How to show red overlay when masking

[loukash]

Hm… 
Thinking of it again (and having slightly "overthought" it last year), the most straightforward workaround is actually so easy, I'm surprised no one has posted it here yet:

1. optional: place all your content you want to mask into a layer or a group
2. create a black Fill layer
3. create a red Fill layer with opacity and blend mode of your choice, put it on top in the layers stack
4. via Links panel, link the Pixel content of both Fill layers (and optionally layer fx, e.g. for quick blur)
5. mask your image or the group/layer you've created in step 1 with the black Fill layer; since it's still black, nothing is masked yet
6. paint with the brush of your choice on the red Fill layer on top
7. enable/disable both Fill layers as you see fit to preview either mode
8. voilà, no overly complex macros needed

^ that's in v1, but should work the same in v2

[loukash]

Also, vice versa, to create an interactive red overlay from an existing mask, create your red overlay Fill layer as above, then link the Pixel content with the existing Mask layer.

So simple, d'oh!  

[loukash]

15 minutes ago, N.P.M. said:

or add a semi transparent rectangle  in the mask position too,above the mask itself

How exactly?

The point is that you want to paint on the red fill overlay while the actual linked mask fill layer is disabled. I.e. you want to see the full image and the mask.
Alternatively you can also always change the overlay color e.g. to opaque black or white to see just the mask, much like in the Refine mode.

I don't see how you can do it just by stacking layers on top of each other. You'll just have an extra red overlay, but there's not much point in that.

[loukash]

 

39 minutes ago, loukash said:

you can also always change the overlay color e.g. to opaque black or white to see just the mask, much like in the Refine mode.

Like this:

Edited December 29, 2022 by loukash
one more image

[smadell]

Happy New Year (almost), @wgphoto. I also use Capture One, so I know precisely what you mean about the red overlay indicating the active part of a mask (as opposed to Affinity’s method of designating red as the IN-active part of a mask.) However, the macro runs inside of Affinity Photo, not Capture One, and was designed to be consistant with Affinity’s choices. Bouncing between Capture One and Affinity Photo, as I do and it seems you do as well, means that your thinking on this one item needs to turn itself upside-down whenever that switch occurs. But the macro is an Affinity-based thing and was written with that as its goal.

[Bman70]

6 hours ago, loukash said:

Hm… 
Thinking of it again (and having slightly "overthought" it last year), the most straightforward workaround is actually so easy, I'm surprised no one has posted it here yet:

1. optional: place all your content you want to mask into a layer or a group
2. create a black Fill layer
3. create a red Fill layer with opacity and blend mode of your choice, put it on top in the layers stack
4. via Links panel, link the Pixel content of both Fill layers (and optionally layer fx, e.g. for quick blur)
5. mask your image or the group/layer you've created in step 1 with the black Fill layer; since it's still black, nothing is masked yet
6. paint with the brush of your choice on the red Fill layer on top
7. enable/disable both Fill layers as you see fit to preview either mode
8. voilà, no overly complex macros needed

^ that's in v1, but should work the same in v2

 

Sorry, this seems overly complex and cumbersome (compared to Photoshop which I use daily). I know it probably gets the job done. But, it looks like you need 4 layers and a Group, enabling / disabling various layers, to accomplish simply editing a single mask? There are several workarounds posted here, and you can tell people put a lot of thought into them, so they might forget how unintuitive and strange the process looks to someone who hasn't put a lot of thought into it. I'm glad this works for you though, but just looking at it it's not clean or simple enough for me to adopt. Imagine if you had 10 masked layers... in PS I have 10 layers. How many would Affinity have in this case? 

 

[loukash]

1 minute ago, Bman70 said:

it looks like you need 4 layers and a Group, enabling / disabling various layers, to accomplish simply editing a single mask?

Not at all:

• The group is optional if you want to mask a selection of layers but keep others unmasked. You would need a group for such masking scenario anyway.
• Switching masking modes needs to be done by some means as well: In the Refine Selection window or in Quick Mask you also must switch them from the popup menu.
• If you already have a Mask layer in place, all you need to do is to add a Fill layer and link its pixel content with the Mask to have a proxy:

 

 

7 minutes ago, Bman70 said:

Imagine if you had 10 masked layers... in PS I have 10 layers. How many would Affinity have in this case? 

It depends on how good you are in organizing your layers.  

Besides, when the masking is done, simply delete the proxy Fill. If you need it again to correct a mask, add a new Fill layer and relink it with the mask again. It takes a few seconds.

You can either think "out of the box" if you need these tools and helpers in Affinity now.
Or you can always give your money to Adobe if that workflow suits you better.

Or you can start to hold your breath that Serif will fix this flaw in three, two, one…

16 minutes ago, Bman70 said:

compared to Photoshop which I use daily

So what. Use the tool that fits your workflow the best. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Mark Koolen]

Great that you have fixt a workaround, but in my professional work this is not workable in stead of just hitting the \ key like in PS. 

[loukash]

4 hours ago, Mark Koolen said:

just hitting the \ key like in PS. 

Fun fact: Nowadays I would be totally lost how to even do stuff like masking is PS. Even though I've been using PS since version 2.5 until CS5.1. Meanwhile I forgot almost everything, and some "standard" PS workflows seem completely illogical to me after two intensive years with Affinity.
(Yes, right now I just launched PS CS5.1 and tried to mask something. Honestly, I have absolutely no clue how to do it anymore! I would have to RTFM, again and again…)

4 hours ago, Mark Koolen said:

in my professional work this is not workable

As a professional, you are surely experienced enough to choose the tool that suits your workflow the best. If it's PS, then so be it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We all are holding our collective breath that Serif will finally hear our plea and add those masking modes already.

[Mark Koolen]

I am, but I have the dream to ditch adobe because of the subscription system. Not paying is not be able to open files anymore, that’s why I love a company like this. That’s why I really would go to AP. 

[loukash]

56 minutes ago, Mark Koolen said:

I have the dream to ditch adobe because of the subscription system.

I never joined CC…  

But just like there's still some advanced functionality in Illustrator that is not available in Designer (yet), I have simply bought another non-subscription app (VectorStyler) as a kind of "Affinity plugin" to work around specific missing features in Designer. For most parts the exchange seems to work via clipboard where VectorStyler's vector effects get flattened as PDF or SVG curves and can thus be pasted to Affinity. Or in some very advanced cases like vector gradient mesh, they can be at least exported as vector PDF from VectorStyler and placed in Affinity. Luckily these are features which I usually don't use for real life (aka paid) projects, so personally I can do 99 % of stuff directly in Affinity.

So I can imagine that there are plenty of affordable bitmap editors that can replace certain missing functionality in Photo, if leaving Adobe's subscription is the primary – and absolutely understandable – goal.

[Mark Koolen]

No sorry there is not. Certainly not in a professional workflow with teams and editors that we hire. 

[loukash]

3 minutes ago, Mark Koolen said:

a professional workflow with teams and editors that we hire

Yes, there are many factors to be considered when doing business.

But I didn't have the impression yet that Serif is even targeting the Affinity suite at such audience.

For example, I work alone since 35 years, so I am free to choose whichever tool I like. As such, my only concern is PDF compatibility with the print shops I send my files to. Since they all seem to get along with PDF/X-4 just fine, Affinity does the job for me (also knowing its quirks with PDF export by now, d'oh!). Heck, meanwhile I even have a workable solution on MacOS Catalina to get along without Acrobat X for preflight and separation preview, by using a mixture of other somewhat limited but free/demo PDF editors and a scripted Ghostcript workflow. It works, and it didn't cost me a penny yet.

Anyway…  

[jimh12345]

The workarounds posted here are very clever.  But my problem is memory - not the computer's, but mine.   Although I've used AP extensively on photos I'm not doing it often enough - even if I got the 8-step process outlined here to work, I'd never remember it next time.    I need a more direct, discoverable solution; and I'm sure we'll get one eventually.  

[Twolane]

16 minutes ago, jimh12345 said:

my problem is memory

Then why not do what I do. Make notes. Copy the notes into a text file of the same name and put it into your Macro library. It will sit with the Macro when you need it, if you open your stored Macro directory to consult your notes. I do the same with Assets, in my stored Assets folder.

Don't tell me you don't have a folder called Affinity Assets and Fonts that contains all of same on your hard drive. Too bad. You could have saved them all when you downloaded them into appropriate folders. Oh well. Next time.

[loukash]

38 minutes ago, jimh12345 said:

But my problem is memory - not the computer's, but mine.

Oh, I hear you!
Just recently I had to search and look up one of my own workaround tutorials that I posted in a thread last year!
All I remembered was that there was something I've already figured out before…  

[Ralph Johann]

Happy new Year to everyone here at first 🍀

My question is already answered with this post but very unsatisfactory. So I more write to express my dissatisfaction about the masking problem here.

I started working with AP intensely and with youtube-tutorials for 3 month now. It's really a great software but it has some lacks that make it hard to work professional with it.

Most important for me is a good function of the masking. I'm a professional photographer and I worked with lots of different post producers worldwide. And all of them work with overlay masks in most of the layers. I'm used to that in PS too, but wanted to make a cut with Adobe because of the subscrition system, to give another company a chance and to recommend AP to other photographers, Photo assistants and students that just don't really need an Adobe subscription.

I suppose most people underestimate what it means to work for demanding clients. Just to give you an impression of how many layers can be in one picture I added an example. I have photo composings with more than 70 Layers and sure you have to make corrrections afterwards regularly if some masking has to be adjusted. Workarounds with even more layers at the end are very contra productive then. Colored overlay layer masks above the background are a basic requirement for me and any professional. Until now I just thought I couldn't find the function, but now I found out it's just not implemented, so please Affinity put in on your list with high priority.

Just as an addition it's pretty impossible to make a good pressure sensitive brush with AP. Most professionals work with tablets and there are so many parameters you can change in AP for a single brush but opacity with pressure is unfortunately not part of it. This for me is the second thing which really would be great to add to AP2.

Hope to see this 2 functions no too far in the future...

 

 

[eeviac]

I add myself to the long list of professionist complaining for this function missing.

Alt click on the mask to see it in grayscale is not enough...

[loukash]

I just noticed that in v2 we can now load any mask into the Refine mode via Layers panel context menu, including the "on-the-fly" adjustment and filter masks. Then it can be edited as any other Refine selection and applied directly back to the mask it came from.

In v1, the Refine context menu command exists only for mask layers that are actually masking a layer. But you can always load a mask as a selection, edit it via Refine as an overlay, save as new mask and delete/disable to old mask.

[jimh12345]

On 2/22/2023 at 1:56 PM, loukash said:

I just noticed that in v2 we can now load any mask into the Refine mode via Layers panel context menu...

Someone,  please explain this.   To me, "context menu" means right-click, but when I right-click a mask there's no "Refine" in the menu.

I am today going totally mad from being unable to see the mask as a red overlay, as is possible in every other photo editing application since time began.  The workarounds posted here are far too complicated.  In Capture One, for example, I just hit 'm' to turn the overlay on and off...

 

 

[loukash]

1 minute ago, jimh12345 said:

when I right-click a mask there's no "Refine" in the menu

Are you using Photo v2?

[jimh12345]

Yes V2.

[carl123]

2 hours ago, jimh12345 said:

Someone,  please explain this.   To me, "context menu" means right-click, but when I right-click a mask there's no "Refine" in the menu.

It works here

What do you see when you right-click a mask in the Layers panel? (screenshot)

[Ralph Johann]

10 hours ago, jimh12345 said:

Someone,  please explain this.   To me, "context menu" means right-click, but when I right-click a mask there's no "Refine" in the menu.

I am today going totally mad from being unable to see the mask as a red overlay, as is possible in every other photo editing application since time began.  The workarounds posted here are far too complicated.  In Capture One, for example, I just hit 'm' to turn the overlay on and off...

 

 

That's exactly what I mean! Turning the red overlay of an existing mask on and off with one click is a basic Photoshop feature. And you can directly post-process the selected mask in either mode.

In APV2, if you right-click on the mask, you only have the option to refine the mask, but I want to edit the mask by myself, not have APV2 refine it for me. That's a big difference.

 

[carl123]

14 minutes ago, Ralph Johann said:

In APV2, if you right-click on the mask, you only have the option to refine the mask, but I want to edit the mask by myself

In the right-click menu you also have "Edit mask" or do you mean something else?