Marquis tool rotation and resizing

[Sparkie Shock]

Hi, I'm new to Affinity and have jut starred using it for Post production on my artwork. I was using Pixlr until Autodesk pulled the dickish move ever by cancelling everyone's subscription and so I needed an alternative. Now let me explain WHY I used Pixlr for so long. Yes it's beautique program designed for applying pre made filters for phone photo's. BUT .. it did one thing that no other program (Photoshop, Paint, GIMP etc) still doesn't do .. I'll explain what this is.

 

So in pixlr one could chose a mask brush that allowed you to draw, or sloppily paint on the area of an image you wanted to affect. You could erase par of this mask if you accidentally masked too much .. or add to it. VERY simple. And you could feather the edge so there's none of that hard edge crap that you need to then arse around with. Photoshop could really learn from this. The point is that with this mask you could then affect just that area, adding highlights to faces, or desaturating, or adding filters .. anything ... you you could invert the mask and affect everything except what you originally masked.

 

It was perfect. And then they cancelled the program. Sure Pixlr still works .. but without the 'pro' features that I need to do effective post work. So after talking with the guys at apple they put me on to Affinity.

 

Now I gotta say that Affinity is seriously AWESOME! I'm loving so much of it but there's a few things I don't know if it does .. or how to do it.

 

For instance .. In trying to recreate my old technique of masking a certain area I use an elliptical mask .. feather the edge to about 350 px .. and then apply an adjustment layer to highlight people or objects. Alternatively I can invert the mask and lessen the surroundings .. but the selection is very rigid. There doesn't seem to be a way to rotate the elliptical selection (I'm just tonne call this a mask even though i know technically it's not ... it's just easier), or to squeeze it after the fact. Sure I can redraw it but not being able to affect it's orientation after it's on the page is kinda limiting.

 

I have tried using actual layer masks and I have NO CLUE how to make them do anything. I select layer mask .. do stuff .. and all I get is a red mask that then does nothing ... how do I mask specific places and things? That's what I need.

 

Once I'm done with Affinity I still have to import to Pixlr as I like to apply some of the filters which darken shadows but also smooth them and it makes for a really deep looking image. I REALLY wish Affinity had stuff like this built in .. or some way to be able to make them. It's a combination of a slight Blur, darkening shadows, smoothing highlights and adding a slight glow to things. I can't see a way to do this in Affinity (just like I can't do it in Photoshop either). Yes I understand I'm a bit of a pleb with photography .. desiring the help of pre-made lens effects etc. But what can I tell you .. it works for me.

 

So, I hope I've explained myself to the point where you can see what I'm trying to achieve. I feel confident I'll be using Affinity for a while to come. But there needs to be a way for me to select a more precise area in my mask .. and still be able to feather edges and add and subtract from the mask if necessary.

 

Would appreciate any thoughts. 

 

Great app.

Sparkie

[dominik]

1 hour ago, Sparkie Shock said:

There doesn't seem to be a way to rotate the elliptical selection (I'm just tonne call this a mask even though i know technically it's not ... it's just easier), or to squeeze it after the fact. Sure I can redraw it but not being able to affect it's orientation after it's on the page is kinda limiting.

 

 

 

Hello Sparkie,

 

wellcome to the forum and to Affinity.

 

It is not too obvious but please try the following:

• Once you have drawn and feathered your mask hit the 'q' key to enter quickmask overlay mode. You then can see the mask as a ruby overlay.
• Then hit the 'v' key to enter move mode. You then can squeeze, move, skew and rotate the mask (including the feathered parts).
• After you have the shape you are looking for, you hit the 'q' key again to return to the marching ants outline of your selection.

I find this tutorial on masks quite helpful: https://www.dam-photo.com/affinity-photo-working-with-masks/

 

Cheers,

 

d.

 

 

[Sparkie Shock]

Ahhh ... Very awesome thanks. Yeah I guess I need to sit down with the youtube tutorials on how to use this app properly (something I should probably do with every app I use).

 

Many thanks,

 

Sparkie

[dominik]

12 hours ago, Sparkie Shock said:

Ahhh ... Very awesome thanks. Yeah I guess I need to sit down with the youtube tutorials on how to use this app properly (something I should probably do with every app I use).

 

Many thanks,

 

Sparkie

 

You are welcome.

 

It is indeed worth looking at tutorial videos if this works for you. 

There is a comprehensive list of Affinity Photo tutorials on this page and one of Affinity Designer tutorials on this page.

 

And if you are looking around on the internet you will find much more. Affinity has gained a lot of attention recently and this results in a great amount of learning resources 

 

d.