Liquify Persona: Upgrade for Better Photo Manipulation/Composition ???

[Uncle Mez]

Hello Team !
Hello Everyone !

Glad to make this suggestion for the good of Affinity and Designers or just Users who joined the move and those considering to join the move.
My point is about not killing things that we already love but making them even better and i hope this won't become a troll.

To my sight, the celebrissime Liquify Persona need to be reviewed and improved, boosted or upgraded (take it as you want).
Actually, a persona is not just something we click at but it is an identity to a type of Designer/ Creative Person/People and it is time to make it reflect those of us who identify their style through that Persona.
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Having a Persona to only twirl, Freeze, push etc ... some couple of Pixel is good but ... there is more to it.
I suggest the Liquify Persona to be upgraded and maybe renamed to fit with the real style it is supposed to reflect: Photo Manipulation or Photo Composition (here too call like you want).
I suggest more tools to be put in there that will help make the Photo Composition/Manipulation happen from that precise place with dedicated tools and even it can be the opportunity to develop new tools that fit the Manipulation/Composition Style.

i'm not asking for tool to be removed from the Pixel Persona, not at all but asking for the Pixel/Photo Persona to be less loaded from its first approach for sure a user could decide to customize his toolbox like we currently are allowed to do but if that user is a Photo Manipulator/Compositor then he should load everything he want (photos) using the Pixel/Photo Persona then switch to the dedicated Manipulation/Composition Persona and do his work from that place.

The workflow could be like this:
1- Load an image (or many images) on the Pixel Persona then select the object we want to work with
2- click the Manipulation/Composition Persona then be presented with necessary tools for that precise job, from Selection brush, Flood Selection, to inPainting not forgetting all liquify tools but all those should now be in more advanced mode giving more flexibility and settings to fine tune the work.
3- Do the job and when done click on Apply to switch back to the Pixel/Photo Persona which is the central place and see the result.
Then do the same again and again with all other layers who need to be transformed or manipulated
4- the upgrade should give the user the opportunity through a button (like the After/Before) to view full stack of layer in low opacity mode which can be increased or decreased (but the user should only be allowed to work on one layer at a time.
5- All Color Grading work can happen in the Develop Persona or in the Pixel/Photo Persona (here for those who need to control)
6- The Tone Mapping Persona wold be helpful for fine tuning the thing with rich presets, LUT or Manual stuffs.

Well all this must be given the possibility to be non destructive, meaning i must be able to select a layer in my stack anytime, at any level of progress and switch back to the Manipulation Persona and redo this or fine tune more that etc...
More focus in the Non Destructive aspect will actually increase the value of the software.
I know the move you are taking with making Designer and Photo to be kind of sub or Persona for Publisher but still Photo should be improved on its own because Photo compositor/Manipulators won't buy Publisher just because it is not what they do but a more enriched Photo software ... Well Yes many would go for it no complex to what already exist.

This topic is open to more adds that can help Devs to figure this out.
Even if they don't implement it with 1.7 Beta cycle, it is something they may take serious and consider to fine tune and implement in coming version and we can help here.
I'm only 1 Brain, yours are needed for more power, Step out of the Purist areas and come help build great with you original ideas.

Hope i've posted in the right place and wish you all the best with improving Affinity.

Blessings.

[casterle]

On 2/28/2019 at 5:52 PM, Uncle Mez said:

I suggest the Liquify Persona to be upgraded and maybe renamed to fit with the real style it is supposed to reflect:

I'd rather see the Liquify Persona eliminated and its tools be available in the Photo Persona. Software internals aside, I see no reason to restrict access to certain tools in certain modes.

I'd like to access the tools that display blown out and blocked up pixels while I'm using tools in the Photo Persona - I'm as likely to cause problems in this persona as I am in Develop. 

[Sharkey]

I simply do not understand a word you have written.

Hey. I am not stupid but if this is meant to develop th AP then this sort of stuff should be directed directly to Serif.  Honestly a waste of time for me to read.

I just use the thing!