How to create low poly backgrounds?

[MikeP23]

Hi, I'm trying to create a low poly background using similar techniques to those in this video https://youtu.be/BPTRO-U90f0. Can anyone explain how i do this in affinity designer? Thank you

[Callum]

Hi MikeP23,

 

I have made the following video showing you how to do the very basics of this! In my video I have the colours different from one another so you can see the shapes easily I also created bigger triangles with the pen tool than you will likely need so they stand out a little more :)

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kc2mzd5ru8n1m83/Affinity%20Photo%20-%20low%20poly.mov?dl=0

 

 

Thanks

C

[gdenby]

As Callum demonstrated, much the same in Affinity Photo as in Photoshop. Designer does not have an average blur, only a gaussian blur which does not give the same effect. 

[Callum]

As Callum demonstrated, much the same in Affinity Photo as in Photoshop. Designer does not have an average blur, only a gaussian blur which does not give the same effect. 

 

oops! I didn't notice the designer part of his post that or seeing that it was a photoshop tutorial made me jump to photo! 

[tanujboy]

I think Affinity Designer needs more types of blurs and a tool like the lasso tool from Photoshop.

[Alfred]

Affinity Designer has  a Lasso Tool (called the 'Free hand Selection Tool', for some strange reason) in the Pixel Persona.

[tanujboy]

Affinity Designer has  a Lasso Tool (called the 'Free hand Selection Tool', for some strange reason) in the Pixel Persona.

Right. I saw that before posting the previous post but ignored it for some reason IDK why XD

[Fixx]

D-Mesh from MAS. https://itunes.apple.com/fi/app/dmesh/id480992638?mt=12

[MikeP23]

Yeah shame it doesn't have the average blur. Thanks for your help.

[JimmyJack]

If it's the average you're after, I'd just slap the eyedropper into the middle of each triangle and call it a day.

 

So it's: "l" (lasso) shift draw triangle, "i" (eyedropper) sample middle, "g" (paint bucket) fill. Repeat.

 

Kind of a pita, but doable in AD.

(I was a little sloppy with my triangles  ^_^ )

 

[R C-R]

Affinity Designer has  a Lasso Tool (called the 'Free hand Selection Tool', for some strange reason) in the Pixel Persona.

What is so strange about that? Affinity Designer supports brushes, adjustments, various copy/paste options, duplicating, transform operations, etc., all of which can be applied to 'marching ants' raster selections.

 

In fact, although it is extremely tedious & not very precise, something similar to the PS technique can be done in AD: create a document filling rectangle, apply a gradient like in the PS video, rasterize it, switch to Pixel Persona, & begin creating polygon selections using the tool in polygonal mode. For each selection, switch to the paint brush, alt/option drag to select a sample color from within the selection, & paint it completely with that color.

 

Of course, it probably makes more sense to create the polygons as shapes with the Pen tool & just use the rasterized gradient layer as a guide for picking their fill colors, & either way you have to estimate the average color by eye rather than relying on an averaging blur filter for that.

[Alfred]

Affinity Designer has  a Lasso Tool (called the 'Free hand Selection Tool', for some strange reason) in the Pixel Persona.

 

 

What is so strange about that? Affinity Designer supports brushes, adjustments, various copy/paste options, duplicating, transform operations, etc., all of which can be applied to 'marching ants' raster selections.

 

I think one of us may have misread the other's post! All I was saying is that 'Free hand Selection Tool' seems a strange name for what is commonly called 'Lasso Tool' elsewhere.

[JimmyJack]

I think one of us may have misread the other's post! All I was saying is that 'Free hand Selection Tool' seems a strange name for what is commonly called 'Lasso Tool' elsewhere.

 

Wait what?! They're bringing back FreeHand??!! Woohoo!!

 

:D

[R C-R]

I think one of us may have misread the other's post! All I was saying is that 'Free hand Selection Tool' seems a strange name for what is commonly called 'Lasso Tool' elsewhere.

Thanks for the clarification on what you meant....

 

But thinking about it, "lasso" itself probably seems like an odd name for a selection tool unless one is familiar with the analogue of the use of a rope with a noose at one end typically spun into a loop in the air & thrown to catch cattle, particularly in the U.S. & other countries with a "cowboy/wrangler" tradition & large amounts of open grazing land, what in the U.S. is often called "rangeland" or just "the range."

 

Even so, the term does not really suggest something much like a physical lasso -- there is no free end & no loop knot like in the typical icon or real world object. Only in "freehand" mode does it even approximate the behavior of a lasso, so for apps (including Photoshop) that have other modes, "lasso" is just as strange as the longer Affinity term.