When Will We Get Non Destructive Mask Blurring by FX?

[Roland Rick]

Hi guys

Please watch the video.

When will we finally get mask blurring by "FX"? That is in Photoshop available since they introduced masks. I don't understand it, why Affinity users can't do this.

It is a super useful, non destructive, trivial but important function. But it is not possible to blur masks in Affinity Photo, what is quite annoying. 

I am asking for this since 2015 or so for over and over again, my first Affinity Photo version I purchased was 1.3.x or even earlier, can't remember exactly.

Many thanks in advance for any feedback. I sure ten thousand of other Affinity users also are urgently waiting for this.

Best regards,
Roland

 

 

[carl123]

How does the FX Gaussian blur differ from...

Layer > New Live Filter Layer > Blur > Gaussian Blur

as the latter appears to work on Masks

[Roland Rick]

3 hours ago, carl123 said:

How does the FX Gaussian blur differ from...

Layer > New Live Filter Layer > Blur > Gaussian Blur

as the latter appears to work on Masks

Thanks @carl123

Doesn't work as expected/needed.

You also replied to my bug report. Please watch the video #2 there how easy that works in Photoshop. In Affinity Photo it's literally not possible.

 

[NotMyFault]

Just now, Roland Rick said:

Doesn't work as expected/needed.

Since V2 it fully works as needed, when the blur filter is nested into masking position of mask. It does not work if child-nested, or will blur the pixel content if child-nested to parent (above the blur filter).

When your need is something different, please describe. I understand you "just want it to be in layer FX for convenience". As a matter of facts, Layer FX do not work at all for mask layers (except fill opacity which just reflects mask layer opacity which effectively reduce parent layer opacity).

I Agree it would be nice, but no longer a deal breaker as nested blur filters now work and can be extended to allow changing radius (which wasn't possible in V1)

 

[carl123]

13 minutes ago, Roland Rick said:

Mask feather suggestion by carl123.mov

No, it's not

I was addressing the Gaussian blur being applied to a mask which is what this thread is about

The other thread is about feathering, which I have not looked at yet

[Roland Rick]

21 minutes ago, carl123 said:

No, it's not

I was addressing the Gaussian blur being applied to a mask which is what this thread is about

The other thread is about feathering, which I have not looked at yet

Hi Carl, thanks for reply. Well, feathering the edges of a mask or blurring is the same thing to me. I apologise for using the wrong terminology.

[Roland Rick]

Thanks to all replies, I really appreciate. - However, that still doesn't work to me. How to feather a mask as easy as it is possible in Photoshop?

[NotMyFault]

On 10/1/2024 at 4:55 PM, Roland Rick said:

Please watch the video #2 there how easy that works in Photoshop. In Affinity Photo it's literally not possible.

I can’t spot a video #2, so I still don’t know what is not possible.

the video in the mentioned post only shows affinity and that the blur filter works as expected (by me) But you are using a blur radius far to high. 0.1 to 2.0 pixel is normally a reasonable range to achieve a soft feathered mask. Using large values like 50 px just causes banding effects.

[fde101]

The blur filter is for the entire mask, you just want to blur the edges of the mask (not the entire mask).

Try using the Outline FX, set Alignment to Inside, Fill Style to Contour, and in the gradient for the contour, set the Opacity of the point on the left to 0%.  Adjust radius to taste.

[NotMyFault]

2 hours ago, Roland Rick said:

However, that still doesn't work to me. How to feather a mask as easy as it is possible in Photoshop?

There is no 1:1 replacement. 

• you can feather selections (not masks)
• or you can refine mask layers, this allows feathering
• you can apply Gaussian blur to masks -
  • either destructive so you see the blurring effect in the mask layer itself,
  • use quick mask mode and use the blur brush (which does not work very well on fine details)
  • use the quick mask mode and use a destructive. / non live blur to see mask getting blurred
  • or non-destructive where you can see only the impact of the blurred mask layer, but the mask layer itself stays sharp as the live filter is added on top and not changing the mask layer itself.