will automatically flatten all layers.

you may convert layers into curves and then merge the curves into one layer. But this is rarely beneficial, we would need to understand the specific purpose to give a good advice.

 

 

[Sreng Pagna]

3 minutes ago, NotMyFault said:

Shapes from the shape tool must stay in separate layers to keep their shape properties, like adjusting number of nodes etc. You could group them to modify position, size, fill etc in one action.

What is the reason you need them in one layer?

If you want to export as bitmap this will automatically flatten all layers.

you may convert layers into curves and then merge the curves into one layer. But this is rarely beneficial, we would need to understand the specific purpose to give a good advice.

 

 

I want to import the SVG to Moho Animation software so that some shapes should be on the same layer so that it is easy to be animated such as eyes and pupils should be on the same layer so that we can use Liquid Shape to control the eye better than put the eyes and pupil in different layers.

[GarryP]

You can have multiple curves (not Quick Shapes) in a single layer by selecting all of the curves and using Merge Curves (as mentioned above) but all of the curves will have the same formatting (stroke/fill).

Alternatively you can Group the layers.

Alternatively you can put the layers in a Layer (capital “L”).

The best choice will depend on your circumstances, the construction of the document, and any restrictions/requirements in the animation software.

If you can share the document and give more exact requirements then someone should be able to help give you better information for your particular needs.

[Sreng Pagna]

29 minutes ago, GarryP said:

You can have multiple curves (not Quick Shapes) in a single layer by selecting all of the curves and using Merge Curves (as mentioned above) but all of the curves will have the same formatting (stroke/fill).

Alternatively you can Group the layers.

Alternatively you can put the layers in a Layer (capital “L”).

The best choice will depend on your circumstances, the construction of the document, and any restrictions/requirements in the animation software.

If you can share the document and give more exact requirements then someone should be able to help give you better information for your particular needs.

Thank you very much. I will see more tutorials. I think most of vector programs use a single layer to draw shapes without the need of creating additional layers if not needed because vector has points to be adjusted unlike raster layers which are needed to add different layers to be adjusted individually. ❤️

[Sreng Pagna]

2 hours ago, GarryP said:

You can have multiple curves (not Quick Shapes) in a single layer by selecting all of the curves and using Merge Curves (as mentioned above) but all of the curves will have the same formatting (stroke/fill).

Alternatively you can Group the layers.

Alternatively you can put the layers in a Layer (capital “L”).

The best choice will depend on your circumstances, the construction of the document, and any restrictions/requirements in the animation software.

If you can share the document and give more exact requirements then someone should be able to help give you better information for your particular needs.

In the case of coloring the hair here. If it were in a single layer, then we can just simply use the Vector Flood Fill tool to fill in the color because they are close shape on one layer. But then in this file, I can't achieve that because even a small line needs to be in its own separated layers.

The character was drawn in Moho Animation, but I wanted to test if it is the same when drawing in Affinity Designer 2. In Moho, the hair is made of three shape, the top, and two on the side. the three shapes are connected together so that we can use fill tool easily. However, in affinity, I can't use the Vector Flood Fill tool to fill in fill color because only one shape is on the main hair layer, and the other two layers are only one line.

[R C-R]

6 hours ago, Sreng Pagna said:

In Moho, the hair is made of three shape, the top, and two on the side.

Maybe I'm missing something, but why does the hair need to be made of 3 different shapes? Can't Moho animate a one-shape version of the hair the way you want it to?

[Medical Officer Bones]

Draw the first shape with the pen. Then activate "Add New Curve to Selected Curves Object" in the pen tool options.

The next curve will be part of the same vector layer. But if you change colour of either the fill or the stroke, all shared vector objects will change colour.

The behaviour that you @Sreng Pagna want isn't possible in Designer as far as I am aware. Flash and Moho work differently with vectors in that regard. In Moho and Flash multiple vector elements may exist on the same "layer" and each element may have its own stroke and fill settings.

In other vector illustration software (Illustrator, Affinity Designer, VectorStyler, Inkscape, etc.) this is typically not the case: unless a vector shape is a separate object, i.e. on its own 'layer', these shapes will share the same stroke and fill settings.

Animation software that works with vectors tends to work slightly different. OpenToonz also allows for multiple vector objects on the same layer while each shape is assigned its own colour settings.

I suppose the "sublayers" are hidden from the user in Moho, Flash, and OpenToonz.

In the end it doesn't matter: when you draw multiple shapes in multiple vector layers in Affinity Designer, export your work as SVG and import as SVG in Moho. Moho will import these as a singular vector layer (delete the bitmap layer at the bottom after import).

Then continue as you did before in Moho.

So the fact that Designer works with different vector object layers doesn't have any impact after import into Moho.

[Sreng Pagna]

Thank you everyone.