Designer: Assigning Brushes to Pen Lines

[UdoBerlin]

This is a general question and may also apply to Affinity Designer on desktop, but I'm using the iPad version.

I wonder if the following workflow from Adobe Illustrator is possible in Affinity Designer:

I create curves using the pen tool. Afterwards I assign a “brush” to the line. The line stays editable, could be changed, cut, changed in width … the attached brush changes with it.

(See attached images)

 

[gdenby]

Hi, UdoBerlin,

Yes. I haven't used Illustrator for years, but I suppose there are some differences in implementation. Designer strokes from the pen and other tools have a pressure adjustment. It can be set manually, and will continue being used for later strokes. One can define several of them, which will remain attached to the document. They can also be saved as styles, for use across all documents.

[abstractmark]

The experiments I’ve tried with creating a workflow from Designer on iPad to Illustrator haven’t worked out well so far. Any path with a brush other than the standard pen will import into Illustrator as a filled path approximating the brush (not the original stroke) and in depending on the brush used may come into Illustrator rasterized on that layer. Designer does a fine job exporting a file that will read into Illustrator, depending on your settings will rasterize unsupported features. 

It seems at present certain things like brushes, variable stroke widths and clipping masks are handled in a way that is proprietary to each program, so for me finding a workflow between the two programs has been elusive.

 

Mark

 

[UdoBerlin]

On 12/26/2018 at 2:24 PM, gdenby said:

Designer strokes from the pen and other tools have a pressure adjustment. It can be set manually, and will continue being used for later strokes. One can define several of them, which will remain attached to the document. They can also be saved as styles, for use across all documents.

Thanks, I'll look into that. What I liked with Illustrator is that you can buy some really nice brush sets. What I do in Illustrator is to trace my sketches with the pen tool and afterwards apply brushes that fit the style. Would be nice if those presets would be available to buy for Affinity as well.

I attached three screenshots where I used the VectorHero Illustrator Pen Pack by Retro Supply. 

On 12/31/2018 at 2:44 AM, abstractmark said:

Any path with a brush other than the standard pen will import into Illustrator as a filled path approximating the brush […]

Ah, sorry if I was unclear. I don't want to go back and forth from Affinity to Illustrator. I Like Affinity and would like to use it exclusively going forward. Just think it would be nice if I could carry some ways I work over to the new app