Introduce Yourself

[Bri-Toon]

Even though I don't think I'm really a stranger anymore, I will still introduce myself.

 

My name is Brian, and I am a big fan of vector and various forms of art. I use to do a lot of video editing, animating, and I would act. I enjoyed animation the most. I did a lot of animation starting with toys in 3rd grade, then I moved to images on a chalkboard, then whiteboard, then computer programs. I don't do as much as I use to, because I have fallen in several art slumps. I get tired after a while, and I can't seem to finish any of my new projects. I do struggle a lot with common life skills and launguage, but I feel I'm smart in my own way. I feel I actually understand how a lot of bad in the world was caused, and I want to bring back innocence in my works to help undo it. I am slowly getting back to art. I am working on a comic book meant to be very sweet and innocent, and it's based off of my views of just regular morals and respect. I want to post in the "Share your work" section, but I want to wait until it's complete or close to completion. I have 15 characters and 8 complete panels (one page) drawn in Designer. After I finish, I want to sell copies of my book to get my work known.

 

I think it's very impressive that I came across Affinity Designer. The staff has said, "It is about being different." Well heck, I'm different too. I am a solo traveler, and I am not into too much modernism because so much gets out of hand after a while. Minority thinking is the key of power. I have really strong visions on everything and I want to teach people my views. And I think the best way for people to do good is to see good.

[sbonsell71]

X4.0 Alfred, you're right! Let the record be changed.

[Alfred]

X4.0 Alfred, you're right! Let the record be changed.

 

I'm very glad to hear that, Stuart! (Where's the 'sigh of relief' smiley when we need it?)

 

X4 was a good version. They added some nice features in X5, but unfortunately they broke quite a few things at the same time.

[sbonsell71]

Alfred, are you able to help as an advanced member? I have a problem with affinity which no one seems able or willing to respond to. My next port of call will be to ask for my money back as I'm not using it already after just five days. Do you have problems exporting images? The problem I have is that, when I select the final image the transform box shows the W H that I expect it to be, but the export box shows something different - along with the final image. I check layers to make sure that there aren't rogue graphics hiding - which was never a problem with the crop to top function of X4 - but I just can't work it out. I don't have much experience with Serif help as I've never really needed it. Not impressed so far ....

[sbonsell71]

Bleduc, I think the whole point of art and creativity is to 'overcome' the things that lots of people have difficulty with in life. I often wonder what a living hell life would be without art and creativity - merely the pursuit of money, an exceedingly unchallenging pastime. I taught design for twenty years in the UK, specifically because when I was at school I was just so bored by the normal 'academic' subjects - I was actually advised not to study design as it wasn't academic enough to get into university! Anyhow, I think that most of what makes us creative comes about because we do not fit the mould. I know a number of people who are extremely intelligent and reliable but would readily themselves admit they have almost zero creativity ... which makes them perfect for the jobs they do, though I guess everyone is creative in their own way.

[Alfred]

Alfred, are you able to help as an advanced member? I have a problem with affinity which no one seems able or willing to respond to. My next port of call will be to ask for my money back as I'm not using it already after just five days.

 

I'm afraid I'm only 'advanced' in the sense that my post count is relatively high. The old Serif forums were similar in this respect, although they used vBulletin instead of IP.Board.

 

I'm sorry to learn that you're close to asking for a refund, Stuart, but it's entirely understandable if you can't persuade the software to do what you need or want it to do!

 

Do you have problems exporting images? The problem I have is that, when I select the final image the transform box shows the W H that I expect it to be, but the export box shows something different - along with the final image. I check layers to make sure that there aren't rogue graphics hiding - which was never a problem with the crop to top function of X4 - but I just can't work it out. I don't have much experience with Serif help as I've never really needed it. Not impressed so far ....

 

I can't say I've noticed any problems with image export. Do you have a problematic AD file that you can share here? (If so, it might be better to post it to a new thread.)

[Bri-Toon]

Bleduc, I think the whole point of art and creativity is to 'overcome' the things that lots of people have difficulty with in life. I often wonder what a living hell life would be without art and creativity - merely the pursuit of money, an exceedingly unchallenging pastime. I taught design for twenty years in the UK, specifically because when I was at school I was just so bored by the normal 'academic' subjects - I was actually advised not to study design as it wasn't academic enough to get into university! Anyhow, I think that most of what makes us creative comes about because we do not fit the mould. I know a number of people who are extremely intelligent and reliable but would readily themselves admit they have almost zero creativity ... which makes them perfect for the jobs they do, though I guess everyone is creative in their own way.

 

Absolutely. Everyone is gifted one way or another. But something I want to do is to indicate something symbolic. Many times when people read a book or watch a movie, they don't seem to pick up the symbolic meaning. People assume, "It's just a story. It doesn't mean anything." Even George Lucas said to Disney that the fans never understood that Star Wars isn't about space and aliens; it is just about personal problems. So I will have hidden symbols for intelligent people to figure out what I am actually trying to show to the world.

[Bri-Toon]

I have a problem with affinity which no one seems able or willing to respond to. My next port of call will be to ask for my money back as I'm not using it already after just five days.

 

I too am sorry that you haven't yet got a response. I know that the staff said that they are super busy. May I ask if you only mentioned a refund on the forum or did you send them an email at affinityreturns@serif.com?https://affinity.store/en-us/help/#returns

 

In addition to what Alfred said about creating a new topic, make sure you let us know what file type you are exporting to and how you are exporting the file(s).

[doobie lit]

hello 

doobie lit here, and no I never inhaled.

I purchased Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo looking forward to working and learning all I can with your help.

[lvl99]

Yo! I'm Matt. Been using DTP since I was a kid (first used Corel Draw 5). I love computer graphic design and I was a big fan of Macromedia Freehand and have slowly hated Adobe more and more since they decided to shelve/discontinue one of the best DTP apps ever. Illustrator was never good enough! Although kudos to them for InDesign, but I really disliked the fractured UX and file formats of PSD, AI and INDD, so I'm super excited about the uniform Affinity way.

 

I'm a power user and have been enjoying AD since I first bought it about a year or so ago now. I'm definitely putting it through its paces and I'm excited about helping contribute to its development through meaningful feature suggestions, bug reporting and more

[JennZ]

I am a recently retired Database and System Administrator who is diligently working on rekindling a relationship with right brain activities. Currently involved in digital photography while also post-processing several thousand film negatives and transparencies, my goal is to create the necessary skills that will allow me to integrate graphic designs and digital artwork into whatever media (electronic, visual arts, print, etc.) my curiosity and efforts will take me. I will probably be an infrequent contributor, but I hope to use this forum as a valuable resource for expanding my skills.

[Tulpaloose]

Please help: where can I find a TEXT (not video based) instruction manual? I purchased Affinity for Mac ages ago and am trying to learn how to use it from scratch, with no experience in digital photo editing beyond basic iPhoto. I'm old school -- started developing my own film and printing in a dark room.  I need Affinity for Dummies, starting with the basics. Usually I'm fine with tech -- I build and run web sites -- but I am defeated by Affinity, and the help available from colleagues is aimed at Photoshop/Lightroom users.

I find the videos linked from your site are too long and too slow for basic tasks any technical writer could explain in a paragraph.

But worst of all, the screens on your tutorial videos do not correspond to the Affinity 1.5 version on screen on my MacBook Pro -- which is, frankly, crazy making.  Please consider that not all of your learners are visual/audio oriented. Some of us prefer to learn via text.

I'm willing to put in time -- which is scarce in my life -- to learn Affinity before abandoning you, but not the hours required to listen to your long lectures on video that do not correspond to my software.

 

[Bri-Toon]

Please help: where can I find a TEXT (not video based) instruction manual?

 

Hi. I might be advertising my own work, but I typed up many lessons on how to use Affinity here. I tried to have everything be as straight forward as I could. Now, it is on Designer, not Photo. I'm guessing Affinity Photo is what you are more interested in, however, they both work very similarly. A lot of the methods that are used can be done in the other, so learning how Designer works might be a good way to get started.

 

Here is how they both compare to each other.

 

 

 

 

What’s the same?

 

Vector Features:

• Boolean operations
• Converting to curves
• Pixel editing on vectors
• Clipping and masking vectors
• Smart shape presets
• Pen tool and pen modes
• Gradients on objects
• Stroke profiling

 

Photo Features:

• Layer adjustments
• Marquee, lasso, and brush selections
• Common adjustment tools
• Blend modes

 

Other:

• Export persona and slice tool
• Bitmap pattern fills
• Power Duplicate
• Pixel tool
• Advanced paragraph formatting
• Over 1,000,000% zoom

 

What’s different?

 

Only in Designer:

• Corner tool
• Vector pencil tool
• Vector brush tool
• Transparency tool
• Expanding objects
• Vector brush presets
• Type on path
• Symbols
• Assets
• Constraints

 

Only in Photo:

• Flood select tool
• Color replacement brush tool
• Paint mixer brush tool
• Advanced eraser tools
• Sponge brush tool
• Clone brush tool
• Undo brush tool
• Median brush tool
• Inpainting brush tool
• Mesh warp tool
• Perspective tool
• Liquifying tools
• Development tools
• Tone mapping tools
• Etcetera studios

[MEB]

Hi Tulpaloose,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

Did you take a look at the Help file? It covers all the features/functionality extensively.

We are also preparing an Affinity Photo Workbook similar to the one we have released for Designer.

[paulfromaustralia]

Hi Catherine :)

[gdenby]

I am a recently retired Database and System Administrator who is diligently working on rekindling a relationship with right brain activities. Currently involved in digital photography while also post-processing several thousand film negatives and transparencies, my goal is to create the necessary skills that will allow me to integrate graphic designs and digital artwork into whatever media (electronic, visual arts, print, etc.) my curiosity and efforts will take me. I will probably be an infrequent contributor, but I hope to use this forum as a valuable resource for expanding my skills.

 

Hi,

 

Part of my job before I retired was developing and maintaining the departmental databases, and departmental support for 30-ish machines. I had admin status on them, but was about 2 layers under the institution' IT dept.

 

Fortunately, other parts of my job had me doing 3-D, some photo manipulation and vector graphics. Much more fun than making sure the daily quintuple back-ups were being done, and that the supervisors were actually not letting interns sit down at their desktops. And the ever delightful "Have you checked to see if its plugged in?"

 

I think you will find the logical layout of the apps to be quite delightful. And the response speed allows for lots of experimentation. I have to admit, at this point, AD is my elder playground. 

[rudyp16]

Hi, I'm Matt Priestley and I'm one of the Affinity developers. I'll try to help out on any topic, but particularly anything relating to tools, views and document drawing as they're the bits I'm mostly responsible for writing.

 

Feel free to join me and introduce yourself, too! :)

Hey Matt, Trying out the Trial of A Photo and there is a difference in viewing an adjustment layer. In the trial, the 3 buttons, 1 Red and 2 hollow empty do not show up.

Check this out. I'm hoping iot's a setting issue. Not showing up in my Trial Software.

[MEB]

Hi rudyp16,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

If you are referring to the three circles on the top left of the adjustment dialog those are specific to macOS (red closes the dialog, the others are greyed out/disabled). On Windows you will see an X on the top right of the adjustment dialog instead (for the same purpose - close the dialog).

[rudyp16]

Thanks,

 

Are there any Photoshop Plugins that will work in this product and if so, How do I get them into Affinity???

 

Thanks,

Rudy.

 

You can respond to rudy.pataky16@gmail.com or here.

[Alfred]

You can respond to rudy.p*****16@*****.com or here.

 

The usual practice is to respond within the forum thread so that other users can benefit, but it's a good idea to start your own thread if your question is not related to the topic of the current thread. As this is a public forum, you might want to edit your email address out of your post to avoid attracting spam.

[MEB]

Hi Rudy,

Photoshop plugins support is still being worked/improved. You can check this page for an unofficial list of supported plugins (click plugin's name for details).

[gabytas]

HI! My name Gabriel from Victoria, BC, Canada......I am a professional photographer who lives in the country surrounded by huge trees.....I have a wolf for pet.....

[gabytas]

Hello!.....My name is Gabriel from Victoria, BC, Canada......i'm a professional photographer..... www.pixreflections.photography .... i purchases a license for photo and one for designer for my mac in the studio....also bought one for the pc in the house.....with 3 licenses i would like to install designer as second seat for my windows laptop....how to download it

[MEB]

Hi gabytas,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

Go to the Affinity Store, log-in with your credentials, then go to the Downloads & Product Keys section to get the installer/email+serial number.

You can install it on all computers you own/control as long as you are the only one using the software for commercial purposes. See the End User License Agreement (EULA) for details.

[gabytas]

i feel a little stupid here but I cant log in as I purchased designer through apple store......so I don't have an account with serif!!!!!