Roughen Curves

[Peregrin]

I know I've suggested a similar feature, but all this talk of smoothing curves brought this up in my mind; in addition to a tool to smooth a curve, Affinity Designer should also have the opposite.  I am of course referring to Midpoint Displacement, which would allow illustrators to make non-uniform curves more easily than having to draw each node individually.

 

 

Being able to smooth curves is indeed important, but as it is, it's really hard to produce a line that doesn't look uniform, and a roughening tool to add pseudorandom midpoint displacement would make illustrating much less time-consuming.

[CartoonMike]

Big +1

 

Now that's the stuff. There's a few occasions (sometimes a lot) when I need to have roughened curves for a word balloon (like when the person's in pain, or a demon's talking, for example). Normally I just roll up my sleeves and just do it in AD, because I won't go back to the big A. But a feature like this would be quite the time-saver for comic letterers. 

[Peregrin]

Big +1

 

Now that's the stuff. There's a few occasions (sometimes a lot) when I need to have roughened curves for a word balloon (like when the person's in pain, or a demon's talking, for example). Normally I just roll up my sleeves and just do it in AD, because I won't go back to the big A. But a feature like this would be quite the time-saver for comic letterers. 

 

I imagine many aspects of comicbook illustration would be easier if you could draw a rough line quickly.

[Fisherlassie]

This feature sounds like it would be really helpful for making maps that don't look like they are made with a machine!!  I write adventure stories and this would be fantastic for making my maps!!

[Herbert123]

Here are examples of possible roughen effects that work on vector shapes. In the two applications that I used to create these, the effects remain live and can be stacked for combinations.

 

These should provide food for thought for the developers.

 

[BobsDaubs]

+1...this is an effect that can help a lot to make lines look less digital and more like hand drawn lines.

[Peregrin]

Here are examples of possible roughen effects that work on vector shapes. In the two applications that I used to create these, the effects remain live and can be stacked for combinations.

 

These should provide food for thought for the developers.

 

It's good to know that we're not the only ones who think this'd be useful.  I think it's a great idea for it to be a non-destructive property.  I'd also like to add that you should be able to bake roughening the same way you do with corners so you can then make more precise edits afterward.

 

 

+1...this is an effect that can help a lot to make lines look less digital and more like hand drawn lines.

Agreed!  It would also be good for drawing mountains, speech bubbles, maps, hair, and "ripped paper" effects.

[Peregrin]

Now that the new update's finished, I thought it would be a good time to bring this up again.

[klumme]

It would be amazing to have stuff like roughen or smooth line as layer effects -- tweakable and non-destructive.

[MisterLee]

I would also love this capability!!! 

Pretty please!

 

Lee

[Peregrin]

It would be amazing to have stuff like roughen or smooth line as layer effects -- tweakable and non-destructive.

I was thinking of something more along the lines of how the corner tool works would be more versatile than an effect that encompasses the whole layer.  MattP has actually said that he intends to add it as

a roughen tool that can be 'rubbed over' an area to roughen it (and likewise a smoothing tool to do the opposite)

 

 which sounds even better than what we were all thinking.

[klumme]

I was thinking of something more along the lines of how the corner tool works would be more versatile than an effect that encompasses the whole layer.  MattP has actually said that he intends to add it as

 which sounds even better than what we were all thinking.

Very useful in some cases, but perhaps not that convenient when trying different styles for the whole layer, changing your mind etc.? I wouldn't mind both  ;) .

[Peregrin]

Very useful in some cases, but perhaps not that convenient when trying different styles for the whole layer, changing your mind etc.? I wouldn't mind both  ;) .

I couldn't agree more!

[mikeill]

Another vote for this feature. In the meantime looks like Inkscape can do: http://www.eyedrawit.com/use-inkscape-extensions-to-roughen-outline/

[Peregrin]

22 hours ago, mikeill said:

Another vote for this feature. In the meantime looks like Inkscape can do: http://www.eyedrawit.com/use-inkscape-extensions-to-roughen-outline/

I've been using Inkscape, but it would be good not to have to use a windows computer when I do most of my work on Affinity for Mac.

[scatterbrain73]

Oh, yes please. I miss stackable roughen effects. So useful.

[,,,]

.

[Peregrin]

23 hours ago, owenr said:

 

Why not use the Mac version of Inkscape? (It takes only a few seconds to install XQuartz.)

 

 

That's actually a really good idea.  What's XQuartz exactly?

[,,,]

.

[matt]

Another "please" for this feature!

Illustrator also has it. 

[Jowday]

+1

Still missed

[pointery]

1+ for both: Smoothing tool and Roughen tool... Both are important for a vector application.

[Cyril]

+1 From me!

[Lorox]

Yeah, that's an important suggestion, I think. You could of course use a stroke with some "rough" brush to visually get rough edges, but it would be VERY nice to roughen the path itself even if it is just a thin line and doesn't have a stroke.

I know we shouldn't always bring in Adobe Illustrator for comparison, but justice be done, especially some of those features listed under "Effects" in AI have so often proved so convenient in my work that I'd really wish there could be some equivalent in Affinity Designer sooner or later. That those "Effects" can be altered any time later by changing their parameters and eventually be converted to just paths (when the design is finished for good) is also a very appreciated feature.

There's also a tool to roughen up paths in the AI toolbar, but I personally haven't ever used that a lot so I do not miss it as much in AD as I do miss some of the "Effects".

I've already suggested elsewhere in this forum that Affinity/Serif might consider to open up Designer to third party developers by way of allowing specialized plugins to be added to the basic programm (like it is – again – with AI and – e.g. – those interesting PlugIns by Astute Graphics). This might bring some additional momentum to the further evolution of this program (which – as of now – is just version 1.7.3 [and already kind of great!])

[elship]

I also would really appreciate these features. Thanks