images of same color drawn on one layer

[amyemiko]

Sorry do not know what you mean by tags above.  I am a newbie on Affinity...drawing images to be the same color I expected it to be all on one layer but they are not.  What should I do? 

[Alfred]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity Forums, @amyemiko.

 

Topic tags are there to help users search for threads on a particular topic. It's helpful to use the tags to indicate whether you're using Affinity Designer  (AD) or Affinity Photo (APh) on Windows or a Mac, and you can also include key words such as "color" and "layers".

 

Each new object is usually placed on its own layer, but in AD you can add a new layer (via the 'Add Layer' icon at the bottom of the Layers panel) for organizational purposes. As long as that layer remains selected, new objects will be added to it.

 

[MikeW]

Serif can call objects layers all they want. Doesn't make 'em so. Even various Serif personnel have conflated the two terms.

 

If one doesn't create a layer, all objects are on a base "non-specific" layer. Or call it a layerless mode. Whatever. So I have just gotten use to creating a layer when I start a new document. Then add layers as needed for objects I desire to be above objects on a lower layer.

[amyemiko]

When I watched a vector drawing in a tutorial It seems that all parts are on the SAME layer until you needed a new layer.  I was drawing a star burst and each leg was on a different layer which makes no sense.

[R C-R]

58 minutes ago, MikeW said:

Serif can call objects layers all they want. Doesn't make 'em so.

??? Even Adobe calls everything in the Photoshop Layers panel layers, including "smart objects." See for example Layer basics or Work with Smart Objects.

[R C-R]

9 minutes ago, amyemiko said:

When I watched a vector drawing in a tutorial It seems that all parts are on the SAME layer until you needed a new layer.  I was drawing a star burst and each leg was on a different layer which makes no sense.

Vector objects are defined by paths. All parts of the path must be on the same layer. If you want to draw a starburst path, you can use the Pen tool for that (or one of the predefined shapes that include various parametric controls of the path). If you have created open paths (ones with separate beginning & ending nodes) on different layers, you can join them into a single path using the "Join Curves" action on the Node tool's context toolbar.

[MikeW]

51 minutes ago, R C-R said:

??? Even Adobe calls everything in the Photoshop Layers panel layers, including "smart objects." See for example Layer basics or Work with Smart Objects.

Dunno if you know this  but AD isn't Photoshop. What does AI call everything?

 

We've had this conversation before. You were wrong about PS then, too.

[amyemiko]

The star burst I am talking about has separate spokes radiating around a center circle.  As it is now each spoke is on a separate layer which makes no sense since all of this design will be in one color eventually.  Actually my design will be a three color silk screen so the part I am working on will be one color.  Why would each spoke become a separate layer?  I start at one point and then close it for a spoke and repeat.

[Alfred]

If you are drawing a starburst, there is no need to draw each spoke separately. You can use the Star Tool or the Double Star Tool and adjust the number of spokes/points to suit.

[toltec]

1 hour ago, amyemiko said:

The star burst I am talking about has separate spokes radiating around a center circle.  As it is now each spoke is on a separate layer which makes no sense since all of this design will be in one color eventually.  Actually my design will be a three color silk screen so the part I am working on will be one color.  Why would each spoke become a separate layer?  I start at one point and then close it for a spoke and repeat.

 

Every single item you draw is a separate item, so will be on a separate layer. How could Affinity know that it is a spoke, or the same colour? What you draw could be a spoke, or a bird.

 

Draw the spokes, then group them. Then they will be together and you can colour them all at once.

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, MikeW said:

Dunno if you know this  but AD isn't Photoshop. What does AI call everything?

 

We've had this conversation before. You were wrong about PS then, too.

Obviously, I know PS, AI, & AP/AD are all different apps. Regardless, Adobe calls objects layers in PS, so it is not as if this is something new or unique to Affinity. I am not wrong about that ... unless you think the links I provided are somehow not real.

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, amyemiko said:

 Why would each spoke become a separate layer?  I start at one point and then close it for a spoke and repeat.

Because you are closing the paths, thus defining each spoke as a separate vector object. If you want all the spokes to be a single vector object, construct it as one continuous path, a single curve which will appear in the Layers panel as a single "(Curve)" layer. Or as @Alfred suggested, use one of the shape tools to create the object, which will allow you to adjust its shape in various non-destructive ways that will remain editable even after you save & close the file.

[MikeW]

Try comparing apples to apples as closely as possible. 

 

A bitmap editor isn't what you should be using as a comparison. You are doing so to support how AD functions is all.

 

This thread, like others, demonstrates the confusion.

[R C-R]

2 minutes ago, MikeW said:

Try comparing apples to apples as closely as possible. 

 

A bitmap editor isn't what you should be using as a comparison.

Do you really think PS is just a bitmap editor?

[MikeW]

Oh come on, R C-R.

 

Have you even started AI? Ever?

 

When one starts AI--which is the closest Adobe equivalent--there is Layer 1. Draw as many objects without adding layers as you want, but there is always a Layer 1. Add another layer, draw some more. Two layers, multiple objects on a layer. But they are objects. On a layer.

 

I have never heard of a single person get confused between those two terms using any other vector drawing application. Confusion even among Serif employees happens in this scheme. "Select the layer. Er, object. Er, the object is a layer. Er, ...

 

Here's a screen shot of AI's layer panel. Now, I have renamed the layers to make sense to me (and the screen printer). Most layers have between 30 and 60 objects drawn on them. And that's one point to make. Vector drawing applications are object-oriented applications. Even bitmaps are contained within a vector container (well, maybe AD's pixel objects aren't, but I dunno...).

 

As regards your straw-man question back to me instead of actually answering my question? Go figure it out yourself. Not certain you know what PS is.

 

[R C-R]

18 minutes ago, MikeW said:

Here's a screen shot of AI's layer panel. Now, I have renamed the layers to make sense to me (and the screen printer). Most layers have between 30 and 60 objects drawn on them.

I assume you know what AI's documentation calls those objects, but in case you have forgotten, it is "sublayers." It is just a different way of referring to the same kind of layer stacking hierarchy that has been used in both vector & raster graphics apps for decades, not just by Adobe but by just about everyone.

 

A sublayer is a layer; whether or not it is identified differently in different apps is irrelevant as long as one understands this concept.

[lepr]

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[lepr]

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[R C-R]

2 hours ago, owenr said:

AI documentation distinguishes between layers and objects in general:

•  "layer" is the specific type of container object that is equivalent to AD's Layer object
•  "sublayer" is a layer nested inside a layer
•  "object" is a thing that is contained in a layer.

But AI's distinctions aside, a layer is itself just an object in the abstract hierarchical organizational model present in almost all graphic applications, as is a sublayer. In these apps, a container object is any object that can contain other objects, including other layers, sublayers, & groups.

[lepr]

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[lepr]

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[MikeW]

9 hours ago, R C-R said:

I assume you know what AI's documentation calls those objects, but in case you have forgotten, it is "sublayers." It is just a different way of referring to the same kind of layer stacking hierarchy that has been used in both vector & raster graphics apps for decades, not just by Adobe but by just about everyone.

 

A sublayer is a layer; whether or not it is identified differently in different apps is irrelevant as long as one understands this concept.

 

 

[R C-R]

My argument is simply that different apps refer to the object level hierarchy using different terminology. But they are all describing the same thing, a conceptual representation of graphic data structures as stacks of objects, often using metaphors like "sheets of stacked acetate" (Photoshop), "sheets of paper" (Affinity), or "tracing paper overlays" (from a circa 1996 Macromedia Freehand paper manual).

 

Neither these metaphors nor the terminology is intended to be taken literally. Doing that is what causes confusion. AD is not AI; AP is not PS. They are in many respects similar but that does not mean they will or should use the same terminology, metaphors, UI elements, or anything else that may be specific to one app or one product line. Adobe doesn't even use the same terminology across all its products, so I really do not understand why some users expect anything different.

[lepr]

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[MikeW]

Your understanding is faulty, R C-R. You are trying to shoehorn your understanding of AI/PS terms to what AD/APhoto uses. It will not work.

 

You cannot have objects without a discrete layer in AI, XDP, InkScape, ED, PL, etc., etc. You can in AD. The issue is that in AD, those objects are also called Layers. But there are also things called Layers that are, wait for it, Layers.

 

Try as you might, your explanations are not working. Gotta give ya credit for being persistent, though.