affinity designer A Quick play

[Macmonkey]

Hey everyone,

I've just been playing with the software, it started out as a quick doodle to play around and I'll be damned if t didn't just suck me in ;). I certainly like the way that Affinity Designer is headed.

It has the key functionality from illustrator, but doesn't make you jump through as many hoops. 

 

Things I love:

The dynamic shapes - there is similar functionality in illustrator with one of the astute graphics plugins but there is a much more extensive range here. i love the eclipse tool, really handy for shadows sand highlights on spherical objects.

The transparency tool - is really great, no need to mess around with image masks to create a simple alpha grad

The pressure graph - a great way to control the thickness of the lines.

Insert inside - I didn't know that this functionality was available inside illustrator until i found it here

Elipse gradient - Same again

 

Things I would Love to see:

Multiple fills strokes and effects - I have only just started using these in Sketch, iDraw and illustrator but they have become really handy for creating a more efficient workflow. I especially like the implementation in Sketch

Outline stroke - Sometimes nice to use a stroke as a starting point expand it then tweak it.

Offset path - Really handy to be able to expand a complex shape outward or inward 

Select Same… - It would be nice to be able to select the same fill or stroke colour to be able to easily recolour artwork. 

Adjustable Colour Swatches - I haven't seen this in any of the vector packages I've used but would be great to be able to assign a colour from the swatch palette to multiple objects and by updating the swatch you could automatically update the colour on all the objects (kind of like in inDesign). I've used this briefly in ToonBoom Animate and it worked really well.

Quick Zoom Shortcut - I really missed the cmd-space shortcut to zoom. I was using a pen /tablet combo so couldn't use a scroll wheel… but I guess i would get use dot the trackpad alternative ;)

Release compound path - I couldn't figure out how to separate booleaned objects (but that's probably just me)

 

Anyways just some thoughts. as I said I'm liking the way it's headed and look forward to doing some more doodles sometime soon.

 

Take it easy.

Dave 

[MattP]

Brilliant work, Dave!  :)

 

Really great to hear that you're enjoying Designer! 'Expand Stroke' should be coming soon (I have to iron out the niggles, so I don't know if I'll get it perfect in time for tomorrow's beta, but I'll obviously try) and I've already added the menu item for 'Release compound' but just need to write the code still, lol... I know that after launch we'll be adding multiple fills/lines and better selection methods (select all text with certain fonts or ranges of sizes, select all red things, similar things, etc) and I do know there is talk of zoom shortcuts in the office at the moment - basically, I think that you'll hopefully be happy with the finished product  :)

 

Thanks,

Matt

[MEB]

Hey everyone,

I've just been playing with the software, it started out as a quick doodle to play around and I'll be damned if t didn't just suck me in ;). I certainly like the way that Affinity Designer is headed. It has the key functionality from illustrator, but doesn't make you jump through as many hoops. 

 

 

 

Welcome Dave,

 

I know exactly what you mean... It's called fun!

 

Nice work :)

I like particularly how you have worked the light. It gives the image an ethereal effect. The expression on her eyes is sweet too.

 

If you check around the forum you will see that most of your suggestions were already requested and most of them are coming to Affinity thanks to Matt and the rest of Affinity team. I have a feeling that you will start to like Tuesdays a lot more...  ^_^

[Macmonkey]

Brilliant work, Dave!  :)

 

Really great to hear that you're enjoying Designer! 'Expand Stroke' should be coming soon (I have to iron out the niggles, so I don't know if I'll get it perfect in time for tomorrow's beta, but I'll obviously try) and I've already added the menu item for 'Release compound' but just need to write the code still, lol... I know that after launch we'll be adding multiple fills/lines and better selection methods (select all text with certain fonts or ranges of sizes, select all red things, similar things, etc) and I do know there is talk of zoom shortcuts in the office at the moment - basically, I think that you'll hopefully be happy with the finished product  :)

 

Thanks,

Matt

Cheers Matt,

 

I'm glad that you liked the illustration. And good to hear about all of those updates, sounds like you've got a busy few months ahead :) I'll be eagerly following your progress… and I look forward to becoming better acquainted with this great piece of kit that you guys are putting together.

 

Take care, and good luck

Dave

[Macmonkey]

Welcome Dave,

 

I know exactly what you mean... It's called fun!

 

Nice work :)

I like particularly how you have worked the light. It gives the image an ethereal effect. The expression on her eyes is sweet too.

 

If you check around the forum you will see that most of your suggestions were already requested and most of them are coming to Affinity thanks to Matt and the rest of Affinity team. I have a feeling that you will start to like Tuesdays a lot more...  ^_^

 

Hey MEB,

 

thanks for your welcome and kind words. I'm glad that you liked the illustration, with regards to the light I'm trying to take a few cues from Pascal Campion, that guys is a genius!!

 

I see what you mean about checking the forums. Its seems that we are all on the same page :) And I even discovered that "Adjustable Colour Swatches" that I requested… thats Global Swatches to everyone else, are already in illustrator …oops … that's embarrassing I've only been using it for about 15 years!! All this time it's been hiding there in plain sight :)

 

Thanks again

Dave