Cow Posted August 24 Share Posted August 24 Hi, Whenever I try to merge strokes when using the "Add" button, some of the strokes mess up (they are not completely deleted, as far as I can see). I'm pretty new to vector graphics, so this may just be me not understanding how vectors work. I would like to merge them together as it is shown. I've attached a video of it down below. Screen Recording 2024-08-24 at 10.03.50.mov Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cow Posted August 24 Author Share Posted August 24 My goal is to create a shadow, but can't do it since the brush strokes are overlapping (see attached video). Merging seemed like the best option because of that. If you know how to remove the overlapping in another way, it would also help right now. Screen Recording 2024-08-24 at 10.14.52.mov Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarryP Posted August 24 Share Posted August 24 Welcome to the forums @Cow What sort of shadow are you wanting to make? Should it be fully opaque or partially transparent? Should it have a ‘crisp’ edge or ‘fade out’? Any other details? Does the shadow need to be vectors or can it be bitmap/raster? Would you be able to upload the document (or a cut-down version which only contains the layers you are making a shadow for) so we can experiment with it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hangman Posted August 24 Share Posted August 24 Hi @Cow and welcome to the forums, 27 minutes ago, Cow said: Whenever I try to merge strokes when using the "Add" button, some of the strokes mess up (they are not completely deleted, as far as I can see). If you select all the layers inside your 'shadow' group go to the Layer menu select Expand Stroke and then click the Add button does that produce the result you're expecting? Quote Affinity Designer 2.5.5 | Affinity Photo 2.5.5 | Affinity Publisher 2.5.5 Affinity Designer Beta 2.6.0.2861 | Affinity Photo Beta 2.6.0.2861 | Affinity Publisher Beta 2.6.0.2861 MacBook Pro M3 Max, 36 GB Unified Memory, macOS Sonoma 14.6.1, Magic Mouse HP ENVY x360, 8 GB RAM, AMD Ryzen 5 2500U, Windows 10 Home, Logitech Mouse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cow Posted August 24 Author Share Posted August 24 39 minutes ago, Hangman said: Hi @Cow and welcome to the forums, If you select all the layers inside your 'shadow' group go to the Layer menu select Expand Stroke and then click the Add button does that produce the result you're expecting? Unfortunately not. Please let me know if you need any more information. Screen Recording 2024-08-24 at 11.19.39.mov Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cow Posted August 24 Author Share Posted August 24 (edited) 1 hour ago, GarryP said: Welcome to the forums @Cow What sort of shadow are you wanting to make? Should it be fully opaque or partially transparent? Should it have a ‘crisp’ edge or ‘fade out’? Any other details? Does the shadow need to be vectors or can it be bitmap/raster? Would you be able to upload the document (or a cut-down version which only contains the layers you are making a shadow for) so we can experiment with it? I want the shadow in the same style as this text. The same overlap happens there as well, but is not shown as much in the image below. I also attached the .afdesign. I'd prefer working in vector as much as possible. I'm assuming I can just export it and insert it as an image otherwise and then change the opacity. The fade out thing you mentioned would probably be cool too, but I'll deal with details in the end. Untitled witt 3.afdesign Edited August 24 by Cow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hangman Posted August 24 Share Posted August 24 Hi @Cow The main issue with your shadow is that quite a few of the strokes have overlapping nodes which don't behave well when applying the Add Boolean or when expanding the stoke... I've attached a 'corrected' version below... see if that gives you what you need... Shadow.mp4 Corrected Shadow Untitled witt 3.afdesign Quote Affinity Designer 2.5.5 | Affinity Photo 2.5.5 | Affinity Publisher 2.5.5 Affinity Designer Beta 2.6.0.2861 | Affinity Photo Beta 2.6.0.2861 | Affinity Publisher Beta 2.6.0.2861 MacBook Pro M3 Max, 36 GB Unified Memory, macOS Sonoma 14.6.1, Magic Mouse HP ENVY x360, 8 GB RAM, AMD Ryzen 5 2500U, Windows 10 Home, Logitech Mouse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cow Posted August 24 Author Share Posted August 24 2 minutes ago, Hangman said: Hi @Cow The main issue with your shadow is that quite a few of the strokes have overlapping nodes which don't behave well when applying the Add Boolean or when expanding the stoke... I've attached a 'corrected' version below... Shadow.mp4 7.55 MB · 0 downloads Corrected Shadow Untitled witt 3.afdesign Thanks a lot! If it happens in the future, I should just delete overlapping nodes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hangman Posted August 24 Share Posted August 24 15 minutes ago, Cow said: If it happens in the future, I should just delete overlapping nodes? Because of the way the shadow's been created you've ended up with a bit of a mish-mash of nodes so in this particular case, it's just a case of selecting individual layers to see what happens once the stroke is expanded... in general it's those with 'overlapping' nodes causing the issue. moving the overlapping nodes for the affected layers generally overcomes the problem and allows the stroke to be expanded without issue meaning once expanded the curves can be successfully merged... Shadow 2.mp4 Quote Affinity Designer 2.5.5 | Affinity Photo 2.5.5 | Affinity Publisher 2.5.5 Affinity Designer Beta 2.6.0.2861 | Affinity Photo Beta 2.6.0.2861 | Affinity Publisher Beta 2.6.0.2861 MacBook Pro M3 Max, 36 GB Unified Memory, macOS Sonoma 14.6.1, Magic Mouse HP ENVY x360, 8 GB RAM, AMD Ryzen 5 2500U, Windows 10 Home, Logitech Mouse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lepr Posted August 25 Share Posted August 25 On 8/24/2024 at 9:17 AM, Cow said: My goal is to create a shadow, but can't do it since the brush strokes are overlapping (see attached video). Merging seemed like the best option because of that. If you know how to remove the overlapping in another way, it would also help right now. Simple solution with no tweaking nodes, expanding strokes, merging shapes, filling holes etc.: leave the strokes fully opaque and just reduce the opacity of the Group in the Layers panel. shadow.mp4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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