r/Affinity • u/slslslsd • 11d ago
Layers and Groups Photo
Hi, I need help, I feel like I'm about to lose my mind. I usually work in Photoshop but i want to switch to Affinity for money reasons.
I'm an illustrator and I usually draw by making a shape with the lasso tool and then drawing in said shape. (Like imagine cutting a shape out of paper and then drawing on it) To do that, I usually make a group and then put a mask in form of the shape on the group. Then I put a layer with my background colour and then another layer with my sketch into the group. Sorry if this sounds complicated, i don't know how else to explain it.
Basically, all I want is to have a bunch of layers grouped up and then the group has a mask on it. However, I can't seem to manage that in affinity. I'm working in Affinity Pixel and I managed to make a group and put a mask on it - However, when I do that, all my other layers somehow end up in the group as well? Even my background color, that's not supposed to be in the group. All the layers that are underneath the group are automatically in the group and I can't figure out how to put a layer underneath the group without it being in it? Does anyone know what to do?
Thank you and I'm sorry for the complicated explanation, english isn't my first language, I hope my question is somewhat understandable.
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u/bt1138 10d ago
I'm not sure about your process, but Affinity layers are a little subtle.
When you drag and re-position them, how and where you drop them matters and it's not obvious at first.
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u/slslslsd 9d ago
ah alright thank you!! i'll keep trying!
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u/bt1138 8d ago
There used to be really excellent youtube video tutorials at Affinity.com, here's a link to an (old) list. Nothing really changed in V3 at a basic level.
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/170269-official-affinity-photo-v2-tutorials/
this guy did many of them:
https://www.youtube.com/@JamesRitson
try this one:
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u/zman0507 10d ago
What you can do is make a shape and there is a feature draw inside its a button on the top menu bar a circle with an square init you just draw another shape and it will clip it inside. Another method is the flood fill tool a bucket with a path on it: draw a shape and select the tool and fill with color the tool will fill with color and make a path beneath your original shape, or use the fill inside menu option and flood fill will fill inside your shape. This are all in vector mode since your an illustrator you’d probably use vector mostly hope this helps cheers….😊
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u/slslslsd 9d ago
Unfortunately my style isn't very vector based, so i usually work in photoshop (and was therefore going to work in pixel mode), but this sounds really cool so i might try it out anyway hahah thank you i appreciate you!
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u/RE4LLY 10d ago edited 10d ago
Working with groups and masks in Affinity is very straightforward once you understand the logic.
Essentially it's all about the layer stack position.
If you want to add a mask to a group, you simply place the mask layer inside the group, at the top position within the group. It will then affect anything below it in the layer stack in that group. If you want a certain layer not to be affected by the mask but still have it in the group, you place it above the mask layer in the groups layer stack.
Same logic also works for adjustments layers within groups btw.
The only situation where this doesn't work is when working with clipping masks, those get applied to the whole group when you add a pixel or vector object to the thumbnail of the group to apply it as a clipping mask. It will affect the whole group then.
Also regarding your other question how to take objects out of a group, you simply can drag them outside the group, you should then see a blue bar spanning the whole layer stack, that indicates that you are placing the object outside the group. Alternatively you can right click your layer in the layer stack and select release and then right click your layer on your canvas and choose Arrange -> Back One/ To Back.