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How Does Designer Handle This?


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I'm new to AD although I've been creating vector art in AI for a while. I'm aware that AD lacks a Shape Builder tool, although I can't find a way to hack that process in AD. I spent several hours trying to cut up the Google G and color the individual sections. How do I accomplish the process shown in this video? Thank you in advance.

KC

 

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Thanks for the reply, Wosven. I didn't get enough information from your comment, so I attempted to deconstruct your file. I was able to create the G shape, as you can see, although I don't know how to do it and maintain the component shapes. I drilled down into the software for an hour and then gave up. Also, whenever I subtracted a shape to form the G from my initial donut shape, they merge into one. I wasn't able to keep the individual layers as you did. One more thing about that: my shape layer is missing the Boolean icons on the actual layer. How did you do that?

I won't even attempt to figure out how to add the colors until I solve this first stage. I studied your color shapes but couldn't figure out how you applied them to the G shape. Any advice is appreciated. Twenty-plus years of professional retouching and composite work in Photoshop did nothing to prepare me for Affinity Designer. I've worked a little with Illustrator and found it to be much more intuitive, although I'm not a fan of the subscription. I hope that it's just my ignorance of AD's UI and that it will feel more robust with practice. 

Thanks!

 

SS3.jpg

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9 minutes ago, KCP said:

I wasn't able to keep the individual layers as you did. One more thing about that: my shape layer is missing the Boolean icons on the actual layer. How did you do that?

Before clicking on the Boolean icon, hold Alt.

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The compound object* show which objects to add or substract to the original ring (in the same order, preferably).

2019-09-29_141326.png.f314095f76cdf8f3ccb9ed98ce79a9aa.png

2019-09-29_141352.png.23e38f4ac383af9ada105a42a34333e7.png

2019-09-29_141427.png.85130f16c1256454e6996ae99140fa55.png

 

Next, you adjust the nodes and curves:

2019-09-29_141511.png.12560a6a265014b7fee52c344bdc2a3c.png

 

* In this case, we can't use a compound as final object since we can't have different colours in a compound object.

Now, we can either:

  • Cut to pieces the G shape and colour the parts (v2 in my file)
  • add shapes of different colours inside the G shape (v1)

For cutting the pieces (v2):

  • I draw the shape I need
  • I select the G and this shape and I use "divide": I end up with 4 shapes (coloured now: yellow, brown, tan and pink)
  • I delete the un-needed pink one

2019-09-29_143043.png.648a7cefb884459e23a7934e6307107f.png2019-09-29_143139.png.9120acf2e57f9cdacd4449e6e9ea440b.png

…and need to divide again the bottom of the G to have the 4 final parts of the logo.

 

Or you can use the pen to draw shapes, colour them and put them inside the G like in the v1 example of my file.

 

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Thank you, @Wosven.

You lost me with most of that, although it probably has more to do with my not yet having wrapped my head conceptually around the software. I ended up finding a way to set the colors (see "SS4 Annotated" file). The problem with that method was that by not holding down the alt key when boolean-subtracting, I ended up losing the original, compound shape. When I hold down the alt key to subtract and add, each subtraction ends up in its own drop-down folder (see "SS5" file). I'm clearly missing something in translation. 

KC

SS4_Annotated.jpg

SS5.JPG

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Hi @KCP

As explain in the second post, the compound is only a visual help to know which object you need to substract, which one to add, and it can help at the begining to find which objects (rectangles, rings…) you'll need at which size to create a final object with efficiency. (But trial and error  + ctrl+z get the same result :) )

Using the alt key will create a compound, and we don't want one!

 

You need to copy-paste (out of it) all the elements of the compound object before adding/substracting them, or to release the compound to get them (right-click menu or main Layers menu).

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This was an unusual thread, for me. I wasn't on point with following quite a bit of the information although I somehow pulled off the result. It reminds me of how there are so many ways to achieve the same results in this type of software (Photoshop, Affinity Designer, etc.). The color part sunk in when I realized that I could clip the color layers into the shape layers, so all good. Thanks again, @Wosven

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