Affinity Equivalent to Adobe PS Smart Objects?

[Mark Oehlschlager]

In Photoshop, when setting up template files for brand application mockups (generic books, bottles, boxes, etc. shot in perspective to which branded graphics will be applied), over the top of the base image layer I'm able to embed flat art as so-called "Smart Object" layers, to which non-destructive distortions and blend modes are applied to make the flat art conform to the shape of the 3-D object below. Once the Photoshop template file is constructed, It's a trivial matter apply new branded graphics to the 3-D object by double-clicking on the Smart Object layer, opening up the embedded flat art layer in a separate window, pasting in new flat art, then closing and saving the changes. All of the original non-destructive distortions and blend modes associated with the Smart Object layer get applied to the newly added art.

Is there an equivalent to Adobe's Smart Objects in Affinity Photo and Designer?

If not, is there an alternative Affinity method for creating the type of template files I've just described?

[fde101]

I think the closest you can get in Affinity Photo right now would be to use Assets, as they are being added in 1.7 (they were in Designer before); this video also shows some things with symbols which are still only available in Designer:

 

[woefi]

I hope this will be added someway or the other. 

So maybe Photo will get a bit of the feature-set of Publisher (-> Linked Images), as most affinity-apps share some engine-parts anyway ...

[Mark Oehlschlager]

@Patrick Connor

In the Adobe software, the utility of their so-called "Smart Objects" (specially defined layers that envelope placed or drawn art) is that non-destructive transformations, filters, effects and distortions can be applied to the artwork within the Smart Object layer. I suppose the affordance of the feature is comparable to what can be achieved through Affinity Photo's Live Filter Layers but with fewer restrictions.

In the use case I described at the top of this thread, I suppose the addition of the Mesh Warp Tool to the Live Filter Layers menu would help a great deal, and I would appreciate this addition. However, would you ask the development team on my behalf what their thoughts are on how best to bring the equivalent of Adobe's "Smart Object" layers to the Affinity suite? 

Much appreciated. Thank you.

 

[erickp]

Photoshops "smart objects" is huge. Having that ability in AP, and even better, the ability to open a PS document in AP, then have it retain those "smart object" layers in whatever form Affinity decides to implement it would be essential. I honestly can not commit entirely to AP until they make this happen. I have too many PS files with "smart objects" that completely switching to AP is not even a possibility. I know there is a lot more going on in the backend, but primarily when creating a new "smart object" and/or importing as a "smart object, they are embedding it in the current one and it is assigned a unique identifier. This way, the original isn't affected, but you get a real full copy when you double click on it. Hope you guys can make this happen. I would LOVE to switch for good.

[woefi]

On 8/9/2019 at 6:27 PM, erickp said:

...they are embedding it in the current one and it is assigned a unique identifier. This way, the original isn't affected, but you get a real full copy when you double click on it.

I'm hoping, in the background, there is some planning to merge this with affinity publishers new (and for now limited only to publisher) functionality of linking images as this would somehow work cross-app aka "STUDIO-LINK".

 

edit: at this point I'm obviously just repeating myself as I speculated about this in April... 

[Frank Jonen]

You can place affinity files within affinity apps. Select them and you edit the embedded version of your file. There is no way of sensibly updating them though*, that was forgotten. You have to replace the embedded file each time.

*) when externally changed

[JuanK]

hi everyone, im new to affinity photo, so please be patient if im not getting something. ive been using it for a couple of days now, getting used to the new work space. Today a had to work with an old photoshop document that had a smart object in it, seemed to be working fine first, but when i produced the first images from it, some white lines showed up in the middle of the design ... did anyone else had the same problem working with an embeded document in affinity photo? and if so, how did you fix or worked around it?

[WMax70]

Just have a loot at this video. Hope that helps for anyone who still have the same question.