Designer v2 warp question

[Otto Manuel]

Hi,

 I am a new v2 Designer user looking forward to using the warp feature to make iterations of group assets.

 For example, I have a tree leaf, compiled as a group, that I illustrated by hand, and now I want to make variations of the group using the mesh warp.

 I will use the variations in an assembly to depict a tree with 100s of leaves, so I prefer to destructively commit to the warping.

 I used the mesh warp to distort the reference shape into a new shape. Then I used convert to curves to commit the warping.

 I immediately noticed that the name of each component in the leaf had been deleted.

 Names such as LEAF SHAPE, LEAF OUTLINE, VEIN, and STEM disappeared.

 I use these names to make selections. When I make my hand drawings, virtually every component I draw is assigned a name.

 It is counterproductive to me for the names to disappear. 

 Is there a better way to commit the warp? Can I commit to the warp and retain the names of my grouped assets' components?

[Otto Manuel]

I should add that all the components in my group "Leaf" were already curves.

I am familiar with the fact that in v1 Convert to Curves deletes the names of each component.

I only used Convert to Curve to commit the warp.

I am hoping there is a better way to do this.

Thank you.

[carl123]

I'm struggling to completely understand what your warp group contains

So, can you upload an Affinity document that contains a single warped group containing the objects you have named

The Affinity document should be just before the point you would do a "convert to curves" to bake it

[Otto Manuel]

I currently cannot directly generate Affinity Designer files or create documents in its proprietary formats. However, I can guide you on how to create a "warp group" in Affinity Designer and explain the steps to set it up with your objects just before the "convert to curves" operation.

Steps to Create a Warp Group in Affinity Designer

1. Create Your Objects:

   • Place the elements you want to include in the warp group (text, shapes, images, etc.) on your canvas.

2. Group the Objects:

   • Select all the objects you want to warp, then group them using Ctrl + G (Windows) or Cmd + G (Mac).

3. Apply Warp:

   • With the group selected, navigate to the Warp Tool (this is often part of the toolbar or under the Layer Effects menu, depending on your Affinity Designer version).
   • Choose the warp type you want to apply (e.g., perspective, arc, or custom mesh).
   • Adjust the warp handles to achieve your desired distortion.

4. Before Converting to Curves:

   • At this point, your warp group should be editable, allowing you to tweak the objects or warp settings further.
   • Save the document in .afdesign format to retain the warp settings.

If you need a detailed workflow or help setting up specific objects, let me know!

 

OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT [Large language model]. https://chatgpt.com

[carl123]

After step 3 select all objects you want to warp in the Layers panel and do...

Layer > Create Symbol

Each object will be converted to an individual Symbol with the same name as the object

Now when you bake the warp group the symbols do not lose their names

 

[Otto Manuel]

I just made a symbol out of a warped group, and it became a symbol. 

It became a symbol with a copy of the same warp operator superimposed upon it. The group's constituents still have all their names, but the warp is not baked into the shapes.

It's just like a copy-paste of the group with the warp operator sitting on top of it, but it is a symbol. 

I want to keep the warped shapes and lose the warp operator. 

Thank you.

 

[carl123]

2 minutes ago, Otto Manuel said:

I just made a symbol out of a warped group, and it became a symbol. 

Why?

I said make symbols out of the objects

 

[Otto Manuel]

Just in case someone wants to look into this without making their own quick test file here is a Designer v2 project you can inspect:

Leaf-Warp-Group.afdesignLeaf-Warp-Group.afdesign

[Otto Manuel]

8 minutes ago, carl123 said:

Why?

I said make symbols out of the objects

 

I can't tell if you are being genuine or trolling, but suggesting that I make my groups' numerous elements into symbols seems ridiculous.

I try to make good use of symbols when they make sense and are efficient.

My illustrations would end up with hundreds or thousands of symbols. It would be a nightmare of procedural processing.

That seems like a heavy-handed solution for retaining element names when baking a warp.

[carl123]

In attached, select the Warp Group Layer and convert to curves

Symbol layer names are preserved

 

Leaf.afdesign

[Otto Manuel]

28 minutes ago, carl123 said:

After step 3 select all objects you want to warp in the Layers panel and do...

Layer > Create Symbol

Each object will be converted to an individual Symbol with the same name as the object

Now when you bake the warp group the symbols do not lose their names

 

OK. Perhaps I overlooked the details of this suggestion.

Are you suggesting that I temporarily make every element in my warp group a symbol and then convert to curve the group?

I tried that and it works. Thank you.

Then I detached the group so I could clean up my symbols window...

and figured out that I must right-click each unwanted symbol to delete them.

A brutal non-time saver.

I had hoped that Warp would be a nice time-saving feature for my use case, but it is beginning to look like hand drawing various iterations is going to be quicker than using warp.

Thank you. 

 

 

[carl123]

3 minutes ago, Otto Manuel said:

and figured out that I must right-click each unwanted symbol to delete them.

Are you talking about removing them from the Symbols panel?

[Otto Manuel]

Yes, I do not want to end up with hundreds or thousands of symbols in my symbols panel.

Your workaround seems like a good process for retaining the names. If I could find a quick way to delete all the symbols, I would like to.

Thank you.

[carl123]

It's a relatively easy process to convert those Symbols back to curves (keeping their names) and to remove them from the Symbols panel but since you like to call people that are trying to help you, trolls...

I'll let you figure it out

Bye

[Otto Manuel]

So, a genuine troll?

🙂

 

 

[Otto Manuel]

Now that I have had a brief time to become familiar with this workaround suggestion to turn the elements into symbols, I realize that the names of my elements are not preserved; it just appears that they are preserved because every element is automatically placed within a newly added layer.

The name of the element is transferred as the name of the Layer, while the name of the actual element is deleted and substituted with "Curve".

This means that in my layer display, I now have twice as many rows to sift through. The names of my elements are still deleted and replaced with "Curve", a bunch of Layer rows are added, and I have a bunch of symbols gathering in the symbol window.

Ideally, I could simply *bake* the warp into the group without deleting all the names of my elements. 

In other words, it would seem ideal if a simple process could simplify the document rather than add layers, pardon the pun, of complexity.

Thank you.