bboysupaman Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 Hey guys, I have just begun to use this software and I am currently reading my way through the Affinity Designer Help articles. However, when I got to the sections on "Layer clipping" and "Layer masking", I got confused. It seems from the help articles that "Layer clipping" and "Vector masking" are the same thing. From the "Layer clipping" section: In the Layers panel, drag the object to be clipped on top of the object which is to perform the clipping. The clipped object is nested within the clipping object in the Layers panel. The clipped object has become a child of the clipping object. From the "Layer masking" section: In the Layers panel, drag the created object entry directly onto the thumbnail of another 'target' object. A thumbnail appears next to the target object indicating that a mask and crop have been applied. Am I just dense or are these two things the same thing? If there is a difference, I want to know what it is and what the different use cases are. If not, I just want to know not to get hung up on this. Thanks in advance for any help that can be provided! bboysupaman Kal 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A_B_C Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 Hi bboysupaman, please have a look at my video linked below (Clipping_vs_Masking.mov). In (A.) the pink rectangle (or rather square) gets clipped to the boundaries (path) of the blue triangle, and this is done by making the rectangle a child of the triangle in the layers list. This is called "layer clipping". In (B.) the rectangle acts as a mask applied to the triangle, and this is done by dragging the thumbnail of the rectangle directly onto the thumbnail of the triangle in the layers list. (Note the differences between the blue highlight bars appearing while the list entries are dragged to their respective positions.) Now it is not the rectangle that gets clipped to the boundaries of the triangle, but the rectangle clips (or cuts) parts of the triangle. This is called "creating a vector mask". Hope you get the difference … Kind regards, Alex Clipping_vs_Masking.mov TinPianoMan, modiophile, Abinash Mohanty and 19 others 22 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bboysupaman Posted January 13, 2015 Author Share Posted January 13, 2015 Oh wow! Thank you so much! That was very helpful. In fact, now that I've seen it, it seems kind of obvious. I don't know how I didn't get it before! Thanks again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A_B_C Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 You’re welcome. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MattP Posted January 13, 2015 Staff Share Posted January 13, 2015 Nice video, Alex :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A_B_C Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Thanks, I'm glad I could help ... :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big-Belly-Dsign Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 Nice video. I would like to do that with text but it only cuts out the first letter of the word. What is the right way to cut out a word from an object? Please help. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MEB Posted May 11, 2015 Staff Share Posted May 11, 2015 Hi Big-Belly-Dsign, It should cut all the letters simply selecting the background object and the text and performing a subtract operation. Can you post the file, so i can take a look at what's going on? Quote A Guide to Learning Affinity Software Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A_B_C Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 EDIT Yeah, this *was* a bug … but it’s already resolved in the latest Beta … wow, I am confused … sorry :unsure: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MEB Posted May 11, 2015 Staff Share Posted May 11, 2015 It's working fine here (cutting text from a shape). @Big-Belly-Dsign, Are you using the Mac App Store version (1.2)? This is a known bug in the Mac App Store (MAS) version. But it's working fine on the latest beta. If you are using the MAS, convert the text to curves (Layer ▹ Convert to Curves) and then perform the subtract boolean operation. A_B_C 1 Quote A Guide to Learning Affinity Software Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnsonEsq Posted May 31, 2016 Share Posted May 31, 2016 Hi there, I'm really struggling with a similar problem - hoping you can help. I have a text layer. Under the text layer, I have a shape layer. I'd like the to create a mask so the text layer 'punches through' the shape layer below - therefore leaving a shape with the letters cut out of it. I've followed the tips in this thread but can't get it to work. I've outlined my text. I've rasterised both layers. I've tried swapping the order of the layers. I've followed the video you kindly posted. I'm using v1.4.1 - which I downloaded from the Mac App Store. Please see screen grab attached. Any help happily received. Thanks! NJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R C-R Posted June 1, 2016 Share Posted June 1, 2016 (edited) If I understand correctly, basically what you want to do is to remove the text from the white pixel layer. The simplest way I know to do that is as follows: 1. Command-click on the text layer. This will create a "marching ants" dotted line selection around the edges of the text characters. At this point you can hide the text layer, since it won't be needed. 2. Select the pixel layer & switch to the Pixel Persona. 3. Tap the Delete key on the keyboard. Everything inside the selection will be erased, leaving holes where layer(s) below it will show through. 4. Tap Command+ D to remove the "marching ants" selection. For some projects you might want to experiment with variations on this method. For example, using the Erase brush instead of the delete key in step 3 & varying its opacity, hardness, flow, etc. will produce different effects, or by using the Pixel Persona's Select > Refine ... menu option prior to erasing, you can create soft feathered edges around the holes. EDIT #2: I am an idiot!!! While writing the above, I completely lost sight of why I thought about using the marching ants selection method to begin with, the whole point of which was to do this with a mask layer. The above obviously won't do that but this will: a. Do steps 1 & 2 as above. b. Select Invert Pixel Selection from the Select menu. c. With the pixel layer still selected in the Layers panel, click the Mask Layer icon at the bottom of the panel. d. Do step 4 as above to remove the "marching ants" selection. This applies a mask directly to the pixel layer. That may be useful if you want to refine or edit the mask at some point in the future or play with masking effects, or reserve the blend mode for some other effect. Edited June 1, 2016 by R C-R Quote All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7 Affinity Photo 1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MEB Posted June 1, 2016 Staff Share Posted June 1, 2016 Hi JohnsonEsq, Welcome to Affinity Forums :) Select the text and the pixel layer and group them pressing ⌘ (cmd) + G (or go to menu Layer ▸ Group). Expand the group in the Layers panel, select the text and set the Blend mode dropdown on top of the panel to Erase. The purpose of the group is to limit the effect of the Erase Blend applied to the text to the Pixel layer(s) inside it. Quote A Guide to Learning Affinity Software Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnsonEsq Posted June 5, 2016 Share Posted June 5, 2016 Thanks so much R C-R and MEB - all of these techniques work great! I especially like the Erase Blend technique, as it gives me the opportunity to change the text later, if I need to. You've solved a big problem for me. Thanks again. Who needs Adobe, huh?! ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brunzenstein Posted January 5, 2017 Share Posted January 5, 2017 Oh wow! Thank you so much! That was very helpful. In fact, now that I've seen it, it seems kind of obvious. I don't know how I didn't get it before! Thanks again! Me too! Finally I got it thanks to the few seconds video - pls share more extremely short clips like that. A_B_C 1 Quote Mac print publishing X-Press & Adobe hostage, cooking on extrem high level, subscribing with joy to US Cooks Illustrated & Foreign Affairs, the british Spectator and the swiss Weltwoche - absolute incompatible publications Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mabel Posted March 15, 2017 Share Posted March 15, 2017 What about clipping one small shape onto two other shapes? I tried it with groups and clipping to a group like Photoshop but it seems like Affinity Designer works differently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awan Posted March 23, 2017 Share Posted March 23, 2017 Does affinity have some cool options in clipping like corel do? For example when we clip an object, corel has option to "center" it or make it "propotional" by just one click. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MEB Posted March 23, 2017 Staff Share Posted March 23, 2017 Hi @Mabel, Welcome to Affinity Forums :) No, unless you select both shapes and Add or Combine them (boolean operations) so they become a single object. Hi @awan, Welcome to Affinity Forums :) You can align the clipped object inside the clipping object but you can't make it proportional. To align it select the clipped object in the layers panel, then shift-click the clipping object on canvas to add it to the selection. Then use the menu Layer ▸ Alignment (or the combo Arrange button in the main Persona toolbar) to align them. Quote A Guide to Learning Affinity Software Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cornishninja Posted April 7, 2017 Share Posted April 7, 2017 Hi bboysupaman, please have a look at my video. In (A.) the pink rectangle (or rather square) gets clipped to the boundaries (path) of the blue triangle, and this is done by making the rectangle a child of the triangle in the layers list. This is called "layer clipping". In (B.) the rectangle acts as a mask applied to the triangle, and this is done by dragging the thumbnail of the rectangle directly onto the thumbnail of the triangle in the layers list. (Note the differences between the blue highlight bars appearing while the list entries are dragged to their respective positions.) Now it is not the rectangle that gets clipped to the boundaries of the triangle, but the rectangle clips (or cuts) parts of the triangle. This is called "creating a vector mask". Hope you get the difference, kind regards, Alex :) Many thanks for the explanation and the video. Really helped me out. :) A_B_C 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Sheaver Posted August 21, 2017 Share Posted August 21, 2017 In an effort to wrap my head around this, I created a project in which I took this one step further and did the clipping and masking in both directions. From this, I made the following observations: While clipping, the full shape of the parent object is preserved While masking, only the area common to both objects is preserved, and the resulting color comes from the parent object I have attached both the project file and a print-ready PDF, in the hopes that this little exercise will be helpful to others. Many thanks for sharing the video! Clipping vs Masking.pdf Clipping vs Masking.afdesign A_B_C and firstdefence 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PJD Posted March 17, 2018 Share Posted March 17, 2018 Hi Everyone. It seems it's not just me that struggles to understand masks & clipping. I've tried all sorts with this simple one and i just can't get it to do what I want. See image below. I have two vector layers on artboard A, the red bit (B) and the black bit (C). All I want is to create D by dropping one layer over the other and masking it, but however i try it just won't do it. Both layers are vector curves. I'm sure B needs to mask C somehow so only D is visible, but i need to get B to function as a mask. Can someone please put me out of my misery? Thanks massively in advance. Phil p.s. I also added a screenshot of the four possible variations that i can get... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h_d Posted March 18, 2018 Share Posted March 18, 2018 I don't think that this can be achieved by masking or clipping, as the red circle can't mask or clip itself. It can be done destructively by ordering the red circle layer above the black splodge, selecting both layers and applying a Subtract operation. I've reduced the opacity of the circle to make it clearer what's going on: Quote Affinity Photo 2.0.3, Affinity Designer 2.0.3, Affinity Publisher 2.0.3, Mac OSX 13, 2018 MacBook Pro 15" Intel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firstdefence Posted March 18, 2018 Share Posted March 18, 2018 I got bored 10 mins ago so... The life of a goat.afdesign Quote iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9 (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum) Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PJD Posted March 18, 2018 Share Posted March 18, 2018 @h_d i tried that, and it didn't work. see video and result image when i did what you said: cheers. phil affinity subtract eg for upload.mov Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PJD Posted March 18, 2018 Share Posted March 18, 2018 @firstdefence thanks for your post too, but i'm struggling with the most basic shapes and functions here.. as you will see from my video. is it possible i have a wrong setting somewhere? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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