Recoloring downloaded vector pattern

[nataliehuga]

Hi, I am totally new to graphic design, so my apologies if I need dumb-proof step by step. I have downloaded a number of vector patterns which I need to recolour. I have managed to input a set of global colours, which I would like to be my "Brand palette". I need to separate each individual elements in order to recolour them separately, ideally using my brand colour as main colour setting. I can't "ungroup" the pattern and do not seem to be able to recolour as fill. Also, I thought you could recolour the similar shapes at once. Could somebody be kind enough to give me step by step from start to finish? Thanking you in advance...

[Patrick Connor]

@nataliehuga

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums. 

Can you please clarify if you are using Affinity Designer or Affinity Photo, and whether it is on Mac OSX, Windows or iPad? 

[nataliehuga]

Hi Patrick, I am using Affinity photo, I am on windows...

[Alfred]

For maximum accuracy and flexibility you should redraw the shapes, but the selection tools in Affinity Photo make it fairly easy to separate the existing shapes onto different layers according to their colour. Unfortunately there is no ‘Select Similar’ command in the Affinity apps, but if you fill the shapes with global colours you can change the fills quickly by editing those colours.

I’ve attached an Affinity Photo file where I separated the colours as described above.

 

nataliehuga.afphoto

[nataliehuga]

Okay... Thanks

[gdenby]

Hi, nataliehuga,

The image you posted is a .png bitmap. While it is probably from a vector file, it is not one itself. I ran the image thru a 3rd party vectorizer, altho' it would have been easy enough to recreate from scratch. 

Once the vector shapes were made, it was easy to group them by color. Grouped vector colors can be changed en masse w. the fill tool.

Click the group, change to the fill tool and select the fill/solid option from the context bar across the top. Then click on the color well to change all at once.

Vectorized.afphoto

[Wosven]

Hi,

If the patterns are as simple as this one, you can easily do this:

1. Select the "Flood select tool" and use it in mode "Add".
2. Select all parts with the same color
3. Add a "Fill layer" mask (this way, if you can easily modify the color, selecting another one in your swatches)
4. Deselect
5. Do it again until it's finished.

You can add another fill layer to get a new background color too.

 

The file with the fill layers:

circles-17.afphoto

 

 

Edited July 1, 2018 by Wosven
Oups, I attached the right file, this time.

[firstdefence]

1 hour ago, gdenby said:

Hi, nataliehuga,

The image you posted is a .png bitmap. While it is probably from a vector file, it is not one itself. I ran the image thru a 3rd party vectorizer, altho' it would have been easy enough to recreate from scratch. 

Once the vector shapes were made, it was easy to group them by color. Grouped vector colors can be changed en masse w. the fill tool.

Click the group, change to the fill tool and select the fill/solid option from the context bar across the top. Then click on the color well to change all at once.

Vectorized.afphoto

I did a similar thing with Vector Magic, the awesome thing with Vector Magic is it created groups for all the different colours, it also named the groups with the #number for that colour, that's pretty neat stuff. I did actually recreate the the file manually and the quarter pies aren't quarter circles they are more corners from a fat pill shape.

Circles17 via Vector Magic.afdesign

 

[nataliehuga]

Thank you guys, very helpful and much appreciated! All the best...

[Ana Mendes]

Can we have this properly automated intro a beautiful menu, like illustrator has?

 

And then this windows pops: