How to repeatedly duplicate and rotate an object ?

[Heidelberg]

Searching the help did not produce any result.

How do I draw for example a 12-leaf-daisy by only drawing one leaf and than duplicate/rotate it along a circular path? Is there any built in function like "actions" or "automatic repeat by angle and path"

[pruus]

In Designer:

It´s called Power Duplicate in Affinity Designer. Here's how it works:

- select an object. Mark the rotation point to what you want

- press cmd + J  (or go to menu and choose Edit -> Duplicate)

- transform the duplicated object in your case, 360/12=30 degrees

- press cmd + J again, and again and so on. till you have 12 leafs.

[Alfred]

- transform the duplicated object in your case, 360/12=30 degrees

 

Please note that the default position for the centre of rotation is the centre of the object. Before transforming the duplicated petal, you will need to move the rotation centre to the position where you want the centre of the daisy to be.

[Heidelberg]

Hi pruus and Alfred,

thanks so much. Created my first daisy ... and on top of it I got the positive surprise that all leaves have been grouped in a "folder"

[roddy]

I tried doing this in Affinity Photo, but can't figure out how to make the petals go around the circumference of the inner circle evenly on the circle's outer edge.

[Alfred]

1. With 'Snapping' on, draw the inner circle

2. Draw one petal just below the circle

3. Align the two shapes horizontally

4. Choose the Pen Tool [P]

5. Choose Line Mode from the Context toolbar

6. Draw a 0pt line from the middle of the circle to the bottom of the petal

7. Group the line and the petal (but not the circle)

8. Duplicate the group

9. Go to the Transform panel

10. Set the anchor to top centre

11. Type the required rotation value into the R control

• e.g. 360/11 to give you the precise angle required for 11 petals

12. 'Power duplicate' the group until the circle is surrounded by petals

 

[roddy]

Alfred,

Thank you so much! Didn't realize there were so many steps, though. Worked great.

I did notice that when (I'm using the built in shapes in Affinity Photo (heart, circle)) zooming in on the shapes, they look really pixelated regardless of the size of the shapes drawn. I'm using version 1.5.2 on an iMac. When i viewed the tutorial on Vimeo for Power Duplicate https://vimeo.com/110124748 all the stars look great zoomed in, but my shapes look pixelated. Any idea why? I attached my file of shapes I was experimenting with.

shapes.afphoto

[MEB]

Hi roddy,

That's because Affinity Photo renders/displays a rasterised view of all objects (vectors included) - it is a photo editor, not vector design tool as Designer. The video you are seeing if for Affinity Designer. If you open your afphoto file in Affinity Designer you will see the vector objects rendered as vectors (non-rasterised) and as sharp as you saw in the video.

[roddy]

MEB,

Thank you for the explanation. Unfortunately, I don't have Affinity Designer. Is there a way to have those drawn shapes in Affinity Photo look the same as in Designer?

 

Also, on another thread, I was hoping to contact you about Paste Special not being available in the Mac version. I'm trying to separate the shadow fx from an image so I can manipulate the shadow without the original image. Here is a link to the thread if you would so kindly read near the bottom of it. https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/8795-basic-long-shadow-effect-using-affinity-photo/#comment-221405

I appreciate all the help in allowing me to learn and enjoy using Affinity Photo.

[Alfred]

16 minutes ago, roddy said:

Unfortunately, I don't have Affinity Designer. Is there a way to have those drawn shapes in Affinity Photo look the same as in Designer?

 

If you increase the document 'DPI' value in the Resize Document dialog (accessed via the Document menu in the Windows version of Affinity Photo) you will be able to zoom in further before you begin to see any pixellation.

 

[roddy]

Alfred,

Thanks. It looks a little better now. Not as great as I'd like, but I do understand the difference between Photo and Designer.

[ricke76]

For my part it has never worked, it is the object and the axis that move and not the object around its axis.

 

[Alfred]

49 minutes ago, ricke76 said:

For my part it has never worked, it is the object and the axis that move and not the object around its axis.

 

This thread is about revolving copies of one object around another object, not about rotating an object around its own axis. Please explain a little more about what you’re trying to do.

[ricke76]

thank you I want to duplicate an object around an axis deported, I can look at tutorials and do the same thing again but impossible.

[ricke76]

Why the axis does not move with the object so it should be fixed and this move around

[Alfred]

Please see my step-by-step instructions in this post. At step 2 you have drawn the second object above the circle instead of below it, so at step 10 you need to set the anchor to bottom centre instead of top centre, but everything else is the same.

 

I've attached a file which has 'Save History With Document' switched on so that you can use the History panel to see what I did.

 

AD_ricke76.afdesign

[ZodiacArts]

Hello,

 

I' ve been trying to use Power Duplicate with displacement + rotation too but I want the shapes to be pasted on the same height and not forming a circle. Is this possible?

[GarryP]

You can use the Align and Distribute functionality to get what you want, see attached video.

[ZodiacArts]

Thank you for your reply @GarryP! My bad for not making clear about the following. I need to duplicate this shape 127 times. I'm offseting each copy by a 127th of a circle. Therefore, at some point the copies overlap on the Y axis and when I align the are mixed up.

 

 

[GarryP]

Ah, that makes it clearer.
I’ve tried a few different ways – selecting the layers via the Layers Panel, performing the actions in reverse order, rotating via the Point Transform Tool, rotating in place and then distributing, etc. - and nothing seems to work.
If we could reset the bounding box without losing the power duplicate ‘flow’ then it might be possible but we can’t do that as far as I know.
Maybe someone else can come up with something but I’m stumped at the moment.

[G13RL]

For 127 shapes, by proceeding in 4 steps it is possible to have the shapes aligned horizontally and rotating regularly.
I drew a shape, "Ctrl/Cmd + J", typed "360/127" in the rotation window of the "Transform" tab of the studio and moved the copy slightly. Then I repeated "Ctrl + J" until I got a quarter circle with the shapes. I aligned and distributed these shapes.
I calculated the rotation difference between the last two shapes.
I duplicated the last shape, added the rotational deviation to the copy, moved it slightly, and did "Ctrl + C" again until I got close to a quarter circle. Alignment and distribution again.
I repeated all this twice more to get the 127 shapes, aligned and distributed the whole thing.
I am well aware that this is not a good workflow but I wanted to try to solve this problem.

[ZodiacArts]

Yes @G13RL I finally managed doing something simular by braking the circle in half (before the shapes overlap on the y axis). I selected the shapes from the down half, the transformed objects separately hitting the option on the toolbar, added the negative value of rotation down right, flipped H and V and that was it. It's a workaround.

[jAffinitySerif]

This does not work. I have a layer. I hit command-j to duplicate it. I rotate it 0.5° and hit command-j again. It creates a new identical layer in the same position (it does not add another 0.5° rotation).

[GarryP]

For power duplication to work, make sure that between the rotation/movement and power duplication (Ctrl/Cmd+J) steps you don’t select something else or deselect, otherwise the power duplication will think you have ‘started again’.