Affinity Designer Customer Beta (1.7.0.7)

[ronnyb]

9 hours ago, MattP said:

Wireframe mode should work correctly for multiple linestyles

 

Nice quick fix Matt, thanks!

[retrograde]

Would love to see the transparency tool settings join the swatches, colour and gradient settings currently accessible through the appearance panel someday.

[retrograde]

10 hours ago, MattP said:

Wireframe mode should work correctly for multiple linestyles

Sorry Matt, what does this mean? I tried a couple of different linestyles normal and dashed and didn't see any difference in wireframe mode. Is this not what you mean?

[MattP]

10 hours ago, retrograde said:

Sorry Matt, what does this mean? I tried a couple of different linestyles normal and dashed and didn't see any difference in wireframe mode. Is this not what you mean?

That’s what should happen. Try it with arrowheads too. Previously it accidentally showed a coloured, stroked line even in outline mode! 

[Dazmondo77]

14 hours ago, Mark Oehlschlager said:

@Dazmondo77

Nice illustration.

How are you getting the woodcut look? Is there a brush option that produces vector shapes, or are you simply expanding strokes and then merging them into unified vector shapes?

For the Chimps I used Clip studio paints vector brushes and I have a Ugee screen monitor (cheap Wacom Cintiq alternative) so it's like a pressure sensitive ink pen, similar to using the vector brush in designer, using pressure sensitivity to draw directly on screen, but it works more fluently than designer, although, affinity's gets better and better, I get lag with long strokes , Clip studio allows you to use a pressure sensitive brush to make parts of a vector stroke thick or thin which nothing else does, so I used that feature a lot - the only drawback is you can't export vectors from clip studio - so I create a layer for each colour: the main container of the chimp (orange) the shadow detail (dark grey) and the highlights then export them separately as jpegs, drag them into Image Vectorizer (a simple but brilliant vector converter £4 or something off the mac app store) convert to vector and copy paste into designer as 3 separate layer, making sure to group each layer on import - I always try to start any affinity job setting up global colours, then colour each layer accordingly and drag the shadow and highlights inside the orange container, it prob sounds more complicated than it is but I've been using this method for about 3 or 4 years and only takes a few minutes - I used to do similar work in Illustrator using the blob brush which is a brilliant feature that I really miss, although, it kind of always rounded off some of the sharp detail and lines   

[Alfred]

20 hours ago, MattP said:

Sorry... Any vector object which you put something else inside. ie Make a circle and then clip some other object inside it.  

 

20 hours ago, ajharok said:

Sorry, didn't know you have to press them   Tnx

Forgotten so soon, Brian?  

 

[Pariah73]

2 hours ago, Dazmondo77 said:

For the Chimps I used Clip studio paints vector brushes and I have a Ugee screen monitor (cheap Wacom Cintiq alternative) so it's like a pressure sensitive ink pen, similar to using the vector brush in designer, using pressure sensitivity to draw directly on screen, but it works more fluently than designer, although, affinity's gets better and better, I get lag with long strokes , Clip studio allows you to use a pressure sensitive brush to make parts of a vector stroke thick or thin which nothing else does, so I used that feature a lot - the only drawback is you can't export vectors from clip studio - so I create a layer for each colour: the main container of the chimp (orange) the shadow detail (dark grey) and the highlights then export them separately as jpegs, drag them into Image Vectorizer (a simple but brilliant vector converter £4 or something off the mac app store) convert to vector and copy paste into designer as 3 separate layer, making sure to group each layer on import - I always try to start any affinity job setting up global colours, then colour each layer accordingly and drag the shadow and highlights inside the orange container, it prob sounds more complicated than it is but I've been using this method for about 3 or 4 years and only takes a few minutes - I used to do similar work in Illustrator using the blob brush which is a brilliant feature that I really miss, although, it kind of always rounded off some of the sharp detail and lines   

I am just getting started with Clip Studio Paint and it does some pretty cool stuff! In my limited understanding from the tutorials I've watched so far, you can use either raster layers or vector layers. So even if you use vector layers, you still can't export as vector from Clip Studio Paint?

[Dazmondo77]

1 hour ago, Pariah73 said:

So even if you use vector layers, you still can't export as vector from Clip Studio Paint?

I think it's an internal vector engine used to manipulate raster lines so is maybe a bit like Mischief (another great app for very fluent vector drawing) and has it's own vector format that isn't a recognised vector standard format - so only exports raster formats but you have the flexibility of vector inside the app - it's a real shame about Mischief which has basically been left to rot, and showed loads of promise, the app creators sold it to The Foundry in 2014 who promised that the version they took on was just the beginning, as it was (and is) kind of simple in it's range of features - just think if Serif had taken on the technology???? 

[ronnyb]

On 3/15/2019 at 10:38 AM, MattP said:

Grid Widget (turned on via grid and axis manager) only allows 'full editing' (editing of scale and angle) while in Move Tool and only when a cube grid is not active

Hey @MattP, I was thinking how the widget reminds me of transform widgets in 3D software... It might be nice to add the ability to move the Origin by dragging one of the widget's handles. The origin would only slide along the corresponding handle axis.

[retrograde]

7 hours ago, MattP said:

That’s what should happen. Try it with arrowheads too. Previously it accidentally showed a coloured, stroked line even in outline mode! 

Oh okay that makes then. Thanks.

[Boldlinedesign]

4 hours ago, Pariah73 said:

I am just getting started with Clip Studio Paint and it does some pretty cool stuff! In my limited understanding from the tutorials I've watched so far, you can use either raster layers or vector layers. So even if you use vector layers, you still can't export as vector from Clip Studio Paint?

7 hours ago, Dazmondo77 said:

For the Chimps I used Clip studio paints vector brushes and I have a Ugee screen monitor (cheap Wacom Cintiq alternative) so it's like a pressure sensitive ink pen, similar to using the vector brush in designer, using pressure sensitivity to draw directly on screen, but it works more fluently than designer, although, affinity's gets better and better, I get lag with long strokes , Clip studio allows you to use a pressure sensitive brush to make parts of a vector stroke thick or thin which nothing else does, so I used that feature a lot - the only drawback is you can't export vectors from clip studio - so I create a layer for each colour: the main container of the chimp (orange) the shadow detail (dark grey) and the highlights then export them separately as jpegs, drag them into Image Vectorizer (a simple but brilliant vector converter £4 or something off the mac app store) convert to vector and copy paste into designer as 3 separate layer, making sure to group each layer on import - I always try to start any affinity job setting up global colours, then colour each layer accordingly and drag the shadow and highlights inside the orange container, it prob sounds more complicated than it is but I've been using this method for about 3 or 4 years and only takes a few minutes - I used to do similar work in Illustrator using the blob brush which is a brilliant feature that I really miss, although, it kind of always rounded off some of the sharp detail and lines   

Yeah its a shame Clip Studio does not allow for pure vector exportation. I follow a similar process to what you described when I export line work from CSP, though I use Vector Magic and typically color in Illustrator/Affinity. It's nice to be able to export high res images from CSP, so the trace function in the vector trace app doesn't have to work too hard. 
I saw you had warped text in your monkey design - are you doing that in another app besides Affinity Designer and CSP? I do all my text warping in Illustrator - anxious for it to be a true option in Affinity
What did you use the blob tool for in illy? You mentioned it has round corners and I agree - it can be frustrating to not be able to alter the brush shape to get hard edges

 

[Mark Oehlschlager]

@Dazmondo77

Ah. Thanks for the reply. I was wondering whether or not you had discovered the equivalent of Illustrator's Blob Brush in Affinity Designer. That would be ideal and the most direct route.

Anyhow, great work!

[Pariah73]

5 hours ago, Boldlinedesign said:

Yeah its a shame Clip Studio does not allow for pure vector exportation. I follow a similar process to what you described when I export line work from CSP, though I use Vector Magic and typically color in Illustrator/Affinity. It's nice to be able to export high res images from CSP, so the trace function in the vector trace app doesn't have to work too hard. 
I saw you had warped text in your monkey design - are you doing that in another app besides Affinity Designer and CSP? I do all my text warping in Illustrator - anxious for it to be a true option in Affinity
What did you use the blob tool for in illy? You mentioned it has round corners and I agree - it can be frustrating to not be able to alter the brush shape to get hard edges

 

Good to know that I will have to do a workaround for the vector situation. From what i understand, the vector features are relatively new, so maybe CSP will add that at some point. I was wanting to know the exact same thing about the warped text! lol, for now, my solutions are to do it in Inkscape if it's cooperating (Inkscape is notoriously flaky on Windows) and if not, I use a site called Photopea.  I am also anxious for that particular feature to 'hurry up already' lol. My workflow would be a thousand times better for that alone. It's been very time consuming and difficult to play the workaround game with Affinity, Inkscape, Photopea and Scribus (for color separations) and I will be so very glad when i don't have to jump through hoops anymore.

[Boldlinedesign]

1 minute ago, Pariah73 said:

, Photopea and Scribus (for color separations) 

Are you designing for t-shirts?

[Pariah73]

2 minutes ago, Boldlinedesign said:

Are you designing for t-shirts?

Yes, often.

[Dazmondo77]

18 hours ago, Boldlinedesign said:

Yeah its a shame Clip Studio does not allow for pure vector exportation. I follow a similar process to what you described when I export line work from CSP, though I use Vector Magic and typically color in Illustrator/Affinity. It's nice to be able to export high res images from CSP, so the trace function in the vector trace app doesn't have to work too hard. 
I saw you had warped text in your monkey design - are you doing that in another app besides Affinity Designer and CSP? I do all my text warping in Illustrator - anxious for it to be a true option in Affinity
What did you use the blob tool for in illy? You mentioned it has round corners and I agree - it can be frustrating to not be able to alter the brush shape to get hard edges

Still occasionally need illustrator for warping text, distorting vector groups, selecting and grouping by fill/stroke colour, vector 3d and creating vector repeating patterns - the Parallax Method logo was all originally done in Illustrator and later refined in Affinity but was a pain in the arse to get all set up in affinity as global colours, whereas it's a two second job in Illustrator (select same fill/stroke colour), it took about two hours to manually select and assign global colours in my Affinity palate - I too have taken vector warping and distorting for granted from using using Freehand and Illustrator, and can't wait for an Affinity equivalent, really frustrating not to be able to grab the corner of a group of vectors and alt drag to slightly distort into perspective  - but they're doing an excellent job on bringing us these features - so glad we have bleed guides now - and really glad we got lockable guides back - I used to do cartoon strip stuff with the blob brush and really miss it - but now actually prefer the CSP and Image Vectorizer method - but would love to see Serif do something similar to the Blob brush - really wish they could push the warping/distorting to the front of the queue as these are features I really expected in the first release ------ hopefully soon?

[vonBusing]

On 3/15/2019 at 3:38 PM, MattP said:

Double-clicking an item in the Assets panel will now queue it up in the Place tool, ready for you to drag out at the size you like

Great to see that the collapsing of subcategories is working again in the Assets panel, and this little function to get the asset at any size is very welcome!

[Patrick Connor]

On 3/15/2019 at 8:10 PM, scampolo said:

It‘s the First Time I have Problems with a Beta Version, actualy I can‘t use the Pencils whether on draw persona nor on Pixel persona , I reseted all, but  nothing helps ! sorry maybe someone can help me.

Please make a new thread with any details that may help thank you.

[evtonic3]

11 hours ago, vonBusing said:

Great to see that the collapsing of subcategories is working again in the Assets panel, and this little function to get the asset at any size is very welcome!

If we could please add something like this to brushes! I have tons and I can't collapse them or group them! Please @MattP??!! lol

[xman]

No one is talking about the color highlights added to the layers menu!

This will help to visually organize your grouping and layers. I have found that sometime as I'm building and exploring ideas the layers can get crazy. So this seem like it should help to mark layers you need to find quickly.

Hoping eventually for a filter/search ability in layers. Would be very helpful.

Also how many of you are using this as your daily driver? Give me a smiley face emoticon for a head count please :D.

[R C-R]

On 3/15/2019 at 9:38 AM, MattP said:

Please refer to previous beta updates for a full list of all changes to date.

Regarding that topic (which seems to be closed to new replies?), it is a very minor thing but could you fix this typo:
- Fix for default dartboard names sometimes causing sub-folders to be created in Export Persona output.
Reason: as it is, searching that topic for artboard-related items with a browser's text search function won't find it.

Also, I can't seem to find anywhere in the Mac Designer beta OP's any mention of the new Layer panel options to change the size of the thumbnails or display a checkerboard background. Am I just missing the reference to that change?

[fde101]

3 hours ago, R C-R said:

which seems to be closed to new replies

they do that each time they post a new version

[lenogre]

Arrows are welcome !

I was still using AI for this. Another nail for AI coffin !

[R C-R]

15 hours ago, fde101 said:

they do that each time they post a new version

True, but since we now are told to refer to the previous updates for a (mostly) full list of the changes, posting to this topic is the only way I know to request a change to that list.

[ONSO]

Just wanted to say "thank you" for the work and dedication. Now I'm off to have some vector fun!