Designer - Free transform tool (perspective distort)

[v_kyr]

For Designer and thus plain vector based editing/manipulation, one needs urgently vector based distort/warp/perspective tool functions, which sadly aren't yet implemeted or supported! - Everything else, which only works bitmap/raster wise for distort/warp/perspective here, or which performs a rasterization on a vector export, is unacceptable for a vector tool!

So what people (and I too) often are suggesting as workarounds here, are just poor momentary workarounds due to the overall Affinity Designer shortcomings and limitations in this regard. - Meaning ...

• You don't really want to always have to use another third party vector tool just in order to be able to perform some vector based free distortion/warping/perspective distort on vector shapes, text and drawings.
• You really don't want to always have to reroute and make a vector-to-bitmap conversion, just in order to be able to perform a perspective distort/warp etc. on that bitmap/raster one then, which then in turn you have to re-vectorize (vector trace) in order to get a plain vector representation.

... all of that are just tedious and time consuming poor workarounds with many possible errors or falsifications during interoperation!

[R C-R]

23 hours ago, R C-R said:

I was playing around with using the Live Perspective filter in the Photo Persona of APub & created this perspective glitch.afpub file. On my iMac I get very odd results as I zoom in & out, with lots of phantom rectangular shapes appearing outside the page boundaries.

Anybody else see the same thing?

So am I the only one seeing glitches when zooming in & out in the attached document? For example, at certain zoom levels I get a phantom while rectangle next to the document page like this:

Also, as I zoom in & out, I get other rectangles of different colors that disappear after I stop zooming.

[Old Bruce]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

Also, as I zoom in & out, I get other rectangles of different colors that disappear after I stop zooming.

Ditto. But not always....

[R C-R]

14 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Ditto. But not always....

For me, it usually only happens when I am in the process of zooming, so the phantoms disappear once it has stabilized at some zoom level.

But at some zoom levels one or more of the phantoms persist.

[denisb]

20 hours ago, v_kyr said:

For Designer and thus plain vector based editing/manipulation, one needs urgently vector based distort/warp/perspective tool functions, which sadly aren't yet implemeted or supported!

... all of that are just tedious and time consuming poor workarounds with many possible errors or falsifications during interoperation!

 

• Search: free transform
  Found 380 results
• Search: perspective text designer
  Found 149 results
• 4 Year old requests

and so on.

A feature that customers have been requesting for years.

What is happening here? Who determines the priority in development?
Definitely not someone who has to deal with customers or who uses the software productively himself.

[Oval]

22 hours ago, Andy05 said:

What kind of argument is that? You obviously never worked professionally in any kind of design sector

Apparently you do not understand sarcastic comments and know about others more than about your own courtesy.

 

22 hours ago, Andy05 said:

requires a vector workflow

which is/was faulty in AD since beginning (boole, expand stroke, …) that you still cannot use it professionally (if time is limited)

[Andy05]

1 hour ago, Oval said:

Apparently you do not understand sarcastic comments

No-one does, if someone doesn't show any sign of sarcasm in a post, especially after there are tons similar to yours in this forums which are meant to be good advice.

1 hour ago, Oval said:

which is/was faulty in AD since beginning (boole, expand stroke, …) that you still cannot use it professionally (if time is limited)

Depends on the sector you are working professionally in. I. e. the combination of a seamless pixel and vector workflow is quite striking for digital artists who paint their arts on digital canvas. Also, it's quite usable for almost all demands in conservative printing media, i. e. creating ads for newspapers or business cards. I know, for latter some regions might have different taste for them, so the missing vector warp might be an issue again in order to create "fancy looking" stuff.

But wait! Let me guess! Your comment was yet another attempt of "sarcasm", I suppose?

For a real vector-only workflow, there are other things quite as problematic as the boolean operations or missing vector warping. For instance, the lack of real vector brushes, which—to me personally—is the biggest issue for a true "vector-app". For every other problem, you can find workarounds or call them "extra features, not (yet) implemented" and rely on third party software. But the lack of true vector brushes is simply a joke, if you want to sell vector software.

[MCFC_4Heatons]

On 4/25/2021 at 9:17 AM, Andy05 said:

No, it's not useful at all. Show me how you distort text and export it so I can use it in a workflow for laser cutting or for CNC. Or how you export this as EPS/SVG that way so stockpages will accept it as vector.

If you need vector, you need vector - not a pixel image in whatsoever high resolution.

In some scenarios/uses output to high-res bitmap is sufficient and then you can keep the native Affinity file for further editing if needed. It really depends on the use,  I think what you mean it it's no good for your particular use, some people may not have been aware of the Live Perspective tool and may actually find it useful to retain some kind of editability inside Affinity app of sorts.

[loukash]

10 hours ago, Andy05 said:

No-one does, if someone doesn't show any sign of sarcasm in a post

Solution that always works; on Mac at least:

1. System Preferences > Dictation & Speech > Text To Speech > System Voice > activate Zarvox > enable "Speak selected text when the key is pressed"
2. select the post content that offends you
3. press the Text-to-Speech keyboard shortcut

 

[v_kyr]

On 4/26/2021 at 11:16 PM, loukash said:

Solution that always works; on Mac at least:

Pfff real Mac users do it this way with "say" ...

Quote

> say -v Zarvox "That looks like a peaceful planet."

And in order to select voice choices here ...

• List of voices available by the `say` command on OS X

[Steve_N]

Wow, three years on and true vector perspective editing is still an 'AD back-burner' feature!..

Sorry if my quoting/response here is 'off-topic' from the OP (2018), although it's relevant considering the perspective filter is the post' original question/discussion.

On 4/25/2021 at 3:18 AM, R C-R said:

On my iMac I get very odd results as I zoom in & out, with lots of phantom rectangular shapes appearing outside the page boundaries.

Anybody else see the same thing?

I experienced this yesterday and was about to post about it, then decided I was dealing with too many other business/Affinity issues regarding vectors/stroke/laser-file-printing. Then I stumbled on the last two pages of this post while searching for solutions to my other issues.

I was using Designer/Win 10, and it happened after duplicating a layer copied from Photo with the Perspective filter nested, then applying an Outer Shadow FX. Once I deleted the duplicate and resorted to working only on the original layers, the randon coloured rectangles disappeared from the unused canvas area.

There was no way to make the strange colours disappear in that file until the duplicated layers were deleted.

I tried to replicate this again today and it doesn't seem to be happening, or the process order used to make it happen yesterday is not exact. I don't know.

[Steve_N]

On 4/26/2021 at 4:29 AM, R C-R said:

For me, it usually only happens when I am in the process of zooming

Not for me. The coloured rectangles were very consistent and persistent.

On 4/26/2021 at 2:47 AM, R C-R said:

Also, as I zoom in & out, I get other rectangles of different colors that disappear after I stop zooming.

Mine were permanently of all colours over most of the outer (unused) canvas.

[Dazmondo77]

12 hours ago, Steve_N said:

Wow, three years on and true vector perspective editing is still an 'AD back-burner' feature!..

Six and a half - Love to know what the problems are - must be serious or we'd have had it from the start

[Steve_N]

On 4/29/2021 at 3:03 AM, Dazmondo77 said:

Six and a half

True. After re-reading my comment I realised it was completely misrepresenting my thoughts. In my head I was thinking, in relation to this threads discussion period. Obviously my brain was in the 🚾 with lawless fingers! "The inter-webs" strikes again. 😁-😶

On 4/29/2021 at 3:03 AM, Dazmondo77 said:

Love to know what the problems are - must be serious or we'd have had it from the start

I share your sentiment. I often find it frustrating that management never seem to share any development roadmapping or mud-map. Although having said that, there is a part of me that can empathise why they prefer not.

I know I've quietly ached and lamented after this simple AD function since beginning to use it.

[sheriffderek]

I create SVGs to be uses as

code

and not as graphic output. So, if it's not SVG - then it's not going to my needs in most cases. In the case of my floor example / that would likely be fine as a bitmap - but what if I wanted to interact with it and change the color with CSS? That's what I'm looking for when I use Affinity.

https://codepen.io/sheriffderek/details/RPeMQZ Stuff like this / where I'm manipulating the SVG with CSS or JavaSCript and user interactions.

[v_kyr]

7 hours ago, sheriffderek said:

I create SVGs to be uses as ...

What has SVG/CSS interaction to do with the plain vector based perspective distortions theme here?

[sheriffderek]

On 4/30/2021 at 12:31 AM, v_kyr said:

What has SVG/CSS interaction to do with the plain vector based perspective distortions theme here?

Affinity Designer is a vector illustration program.

Graphic artists in the web space take those graphics and use them on websites. 

We need the paths to remain paths.

We also need to warp/distort/ or whatever you call it --- and so, turning it into a bitmap is NOT an option.

Do we need to start a separate thread for every single reason that "turn it into a bitmap" - isn't a solution?
           
There's a thread here already for supposed "workarounds"  - but    THIS thread is about a feature request / and hopefully includes compelling use-cases                                                 

If it hasn't even been considered for over 6 years... I'll guess that something about that engine will brick the rest of the program - and that this just isn't going to ever happen.

If you can afford Adobe (meaning you make absolutely ANY money from your graphics) / then this isn't a problem. I use Affinity for the color-wheel - and to integrate with the iPad app - and then I use Illustrator anytime I need to do something that isn't flat. Sure - I'd rather just give Affinity $50 a month instead... but that's not an option.

[Mark Freeman]

23 minutes ago, sheriffderek said:

 If it hasn't even been considered for over 6 years... I'll guess that something about that engine will brick the rest of the program - and that this just isn't going to ever happen.

If you can afford Adobe (meaning you make absolutely ANY money from your graphics) / then this isn't a problem.

I would be interested in hearing more about the first point. And I could pay Adobe, but considering it isn’t a tool I need that often (but frustratingly essential when I do) I’m happy to stick with affinity because f*** Adobe for their extortion. For anyone interested who isn’t aware of it, there is a workaround using an Adobe Capture ironically, (which is free) where you export your rasterized and warped bitmap as a svg.

But returning to the first point, the lack of transparency or comment by affinity ref this much demanded feature only ads likelihood to theories like that (admittedly I know shit about code however), especially with their profit margin.

[v_kyr]

4 hours ago, sheriffderek said:

We also need to warp/distort/ or whatever you call it --- and so, turning it into a bitmap is NOT an option.

That's what this plain vector distortion thread and request is all about, namely keep everything as plain vectors then, also when exporting as SVG/PDF and other supported vector formats.

4 hours ago, sheriffderek said:

If it hasn't even been considered for over 6 years... I'll guess that something about that engine will brick the rest of the program - and that this just isn't going to ever happen.

Hard to tell if that's maybe a reason for it, aka some possible discrepancies in the underlayed vector generation engine. - Though I don't think (hope) that's the reason why vector distortions aren't yet available, instead it may be a matter of missing left time & resources to implement that, so it probably isn't on their first parts to do agenda, so to say in a similar fashion like APub doesn't yet support footnotes and co etc.

[MCFC_4Heatons]

12 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

That's what this plain vector distortion thread and request is all about, namely keep everything as plain vectors then, also when exporting as SVG/PDF and other supported vector formats.

Hard to tell if that's maybe a reason for it, aka some possible discrepancies in the underlayed vector generation engine. - Though I don't think (hope) that's the reason why vector distortions aren't yet available, instead it may be a matter of missing left time & resources to implement that, so it probably isn't on their first parts to do agenda, so to say in a similar fashion like APub doesn't yet support footnotes and co etc.

For sure Designer is at the bottom of Affinity's priorities, they had the iPad app, then Publisher and the new Studio Link feature. Affinity Photo for desktop has definitely seen more progress while Designer has been neglected IMO.

[Andy05]

On 5/25/2021 at 10:26 PM, MCFC_4Heatons said:

ffinity Photo for desktop has definitely seen more progress while Designer has been neglected IMO.

The target market for raster works/image manipulation is way bigger than for true vector based work, I guess. So, to me, pushing that app faster than the others is a reproducible thought.

[R C-R]

On 5/25/2021 at 3:26 PM, MCFC_4Heatons said:

Affinity Photo for desktop has definitely seen more progress while Designer has been neglected IMO.

Maybe, but do keep in mind that some "under the hood" improvements & fixes apply to all the Affinity apps so they may go unnoticed. For example, for the Mac 1.9.x versions of both AP & AD they claim they made substantial performance improvements in typography & assets, improved PDF import handling, etc. 

[MCFC_4Heatons]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

Maybe, but do keep in mind that some "under the hood" improvements & fixes apply to all the Affinity apps so they may go unnoticed. For example, for the Mac 1.9.x versions of both AP & AD they claim they made substantial performance improvements in typography & assets, improved PDF import handling, etc. 

Yes, but we're talking about essential missing features that people have been asking for for years, a basic non-destructive perspective tool is a bog standard requirement.

[R C-R]

1 minute ago, BofG said:

Devil's advocate here, but Serif have sold hundreds of thousands of copies. If the feature was truly essential that wouldn't have happened.

Scanning through the feature requests made in these forums it becomes pretty obvious that there are many, many different ideas about which features are essential & which ones should get the most attention or highest priority.

In fact, quite a few users say bug fixes & stability improvements should be the highest priority & no new features should be added until/unless the apps can be made as stable & bug free as possible.

[Dazmondo77]

12 hours ago, BofG said:

Devil's advocate here, but Serif have sold hundreds of thousands of copies. If the feature was truly essential that wouldn't have happened.

But it's taken for granted that you can do vector distortions in an app that was initially aimed squarely at professionals - I use vector distortions a lot so I think it's a shame that I've had Illustrator cs5 open for the past six and a  half years in order to crack on with work (although affinitys copy and paste is currently broke and only pastes RGB - hopefully back to normal in next beta 1.9.5???)

I do feel sorry for self employed / freelancers that want or need to make the switch and have only used adobe cc, as adobe have now announced cancellation fees. saw a twitter post from someone needing to end a Photoshop subscription, as it was too expensive, getting charged $134.96 - that is just wrong (GREEDY GITS) - yes we can welcome those effected to Affinity, with a nice slick snappy interface and easy learning curve, you can be up and running in a day, but imagine the surprise when all you want to do is slight tweak to the perspective of a group, with a deadline around the corner, you can't. you have to find an alternative method = Inkscape - VectorsStyler beta - CorelDraw is all you have on the Mac there's fair few more on the PC including Serif Drawplus - 😒