affinity designer …and some more work and thoughts

[Macmonkey]

Hi everyone,

This is another project that i have been working on this week. A slightly different but equally simple style ;) I am creating a whole bunch of people to populate a village scene.

 

Thoughts this week:

 

This is already turning out to be my go to app for character illustration. I was using illustrator this week for an old project and I found myself thinking I wish i could do a simple alpha grad :) and i was also missing the functionality of the select tool in affinity and being able to click to add points without juggling with keyboard shortcuts.

 

Because I like the illustrating workflow in Affinity i decided to try doing some packaging artwork, but I quickly discovered that I have quite a few Postscript Type 1 fonts :( do you have any idea when/ if these will be supported? It's a shame because i really like the way the text tool works to drag out a size when you first click. Also because I do a few iterations of the designs I found myself really missing illustrators art boards. So I think I will be sticking with illustrator for packaging design …for now.

 

Pen tool - when i am drawing out straight edged shapes it would be handy if when i click and drag on a line it could drag the edge instead of bending it. The bending is really cool for curves but when working with straight edged shapes it gets in the way. I guess the behaviour should be determined by the node type i.e if smooth then bend , but if sharp then move the entire edge.

 

I'm really looking forward to a wacom friendly zoom method, the mouse wheel works just great when using the mouse, but I was working in Affinity for about 6 hours straight yesterday and the RSI was starting to kick in a little ;)

 

Anyways… as always great work guys looking forward to the next update (fingers crossed for any of the following zoom shortcut, rounded corners, eraser tool, art boards)

 

Have a good one

Dave

 

[MEB]

Pen tool - when i am drawing out straight edged shapes it would be handy if when i click and drag on a line it could drag the edge instead of bending it. The bending is really cool for curves but when working with straight edged shapes it gets in the way. I guess the behaviour should be determined by the node type i.e if smooth then bend , but if sharp then move the entire edge.

 

I don't agree that the behaviour should be determined by the node type. It may suit that particular workflow but it may be counter-productive for others. For example sometimes depending on what i'm doing i simply put out all the nodes on canvas (straight lines) and only then i push the paths to adjust it's curvature. And probably other people have other workflows. I think this should be added either as a modifier key and/or as a general preference to serve the most possible number of workflows and people.

[rui_mac]

I agree with Miguel. Each one has different workflows.

For example, I press P to switch to the Pen tool. Then, since I know exactly how Bezier curves work (I coded some Bezier routines myself, a few years ago), I just click on the places I know that require a node. After creating this polygonal "curve" (with no curves at all), I press A to switch to the Node tool. Then, I drag from in-between the nodes to roughly adjust the curve and pop out handles from the nodes. Then, still with the Node tool, I adjust the handles.

I end up with a very clean path, with only the minimum required nodes.
But I don't claim that this is the best method. Each one has its own.

[Macmonkey]

I don't agree that the behaviour should be determined by the node type. It may suit that particular workflow but it may be counter-productive for others. For example sometimes depending on what i'm doing i simply put out all the nodes on canvas (straight lines) and only then i push the paths to adjust it's curvature. And probably other people have other workflows. I think this should be added either as a modifier key and/or as a general preference to serve the most possible number of workflows and people.

Ah yes each to their own I guess :) modifier key or preference is probably the safest route. I'm probably just used to the illustrator workflow.

[Macmonkey]

I agree with Miguel. Each one has different workflows.

For example, I press P to switch to the Pen tool. Then, since I know exactly how Bezier curves work (I coded some Bezier routines myself, a few years ago), I just click on the places I know that require a node. After creating this polygonal "curve" (with no curves at all), I press A to switch to the Node tool. Then, I drag from in-between the nodes to roughly adjust the curve and pop out handles from the nodes. Then, still with the Node tool, I adjust the handles.

I end up with a very clean path, with only the minimum required nodes.

But I don't claim that this is the best method. Each one has its own.

Hey there rui mac,

Yep yep, I hear you, everyone one has their own method :) I like to use me them there modifier keys, dragging out curves and breaking those handles on the fly. When I started out about fifteen years ago I worked at a catalogue production agency, and spent many a long day, honing the technique, putting clipping paths around product shots... Urgghhh... Artfully spilled out boxes of screws and springs were the worst. In glad those days are behind me :)

Have good one

Dave

[rui_mac]

I understand you entirely. I started 25 years ago and I would like to have an Euro for each Bezier node I created and adjusted in my whole life. I would be a filthy rich man :D

[Ben]

There is another thread related to the dragging of curve sections. After thinking about it, I can see some useful additions:

 

The current mode, dragging a curve from a point, and changing the tangents at the ends.

Dragging a curve, preserving the tangents but changing their length.

Moving the curve section (effectively moving the on curve points either side).

 

I think these are all doable, and we have the modifier keys free when dragging curve sections. I think you should still be able to drag a straight edge to create a curve, but perhaps if you have the Ctrl key down (same as we do with the fill tool) you move the intact curve section. This way the behaviour is user selected, rather than dictated by the current section type. Some section can look like straight edges, but may not be. The second variation comes from another suggestion we had, and I can see it as quite useful. We just need to figure out how to implement it.

 

I suppose the third variation is already possible if you select the on curve points either side of the curve section, but this addition would avoid the need to select points.

[rui_mac]

I like those ideas :-)

[Macmonkey]

Yep yep. two thumbs up from me too :)

[Macmonkey]

I have just realised that the Affinity toolset lets you marquee select only the nodes of the selected object which makes extending sections really easy. In illustrator it's very messy and you start dragging around other geometry instead. So thats another reason to like Affinity more :)

Ooh and thanks for the postscript font support and the cmd-space zoom… very nice

[retrograde]

The command space zoom in and out is a very welcomed, cheers!

[Aeros4]

Nice to read the positive statements about Affinity from such well experienced designers. It's very encouraging to know I made the right decision based on these comments.