Switching to Affinity Designer from Adobe Illustrator - What to know
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- čas přidán 28. 05. 2018
- 75% off Affinity Designer Course www.udemy.com/the-affinity-de...
If you've been looking to switch from Adobe Illustrator to Affinity designer here a couple of things that are good to know. If you have any tips let me know in the comments below.
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I use Illustrator heavily every day, but I bought this just to help affinity get better and become a threat to Adobe's monopoly
@Veldey Photos depend what you need. For vector animation I cant imagine give up Illustrator and After Effects. Especially latest update makes AI superior over AD. I have both, year ago AD was better now AI is better choice for complex and Rich illustrations
Yeah I still definitely prefer Illustrator, but I also have like 15 years of experience with it. Affinity is a great tool to add to the toolbox though.
adobe should think of their monopoly. Its not fair for his competitors.
@@sirajdey Adobe: Our monopoly isn't fair to our competitors.
Also Adobe: THAT'S AWESOME!
Nice
- For copying the style, it's much easier just to hit Copy on one object and then Paste Style on the other!
- Also, for selection, in the Preferences, under TOOLS, you can actually turn on "Select object when they intersect the marquee"
Keep up the great vids!
Nice! I had a hunch there might have been a couple things I missed when I was using it. Thanks!
You, sir, are a hero. The problem of the first tip bothered me big time in Affinity. Now it's gone. Thanks a lot!
Toma Alexandru Official Be on the lookout for the IPad Pro x that’s gonna be live at WWDC 2018 today!!
Edit: Never mind nothing on the iPad
Toma Alexandru Official transcript
That was atypo lol
Honestly I can't wait for affinity to truely threaten adobe, adobe has been getting away with so much when t comes to prices because it knows theres nothing that can threaten it, theres no programs that are as good
Finally adobe has competition
We as the consument have more benefit
And is awesome, a young app competing very close
Adobe has always had competition. Corel is the main one, BTW “serif” the company who produces affinity is like 20 years old... is not a “young” app
Yes!!!
its Affinity softwares own competition but not for Adobe
I picked up Affinity Designer last year, because I took on a new client who hired me to create a ton of web assets (web ads, banners, and templates) and he needed source files in Affinity Designer format. Coming from Photoshop and Illustrator, it was a bit daunting at first not finding some things and having some tools behave differently, but I really ***loved*** the pixel profile for quick edits and don't get me started on the interface profiles and the slicing and exporting workflow! (It runs laps around Adobe's approach and it's so easy to work with that now I hate Adobe's even more than I used to...)
I just picked up a copy of your Affinity for Zombies course on Udemy, just to support your work (True fan here, since The Brads web comic. Keep cranking them out and I'll keep buyin' them). I'm sure that I'll pick up some useful info, as well.
Thanks! you've been here a while, glad to hear not everyone here is 17 years old :D
It's like Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw had a baby.
mljarmin I agree 😂😆
I agree and confirmed by me, user of both programs
Babe's name is Xara
Children are often born more beautiful than their parents.
More like Xara had a baby
2:21 4. Red line preview for shape parameters
5:55 7. Fx
6:50 8. Personas
8:37 9. Snap Settings
9:28 Force Pixel Alignment
I learned CorelDraw first so I never really got into Illustrator. Some of these Affinity items make me think of Corel. The 'layers' behaviour though takes me right back to college in 1988 and the Createx system which was one of the earliest vector systems. This program is just incredible. Thanks for another superb review video.
in the first point, just press SHIFT before clicking and you'll take the color only and not the entire style :)
Great advice. Thanks!
You just saved my life.
And if you choose eyedropper tool and press enter, you can select what you want to copy from a list that pops up
Same like in AI. U guys know it?
I use Affinity Designer for my every day job. I'm a graphic designer at a screen printing shop. In terms of stagnant designs for shirts, flyers, and stuff like that, I think it works great. Yeah I'm still used to Illustrator because I was taught on it, but I'm not minding needing to take a couple small extra steps to get where I need to in AD. Obviously for designs that go beyond what I just mentioned AI would be better, but for what I do I prefer using AD.
I just wanted to say thank you for your videos on Affinity's line, it was just what I was looking for and I actually enjoy them more. This video was great and I've saved it for later as there's some great tips here. Thanks again!
Oh I'm currently using Affinity Designer but I miss a lot of things coming from Illustrator such as the Warp tool... deform text into predefined shapes is so useful... another tool I miss is the "Shape builder tool" is such a nice shortcut for the pathfinder panel... and the last thing is the power of the text edition in Illustrator... Sometimes I need to work with texts and be able to link multiple text boxes and just put the text distributed on those is a must have in my opinion.
No shape builder tool
Ouch, that's a deal-breaker!
This is a godsend!😫🙌I've been using Affinity Designer for a few months, which hasn't been too bad. The transition from Illustrator, though has been a little wonky. This Affinity list has most of the tools I'm used to using, but I just needed to know how to find them lol Thanks for this!😆
For those of you that never had a chance to play with it, Macromedia/Adobe Fireworks was just like this. You could edit vectors alongside editing images, and the interface was very intuitive to let you work with both at the same time. I've been waiting 6 years for a similar tool since Adobe killed Fireworks. Affinity Designer follows along Firework's footsteps quite nicely.
This type of workflow is lighting fast for web graphics. I hope more people adopt it so that we can see this tool continue to grow.
The thing I love most in Affinity Designer is Grids/Axis Manager. I am in love with isometric grids etc.
Thanks for excellent tips! I bought Affinity Designer a few weeks back and have been loving it :) I definitely learned a few new tricks from this video :)
Great info... thank you a lot. Using Illustrator for work for ages. This was exactly what I needed to make me try it.. thanks again
Great presentation! You're really good at showing affinity power over illustrator. I should checkout your course soon!
This is the best video I’ve found on Designer! I also started with Illustrator and have been confused with some of the differences. I only do it for fun, but I’ve purchased EVERYTHING from this company because it’s such a great deal. I have Designer and Photo for my computer and my iPad. I just started playing with Designer to help with some painting ideas. (I wish you’d write a book.)
Brilliant - I was just learning about the Designer tools, thanks for sharing.
Thanks for taking the time to create this great video. Will he taking your course soon
Thanks so much for this - gave me a lot of great information to know if Affinity Designer will work for me.
I just wanted to say that I got your Udemy course for Affinity Designer, and it’s fantastic! I know how to use Illustrator, but was having a hard time figuring out some things in Designer. You cover a lot of information in a way that’s easy to follow and very entertaining! There are so many videos I can’t watch because they’re too dry and it takes forever to get to the actual “how to.” I’ve subscribed here, and I’m already looking at some of the other Udemy videos created by you. I wish all of them were this good!
I started using affinity designer today. And I just loved it. It's so easy to grasp. And above all it's so snappy. Photoshop lags in my i5 machine but affinity just killed it. Loved using it. Hope to be happy with it forever.
Awesome video, I'm barely jumping into Affinity and you touched on some points that were getting on my nerves. Understanding the pixel persona was plus! Thank you :)
as a 23 year user of many vector programs, I am definitely going to purchase this! All the things you describe used to be available on this old cad software I used to use in the large format industry and really missed those functions when I had to switch to illustrator back in 2003. edit: the cad software I had to use for this flat bed printer was really cool but....$5000 that is why I had to switch to illustrator.
There are still some features I miss in Affinity Designer, for example Offsetting Paths and Optical Margin Alignment. What I absolutely love is the export function: really handy when designing assets for mobile applications.
Actually i miss many automatization options. Offset is one of these. Good Point.
love your videos man, also love the intro music! :)
Hi, For No. 01: in illustrator, holding shift while picking a color from a gradient or text or any other styles, will pick only the color like what u show in Affinity.
Thank you for explaining this thoroughly!
Great video - I am thinking of swapping over but it’s hard to know how much time it’s going to take and if it’s going to be worth the learning time when you don’t know if a show-stopper is going to suddenly appear! So this was really helpful.
Wow, an addition material to the course. Thanks.
Great video - a good mixture of the right Information, succinctness, tempo, Zest and enthusiasm without being in-your-face like a lot of CZcams presentations are. A few things occurred to me though, while watching:
Thanks for this vid, I am starting to learn this...
Thank you for highlighting some tips. Your udemy course seems interesting as well. May have to check it out after I get AD.
I like how this video cleared up some Illustration frustration for me. But at the same time, I just find that Designer's approach to the same tools makes a bunch more sense
BROTHER, YOU ARE THE BEST!!! You oooh really helped me!! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
Affinity Designer is great but users have requested many simple features for years now, and these changes have not been implemented yet.
One example is offset paths which for me is needed to create logos and mascots. It's a great app, with an affordable price and no subscription, but lacks the necessary features that Illustrator has. This is why Illustrator will be my main software for the work I do.
However, with that said, I love the feel and look of Affinity and use it to create more simple things like UI mockups and Icons.
If you are just starting out in vector art, this is definitely a great application to choose to help build the fundamental knowledge.
Yes, offset paths is a real pain in the onions in AD, I struggled, watched tutorials, struggled again then gave up and did it in AI in seconds...
Great tutorial. Well paced, delivered and edited. 👍
Great! The concept of these tools work like the tools in my old Freehand. :)
Affinity gives me such confidence. With illustrator I have to pump myself up.
I mean that zombie composition in the beginning of this vid, i SEE that abd feel pretty confident i can that on the fly, AND I'm filled with so many ideas. God I love Affinity
Wow, thanks tis was unbelievably helpful. More than you would know.
2. You can actually change this in the settings. I have it changed to where I only have to highlight a tiny part of the object for it to be selected
wot'n tarnation - Wow, really. That’s awesome. Mmmmmm. Maybe I should at least buy it to try.
good work king, love you
bought the Affinity package when they were on sale last year, got to admit it was such a troublesome for an adobe user for 20 years, but for that price I'm willing to learn. as a freelance designer, times are pretty tough here and can't afford to subscribe for adobe anymore, thank you affinity for this great app!
Also also, Gradient and Transparency can be applied to the same object. They are independent of each other.
oh yeah, great point!
This video actually makes me want to try out the Affinity, it looks so user-friendly.
I've been having a proem and watched so many videos for how to basically mask a shape into another in designer. I can't believe I didn't think about the layers thing, I was trying different geometry. I just happen to watch this for entertainment and I slowed down to 0.25 speed and you taught me at 0:25
You talked about the anchor point tool in adobe like it was a positive thing, haha, the drawing tools are so simplified and more powerful Affinity. Adobe needs an anchor point tool, white arrow tool, add and delete anchor point tools to equal just the node tool in Affinity.
And let’s not forget the simplest but greatest innovation Affinity brought to the table... pressing delete on a node doesn’t leave an open shape... really, adobe? It’s 2018, time to fix that.
Cool tips bro! Thank you!
Hi, Awesome video !!!! new subscriber here. I jusst bought this software last week and I love it. Im an amateur on this field. I am not familiar with illustrator either. But I bought this to create designs for tshirts. I hope to learn this software up and down and not only use it for that purpose. I saw that you can use it for E-commerce as-well. a lot to learn. Cheers
Awesome piece of software - I downloaded the trial. because I don't know what to get; illustrator or designer... guess ill try them both out and pick for myself. thx for the vid and the insight!
Which one is most cpu efficient and snappy in performance?
Someone earlier in the posts said that affinity uses more than one core so it is faster than ai which uses only one and is said to be much slower.
Affinity Designer runs better than Adobe Illustrator
Affinity is very very optimized even for a old computer I sometimes do some quick edits on
I love Affinity designer I have almost completely moved to work on it but there’s still some little things that only illustrator has
Majo C Like what? I’m thinking of switching.
@@scribbles1440 Like the automatic vectorisation and the shape conceptor
@@Lingatsu How about Mesh Tool
@@muhammadghifardan2259 didn't know this tool
Very well explained. Great job
Best video for Affinity! Thank you
Is there a "shape builder" equivalent in Designer? I love being able to have multiple overlapping shapes in Illustrator and select section by section what to remove, or combine with other shapes. I use Illustrator on the desktop, but recently picked up Designer for ipad and couldnt find that feature anywhere. Wondering if its in the desktop app. Also, it seems like you cant warp text in Designer on the iPad. Is it in the desktop version?
I think it's important to know that Affinity Software is multi-threaded unlike Adobe's.
What does that mean?
Dimas Aditjondro it uses more than one core of the cpu which means that it utilizes more of the cpu and can run faster and do more in theory than a program that uses only one core.
Wait what? For real? AI has no multi-thread support? What is this 2005? And here I was always wondering why AI is so fucking sluggish. Just tried Affinity today and the first thing you notice is just how smooth simply moving around on your artboard is, compared to the jittery performance in Adobe. Night and day.
@@tonyjohnson5669 That explains a lot! Affinity Designer has always ran better on my Mac than Adobe AI. Now we know!
For anyone that wants to know - Affinity works flawlessly and really smooth on the M1 Macbook Pro with the new Affinity 1.9 update. I noticed in the vid it was a bit 'glitchy' looking but it runs very smooth for me. I would highly recommend making the purchase especially with 50% off at the mo! Great vid Brad - cheers from the UK 🇬🇧✌️
Hi - love your videos - question: What version of AD are you using in your crash course? Thanks!
Thanks for this super clear review! The workflow reminds me a lot of CorelDraw. Have always been turned off by AI's workflow, so I'm glad to see a good alternative on Mac.
Warp and/or distort tools! - are there any, or a decent work around?
OK, I didn't know about the edit all layers/edit current layer toggle, so this video was worth it, just for that little tip!
Are these also available on the Designer for iPad?
Obviously not the same layout but the options themselves.
0:55 You can copy+paste the style of an object on to a new layer with Paste Style (Go to Edit -> Paste Style to find it or use a shortcut for it). Just ctrl+C a regular object and then paste the style. Pretty much what the Colour Picker Tool does in Illustrator, but without needing a tool to do it. I honestly prefer it this way, since I always preferred how colour picking worked in Photoshop than in Illustrator (I just want one colour darn it! :P).
Very useful, thanks!
I create a lot of logos and title fonts for my projects. Illustrator has a set of Text Envelope icons that instantly transform the outline of a word into specific shapes, i.e. Inflare, Squeeze, Twist, Arc, etc. This doesn't seem possible in Designer without first creating a shape and then applying it to the words. In CorelDraw, I have a page of shapes that I can bring up, copy and paste into my document until I'm done with it. Is this my only option in Designer?
You can adjust the color picker in illustrator to only choose the color. Just hit enter while on the color picker tool.
Affinity is such a great tool. I think it's easier than Illustrator if you're a beginner.
I agree, if you've never touched a vector tool it seems more intuitive, probably because there just isn't as much extra edge case type features in there.
That's why I use Affinity Designer in the first place. I was too overwhelmed by the tools that is in Adobe Illustrator that I only staring the blank workspace because I don't know where to start
Same here. I started with vector because of affinity. I wish illustrator would have been like affinity years ago. However, because of lack of competition Adobe has gotten away for years with small updates every year yet high prices.
i agree, affinity designer is an awesome program but It lacks some tools as shape builder tool,smooth tool and the knife tool, but that's ain't a problem because affinity team promesed that they will add all this stuff very soon.
@@ajinasawor you start by earning the software
Hi Brad, great video on what to expect when leaving Adobe Illustrator for Affinity Designer. However, you missed two HUGE points that really should be addressed and with Affinity Designer for iPad being just released, it would be nice to pressure the developers into correcting.
Your coverage of the geometry tools missed the fact that there is no “Trim” tool like there is in Illustrator. Trim basically allows for objects to cut other objects without the object, being used to cut, to be deleted. This is was a huge miss in Affinity Designer and lets hope everyone catches on here and emails the developers for an immediate update.
The next bit is pretty significant....there is no auto-trace or bitmap/raster to vector conversation. What makes this a significantly strange miss is that in Affinity designer there is the raster or pixel persona/mode. Wouldn’t it make sense to have a way to convert all of these cool drawings you do in pixel persona into vector? What if the cool texture you just added to your Zombie were to be converted to vector, that would be nice, right? Again a really odd miss by Affinity and a point many users should be driving home to the Affinity developers through email. Now that Affinity Designer is on iPad its time that the developers get onto having an auto-trace. Affinitys direct competition on iPad Graphic for iPad is working on a bitmap to vector conversion to be added to their next update.
Anyhow actual Trim and Auto-Trace is missing, needs to be added. Start writing emails to these developers to show them this is needed in both Affinity Designer on iPad and Desktop.
love it ! thank you
Hi Brad, thank you for that video! And I was really convinced of Affinity until I had to use it for my work. Maybe you can help me with this: The client needs EPS, but it seems that there is a big problem with the canvas: If I save my work as an EPS in a special size and reopen it with Illustrator, the size of the EPS changes - to the size of the previous file. So if I first opened a file with a size of e.g. 10x10, Illustrator opens the next EPS in 10x10 no matter how the actual size is. Do you have a solution for that? Thank you so much!
great video! Thank you!!
Thankyou for this.
Great tips. Designer looks great. Thank you.
regarding selections, for iOS AD, i found a pref setting "select object when intersects selection marquee", that will select a shape when you barely overlap it. (i'm and AI user since the late 80s, and am trying to be as good in AD as i am in AI).
Hello. Quick question... can you edit Adobe Illustrator files in Affinity Designer? I have Illustrator files that I’d still like to be able to access.
your second 'need to do' have solution: in preferences/default have to check option for 'select object when intersects with selection marquee' - the you can select in illustrator fashion
In point 2, in Affinity Designer, we can also select the objects as in AI, simply by touching them, you only must go change that in preferences.
I have both apps in my computer, but I prefer Ai for my work. I tell you why: I sell my work on a big free-royalty vectors company, and they want the illustration only in a EPS10 version. Unfortunately, Affinity its not a good EPS exporter. You don't have the option to choose a version of the EPS. It converts gradients and shadows to a embedded images not editable. :-/
Or sell it as bitmap. 99% of current Illustrator files are nowhere vector and render in bitmap. Just throw one in InDesign, and you can see most show up as raster image in the linked image list. One hint of transparancy or a single effect make the images turn rasterized.
wow thank you! This guide is very helpful and fun to watch! This video makes me want to buy Affinity Designer xD
Would you recommend the Affinity Suite for a freelancer? I am trying to get started on my own and I simply cannot afford the Adobe CC subscription. The price seems right, but how about the capabilities? And can you convert PSD or AI files, or even export to them?
I have been a CorelDraw user since version 2. I found it easier than Illustrator. I've been curious about Infinity for a while. All these tips seem to work the same way Corel does. I'm going to have to take a serious look at Infinity now. Thank you.
I'm very interested in trying this out. I think I finally have to get a new computer, & my adobe suite cs5.5 software got lost... I doubt it would work well for windows 10 anyway. Can't bring myself to get the adobe subscription, it's ridiculous. I'm now using it to create labels for my company, simple things. Learning to adjust a little for a good price would be totally worth it. So happy there are alternatives!!!
brilliant video!
Is there a tool that equivalent to Illustrator's Shape Builder tool?
I used affinity designer when it was in beta for windows. Biggest flaw for me as a logo/icon designer is the lack of a shape builder tool and offset path. Really kills my workflow and makes everything slower due to having to copy/paste everything when using path finder
Exactly my point! I use Illustrator for all my mascot logos simply because of the Offset Path feature. This has been requested from many users of Affinity for years now and they haven't implemented it yet. I now just use Affinity to make Twitch Panels, UI mockups and so on.
This is good to know. It's not something I use much so I didn't notice its absence.
The shapebuilder tool is one of the most crucial worksafers. Never would want p give it up
PAdenmark well, I guess I’m not getting into AD! I rely on those features every 5 seconds.
forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/54699-creating-offset-paths-in-affinity-designer/
I use Illustrator at work, and AD at home as I can't afford Illustrator. AD is more clunky and funky, but some of its features I like more than Illustrator, working in both is a lot of fun, for the price of AD its a gem.
Hi Brad hope your well and safe. I have a simple question! Can I (by using Affinity) modify / edit my Illustrator work?.
I'm still in a face of deciding if I should get Affinity design. there are many factors I have to put in account, such as I have an old mac book pro 2012, with in a SSD, plus I heard If I get a M1 mac book pro it mite get difficult to install programs. But once I made the decition I want to be safe to use a new program (Affinity design) that I can work on my old projects from Illustrator.
Hope to hear from you soon
Regards
Oliver
I am almost 70% through the course on here and its very good, while i have used Vector drawing before, I did learn a lot about Affinity Designer. I would say that Affinity Designer works more like Corel Draw that Illustrator, and I used Corel for a long time, so found Affinity quite easy to convert to.
I’m curious if current users will continue to favor Affinity’s products when-not if-it too switches to a subscription model.
Wanna know how blending and stroke works, and does the gradient tool provide angle and dimension
Brad does Affinity have a Gradiant mesh tool? Beacuse that was one of the best features I can recall in Illustrator.
Hi Brad Colbow, thanks for sharing.
Have been using adobe illustrator for decades as a professional, so i decided to try out affinity designer and affinity painter, after spending about an hour on this program i found it to be very basic when it comes to advanced illustration, a lot of tools that are needed in the pipeline of advanced illustrations are not included, the clipping of object within the program can get annoying when it comes to multiple clipping between different element, also the layers panel is also a bit stressful scrolling up and down because i can't easily modify my layout like in illustrator. In illustrator when am working on lots of layers i usually set my layers panel to take the right side of my screen ( having a long list of my path without having to scroll a lot. the color picker is also not time effective and it creates styles which i put back on my shape, that is really not needed. exporting lots of artwork is also a long process.
there is no mush different between Affinity Designer and Affinity Painter, the core development of the programs are the same, which is not great ( a professional will ask "what is the different" and not just saying one is pixel base and the other is vector base. digital art using affinity Painter is a headache ( i hate repeated tasks ) and affinity Designer and Painter does not help with repeated task.
switching between Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop while working on a project is perfectly fine, because i am getting limitless power from both ends.
Overall Affinity Designer and Affinity Painter are easy to use program for people who are looking to create cool arts and not having to spend hours learning the program, both programs, but if you want to create advanced and professional works go for Adobe illustrator and Photoshop, the learning curve is perfectly alright for someone looking to be a pro ( what really makes the learning curve long is the amount of advanced tools, tricks and tips.
If you are a professional artist or you love creating your own world and setting things as you like, Affinity is not for you. One major reason, you can't modify your work space to your taste. Loool
I wouldn't say that it isn't for professionals. There are lots of artists that are professionals that use this software. What is a professional? Some of the issues may be because not understanding the program maybe? Oh and there is no such thing as Affinity Painter lol
evtonic3 exactly. This guys is clueless on clarifying his point. There are professionals much experienced in using Affinity Designer than AI. Also lots of people don’t have the time to figure out the new application. So they come up with excuses.
It does look like a good mix of Illustrator with Corel Draw! How good are the shortcuts? one of the things I don't like on illustrator is the shortcuts, Corel Draw always had much more shortcuts especially for the Pathfinder tools in which use to make the workflow way faster on Corel Draw them AI. (I know Corel use to suck in the effects, especially when u setting things up for big printer machines but you could do things way faster on it just because of the nice set of shortcuts).
Also, hows the integration in between the files from AI PS and AF with Affinity Designer? I mean if I want to open up a file from AI or PS on affinity? and can I easily use the affinity vector files on After effect?
Thank you in advance for the good soul that takes the time to reply me =D...
switching to....
3:50 Use the Pen tool (P) and select a node by holding Alt when clicking on it, then hold Shift to create two curves or Alt to create one.
nice job describing, ah but add; gradients also click to add a color point,, big point missing is the fluid interaction between Designer and Photo, with both open you can edit the file back and forth between them, almost like it was one program, iow the bitmap stuff in Designer is for quick simple stuff, hit Menu - Edit in Photo = get technical with it.
loving affinity!!!
It it echo friendly with photoshop like as illustrator..? For ex: u can copy paste the illustrator objects to photoshop directly...
ITS REALLY WORKED LOL THANK YOU DUDE
Great video!