Blend Function - Blending two shapes with two different colors in incremental steps

[Norway4T]

In various other graphics editors it is possible to blend to shapes. For example you want to blend a red circle with a blue rectangle. I imagine this function would look like this in this imaginary function in Affinity Designer:

You place the red circle and the blue rectangle on opposite sides of the document. You want the blend to rotate 360° and you want the blend to arc through a specific point on the document.

You select the red circle and blue rectangle. You drag the "rotation center" to the side were you want the blend to arc. You type in 360 degrees in the blend tool dialogue box. You type in number of iterations, let's say 20. Then you hit the "Blend" button. Between the red circle and the blue rectangle there are now 20 shapes arcing between the two original shapes. Each shape - moving from the circle to the rectangle - becomes more like a rectangle, and vice versa. The color changes with each shape in the entire spectrum between red and blue, and the shapes in the arc rotates from the circle to the rectangle 360 degrees (negative values would rotate the shapes the opposite way).

Maybe it would also be possible to outdo the competition by making it possible to do more color combination along the arc/path. Maybe it would also be possible to place more "rotation centers" - points through which the blending would take place.

[Aammppaa]

A blend tool is on the 1.x roadmap (i.e. it will arriive for free, before version 2.0).
See: 

Nobody other than Serif knows how it will function, but they have expressed the aim to innovate rather than duplicate.

[jstnhllmn]

Quote

 

This is taking so long, I will unfortunately need to switch to Illustrator to get a job (or jobs) done. I suspect a large number of the user base that needs this and other funcionality (like blend/fit to envelope) listed on the 1.x roadmap will lose patience with a sales pitch that is never delivered.  

Sad donkey.

[Norway4T]

Thanks Aammppaa, but TonyB wrote that 4 - FOUR - years ago... If they do pick up my idea, I've written a description on what I imagine they could add to go above and beyond the competition. However, taking into account how long this has taken, I'm afraid jstnhllmn (quote below) is right; -this was just a sales pitch. It's a damn shame. Affinity is reasonably priced, and Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo, so far are looking fairly good for things you can solve in those apps. But they are too "skinny", and the "meat" isn't growing very fast on the bones.

On 7/30/2018 at 7:58 PM, jstnhllmn said:

This is taking so long, I will unfortunately need to switch to Illustrator to get a job (or jobs) done. I suspect a large number of the user base that needs this and other funcionality (like blend/fit to envelope) listed on the 1.x roadmap will lose patience with a sales pitch that is never delivered.  

 

[dominik]

11 hours ago, Norway4T said:

But they are too "skinny", and the "meat" isn't growing very fast on the bones.

Hello @Norway4T,

with all respect, I completely disagree. The output of the company is impressive, with public beta versions every couple of months and with two iPad versions of the major applications within less than two years (I think) after the Windows desktop version of Affinity Designer was released.

The company is very clear about the fact that they are setting priorities according to their own standards. If the blend function hasn't been published yet this only means this particular function was not prioritised enough to make it into a release. But it does not mean that the company is slow.

Best regards,

d.

[carl123]

The 1.x roadmap had no timescales but I do not think that most users would expect to still be waiting 4 years later for stuff they desperately needed on that roadmap.

What's to say it wont be another 4, 8, 12 years before those 1.x missing features are added.

I understand the reason it is taking so long (shortage of staff, bugs, new products etc) but from a marketing and professional point of view this cannot be good for Serif.

I sincerely hope the 2.x roadmap has some sort of approximated timescales attached to it.

Not sure I will be getting too overly excited about anything it contains if it doesn't