LionelD Posted May 15, 2019 Share Posted May 15, 2019 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted May 15, 2019 Share Posted May 15, 2019 Quote Alfred Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelos58 Posted May 15, 2019 Share Posted May 15, 2019 36 minutes ago, Alfred said: Only in Photo for Pad? An if I would doing it in Designer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted May 15, 2019 Share Posted May 15, 2019 As noted in the linked thread, the option is only available in Photo. Quote Alfred Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LionelD Posted May 15, 2019 Author Share Posted May 15, 2019 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted May 15, 2019 Share Posted May 15, 2019 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. Paul Mudditt 1 Quote Alfred Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LionelD Posted May 15, 2019 Author Share Posted May 15, 2019 Thanks, Alfred, I will try that. Regards Lionel Alfred 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Mudditt Posted May 15, 2019 Share Posted May 15, 2019 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 1 Quote My dad always told me, a bad workman always blames their tools…. Just waiting for Ronny Pickering….. Affinity Photo, Designer, Publisher 1.10 and 2.4 on macOS Sonoma 14 on M1 Mac Mini 16GB 1TB Affinity Photo, Designer, Publisher 1.10 and 2.4 on Windows 10 Pro. Deceased Affinity Photo, Designer, Publisher 2.4 on M1 iPad Pro 11” on iPadOS 17.4 https://www.facebook.com/groups/AffinityForiPad https://www.facebook.com/groups/AffinityPhoto/ The hardest link to find https://affinity.help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted May 15, 2019 Share Posted May 15, 2019 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? Paul Mudditt 1 Quote Alfred Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelos58 Posted May 15, 2019 Share Posted May 15, 2019 In my experience smart selection brush tool doesn’t work very well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Mudditt Posted May 15, 2019 Share Posted May 15, 2019 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. Quote My dad always told me, a bad workman always blames their tools…. Just waiting for Ronny Pickering….. Affinity Photo, Designer, Publisher 1.10 and 2.4 on macOS Sonoma 14 on M1 Mac Mini 16GB 1TB Affinity Photo, Designer, Publisher 1.10 and 2.4 on Windows 10 Pro. Deceased Affinity Photo, Designer, Publisher 2.4 on M1 iPad Pro 11” on iPadOS 17.4 https://www.facebook.com/groups/AffinityForiPad https://www.facebook.com/groups/AffinityPhoto/ The hardest link to find https://affinity.help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelos58 Posted May 15, 2019 Share Posted May 15, 2019 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted May 15, 2019 Share Posted May 15, 2019 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. Quote Alfred Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelos58 Posted May 15, 2019 Share Posted May 15, 2019 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted May 15, 2019 Share Posted May 15, 2019 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. Quote Alfred Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LionelD Posted May 15, 2019 Author Share Posted May 15, 2019 @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 Angelos58 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DM1 Posted May 15, 2019 Share Posted May 15, 2019 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? Quote M1 IPad Air 10.9/256GB lpadOS 17.1.1 Apple Pencil (2nd gen). Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Affinity Design 1.10.5 Affinity Publisher 2, Affinity Designer 2, Affinity Photo 2 and betas. Official Online iPad Help documents (multi-lingual) here: https://affinity.https://affinity.help/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LionelD Posted May 16, 2019 Author Share Posted May 16, 2019 @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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelos58 Posted May 16, 2019 Share Posted May 16, 2019 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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