Book Image

Up and Running with Affinity Designer

By : Kevin House
Book Image

Up and Running with Affinity Designer

By: Kevin House

Overview of this book

Affinity Designer is a widely adopted creative application, and in a reasonably short space of time, it has become a leading design and illustration application. Affinity Designer, along with Affinity Photo and Affinity Publisher, is part of a suite of award-winning creative software applications developed by Serif Europe. Built on the latest technologies, which make it fast and smooth, Affinity Designer is quickly becoming the go-to professional creative application for vector drawing and pixel-based painting. Up and Running with Affinity Designer is a comprehensive hands-on guide to the Affinity Designer software. Whether you're new to the creative industry, a seasoned professional looking for a proven alternative, or an enthusiastic hobbyist, this book will help you get up to speed in no time. You’ll learn how to create documents and explore workflow best practices while working through practical exercises using the knowledge and skills developed in each chapter to solidify your understanding of the fundamentals. Finally, you’ll bring it all together with real-world practical applications by building a fun logo and professional illustration, forming a base for in-depth exploration in your own projects. By the end of this Affinity Designer book, you'll have gained the knowledge and confidence to use Affinity Designer as part of your creative toolset.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
1
Section 1: Getting Familiar with Affinity Designer's Interface and Layout
5
Section 2: Deeper Exploration of Affinity Designer's Documents, Tools, and Workflow
9
Chapter 7: Tools – Pixel Persona
12
Chapter 10: Workflow: Symbols, Assets, and History
13
Section 3: Bringing It All together

The Brushes panel – Designer and Pixel Personas

Brushes are a great way to add character or an organic feel to your work. There are two types of brushes in Affinity Designer, Designer Persona brushes and Pixel Persona brushes. As you might expect, the Designer Persona brushes are vector-based and the Pixel Persona brushes are pixel-based and the two setups, while similar in appearance, have slightly different working methods.

The Designer Persona brushes rely on vector strokes, curves, and paths. The brushes are applied to the vector curves along the paths. You can draw with a chosen brush from the Brushes panel using the vector brush tool, which allows immediate feedback. Or, you can create curves or shapes with the pen, pencil, or shape tools found in the Tool panel, then choose a brush in the vector brushes panel to apply that brush to the selected curve or shape. The advantage of the vector workflow is that it is a little more of an indestructible workflow than the Pixel...