kirk23 Posted November 4, 2017 Share Posted November 4, 2017 Sadly Affinity does not fill that huge empty gup in CG field we have in image editing soft . Modernt textures and CG /rendered image composing , multi channel images, complex UI graphical interfaces etc. For all this we still have to rely on Adobe products or expensive, inconvenient and unintuitive node based 2d composers. I still keep my hope on Affinity. I came here out of my extreme frustration with Photoshop. It's not going to evolve into something pro and would ever be just a photographer toy. Looks like "convenient" soft is still an oxymoron and we need to wait 500 years like it took for paint tubes to be invented after oil paints appeared. So IMO what Affinities is lacking: 1. an ability to create interdependent arbitrary links in between layers. expressions/ links/ nodes or whatever based . In fact I need innovations here since typical node based approach is a paint in the a.. too 3. an ability to created my own procedural live effects (see point one) 2. an ability to link and auto-update outside file inputs and do arbitrary export./outputs. That export persona is nothing useful on my side. Yeah, Affinity photo has a bit more convenient macro system and more live "embedded files" than Photoshop ones but it's just a tiny step in right direction. Still behind Photoshop in general with inflexible layer system/ no layer links/ no group clipping. All this considering Photoshop is an ancient fossil, slow as hell , inflexible in every task, miles from being "convenient" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelangelo_ Posted November 5, 2017 Share Posted November 5, 2017 9 hours ago, kirk23 said: I still keep my hope on Affinity. I came here out of my extreme frustration with Photoshop. It's not going to evolve into something pro and would ever be just a photographer toy. Looks like "convenient" soft is still an oxymoron and we need to wait 500 years like it took for paint tubes to be invented after oil paints appeared. in your opinion which is the percentage of customers who need this specific implementation? 9 hours ago, kirk23 said: So IMO what Affinities is lacking: 1. an ability to create interdependent arbitrary links in between layers. expressions/ links/ nodes or whatever based . In fact I need innovations here since typical node based approach is a paint in the a.. too 3. an ability to created my own procedural live effects (see point one) 2. an ability to link and auto-update outside file inputs and do arbitrary export./outputs. That export persona is nothing useful on my side. in the long list of features requests planned for the 90% of users ( the most are not professional) , where do you place your list? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirk23 Posted November 5, 2017 Author Share Posted November 5, 2017 Any customer needs convenient tools. Intuitive, easy to use and simple like a brush and palette. Unfortunately, from my experience, programmers often have just no idea what it may be. Pro tools are born form CG production companies custom in-house tools done by what some random software engineer might invent considering a solution for very specific requests. Such programs do what they was purposed for but at the same time often miles from being "convenient". Often absolutely terrible and nobody beyond an author is able to understand a thing within the same team. I believe software engineers do have just an other way of thinking, a special one. Often it's very hard to explain them even what is wrong with a tool. They are just aliens . But once the soft works and a few people, namely the author and a couple of key people from production team managed to cope with them, they considered ok and done and then gradually constitute a kind of a golden rule of how such soft should look and work. Thus it's how we have so called pro tools. On the other end we have Adobe who is stubborn in rejecting node based approach, any software flexibility or any true innovations in general. They just want to please masses who often even don't know that what they want was there before or already available in open source soft for years (like glorified content aware fill) . Those 90% just don't know how much more possibilities and creative freedom a true flexible pro level soft could give them, just don't want to waste their lives trying to figure out what a random alien/programmer did. I understand financial reasons for such gap but it's still a pity . So again, in 500 years maybe, I don't really expect anything. Perhaps some neural network based thing for phones would do it first. ps. A thing any modern image soft needs badly is a dynamic , live, "smart object" , expression or script based or whatever masks. Could do it even in Photoshop with group clipping and chain links. Although inconvenient and slow as hell. Affinity looks like just in one small step of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mithferion Posted November 5, 2017 Share Posted November 5, 2017 I'm just curious. Can you share the name of a Program / Platform / Solution, in general, that has that workflow you want? Best regards! Quote AMD FX 8350 :: Radeon HD 5670 :: Windows 10 :: http://mithferion.deviantart.com/ Oxygen Icons :: GCP Icons :: iOS 11 Design Resources :: iOS App Icon Template :: Free Quality Fonts (Commercial Use) :: Public Domain Images How to do High Quality Art :: Mesh Warp / Distort Tool Considerations :: Select Same / Object - Suggestions :: Live Glassmorphism Effect Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirk23 Posted November 6, 2017 Author Share Posted November 6, 2017 There is no such solution on the market. it's what I am talking about. There is a huge gup/ market share nobody filled yet. There are a simple photographer tools like Photoshop and such and very specialised programs like Substance Designer, Nuke, Fusion etc. They differ from Photoshop in ability to work not only with image represented by 3 RGB + alpha channel but also many extra properties, channels and masks representing surface reflectivity , surface geometry, depth etc. A complete physical material, not just rgb color. Still they are very same 2d image editing programs in its core. All they are very flexible with their node based approach and could do whatever you want but at the same time they are inconvenient as hell when you need to prototype something quickly. My main tool is Substance Designer and it's like being created by aliens. I hate it but have no other choice. Layer approach is so much more instantly intuitive, simple and easy to work with for simple things. Photoshop and such usually have so much more convenient color tweaks and brushes but they are just not enough to do something useful. In fact just a bit more complex layer approach with a kind of expression system , dynamic mask, transform links to interconnect several images representing an object material properties, namely roughness, normals and depth at least doing necessary blending math automatically based by some predefined "formula" , After effect style maybe, would be perfectly ok. I hoped for something like that when Affinity promised sophisticated layer linking but looks like it would never happen. I dream about a soft that could bring together robotic flexibility of nodes and true feel of a brush in your hand of layer based approach. Something in between Photoshop and Nuke. Modern CG painting is not just RGB+alpha I need a brush that would paint over rendered 3d scene or photogrammetry produced image and be depth and surface aware. It's just a matter of time when we would see the depth as a part of every photo. But seems we would see it first on cell phones and neural something with all the apple innovations. Then maybe all the photographer masses will suddenly realise how necessary true layer linking/ interconnections could be Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.