Can Affinity do this? Non destructive, fully adjustable feathered mask

[northtrader]

I'm just giving Affinity Photo a test drive and was wondering if it is possible to incorporate the non-destructive, fully adjustable feathered selection technique shown in this video: 

 

 

 

I have a 42 image composite that will be heavily dependent on this technique and being able to do this in affinity photo will be the tipping point of whether I will purchase this software.

 

Thanks for the insight from the more experienced users.

[HVDB Photography]

Sure it's possible

Make a selecton (rectangular/eleptical marque tool)
Select > Feather (shift+F6) and set the Radius
Layer > New Mask Layer  or  click on the layer mask icon
You're done

 

[toltec]

8 hours ago, northtrader said:

I'm just giving Affinity Photo a test drive and was wondering if it is possible to incorporate the non-destructive, fully adjustable feathered selection technique shown in this video: 

 

 

Piece of cake in Affinity

 

In fact, you can do it with any shape, any text or a hand drawn curve. Much more flexible than the technique shown in the video. No need to pull on a mesh, just drag on the shape nodes.

 

Everything can be edited at any time, the shape, the blur, the position and so forth.

 

p.s. I didn't bother doing anything fancy with the background but could have done all sorts of gradients and stuff.

[northtrader]

5 hours ago, HVDB Fotografie said:

Select > Feather (shift+F6) and set the Radius

 I believe this technique sets the feather radius 'in stone' and prevents future adjustements to the feather radius.  Correct me if I misunderstood.

 

 

4 hours ago, toltec said:

 

Everything can be edited at any time, the shape, the blur, the position and so forth.

That is exactly what I'm after.  Unfortunately, looking at your layers tab, it's not entirely intuitive how you achieved this.

Would you be so kind to list the steps of how you created the heart shaped image and mask and also explain how one can change the feathering radius at will?

That's the piece that I find powerful in this photoshop technique - to be able to adjust the feather radius at will in the destination layer until the desired blend is achieved.

 

Also, I've scoured the affinity help videos (excellent videos by the way) for a modifier key that would allow a centered circle elliptical marquee selection.  I couldn't find anything.  I need to make a perfect circle selection (elliptical marquee with shift key) that is centered on my starting click.  Is this possible? 

[toltec]

Place the shape over the image.

 

The Heart is just a shape using the shape tool in the Tools panel. Note that the shape must have a fill colour in order to work as a mask

 

Right click on the shape and click Mask to below

 

Expand the layer and make sure the "Mask" layer ONLY is selected

Click the little fx button (Layer Effects) at the bottom of the Layers panel

 

Choose Gaussian blur

 

The next part is a bit of a drag  the more you drag, the more the radius.

 

You can edit the shape, the blur or the position at any time.

 

 

[northtrader]

Thanks so much toltec.

 

As your were writing your reply I was watching the James Ritson vid "clipping vs masking" and saw how he created a mask from a shape layer - "by offering the shape to the vertical bar on the pixel layer" - and, as you suggested, I figured that the gaussian blur was most likely the technique for 'feathering' the edge of the mask.

 

I'll give this a go and see how it turns out.

 

[toltec]

2 minutes ago, northtrader said:

Thanks so much toltec.

 

As your were writing your reply I was watching the James Ritson vid "clipping vs masking" and saw how he created a mask from a shape layer - "by offering the shape to the vertical bar on the pixel layer" - and, as you suggested, I figured that the gaussian blur was most likely the technique for 'feathering' the edge of the mask.

 

I'll give this a go and see how it turns out.

 

 

That is exactly the same as right clicking and choosing Mask to Below.