Nesting layers

[toltec]

Does anybody know of a way to nest layers rather than the very silly and fiddly (shoot 'em up game) drag over the thumbnail and try and get the blue vertical bar to light up?

 

If you want to use a layer as a mask, instead of "shooting" the vertical blue bar, you can "Mask to below" which does the same thing,

 

However, I want the layer to be a Child, not a Nest, which is a very different thing. Ask any bird!

 

Quite why Serif have not included a Nest to below option I can't imagine. After all, it's a vital part of the layer process. But I might be missing something obvious.

[Alfred]

1 hour ago, toltec said:

Does anybody know of a way to nest layers rather than the very silly and fiddly (shoot 'em up game) drag over the thumbnail and try and get the [blue] bar to light up?

 

I wonder whether the difficulty you're experiencing is a result of dragging one layer over the thumbnail of another, instead of dragging it not over the thumbnail. You need to drag the layer below and to the right of that thumbnail to achieve clipping instead of cropping/masking. Dragging directly over the thumbnail will give you a vertical blue bar, whilst dragging below and to the right of that will give you a horizontal blue bar extending to the right of the thumbnail; if you drag too far down, the horizontal bar will span the full width of the Layers panel, and the dragged layer will be moved below the target layer instead of becoming nested.

 

Quote

Quite why Serif have not included a Nest to below option I can't imagine. After all, it's a vital part of the layer process. But I might be missing something obvious.

 

I know that they like to avoid letting the context menus get too cluttered, but I agree that this is an odd omission.

 

[toltec]

33 minutes ago, Alfred said:

 

You need to drag the layer below and to the right of that thumbnail to achieve clipping instead of cropping/masking.

 

 

I take it you mean until the 85% of the way across (and don't measure it, please !) horizontal bar appears, Clipping !

 

However, on the original Serif video, "Affinity Photo Layer Concepts" (about 3:12)  Nesting is shown and described by dropping the Child layer on the Parent layer thumbnail until the vertical bar appears. Not by using the "clipping" position.

 

So does Clipping equate exactly to Nesting? I ask because I use clipping a lot to put pictures inside shapes. And how about putting layers in a group, do you nest or clip?

 

This whole Nesting, Masking, Birthing and Grouping thing is far from clear. Not very well thought out, or very well executed.

 

Actually, I have come to the conclusion that the original "Layer Concepts" video is wrong. Dragging some items to the thumbnail gives very unexpected results.

 

It all needs a Clarity Filter applied !

[Alfred]

2 hours ago, toltec said:

It all needs a Clarity Filter applied !

 

LOL. :D

 

Try this:

1. Place two, partially overlapping, differently filled shapes on the page

2. In the Layers panel, right-click the upper layer and choose 'Mask to Below'

3. Observe that the shape on the lower layer is cropped to the other shape

4. Undo

5. Drag the upper layer and drop it on the thumbnail of the lower layer

6. Observe that the result is exactly as described after step 2

7. Undo

8. Drag the upper layer and drop it to the right of the lower thumbnail

9. Observe that the dragged shape is clipped* rather than cropped

 

Clear as mud? :unsure:

 

____

* The non-overlapping parts of the target layer remain visible

 

[toltec]

I dunno. I feel no Affinity with your explanation.

[Alfred]

*groan*

[Axander]

Layering question. As you can see, the planet glyphs have a rectangular image shape which eclipses the rings. This is with the planets on a higher layer than the rings. But if the planets are layered below the rings, they disappear entirely. I do not understand why the space in between the rings is included in the rings' layer. Shouldn't it be neutral space? I was hoping to have the glyph show through without those white corners interfering. Thanks for anything you might offer!

[dutchshader]

2 hours ago, Axander said:

Layering question. As you can see, the planet glyphs have a rectangular image shape which eclipses the rings. This is with the planets on a higher layer than the rings. But if the planets are layered below the rings, they disappear entirely. I do not understand why the space in between the rings is included in the rings' layer. Shouldn't it be neutral space? I was hoping to have the glyph show through without those white corners interfering. Thanks for anything you might offer!

 

it looks like that the character has a white background color, set the white background to none.

[Axander]

Thanks Dutchshader, I got it