Affinity Photo Macros with Layer Masks & Macro Management

[jmantn]

I have a few questions relating to Macros on both Mac & iOS devices.

 

My first question is also a testimonial to what really won me over to Affinity Photo this week.  I was editing a photo taking in a living room on my iPad in Affinity Photo and was trying the macros out and ended up with a photo that now looks like it was taken in a studio.  I recreated what I did on the iPad on my mac and turned it into a macro but there's one major issue I have.  My macro creates a layer mask of for the people in the photo and this overall macro is one I'd like to reuse however I can't for the life of me figure out how to have it ask to make a selection when ran and would that also work on the iPad?  In case that's not clear I'd like to run a macro on either device and if part of that macro requires a selection to be made have it prompt me to make one.

 

Secondly I accidentally imported the same macro in twice and created a duplicate and did not see an easy way to delete the duplicated live macros.  I ended up deleting the app and reinstalling but this seems a bit drastic especially as time goes on and with the additional macros we can import now from desktop version would like to see a way to manage these on the iPad.  

 

Lastly will there be a way to create macros from the iPad itself in the future?  I'm honestly blown away by the ability to create macros and effortlessly sync them to the iPad and I didn't even realize this was possible until this week.  While I've owned both Mac & iOS versions of Affinity Photo this is what really caused me to push aside other apps.  This is amazing.

 

 

[DM1]

In response to the second question... Tap the Macro studio symbol.  Press and hold on the desired macro and a menu will appear. This menu offers the option to delete or rename the macro.

if the imported macro file contains more than one macro you can simply delete the category removing all macros in that category in one go.

The menu for this action is identified by the square containing 3 bars , next to the pin at the top right of screen.

 

The first question.... many of the macros developed on the Mac version run just as well on the iPad. However not all of them do. Ones that pause to allow manual intervention such as selections haven't seemed to work on the iPad. I don't have the desktop version so can’t determine which will and which won't, or what steps the macro is attempting to run. However, some functions/features not listed on the iPad actually work when called on by macros written on the desktop. Muds macros has one titled  inpaintCrop2 which is useful after straightening an image. It rasterises the image selects blank areas and infills them perfectly. Doing this with the inpainting brush is often hit and miss, but the macro works every time. 

 

Will there be a way to create macros in the iPad version.... we all hope so!! 

[jmantn]

Thank you for this!  I could have sworn I tried this and didn’t work before but now it is so it’s exactly how I’d want it to work just some how overlooked it. 

 

Im going to be doing a lot of trial and error with macros from desktop to iOS and aside from not yet being able to create them on the iPad this was the only other barrier I came across. 

 

Ive noticed some effects like lighting and especially with Perlin noise appear differently on desktop than on iPad.  For example Perlin with lighting can transform a clean background into what looks like a backdrop on iOS however using the same settings with Perlin and lighting on iPad it looks terrible (mainly Perlin is what’s most dramatic between the two platforms). 

 

So being able to do some trial and error is really great and helps out a lot!

 

I really would like to figure out how to have it prompt for selection for a macro so I’ll ask in main forum regarding that. 

 

Thanks for the the suggestion on looking at the example as well as I’ve been diving in on tutorials and everything else I can find. 

[Ede Wolf]

I am using MacBook Air with the latest Affinity version. I tried to delete a macro, but it did not work as described above. Any help, please?

[DM1]

12 hours ago, Ede Wolf said:

I am using MacBook Air with the latest Affinity version. I tried to delete a macro, but it did not work as described above. Any help, please?

Hi Ede, the directions above apply to the iPad version not the Desktop version.

Try here.

 https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/forum/5-questions/

[Paul Mudditt]

To delete a library of macros on desktop press the four little hamburger bars and select delete. To delete an individual macro from a macro library a 2 fingered press on trackpad or right click on mouse will bring up the delete macro option.

 

[DM1]

On 28/02/2018 at 3:32 AM, jmantn said:

Im going to be doing a lot of trial and error with macros from desktop to iOS and aside from not yet being able to create them on the iPad this was the only other barrier I came across. 

You should checkout these macros by James Ritson. Made for desktop. The Workflow macros appear to work on the iPad as intended. The tonal ones I am not sure work properly on the iPad (I have no way of comparing as no desktop).

some great effects though.