Blend tool

[Dazmondo77]

On 10/11/2020 at 12:48 PM, fde101 said:

Also, sometimes the "most important" functions will rely on other functionality to be built before it can, and those "less important" functions just might be implemented directly from the building blocks that are being constructed to produce the "most important" ones.  In other words, the "less important" functions just might be essential to creating the "most important" functions in a manner that Serif believes is consistent with their objectives for the program.

Maybe blending needs a very basic implementation of vector warping in order to function - I remember feeling confused back in 2014 that options for warping vectors and blending shapes didn't seem to be in a obvious place ------ so +1 backdated to 2014

1 hour ago, Freevious said:

FreeHand! Rise up and walk!
NOW!

Hallelujah!

[fde101]

4 minutes ago, Dazmondo77 said:

Maybe blending needs a very basic implementation of vector warping in order to function

If you stop and think about it, things like color can be interpolated quite easily, but for the shape itself, while you could in a primitive sense try to match up nodes between the two shapes and interpolate the coordinates of the nodes and control points, what do you do if the number of nodes is different between the two shapes?

Also, depending on how the shapes line up, even if the number of nodes is the same, a simple interpolation on a node-by-node basis may not produce the best results.

So yes, there is definitely some complexity in how this can be handled.

[Alfred]

8 minutes ago, fde101 said:

So yes, there is definitely some complexity in how this can be handled.

There is indeed, but Serif handled a big chunk of it for DrawPlus. After initially offering only blending on a straight line between the start and end objects, with even steps and a simple colour fade between them, they eventually (several years later) added options for blending on a path with an adjustable profile for the steps and a choice between colour fade or going the long or short way around the colour wheel.

[Marila]

would also like the blend tool to be added! 

[Boldlinedesign]

Vectorstyler is still in beta and while it's not perfect, it's already got a blend tool, text and object warp, well-functioning boolean operations, 100% vector brushes, a blob tool, vector erase tool, print color separations, etc. I found out the "team" developing Vectorstyler is one person! Not a full team. Edits and improvements have been added quickly, beta testers have been acknowledged, listened to and trusted. I understand the wuhan flu affected productivity, but this was a slow pace long before the virus affected team projects.
The contour tool in 1.9 was first revealed as a teaser back in 2019 on an Affinity staff twitter page. It did not get added until a year and a half later. Vital tools like I listed above found in VS, STILL have not found their way into Designer. Whether true or not, the perception of Designer is that it's been neglected by the Serif team.

[jstnhllmn]

Hopefully the program is being neglected. If what we see represents actual effort and this progress rate were extended to society, we'd still be warring with catapults. 

[ra.skill]

+1 for  something similar to Adobe blend tool.