Totally agree ... boolean operations not working properly on line objects, no "divide curve by" function, no proper perspective tool - the list is endless!
Really enjoying the tutorials and pointers. I'm new to the affinity suite and your videos have been a huge help. You structure your lessons really well - enough basics for a complete newbie without boring someone coming from Adobe. Keep up the great work, please!
Thanks for bringing this up! Yes, indeed they have a very decent Envelope tool in the DrawPlus an Affinity Designer predecessor too bad they take away so important tool ;(
Thank you for directing me to alternatives to auto trace (going to try Vectornator) . I've been looking for something to do this, and the online tools are not very good. Excellent channel by the way. Lots of great tips and tricks. Thanks again.
I've seen most of those work-a-rounds and have even come up with some of my own. The auto trace is an issue but I'd also like to see something more granular like selection to curve which you can do in Adobe. One you missed is actual vector pattern brushes. In Adobe you can create a vector object and drag drop it on the brushes panel to make a vector brush but in affinity you have to save it as a png and then import it into the brushes however it is still just a raster on a path. Even inkscape has vector pattern on a path. Warping and distortion is the third one which is really needed. Using the node tool to select nodes along with transform can poorly approximate it but not well enough. Those are my top 3. Shape building has many work-a-rounds but they can be a bit of a kludge. A couple overlapping shapes can be split using divide and then reconstituted but the more shapes the divide ends up not always splitting and leaves a bunch of artifacts. Best way around it I've found with complex overlays is what I call the cookie cutter; select all -> xor -> expand -> semitransparent square over top-> divide -> delete artifact lines -> select shape segments -> contour expand into gaps, and now you can delete or merge segments just like shape builder.
Unlike Illustrator, you can't use open lines to cut objects. You can make the line into a stroke, but then it introduces a space between the cut objects, which can be a real problem if you're doing precise work for print. I think the lack of a knife tool and, especially a divide function which can use lines to cut objects is a real shortcoming.
Good summary. Thx. I'd like to see a feature where two distinct shapes (perhaps within the same layer) can share part of the same border. This way one could change the shape of the border in common (using node tool) without worrying about how much of one shape is covering the other. I don't think even Adobe has this.
Thank you for all of your comments! I was hoping that this video will spark a little discussion so what are some features/tools that you would like to see in the future version of Affinity Designer?
Converting style to vectors ? If you have vector and use metalic style for example, how to convert the result to vectors. As far as I know you can't. Am I wrong ?
You shocked me when you mentioned Freehand! You are either much older than you appear, or have really done your study. Freehand was always my *big* favorite over Illustrator, by far. Such a sad day when Adobe purchased it then, essentially, killed it off.
haha a little bit of both I guess, I'm about the same age as the Freehand would be today :) I was still a student in the 90s but I can remember how Adobe has been buying out competitors only to close them down... dark ages for creative software ;
I am using Inkscape to cover the gaps. Would switch to Affinity full time if it finally got some of these features because Affinity is far more stable on Windows. I'd like to see vector eraser, grid, spiral, object scatter and proper objects following/scattering along path(distortion and distribution controlled). Those are my most used Inkscape features. Auto trace and wrap/warp would be nice though. Affinity, if you need more money to develop these updates just say so, I'd pay for these features to be added. It would still be better than Adobe's greedy subscription model and intrusive DRM system.
Your observations are spot on: AD is missing the most basic functions, most legacy software had 30+ years ago! Makes the software a nice toy but not a productive tool...
True all these FRs are missing. However each time you claim this on their forum, there is always the one or ones that are supporting worksaround, as kind of justification for the reason Serif didn't introduced these FRs yet. Always! So, no support, not FRs. It's a kind of "nerdy sickness" is affecting any software, not only this. Or even answers like "this is actua;ly not in priority" etc. So, we just need to hope.
the one thing I find incredibly scammy of serif is that they *love* to call their designer brushes "vector brushes" but they are not vector, they cannot be resized without quality loss that's a litteral huge scam
Yup vector brush and raster brush on vector path are two different things, in addition, there is a whole pixel persona with full raster brushes it may be confusing, thank you for your comment I will try to do a video on AD brushes in the near future.
Designer is the most disappointing app of the Affinity Suite. Other functions it lacks are blending between objects (which is incredibly useful), gradients on a curve, and it's unable to create a dashed border around corners and space them properly (important for map making and packaging).
Actually, having a real Knife Tool would be better, because right now you cannot cut through object with infinitely thin line. You cannot just cut the object into two that perfectly match each other.
Great video! You are a hero! ... *but: a "professional" graphics software with such mind-boggling deficiencies and usability issues simply IS NOT a "professional" software.* It's a nice toy to quickly produce some nice eye candy but as somebody who is buying their software to be productive, it's a joke that I STILL need to open 2 other programs and an online tool to get some simple vector art out the door within a reasonable time frame. Nowadays, I tell my students to stay the f%&k away from the Designer app. and stick with AI when their employer is paying for it...
I have redone this video in Affinity Designer V2 ua-cam.com/video/zz8xGJwOiJs/v-deo.html
Definitely Auto-Trace and Warp text. But two more almost as important: Gradient Mesh and Blends. *Inkscape* luckily has *_all four_* of these!
You finally got it 😁
Totally agree ... boolean operations not working properly on line objects, no "divide curve by" function, no proper perspective tool - the list is endless!
This was great. never noticed the expand stroke before. that is a game changer for me. thank you for taking the time to do this.
Glad it was helpful!
Great great video 🎉 I have been using Affinity for a while but didn’t consider how to use other tools as workarounds!
Really enjoying the tutorials and pointers. I'm new to the affinity suite and your videos have been a huge help. You structure your lessons really well - enough basics for a complete newbie without boring someone coming from Adobe. Keep up the great work, please!
Great to hear! ^_^
inkscape also autotraces and it's free as well
Yes, Inkscape 1.2 is rly good! too bad it has a performance issues on macOS :
The wrap (envelope) tool was there in Serif's DrawPlus. I can't understand why it is not there in AD. It is the same software company.
Thanks for bringing this up! Yes, indeed they have a very decent Envelope tool in the DrawPlus an Affinity Designer predecessor too bad they take away so important tool ;(
Great video - watched the shape builder video right away. Very informative. Your calm and clear instructions are very helpful. Thank you.
thank you! ^_^
Excellent comparison!
I really hope @Serif fix all this missing stuff!
Thanks for the video, really awesome!
You and me both! Thanks for watching.
Thank you for directing me to alternatives to auto trace (going to try Vectornator) . I've been looking for something to do this, and the online tools are not very good. Excellent channel by the way. Lots of great tips and tricks. Thanks again.
Glad I could help!
whats the flower like key you use , for example used (flower thingy) +( = ). its one that u used in this video
it's the CMD key on mac, on windows, it will be the CTRL key
It seems Inkscape got some advantage here. Actually, Inkscape has many hidden features, like under 'path effects' and 'extensions'.
Yup but unfortunately for the Apple users it performs quite poorly on macOS :(
@@KruMark I've heard it improved a bit since the last release (1.2), the the great improvement will only comes with gpu acceleration
I also miss the Blob Brush a lot!
I've seen most of those work-a-rounds and have even come up with some of my own. The auto trace is an issue but I'd also like to see something more granular like selection to curve which you can do in Adobe. One you missed is actual vector pattern brushes. In Adobe you can create a vector object and drag drop it on the brushes panel to make a vector brush but in affinity you have to save it as a png and then import it into the brushes however it is still just a raster on a path. Even inkscape has vector pattern on a path. Warping and distortion is the third one which is really needed. Using the node tool to select nodes along with transform can poorly approximate it but not well enough. Those are my top 3. Shape building has many work-a-rounds but they can be a bit of a kludge. A couple overlapping shapes can be split using divide and then reconstituted but the more shapes the divide ends up not always splitting and leaves a bunch of artifacts. Best way around it I've found with complex overlays is what I call the cookie cutter; select all -> xor -> expand -> semitransparent square over top-> divide -> delete artifact lines -> select shape segments -> contour expand into gaps, and now you can delete or merge segments just like shape builder.
A 3rd way to divide the heart shape would be to use the the divide boolean option and just delete the shapes you don't want.
Oh you're right! That is even better way than the one I have showed in the video thanks!
Unlike Illustrator, you can't use open lines to cut objects. You can make the line into a stroke, but then it introduces a space between the cut objects, which can be a real problem if you're doing precise work for print. I think the lack of a knife tool and, especially a divide function which can use lines to cut objects is a real shortcoming.
Good summary. Thx.
I'd like to see a feature where two distinct shapes (perhaps within the same layer) can share part of the same border. This way one could change the shape of the border in common (using node tool) without worrying about how much of one shape is covering the other. I don't think even Adobe has this.
hmm did you try compound shape?
Thank you for all of your comments! I was hoping that this video will spark a little discussion so what are some features/tools that you would like to see in the future version of Affinity Designer?
The ability to do multiple fade points on the same image
Did you try Divide in Geometry? For the heart would work fine!
Yup, divide is probably one of the best knife workarounds.
Great tips. Thanks for the work arounds.
Any time! ^_^
There is also multi gradient tool
สวัสดีครับครูมาร์ก ขอบคุณสำหรับบทเรียนดีๆครับ
Converting style to vectors ?
If you have vector and use metalic style for example, how to convert the result to vectors. As far as I know you can't. Am I wrong ?
Smart fill in coreldraw? How to do in affinity?
You cannot. It is another missing feature.
You shocked me when you mentioned Freehand! You are either much older than you appear, or have really done your study. Freehand was always my *big* favorite over Illustrator, by far. Such a sad day when Adobe purchased it then, essentially, killed it off.
haha a little bit of both I guess, I'm about the same age as the Freehand would be today :) I was still a student in the 90s but I can remember how Adobe has been buying out competitors only to close them down... dark ages for creative software ;
I am using Inkscape to cover the gaps. Would switch to Affinity full time if it finally got some of these features because Affinity is far more stable on Windows. I'd like to see vector eraser, grid, spiral, object scatter and proper objects following/scattering along path(distortion and distribution controlled). Those are my most used Inkscape features. Auto trace and wrap/warp would be nice though.
Affinity, if you need more money to develop these updates just say so, I'd pay for these features to be added. It would still be better than Adobe's greedy subscription model and intrusive DRM system.
I'm happy to contribute!😁
Your observations are spot on: AD is missing the most basic functions, most legacy software had 30+ years ago! Makes the software a nice toy but not a productive tool...
I'm working in affinity designer but clients requirement editable Adobe Illustrator file? Please🙏 help me
If you artwork is a clean vector composition without layer effects you can export it as SVG or EPS that can be use with Adobe Illustrator
@@KruMark yes sir but font not editable
@@amitpatil6185
You can export as PDF then change the file name extension to .ai
True all these FRs are missing. However each time you claim this on their forum, there is always the one or ones that are supporting worksaround, as kind of justification for the reason Serif didn't introduced these FRs yet. Always! So, no support, not FRs. It's a kind of "nerdy sickness" is affecting any software, not only this. Or even answers like "this is actua;ly not in priority" etc. So, we just need to hope.
Yup, if I good remember this was always the case for auto trace "not a priority". Yes lets hope that version 2.0 will surprise us all ^_^
the one thing I find incredibly scammy of serif is that they *love* to call their designer brushes "vector brushes" but they are not vector, they cannot be resized without quality loss
that's a litteral huge scam
Yup vector brush and raster brush on vector path are two different things, in addition, there is a whole pixel persona with full raster brushes it may be confusing, thank you for your comment I will try to do a video on AD brushes in the near future.
Thanks
Designer is the most disappointing app of the Affinity Suite. Other functions it lacks are blending between objects (which is incredibly useful), gradients on a curve, and it's unable to create a dashed border around corners and space them properly (important for map making and packaging).
Yup, having distorted corners while using brush or dashed line is really annoying :(
Considering Inkscape has had trace & warp text for a LONG time and it's free.. yeah.
I'd be happy with just a selection to path, like WHY NOT bro..
Inkscape is performing terribly on my M1 Mac and is unusable on my configuration :(
Actually, having a real Knife Tool would be better, because right now you cannot cut through object with infinitely thin line. You cannot just cut the object into two that perfectly match each other.
Yup, definitely standard Knife Tool sounds like a no-brainer for a vector toolset... but here we are sharing workarounds
Nevermind. Vectornator is mac only. I don't see a Windows version. Oh well.
Yes, it's Mac and iPad only right now, how about a Gravit Designer
We're all getting frustrated on when AD will improve in the near future. It lacks soooo many features
Affinity Designer 2.0 is coming ^_^
Affinity acts like they are getting paid NOT to do updates …hell just charge for the update
It looks like they have listened to you ^^
Guess they were listening :)
Did they? I'm "redoing" this video in V2 ^.-
Well, some of it anyway - get up a wishlist maybe it'll work for v2.1 ;-)
Great video! You are a hero! ... *but: a "professional" graphics software with such mind-boggling deficiencies and usability issues simply IS NOT a "professional" software.* It's a nice toy to quickly produce some nice eye candy but as somebody who is buying their software to be productive, it's a joke that I STILL need to open 2 other programs and an online tool to get some simple vector art out the door within a reasonable time frame. Nowadays, I tell my students to stay the f%&k away from the Designer app. and stick with AI when their employer is paying for it...
Check the Part 2 ua-cam.com/video/CxMNPyBxEbI/v-deo.html
Omg .. you speak Thai ?
นิดหน่อย ครับ
Wow 👏