Envelope warping, object-distort, perspective tool or fisheye tool?

[MCFC_4Heatons]

Adobe Fireworks users are desperate for a viable alternative after being left high and dry by Adobe. Affinity could clean up with a few additional features in Designer. A simple non-destructive perspective tool would be a good starting point .... Check out the Adobe Fireworks forum someone from Affinity and you'll see desperate Fireworks users clinging onto the software and trying to keep it working even though Adobe have not updated it at all since 2013.

[PPPeter]

Wonder why they removed the public roadmap...

[cgartists]

I want to add to this - if this feature is in paid 2.0 I am totally OK with that. I will buy it instantly if it will be same price as previous but guys this is 6 years now and while there were cool new features along the way this and image vectorisation is really needed.

So many tutorials how to nicely wrap text in Illustrator and how some things that they do easily is just not possible here - it breaks my heart and I am your fan/evangelist and user since almost beginning I wish you all the luck in bringing this to 1.x lineup or 2.0 paid upgrade but hope it will be sooner than later

[Boldlinedesign]

@cgartists try vectorstyler for those missing features. Even if you stick with affinity for most of your work. Between the two programs, most every basic need is met

[cgartists]

On 11/26/2021 at 5:38 PM, Boldlinedesign said:

@cgartists try vectorstyler for those missing features. Even if you stick with affinity for most of your work. Between the two programs, most every basic need is met

Thanks for that @Boldlinedesign - I didn't know this. I installed the demo and it seems sluggish in simple operations like moving text object on a blank canvas. It feels like merge between Inkscape and Corel - too traumatic the resemblance is And icons are from another planet - I have no idea what things are. It could never replace Affinity and paying 99$ only to wrap mesh there and copy it back to Affinity... I don't think I am that desperate for this feature yet

[ashf]

I think the problem is that we can't see any progress and that makes us frustrated. 
Like walking on an endless road in the dark night. can't see any hope.

Would be nice if Serif could show us a bit of sneak preview of those features, like they did for Contour tool or 3D texturing before.

[cgartists]

1 minute ago, ashf said:

I think the problem is that we can't see any progress and that makes us frustrated. 
Like walking endless road in the dark night. can't see any hope.

Would be nice if Serif could show us a bit of sneak preview of those features, like they did for Contour tool or 3D texturing before.

insightful! It's like Rory Sutherland describes that people are more willing to wait 15 minutes knowing it will be 15 minutes than waiting 5 minutes without knowing He describes it on the example of airlines and DELAYED sign - it would be much better to put DELAYED 50min even if it is delayed only 15min eventually than putting just DELAYED

[ashf]

@cgartistsYeah, no news for Publisher for iPad, no news for Affinity DAM.
And on top of that no news for features Affinity lacks.
As if entire Affinity development has been stalled.

What should I look forward to?  it's so hopeless now.

[cgartists]

Just now, ashf said:

@cgartistsYeah, no news for Publisher for iPad, no news for Affinity DAM.
And on top of that no news for features Affinity lacks.
As if entire Affinity development has been stalled.

What should I looking forward to?  it's so hopeless now.

Hmmm I must admit I almost stopped using iPad apps - they are fantastic but still I use them mainly for logo concepts as vector drawing app and 99% of work done still on mac. Just so much more comfortable. Can't imagine publisher on iPad - but while I personally don't see the need for it I imagine some people may wait for it. DAM I don't see need for as I never used Bridge in past and all these - I hate apps building their own databases to manage assets because it is very hard to migrate, use on many platforms and too much dependable on one vendo in case of future updates etc. These databases also tend to break and I hate idea of my work being wasted. But that is my personal view.

The mesh wrap is something else in my opinion - it is a lacking feature for people who made the switch and in my opinion this is more of a priority to deliver this so people won't switch back to Adobe. This may also stop people switching to Affinity from what I saw in forums and reviews - this and vectorisation. I personally use vectorisation from image-vectorizer.com app which works very good and extremely fast for mono and allows quick copy paste to Affinity but built-in solution would be better. As for wrap it is something that can be worked around only with very tedious work of hand modifying and result is not good so I more learn to live without it but would much appreciate it. If there was external app similar to this vectoriser but purely for wrap it could be ok but wrap often requires context of the rest of the project so it would be a half-measure.

I just hope they do it - even if it was paid 2.0 - I can't wait I actually would like to pay more to Affinity - bought the books and didn't use them, purchased lots of brushes and these I actually use but if 2.0 comes I will be happy to pay for the whole suite again to support them It is still 1000x fairer than Adobe approach

[ashf]

I've been hearing needs from an Affinity user group.
So Publisher for iPad and DAM(or Lightroom alternative) are relatively high in demand, though I myself is not so interested.
I would like to make more users convinced by delivering their needs.
I myself is rather interested in features lack in Affinity such as this forum topic or Adobe file compatibility.
Anyway those I said above is high in demand and users around me are complaining every day, that makes me sick.
I'm kinda tired of evangelizing Affinity to people lately.
 

[cgartists]

2 minutes ago, ashf said:

I'm kinda tired of evangelizing Affinity to people lately.

Let's have faith in their skills! They have proven to be better and let's hope they can keep doing their magic

[Boldlinedesign]

10 hours ago, cgartists said:

Thanks for that @Boldlinedesign - I didn't know this. I installed the demo and it seems sluggish in simple operations like moving text object on a blank canvas. It feels like merge between Inkscape and Corel - too traumatic the resemblance is And icons are from another planet - I have no idea what things are. It could never replace Affinity and paying 99$ only to wrap mesh there and copy it back to Affinity... I don't think I am that desperate for this feature yet

@cgartists I'm glad you tried it out, but I think you gave up on it a little too quickly! VS doesn't have to just be a one trick pony for your warp needs. There are a ton of features it offers that Designer does not currently have to offer. Vectorstyler is a power-house vector app - not a light use app. A big part of why it's not like Affinity for better or for worse is that VS has got 10,000 more tools and options for the user to access. Designer is more for the casual user and VS  more for the vector power user. That said, my 11 year old son has been picking up VS pretty quickly! If you have had experience with Corel or Illustrator, then familiarizing yourself with VS should be straightforward. The icons are a lot like illustrator's icons... and hovering over them gives you the tool tip info.

Vectorstyler is far from perfect. There is a sluggishness at times within Vectorstyler. The UI and the tools and such are being refined constantly. Those issues are being brought up and addressed specifically and fixed one at a time. Designer is a little slicker and efficient that way right now. VS is still going through its growing pains to be sure... it's not where I want it to be either just yet - but I see what it already offers, and I see the potential.

As much as I love Affinity, I can't imagine Affinity Designer replacing VS; I don't think Designer will ever match the number of options, tools and features VS offers. Then again, I don't see the solution to moving on from Adobe/Corel/inkscape, etc. as the false dichotomy of choosing between Designer vs Vectorstyler. Affinity offers dual raster/vector features plus the universal file format between its three apps and is more of a vector-lite app. VS is a niche product specializing in only vector graphics - both can have their long term complimentary uses. Heck, designs made in one can easily be copied and pasted into the other. Even as I use VS primarily for my workflow, I still have a lot of appreciation and use for Affinity in my work.

I'm confident Affinity is going to be adding a lot of new features in the upcoming year. The improvements made under the hood in version 1.10 and the basic understanding that people are not going to pay for an upgrade to version 2.0 in the near future without significant feature improvement to the apps make me think this way.
I'm excited to see what Affinity offers going forward, but I also can't wait around for features to be added. I'm more than ready to see Affinity add long-awaited features like text warp, 100% vector brushes, vector eraser, blend modes, blob brush equivalent, drastically improved boolean operations, etc.... but I also can't wait another 5-10 years for them to be added, as we've waited that long already.... this for me is where a program like VS comes into play. For 100 dollars, I can have a solid program TODAY that offers all those features and ten times more. I no longer have to impatiently wait years on Affinity for basic tools and I don't have to spend 600 dollars a year renting Adobe CC to do so.
 

[erutan]

+1 to this, but also here to point out you can do an envelope distort in Inkscape for free, then bring it back into Designer. Obviously not ideal, but an option.

[Waive]

OMG this is crazy! I just spent the entire day trying to figure this out. I thought I was loosing my mind. I was almost in tears. Very common feature in programs these days. Good to see they just don't have it after that day. Interesting finally finding this historic account of the saga, but started reading in 2014 I think - crazy long journey to be in the same spot. I got so sucked in I couldn't just jump to the ending - read through the entire 8 years or so... not finishing my project today