Live perspective: real?

[dmitico]

I've been down this path many times before, but it seems every time I try to recreate something like the shoebox example from the Designer video I fail to get the "live" element. I'm able to place the designer vector files in the perspective image, I can create the live filter and put the embedded file inside, I do all that, but I never seem to get the effect of moving elements in the 2d file and seeing the results in real time in perspective.

How?

[Dan C]

Hi dmitico,

Welcome to the forums

You need a copy of Affinity Photo to access the Live Perspective filter, which is compatible in Affinity Designer but cannot be created here. I hope this clears things up for you.

[X-Raym]

@Dan C Hi!

 

Not sure to understand... What if I want to perspective an group of vector layers ?
What should I do ?

 

Thx !

[Dan C]

Hi @X-Raym,

Unfortunately we don't have any perspective tools in Designer currently although we do hope to add these into a future version.

If you own both applications, you can open your .afdesign file within Affinity Photo, then apply any filter or adjustment that you wish, but if you only have access to Affinity Designer then this is not possible, my apologies.

[X-Raym]

@Dan C Hi, Thanks for your answer !

Indeed, I can File -> Open with Photo to add the perspective live filter, and then open back to Designer.

Surprisingly, it works just as well : we can even double click the live filter in Designer and have the settings popup !

This means than the only thing Missing from affinity Designer is a Menu to get access to them !

This is so weird. I don't understand this limitation.

Is Photo supposed to be an enhanced version of Designer ?
Is there also some function for designer which would need other softwares like Publisher ?
Photo seems the most limited of the suite.

It is not the first feature which need to pass by photo, like Btach processing.

The weirdest thing is that we don't even need Photo: someone who shares a afdesign file with all live filter would be enough for Designer users to use filter without Photo.

Well, I hope it will be integrated right in Affinity Designer cause this limitation is kind of frustrating, knowing it is all there, and it only miss a menu entry.

 

Thanks for your support !

[Dan C]

No problem at all

3 hours ago, X-Raym said:

This is so weird. I don't understand this limitation.

Is Photo supposed to be an enhanced version of Designer ?

Photo and Designer have been created as separate apps, with full file compatibility. This means that both apps can technically handle each others features, however these features require the Affinity application to be added into your document.

This is by design, and has been done to create a clear separation between the Affinity apps. Many users have requested that 'feature parity' is added between the apps, but as far as I know there is no plans for this currently.

3 hours ago, X-Raym said:

Is there also some function for designer which would need other softwares like Publisher ?

All of the Designer functions can be found within Designer, if you require Publisher functionality (such as multi-page documents) then you will need to use Publisher to create your document for this, as it can't be done in Designer.

I hope this clears things up

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, X-Raym said:

Photo seems the most limited of the suite.

Photo is intended primarily for photo editing. As such it has quite a few features the other apps in the Affinity suite lack. Among them are panorama stitching, batch & merge jobs, an extensive set of destructive & non-destructive "live" filters plus limited support for some Photoshop plugin filters, & dedicated Liquify & Tone Mapping personas.

[X-Raym]

Thanks for your explaination.

 

I understand that some feature are specific (like photos editing tools for Photo, vector specific tools for Designer), though I'm not convinced the feature I mentioned should be "one app" specific.

Batch converter could be very useful in Affinity Designer as well,
Just like Live Filters.

 

If the interoperability is that extensive I wonder why not merge all the software together; I mean, there is already a Personna paradigm, so why not a Photo personna, a Designer personna etc... Just some thoughts.

But in practice I'm not asking for so much. I'll be just fine with a Live FIlter menu entry in designer ^^ (and yes, maybe batch converter, though, this doesn't need to be launch as quickly as live filter so it is okay to use Photo for that. Live filter requires implementation cause it is really a common tool to use in design - I mean, the perspectve filter is a must have, especially since we don't have edge transformation tool.)

Just my two cents!

[Dazmondo77]

A work around in designer is to first, in photo, create a simple shape and add the live perspective, group it then goto file, edit in designer, then drag the group to your assets panel and from there you should always be able to access live perspective within designer - at least that's the theory - I' d best test it to see if it works - back soon

[R C-R]

13 minutes ago, X-Raym said:

If the interoperability is that extensive I wonder why not merge all the software together; I mean, there is already a Personna paradigm, so why not a Photo personna, a Designer personna etc...

Several users have already suggested this. If you search the forums you can find a lot of discussion about it with various users weighing in with comments about the pros & cons of doing so.

[X-Raym]

@R C-R
Indeed, merging the app rise lots of questions and requires consideration, lots of dev ressources etc, so it is a bit out of scope.

A simple Live Filter menu will already solve lots of troubles.

[R C-R]

7 hours ago, X-Raym said:

A simple Live Filter menu will already solve lots of troubles.

The same could be said for quite a few other features that AP or APub have that AD does not. Then there are those that none of the Affinity apps have.

It is a pretty long list, all things considered.

[Dazmondo77]

Just tested and it does work - but no substitute for a proper vector tool - I still use Illustrator cs5 every day for this purpose and more recently VectorStyler which does a fantastic job but can be temperamental and buggy but it really does have  I really hope that Affinity can come up with something this good and super responsive - shame copy / paste has problems with anything but simple vectors - definitely one to watch although its still in Beta with no release date, and five years on, still no sign in sight from serif for this much requested standard capability 

[X-Raym]

@R C-R
yes definitely, at least we have a day,

There is other feature non implemented in any app that I will enjoy a lot and will for sure bump the related thread at some point (randomization for eg.. :p)

 

@Dazmondo77
Interesting wrap technique for sure... Now I want it too ! ^^

[snuffleberries]

The funny thing is I use the live perspective filter for Design work only, I've never had the need to do it in Photo editing! So for me its in the wrong App! lol.

I also don't really understand why there has to be this special live filter for perspective. I wish I could just free form drag the four corners of a bounding box in designer on any object. We can almost do all the transforms, we have rotation, and skewing. But if we could just move each of the 4 corners independently too that would eliminate the need for the perspective filter in Designer, and would be a lot more convenient to use. 

[X-Raym]

@snuffleberries
Definitely.

The strong point about filter is that it can be turned on/off and be applied to all layers below, even if you add new one after the filter creation. It can also be copied from one doc to another.

But for sure more transformation tools in general will be nice.

[Dazmondo77]

4 hours ago, snuffleberries said:

But if we could just move each of the 4 corners independently too that would eliminate the need for the perspective filter in Designer, and would be a lot more convenient to use. 

The above brings to mind the first version of Designer (was 2014 I think) and I was having a play around but thought I must be missing something regarding dragging a corner, couldn't believe this wasn't the backbone of engine, but was to be included in a future update - 5 years on, maybe I'm being impatient but 5 years and no hint in sight of getting this ability is starting to churn negativity in the pit of my soul, and I really really love Affinity, but there are lots of missing basics that 5 years ago seemed to be a maybe a couple years off but are nowhere in sight -

I just find it a little insulting that on the Designer web page it states:

Serious business

No bloat, no gimmicks, just all the tools you need, implemented how you always dreamed. Affinity Designer is a stripped back, pro-end workhorse that will always get your job done.

But I'm still copy pasting between Illustrator CS5 if I need any type of distortion, real vector brushes, vector fills / patterns etc...

Sorry for the rant

[X-Raym]

@Dazmondo77I understand the frustration,

though I won't blame Affinity,
They have been bought by serif, which surely need to lots of reorganization for the people there, (and the whole thing without changing business model)
And they do provides regular updates with bug fixes. The software isn't abandoned at all.
The most notable feature the brought since 2014 is Windows Support which came late in dev and which was certainly very hard to do. And they were in fact preparing Publisher.

I think they needs support, to keep the passion up, and clear feature requests without having to have too much "how bad they are posts" - it doesn't make feature implemented quicker, but can maybe turn them back from the forum. Illustrator CS5 was already almost a 26 years old widely spread software when it came out (first release in 1985!).

So let's be patient, and bump our favorite FR from time to time. Hoping they will pass of course, especially if they are interesting and reasonable :P

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, X-Raym said:

though I won't blame Affinity,
They have been bought by serif...

I am not sure what you mean by that. Serif created the Affinity apps in-house from scratch. They did not buy them from anybody.

[X-Raym]

@R C-ROh my mistake ! I didnt realize they were serif right from the start.
At the time afifnity came out, serif had other software like DrawPLus etc and win only, contrary to AD which was MacOS only,

 

But I just checked and you are 100% right ^^ I edit my post.

[R C-R]

FWIW, according to Affinity Review #1, an Apple Books publication no longer available from Apple, what eventually became the Affinity range began life as a research project to study the feasibility of creating a memory management system efficient enough that it could support "high-end photo editing" without using much memory. Initial development work was done on an iPad with a paltry 80MB of app memory to work with.