Hello Everybody and welcome to another video. Today I’ll be looking at affinity Photo
and how it currently com pairs to Photoshop. Since my last video there’s been significant
updates and I though it was time to take another look at it. Before we begin please let me
give you guys a little disclaimer about this review. This isn’t a sponsored video, I’ve
personally purchased both affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher for my work and I continually
testing their performance as a possible alternative the the Adobe Suite and in certain cases have
transitioned completely. Although I’ll be pointing out quite a few features which I
would like to have implemented, my overall view is positive especially considering the
changes which have been made over the past couple of years. I’m personally speaking
as someone whose worked in a print shop where I’ve done minor graphic design work and
professionally within the animation field as a background painter. Please keep in mind
that some of these recommendations may only apply to PC Users at the current time since
there may still be some differences in the user experience. All of my views and opinions
will be based on my personal experience within the Window’s ecosystem.
Some of you may have seen my previous review of this software which had been completed
a couple of years ago. Since that time a major feature was added to the interface which makes
it far more relevant as a possible solution for small animation companies or individuals.
Along with these features, there’ have been great improvements in the overall performance
of the software which greatly aids in it’s usability.
To begin, the version that I’m currently testing is the 1.8.3.641 stable version of
the software. Most of the standard features that you would expect to find in a digital
painting software are present within Affinity Photo. Performance has been greatly improved
however some changes could be made and we’ll go over those latter on in this video.
The layer’s panel is set up on the right hand side with the typical default tabs of
Color, Swatches, stroke brushes, Effects, styles, text styles, transform, history and
navigator. On the left hand side the most common tools are present along with some additional
one’s. Some of these features include the color replacement brush and the pixel tool.
Another feature which has been added to the interface is the separation of key modes which
are referred to as Persona’s. Although I’m not fond of the naming convention, it’s
functionality is appealing. Each of these persona’s have a specific set of tools and
panels associated with their use and greatly diversifies the interface further. You have
the Photo persona which is best suited for painting and drawing tasks. The liquify persona
allows the distortion and manipulation of the existing layers although these will have
to be selected prior to entering this mode. The develop persona is more geared towards
photo editing of raw files. A recently added persona is the Tone Mapping mode which is
geared towards color manipulation and is best suited for photography or after editing purposes.
The last persona is the export persona and this one is used to prepare batch files for
export.
The object selection process is much easier in affinity Photo since what you click on
normally gets selected unless something is above that layer. Also double clicking will
allow you to navigate up to a certain point within the layer hierarchy. One thing that
isn’t present is the ability to right click on the a portion of the drawing to see a listing
of all the layers underneath with a simplified hierarchy. The application would be specifically
for those doing revisions for piece which may have been done by another employee or
may have been done a long time ago. Otherwise it would mean that the revisionist would have
to manually click on each object to find the correct one and this would not be practical
in a work environment.
There is still compatibility issues with Photoshop if the piece hasn’t been flattened. I was
able to confirm this by using the same sample piece as a comparison between the two soft
wares. As you can see a good number of the background layers don’t seem to be applying
the proper blending modes and this is this is causing drastic changes in the final image.
The character which was organized in a different manner doesn’t seem to be affected in this
example. After further investigation it was discovered that the issue was with the vector
masks and not the clippings masks which were mentioned in the previous video. If you intend
to import a file from Photoshop that contains vector masks you’ll want to keep in mind
that you’ll need to rasterize those layers. This is definitely something that will need
to be addressed since a good number of shows seem to be heading towards a more painterly
style of background design in which vector masks are a mainstay. A good example of this
being utilized in the animation field are show’s like “Dorothy and the Wizard of
Oz.” When working for that show it was almost a requirement to utilize vector masks in Photoshop
for the clean looking edges even if other software options were available at the time.
This is feature that I would like to see in future alliterations.
During my last review I made no secret as to my grievances in having a partially implemented
magic wand tool. The magic wand tool which is also known as the flood selection tool
in Affinity Photo has since received an update to sample from all visible layers. This will
make the tool far better suited for pieces which require the painting of lined graphics
and is very much an essential asset in it’s more widespread adaptation.
If you come across the issue of not having your default foreground and background colors
reset to black and white there is an easy fix available. You will need to enable this
at least once however this setting should transfer over along with your existing keyboard
shortcuts. Go to Preferences + Keyboard Shortcuts + Photo + Miscellaneous + set fill to black
and White + and make sure to allocate a keyboard shortcut for this feature. The default in
Photoshop is the letter “D” If the shortcut you’ve chosen cause a conflict with an existing
shortcut simply click on the triangle with the exclamation mark to change that one as
well.
A great feature which puts Affinity Photo ahead of Photoshop is the ability to have
continuous clipping layers integrated with layer grouping hierarchy. You can essentially
keep clipping objects onto each other for a significant amount of time before running
into issues and as of yet I haven’t actually come across a limit.
A couple of notes regarding the keyboard shortcuts customization options. The basic functionality
of the keyboards shortcuts is pretty good but could use some refinement to make it more
user friendly. Having a drop menu which exposes the different options that are available for
each portion would make it easier to navigate overall. I would personally prefer to see
a scroll able window appear for sub items once a main category is expanded. This would
make things more visually appealing and would still allow for the interface to be expanded
in the future. Currently it can be quite daunting to find the an option that is customization
within the shortcuts. I would prefer to see a search option added to make things easier
to find. Being able to allocate separate keyboard shortcuts for the layers panel is something
I would also prefer to see in future with a key competent being that these only become
active when the user’s cursor is the that area. A great example is the Alt+Left click
and drag command which automatically duplicates a layer and allows you to move this withing
your layer hierarchy in Photoshop. This is done intentionally to mimic the same behaviors
as in the main window. This is something which is routinely utilized my most professionals
within the animation industry.
Something which both Affinity Photo and Photoshop lack is a more robust notes taking options.
While Photoshop does have some basic functionality it’s still pretty primitive. Perhaps a more
refined option could be created instead. Having the notes on the side of the window in an
expandable view with a short tittle would help a lot but it could go a lot further than
this. Add a color option + a sketch mode to quickly draw the revision directly within
the notes layer along with small checkbox to make this visible during a printout would
expand this further. A task tracking option could also be added at this point which could
be tied to different colors.
The tools pallet and the toolbar can be fully customized to the user’s preference. The
existing UI is very well organized and easy to learn so transitioning was relatively easy.
By keeping things as simply as possible they avoid overloading the user with information
which is a bonus for anyone moving over from another interface.
There is still a lack of a pixel stroke option within Affinity Photo. This will be more relevant
to those creating concept art since normally this isn’t for more polished pieces but
once again it should be looked at in future. The main reason why people use this features
is that it allows for repeatability when creating long complicated line work with a textured
brush. A great example is using it would be create a long chain a fence. Normally you
would use vector line and apply a stroke effect to the line to create a repeating pattern.
The brush itself would determine the type of chain that would be drawn in it’s place.
If the user didn’t like the sizing, they could hit undo and try it again and that’s
what makes this such a powerful feature. In more complicated pieces that separate line
could then be transformed to work in a perspective view.
The cloning stamp tool is a well needed improvement. They’ve added a cross-hair which is visible
while painting in an area so you know which location the sampling of the color is taking
place. This makes things a lot easier because you can see where you’ll need to change
the sampling area rather than waiting to discover this as you work.
Color Picker tool is missing a pretty essential feature. At the moment if a layer has a transparency
you can’t select the original color prior to this transparency being applied. Both methods
are needed since they are commonly used for two specific tasks. When a freelancer must
replicate something like a shadow it helps to know if they were colored with the same
initial color. This can then be applied to multiple layers and added to the pallet to
simplify the painting process. However in certain cases, they might need to modified
color instead and this case they often have to manually replicate the color if using Photoshop.
The current implementation works extremely for one use case while the second work better
for the other.
The canvas rotation is pretty limited at the moment only allowing for specific intervals.
This option can be found by going to the View + Rotate Right / Left or Reset options and
can be allocated to a keyboard shortcut. One big problem with both Affinity Photo and Photoshop
is the inability to create a guide which follows the current angle of the canvas. This would
be a features which is specific to those who work significantly in perspective related
tasks such as background designs or vehicles.
Color coding of layers is currently available and is a welcome addition to the exiting interface.
To access this you’ll want to right click on the layer and select a color circle on
the bottom of the menu. In future versions I would prefer to have it show more clearly
throughout the layer but it is still quite functional at the moment.
The lack of a split screen option is still problematic for freelancers who must color
in scenes. The inability to see the reference material docked besides the painted version
means that more errors are likely to occur. This also does slow down the overall process
quite a bit since this doubles to triples the amount of time to check the reference
for errors. While this may not seem like it takes away a lot of time it does make a difference
when working an 8 hours shift where 1 hours is wasted. A work around for the artboard
is currently an option if you already have Affinity Designer. I do personally use artboards
in a lot of my content but normally find this to be more applicable with graphic design
work and therefore better suited for Affinity Designer overall. However if you want to use
Artboards you can be create a blank document in Affinity Designer first and then opening
this file in Affinity Photo.
There is as of yet no ability to allocate a scratch disk. This is a pretty big deal
when working with files that are extremely large. Normally when painting backgrounds
the painter needs to reference several images at a time simultaneously and each of these
images will take up more resources. By having a scratch disk some of these resources can
be placed on the scratch disk to help boost performance and makes upgrades more financially
feasible. Rather than spending a ridiculous amount of money on ram the artist can purchase
an SSD to add into their computer. This has extremely fast speeds associated with it and
comes it large sizes which makes it far more cost effective.
So after everything that I’ve said so far what’s the final verdict for this 2020 version
of the Affinity Photo? Well..
For Home user’s I give it a mark of 9.5/10 overall because they are the least likely
to have to submit work into a pre-set pipeline in which the suggested features would be necessary.
For professional users, I gave it a mark of 8.5/10 because of it’s incompatibility issues
with certain Photoshop features and it’s lack of proper workflow management strategies.
How affinity implements features that makes it fast to use as well compatible through
other soft wares packages will definitely be what determines how it’s adopted by industry
professionals.
If you liked this video and want to see more similar content please hit the like button
and post a comment with what you might of though of this review. These videos do take
several weeks to complete so your help is greatly appreciated. Thank you for watching
I hope to see you soon. Thank you and take care.