Im painting a spherical texture map in affinity photo right now, full support of tools in 32 bit is a dream. However, i cannot seem to find a tool that will wrap the pixles to the opposite side of the canvas like one would with photoshops offset tool. In both Affinity Photo and Photoshop, there are a lot of different ways you can create a vignette. You can use the radial gradient tool, use a dodge and burning approach or use the marquee tool. However, the most straightforward approach in Affinity Photo is to use a live Vignette filter. Affinity Photo for desktop tutorials Watch tutorial and quick tip videos for the fastest, smoothest and most precise creative software. Magnifying glass icon to highlight a search field. All Videos Basics Advanced Corrective & Retouching Creative Tools Filters & Adjustments. Affinity Designer for iPad has been a total game-changer for my surface design process. Not only does it enable you to do precise movements with the transform tool, which makes your repeat pattern pixel perfect (goodbye pixel lines and offset repeat elements!) but you can also see a live preview of your pattern as you create it, so you never have to wonder if a repeat element is in the wrong.
Affinity Designer for iPad has been a total game-changer for my surface design process. Not only does it enable you to do precise movements with the transform tool, which makes your repeat pattern pixel perfect (goodbye pixel lines and offset repeat elements!) but you can also see a live preview of your pattern as you create it, so you never have to wonder if a repeat element is in the wrong place as you’re working. This totally takes the guesswork out of pattern building!
I’m going to dive right into building a repeat pattern, but if you feel like you need to learn some of the basics like building colour palettes and creating vector shapes for surface design, check out my tutorial on Surface Design in Affinity Designer for more detailed instructions.
Let’s get started!
Not in a video mood? See the whole process in written form below. Let’s start by setting up a live pattern preview document.
Create a New Document
On the document creation page, select pixels as the measurement and enter a document size (I’ll be working at 2000 x 2000 pixels). Turn on Create Artboard then tap OK to open the document.
Create and size an Artboard
In the Documents menu, tap Artboards, then drag your stylus across the background to create another artboard. Open the Transform Studio with Artboard 2 still selected and set the size to double your original artboard (I’ll use 4000 x 4000 pixels since my repeat block is 2000 x 2000).
Create a Rectangle on Artboard 1
In the layers panel select Artboard 1, then tap the Rectangle Tool. Drag your stylus across Artboard 2 to create a rectangle. Open the Transform Studio to adjust the size to 2000 x 2000 pixels and set the position to 0.0.
Create a Symbol
Open the Symbols Studio (with the rectangle still selected). Open the Symbols menu and tap Add Symbol from Selection.
Paste the Symbol onto Artboard 2
In the Edit menu, tap Copy. Select Artboard 2 in the layers panel. In the Edit menu tap Paste four times so you have four Symbol blocks on Artboard 2. Put the four blocks on the four corners of the artboard, using the Transform Studio to be sure each square is exactly in the corner (the Position should be 0, 0 for block 1; 2000, 0 for block 2; and so on).
Test it
Select Artboard 1 (this is where you’ll do all of your pattern building), select a brush and draw something. Then drag that shape in the layers panel to the Symbols layer so that it has a glowing orange line beside it. Only elements that are on the Symbols layer on Artboard 1 will show up on Artboard 2, so double check your layers panel if you have any trouble with the preview showing your elements! The drawing should automatically show up on Artboard 2. If it doesn’t, go back and double-check the steps above.
Create a Master Doc
Rather than redoing this process every time I create a new pattern, I like to use this document as my Master Doc, and just copy it any time I want to start a new pattern. So, delete your test shape, go to your Gallery, tap the Menu symbol on the document, and tap Duplicate a few times. Name one of them ‘Master Doc’ so you will remember to only use that file to copy for making future patterns. I also add the pixel dimensions to the title and create more Master Docs at different sizes like 3000 x 3000 and 5000 x 5000, etc.
Build a repeat pattern
Create your repeat elements
Create some shapes using vector and/or raster brushes in Affinity. When you first start building patterns, it’s easiest to start with abstract or geometric shapes rather than complex forms that have to fit together in a specific way. I’m using the Pen Tool to create simple geometric shapes. Remember to drag each shape to the Symbols layer so it has a glowing orange line beside it.
Design the edges of your repeat
Put one element on the left edge of the canvas, then tap the Edit menu and tap Duplicate. Open the Transform Studio, tap the X position and type + 2000 (there will already be a number there, but rather than deleting it, just add +2000). This moves the duplicated element to the exact opposite side of the canvas.
Fill the edges
Repeat the same process around the edges of the canvas. Since you type +2000 on the X-axis to move something to the right, you’ll type -2000 to move something to the left. Things you need to move up and down rather than left to right can be adjusted on the Y-axis. If you put something on the corner, it has to be duplicated three times, then moved to each of the four corners using the Transform Tool.
Tip: Once you move each element into place, group it with its parent element by swiping on each of the layers, then tapping Group at the top of the layer’s menu. That way you can easily move elements up, down, left or right, without affecting your repeat layout.Fill in the centre
Fill the repeat with shapes and filler elements like dots or lines, being sure not to draw on the edge of the canvas. Play around with the placement and colours to get the repeat exactly as you’d like it to be. Check Artboard 2 to see if your repeat is spaced nicely and make adjustments if needed.
Export the file
When you’re ready to export, tap the Documents menu and tap Export. On the export page, choose Artboard 1 as the Area and PNG as the file type, then select a save location.
Share it!
Now you can share the pattern on social media, add it to your online portfolio, or even upload the pattern to print on demand sites like Society6, Spoonflower or RedBubble! If you share the pattern on social media tag us @lizkohlerbrown and @affinitybyserif so we can see your pattern!
Variations
Patterns don’t have to be complex. You can create a beautiful pattern out of simple lines, brush strokes or dots. I made this pattern with the vector brush tool:
When I want to create complex patterns that contain a ton of layers, masks, or raster brush effects, I often make my repeat elements in a separate document, save them as a PNG with no background, then import each element onto my repeat canvas.
When you’re feeling ambitious, start creating complex patterns by fitting pieces together like a puzzle.
Create a whole collection! Choose a cohesive colour palette and stick to it for 4, 10 or even 20 patterns. Working in collections can help you develop your style as a designer and give you a cohesive set of patterns to show off in your portfolio.
About the creator
Liz Kohler Brown is an artist and designer who creates unique lettering projects, surface designs, and illustrations. After earning a Master of Fine Arts degree, she followed her passion of teaching workshops and classes around the world, online and in person.
Liz is a Top Teacher on Skillshare, a designation for the top 1% of teachers. She has created 40+ Skillshare classes on iPad Art & Design and cultivated an online community of artists and designers from every background and skill level who share their work, provide feedback, and offer support to help each other improve and advance their creative goals. You can connect with Liz on Instagram @LizKohlerBrown and get loads of resources for iPad art and design at LizKohlerBrown.com.
As a pocket-style scrapbooker who loves to document her photos and stories on her mobile devices, I often wonder if there are digital scrapbookers who wish they could do the same. Pocket-style documenters have the Project Life® App loaded with Project Life templates, allowing them to scrapbook anytime, anywhere.
But if you are a memory-keeper who doesn’t document in this format, and prefers to use predesigned templates from your favorite digital designers, the only place you can scrapbook is at home front of your computer. Until now!
Let me introduce you to the Affinity Photo App by Serif Labs.
Can you say “game-changer?” Seriously, it will Blow. Your. Mind.
Introduction
Unlike Adobe’s Photoshop Express, Affinity Photos app is not a lite, watered-down version of Affinity’s award-winning software for desktop computers.This is a fully-functioning photo-editing app for your iOS device. FULLY-FUNCTIONING, my friends! This app has everything a digital scrapbooker needs to document their photos on the go. I don’t want to give everything away in the first few paragraphs of this post, so let’s take a look at what this app has to offer:
When you first open the app you will be taken to your startup screen.
From here you can create a new document at a custom size and resolution, import a photo or open a document you have stored in the cloud. This probably makes you wonder what type of files Affinity supports, right? Are you sitting down? It supports:
- JPG
- PNG
- RAW
- AI (import, not export) and…
- PSD FILES!
Yes, that is layered PSD files! There are even more file types it supports, but these are the ones we, as scrappers, would use the most. Take a moment and compose yourselves. I know it’s pretty exciting stuff … moving on.
Main Workspace
Once a file is opened you are taken to your main workspace:
You can see the Affinity interface is very similar to Photoshop — your tools are on the left and your palettes, or Studios as they’re called in Affinity, are on the right. Those little callouts pop up when you click the “?” in the bottom right corner — super helpful when learning the app. The bar you see in the center at the top of the screen is your Personas Palette. It docks horizontally in the upper left of your screen when the callouts disappear.
The Personas palette is important because each has a specific function. By default it opens in the Photo Persona, which is the main Persona you will be working in. The other Persona scrappers will use most often is the Develop Persona, which is where you will edit your photos. More on that in a minute …
Layers
Look at those beautiful layers!
Just like Photoshop, you can clip your layers together, group layers, create layer masks layers, and even turn layers on and off. Look closely … if your template had layer effects on it, those layer effects are still active! And you can even copy/paste those layer effects on to other layers!
Adding Photos and PNGs
You can access your photos by using the command menu that is part of the Persona Palette (it is the circle with the three little dots inside). You have a choice to place a photo or place a document. Affinity app will pull photos through your iPad’s Photo app (your camera roll). However, when you bring in a photo to your layered template, Affinity recognizes your photo as a vector file. In order to edit your photo using the Develop Persona, your photo layer must first be rasterized. Which is easily done using the options in the Command Menu I just mentioned.
If you are looking to place a digital paper or embellishments such as stickers or stamps, Affinity considers these documents and pulls from cloud-based services such as iCloud Drive, Dropbox, etc (if you have a photo in the cloud you want to use, you would have to chose the place document as well). Personally, I love using iCloud Drive because the icons are so much bigger than in Dropbox.
Once you have selected your photo or embellishment, it does NOT automatically appear on your layout, which was frustrating at first until I found that you must use your finger or Apple Pencil to click and drag it across your workspace for it to appear. However, it will place it above the last layer you had active. So your photo or embellishment may be hiding behind a layer if you still find you can’t see it. Just click and drag the layers to move them around, just as you would in Photoshop!
Layer Effects
While Affinity has the majority of the Layer Effects as Photoshop (Pattern Overlay seems to be missing, but Gaussian Blur is one that is in Affinity and not in PS) I am going to touch on the layer effect that digital scrapbookers seem to use the most:
Drop Shadow–or as Affinity calls it, Outer Shadow
In comparing how a layered psd file opens in Affinity to the same file opened in Photoshop on my Mac, they are almost identical. I say almost because there are just a few settings that differ, but honestly, I don’t see it as a big concern. Look at the two screenshots below:
Both versions have settings for Blend Modes, Opacity, and Angle. But notice that the PSD file has the angle at 45º. The exact same file opened in Affinity as the Angle at 135º. The Blend Mode of the layer effect translated differently when opened in Affinity as well. This can be easily changed through Outer Shadow tool bar you see at the bottom of the screen. Photoshop also has the ability to manipulate Distance, Spread, and Size. Affinity has Radius, Offset, and Intensity. I believe that PS Distance = Affinity Offset, and PS Size = Affinity’s Radius. I am still trying to figure out Affinity’s Intensity setting in the Outer Shadow Layer Effect. I can’t tell if it is related to PS’s Spread or not. And you know what else? You do have the ability to copy and paste layer effects to other layers in Affinity, too! Yay!
Color
The Color Studio is pretty intense. There is a lot available here. It operates in several color modes, CMYK, RGB, HSL, LAB, etc. You can select your color mode when you create a document. Within the Color Studio you can choose colors with color mode sliders, including grayscale and there are even Pantone Color Book! Affinity even allows you to save your own color palettes! Combine the Color Studio with the Color Picker Tool and Flood Fill Tool from the Tool Bar and you have an unlimited amount of color to choose from!
Fonts
A subject near and dear to my heart. Affinity is loaded with a ton of fonts, but unfortunately you cannot load your favorites into the app. BUT another app can help — AnyFont. It will install your favorite apps directly into your iPad making it accessible in apps that have text features! There is even an Artistic Text tool perfect for headlines, individual words, or titles.
Brushes
Can you load your own brushes into the app? YES. YOU. CAN! You can even create and save your own brushes!
Saving/Exporting Your Document
Affinity Photo Review
Ready for this? You can export your layered files as a PSD, save it to the cloud and open it back up in Photoshop on your computer to finish!
*this is where I drop the mic*
So what do you think?
This post just covers some of the basic features in Affinity Photo that will appeal to digital scrapbookers. While there is a learning curve to the app, if you are comfortable with Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, Affinity will be fairly simple to become acquainted with. You will also find that the tutorials and help documents within the app are amazing and can answer any question you may have!
Bottomline Review
I really, really like this app. And while I am not sure if I will incorporate it into my current Project Life workflow (I still love the simplicity of the Project Life App), I really believe that this app is going to open up a whole new mobile world for digital scrapbookers. I am so excited for them and look forward to hearing what avid Photoshop users think about this app and seeing what they create!
Affinity Photo is available in the App Store for iPad Pro, iPad Air 2 and iPad (early 2017). Older iPads are NOT supported. The app is not cheap. It will run you about $40 in the App Store. BUT it is not a subscription. You own it once you buy and will be able to download updates when they come out at no additional cost. I was able to purchase it at their introductory offer of $19.99 a few weeks ago, but I definitely would pay the $40 for it now. It’s worth it. *Please Note: At the time of this review, Affinity App is currently $19.99 here.
Credits: Template: Flight Plan #22 Template by One Little Bird; Project Mouse Princess by Sahlin Studios; Text font: Jonathan, by Becky Higgins
Affinity Photo Edit