Making a pixel selection from a curve

[LionelD]

I am looking for a way to make a pixel selection from a path/curve.  I intend take the selection into the Refine Selection Tool, apply a feather and turn the resulting selection into a mask on a pixel layer.

I’ve scoured the Help and watched many tutorials, but could not find a way to make my initial selection from one of the curves in my document.  Is there a way to do this, please?  I know I’m dealing with both the vector and pixel parts of the world, and I may be using incorrect terminology as a result.

Regards

Lionel

[Alfred]

 

[Angelos58]

36 minutes ago, Alfred said:

 

Only in Photo for Pad? An if I would doing  it in Designer?

[Alfred]

As noted in the linked thread, the option is only available in Photo.

[LionelD]

Thanks, Alfred.

I should have said that I’m using Affinity Designer for iPad.  I don’t have Photo.

After reading the whole thread you referred me to it seems there’s no way to do this in Designer.  That’s rather frustrating - Designer offers pixel layers, Mask layers (which you can apply to a vector structure) and the Refine Selection Tool, and some pixel selection tools, but there’s no way to initiate a selection from a curve?

The Transparency tool is probably not going to be of much assistance either, unless I can find a way to persuade it to traverse a path/curve.

Regards

Lionel

[Alfred]

50 minutes ago, LionelD said:

After reading the whole thread you referred me to it seems there’s no way to do this in Designer.  That’s rather frustrating - Designer offers pixel layers, Mask layers (which you can apply to a vector structure) and the Refine Selection Tool, and some pixel selection tools, but there’s no way to initiate a selection from a curve?

The only way I know of is to sweep inside the curve with the Smart Selection Brush Tool.

[LionelD]

Thanks, Alfred, I will try that.

Regards

Lionel

[Paul Mudditt]

1 hour ago, Alfred said:

The only way I know of is to sweep inside the curve with the Smart Selection Brush Tool.

Yes that’s what I was going to suggest too with snap to edges selected, it’s a decent work around. 

Another option is to get Photo as well since your afdesign file will open in photo too and vice versa, it’s very good value!

 

[Alfred]

13 minutes ago, Paul Mudditt said:

Another option is to get Photo as well since your afdesign file will open in photo too and vice versa, it’s very good value!

Are you on commission, Paul? 

[Angelos58]

In my experience smart selection brush tool doesn’t work very well.

[Paul Mudditt]

1 hour ago, Angelos58 said:

In my experience smart selection brush tool doesn’t work very well.

Just make sure you have correct layer selected, that’s the mistake I occasionally make wondering why there was no snap to edges working.

In this case a curve has a nice edge which snap to edges has no problem with so long as I remember to select the curve layer not the image layer when making the selection.

In my test I gave the curve a nice red fill since its sole purpose is to make the selection and I found that makes the snap to edge work very well.

[Angelos58]

37 minutes ago, Paul Mudditt said:

Just make sure you have correct layer selected, that’s the mistake I occasionally make wondering why there was no snap to edges working.

In this case a curve has a nice edge which snap to edges has no problem with so long as I remember to select the curve layer not the image layer when making the selection.

In my test I gave the curve a nice red fill since its sole purpose is to make the selection and I found that makes the snap to edge work very well.

Thank you Paul.

 

For closed path works very well, but if I want to select a closed space between lines and curves then the result is not well.

[Alfred]

12 minutes ago, Angelos58 said:

For closed path works very well, but if I want to select a closed space between lines and curves then the result is not well.

It seems to work OK here.

[Angelos58]

2 minutes ago, Alfred said:

It seems to work OK here.

The selection is serrated. At least in my experience, if I try to fill with a color, the edges are serrated.

[Alfred]

1 minute ago, Angelos58 said:

The selection is serrated. At least in my experience, if I try to fill with a color, the edges are serrated.

I see what you mean, but I think you’ll always get that with a pixel selection. If you want a filled shape with smooth edges, you need to stick to using vectors.

[LionelD]

@Alfred, @Paul Mudditt: Thanks for your guidance, I appreciate it.  I’m making a little progress, but I probably have a lot more to learn.  I guess that part of my problem is I’m not sure what to expect, and one of the consequences is that I don’t realize when I’m heading into the weeds.  I selected a curve layer which has a noisy gradient fill.  I’ve been experimenting with the Smart Selection Brush, and I find I get the best results if I enable both “Snap to Edges” and “All Layers”.  Earlier efforts, with “All Layers” disabled, flopped.  That’s significant progress for me, so thanks to both of you.  I had to play with Refine Edge a few times before I realized that (I think) you can re-process an edge, applying different settings until the result is satisfactory.  In a sense that’s so simple, the simplicity itself is counter-intuitive.

@Angelos58: I’m a little hesitant to ask because you probably know much more than I do, but did you use the Refine Selection Tool?  You can apply a small feather which will help, but it won’t be perfect.  In Photoshop I use a feather of 0.5 or even 0.25, and that produces edges that are pretty smooth at 100%.

@Paul Mudditt You recommend Photo, and I am interested.  I’ve deferred, basically for two reasons: a) I have a lot (thousands) of files that rely on Layer Comps, and b) I have lots (hundreds) of files that exceed the .PSD file size limit of 4GB, so I have to use Photoshop’s Large Document format, .PSB.  I am hopeful AD will enable me to restructure files that rely on Layer Comps, but I’ve yet to start on that experiment.

A large part of my learning curve is due to the fact AD iPad is the first Vector tool I’ve used; prior exposure is limited to Photoshop with its paths.  It took me a while to realize that all gradients in AD are vector-based; PS only offers rasters.

Regards

Lionel

[DM1]

11 hours ago, LionelD said:

I am looking for a way to make a pixel selection from a path/curve.  I intend take the selection into the Refine Selection Tool, apply a feather and turn the resulting selection into a mask on a pixel layer.

If you intend rasterising the selection why not simply copy the curve layer, rasterise it and then select the pixels you want with the selection tools available in Designer?

[LionelD]

@DM1 Well, there’s a clear-eyed suggestion for you.  I didn’t think about it in those terms, but I’m sure that would work.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Lionel

[Angelos58]

13 hours ago, LionelD said:

@Alfred, @Paul Mudditt: Thanks for your guidance, I appreciate it.  I’m making a little progress, but I probably have a lot more to learn.  I guess that part of my problem is I’m not sure what to expect, and one of the consequences is that I don’t realize when I’m heading into the weeds.  I selected a curve layer which has a noisy gradient fill.  I’ve been experimenting with the Smart Selection Brush, and I find I get the best results if I enable both “Snap to Edges” and “All Layers”.  Earlier efforts, with “All Layers” disabled, flopped.  That’s significant progress for me, so thanks to both of you.  I had to play with Refine Edge a few times before I realized that (I think) you can re-process an edge, applying different settings until the result is satisfactory.  In a sense that’s so simple, the simplicity itself is counter-intuitive.

@Angelos58: I’m a little hesitant to ask because you probably know much more than I do, but did you use the Refine Selection Tool?  You can apply a small feather which will help, but it won’t be perfect.  In Photoshop I use a feather of 0.5 or even 0.25, and that produces edges that are pretty smooth at 100%.

@Paul Mudditt You recommend Photo, and I am interested.  I’ve deferred, basically for two reasons: a) I have a lot (thousands) of files that rely on Layer Comps, and b) I have lots (hundreds) of files that exceed the .PSD file size limit of 4GB, so I have to use Photoshop’s Large Document format, .PSB.  I am hopeful AD will enable me to restructure files that rely on Layer Comps, but I’ve yet to start on that experiment.

A large part of my learning curve is due to the fact AD iPad is the first Vector tool I’ve used; prior exposure is limited to Photoshop with its paths.  It took me a while to realize that all gradients in AD are vector-based; PS only offers rasters.

Regards

Lionel

Thank you very much. Feather works perfectly. But you can seeing the effect only after copy the selection and delete the first level.