Transcripts
1. Intro: Hi, everyone. I'm
Weronika Salach. I'm an illustrator and
surface pattern designer. In this class, I wanted
to invite you into the vector world of Affinity
Designer on the iPad. I would like to show you how
to move around Affinity in a quick and easy way so that you can streamline
here a vector work. There are a lot of
hidden tricks within the interface that I'd
like to share with you. Affinity Designer on the iPad is my go-to tool for creating seamless vector patterns
and I cannot imagine working with any other software when it comes to
vector illustration. More and more artists began using Affinity instead
of Adobe Illustrator because it's a very
powerful program which you can acquire for a single payment without deciding to pay a
subscription every month. Before I offer more
intermediate courses on Affinity Designer
for the iPad, I wanted to release a class for complete beginners as a
warm-up into the software. Throughout the course,
we will be getting familiar with the
affinity interface. I'll be showing you how
to set up your documents, navigate in the program
with some handy gestures, managing layers, transforming
objects and so much more. We'll be covering, creating our first simple
vector illustration to get ourselves a
little bit warmed up. I'll be teaching you how to
utilize stroke and fill. I will show you an easy
way to use the pen tool, the pencil tool, and
the vector brush tool. This will give you
a really good start into creating vector
art on your iPad. So let's get started.
2. Welcome: Welcome to this
beginner's course on Affinity Designer
for the iPad. Very exciting. We will be learning together
Vector Illustration. For some of you maybe
for the first time, and for some of you, maybe you've been using Adobe Illustrator before and you have some prior knowledge
in Vector art. It doesn't really matter. This course will get you
familiar with Affinity Designer. Maybe it's a completely
new tool for you. Maybe you would like to learn some extra tricks and
gestures in the program. If so, then this course
is definitely for you. The only thing that
we're going to need to complete the project and
the entire course is, of course, your iPad. [LAUGHTER] Then you
have to download your Affinity software. You just have to go
to your Apple Store, find it through typing
in Affinity Designer and you have to
bear in mind that just like with a
program like Procreate, there's a onetime payment. However, the big plus is that, you pay only one time and
you have the software for a lifetime with all the updates that keep coming to the store. Basically, your task is to get familiar
with the program, to get familiar
with the interface, and to practice all
the handy tricks and gestures that you can use on your iPad to streamline your work and to make your
drawing more efficient. At the end of the day, the project that I'm asking
you to complete is to upload any vector illustration
that you will create with the only condition
that it has to be made in Affinity
Designer for the iPad. [LAUGHTER] You can be
a complete beginner, and you can try creating a simple flower and
stars illustration, which I'm showing in
the demonstration towards the end of the course. Or you can be a more
seasoned illustrator who is, maybe, transitioning
from Adobe Products, this is very common, to Affinity Designer Products, and is also trying to find his or her way through the interface and
through the software. Upload just basically, any art that you created using Affinity
Designer and include any questions or any remarks regarding what you liked
about the program, and perhaps what handy gestures you found particularly useful. This is it. That's all that you need to start with the class.
3. BONUS: Affinity V2.0 (11.2022): [MUSIC] Hello everybody. This is a bonus lesson which is recorded in November 2022, exactly in the week
of introducing the Version 2 of Affinity
Designer for iPad. I created this introductory
Affinity Designer class back in August, September 2022, which was exactly
two or three months before Serif decided to finally refresh
their whole suite and to roll out Version
2 of their programs. You will see that the
majority of this tutorial on Skillshare presents to use some handy gestures and
the interface that revolve around the first version
of Affinity Designer. But I wanted to calm you
down and tell you that you can still watch this course, because the gestures
that I'm showing, particularly the gestures
and shortcuts and some handy features of
Affinity Designer, they still apply to
the new version. The content is not
really outdated, you can still keep on watching. However, in this bonus material, I wanted to show you the
main differences between Affinity Designer Version 1 and affinity designer Version 2, so that you can find yourself
a little bit better. I also created a
dedicated YouTube video if you'd like to head to my YouTube channel
and watch it there. Also both on Skillshare
and on YouTube, I will be uploading
more detailed tutorials on how to use Affinity
Designer on your iPad. We will be catching up with those new features
step-by-step so to say. I got really great feedback
on this class from you, my Skillshare
students and I think the majority of you consider
themselves still beginner. For many people who
take this class, it's about getting
warmed up with the program and getting
used to the interface. When you switch to the new version of Affinity
Designer for iPad, this is the view that
you're going to see. I assure you that it
will take you probably one extra day and you will
really get used to it fast. Some of the lessons in this course do not apply
anymore, for example, how to create new documents
and how to find yourself, particularly on the homepage, because you will see that the new Affinity
Designer homepage is a little bit more different. One thing that has
changed is that before we had less options here in this
upper part of the screen, whereas the new version
has this very handy menu, which is here on the left side. You have a few
more options here. When you click on
the Affinity Logo, you can for example, close all documents or immediately check for
updates from this section. Then here if you
were somewhere else, you can go back to
the Live Docs view. This is called the Live
Docs view and you have those pretty big thumbnails that represent your documents or they show you your projects. At first they were a
little bit blown out, a little bit too big for me, but I got used to
that and there are some other handy features
that they introduced in this new version
that I really love. For instance, you can
close a document right away by clicking on
this X symbol here. It will again ask you because closing actually means
removing completely. It will ask you if
you really want it, [LAUGHTER] to close
it without saving and then you can then get rid of it. Then whenever you want to rename it or to
make a copy of it, or to move it out
of the project, you just have to swipe to
the left and it will show you see those three options. You can either edit the name, you can copy it, or you can
move it out of the project. This feels a little bit
more intuitive at first, I didn't know where
it is because, in the old interface, you have the hamburger menu. When you click on it, it
shows you the options. When I was testing
the new version, the better version was
like, what is this? Where are my options to
rename or to make a copy? But it's after all,
an iPad version. A lot is gesture-based compared with the laptop
or the desktop version. I'm not surprised that
they actually added this gesture functionality
to access some options here. Another big thing that I really like is that when you're
creating a new document, you click on this
plus new symbol. In this view, you
can add very easily your own presets and even
create dedicated categories. This is a category that
I created for myself, I named it Pixels. When you click on the
plus symbol here, you can create a new
preset and then you can save it in any of the
preexisting categories. If you want a completely
new category, for example, I really
like working with Pixels. This is where you add
it to the next icon, gives you the option to
create a new category. Here you can edit
your preset and if you click on those
multiple squares here, you can remove some of the
formats that you don't want or by pressing and holding
this hamburger menu, you can also move
around your presets. In this way, you can customize
it in a very handy way. You can open your
documents from here, open your templates from here, have a look at some samples
that come from Serif. There's a very nice help
center with some examples. I think it's really tidy and you will profit
really a lot from it. To finish off this video, let's maybe open one document. You will see that the menu
has changed a little bit. I think the biggest change is that this contextual
menu is missing. If I were to open a document
in the old version, you will see that there's
this extra contextual menu here where you can access
some additional features. In the new version, that's something that you have
to get used to it. This also changes, but
it has been moved from this lower area of the
screen to this upper tab. You can still select
the question mark and you can see precisely
what has changed. Some really big new
features that were added to this Version 2 are the
Shape Builder and the Knife Tool and also something that
I'm not really using a lot is a Vector Warp has been added as a new functionality
to Affinity Designer, where you can create a nondestructive vector warps and then everything stays
pretty much the same. If you continue taking my class, you will see that it's
all pretty much the same, maybe except for
the Pencil tool. Now you have to click twice to access also
the Vector Brush, which is hidden under
the Pencil tool icon. You can still switch
between the persona's here, Designer, Pixel versus
Expert persona. Here are your document options, the Edit options like
copy paste, cut, your Move options,
the Arrange options, Flip and Rotate options,
which is quite handy. I use it quite a lot when I'm creating my vector patterns. The Alignment options are here. I use quite a lot the
Align Center option. Boolean operations are here, Selecting options and
then also Select, Same or Object has
been added here. It's a very handy feature
where you want to for example, select the same. I think I use most of
the time Fill Color whenever I want to find
a particular fill color, select everything at
the same time and then change the
color immediately, like simultaneously
for all the objects that share the same fill color. Then towards the
right upper side, you have the Viewing options, zoom, things like that. Preview Guides are
the next icon, things like bleed, margins, little bit more,
maybe advanced stuff and Snapping is here. [LAUGHTER] I'm disappointed by that because I really liked my Snapping icon and my
Delete icon over here. Moving back again to the old
view, Snapping was here. You are also able to draw with your Apple pencil
with one hand and then delete some nodes or objects shapes that you didn't like immediately
with your left hand. I'm missing those two icons here in the lower-left corner. It takes a little bit
of getting used to it. Again, I know that for
some of you it's again look at new program and
now there's a new look. The icons look a little
bit differently, but I can assure you
that it takes you maybe one extra day to get
used to everything. It's very handy to use this little cute question
mark to check where you are or to go back to the Live Docs view and to go to the Help center
and read through. Moving forward, I will be
switching to Version 2. Why am I saying that
in the first place? It's because you can actually stay within the first version. There's a whole bunch of
super cool courses here on Skillshare that show you a way of working in
this old version. If you're a creature
of habit and you're not feeling ready to
move to this Version 2, yes, you don't have to upgrade. You can stay in this old view. Then you can continue
taking my course, [LAUGHTER] or you can move to Designer 2 Version 2
and moving forward, I will be creating my courses about Affinity Designer
in this new interface. Okay guys, so I am warmly inviting you to stay
tuned either here on Skillshare by hitting the
follow button and then get notified by any new
upcoming courses on Affinity Designer. Alternatively, you can have a
look at my YouTube channel. I think I'll be much
more frequently now uploading some extra tutorials
to my YouTube channel, which will be available
for everyone for free. Thank you so much for watching
and I will see you soon.
4. Vector Graphics: [MUSIC] Let's start by
briefly talking about vector graphics and the
anatomy of a vector. Essentially, vector graphics is an alternative to
raster graphics, and each of them has special advantages
and disadvantages. It all depends on the situation, and it's all down to what is the end-use of
your illustration? In this beginner's class, what you need to know
about vectors and vector graphics is that vectors consists of coordinates with lines and curves
in between them. Let's have a look, for example, at this flower, it's all vector. If I go, for example, to the leaves and then
on the left side, I click on the Node tool. You will see that this
entire shape is vector. This whole shape is a curve, which is basically
a line or a path. It has those little points
which are called nodes. This entire leaf shape
is called a curve, the same for the flowers here. It's also a curved shape. Also over here, you
have one example more. It's actually a pattern
that I created. This entire pattern
is vector as well. If we go to the master file, and we open the pattern. We will see, for example, that this star here,
it's all vector. Now, one advantage that you
hear a lot when talking about vectors is that they are
really ideal for printing. Because when you zoom in really, really close, let's take
this guy, for example. You will not see any
pixelation or rough edges. [LAUGHTER] You can zoom
in, zoom in, zoom in, and everything will
be smooth anyway. Let's zoom out. So if disregard vector
art is really ideal for printing because
this could be the size of a small
business card and it's going to print in
the same way as a very big billboard, for example. It's going to keep the
same super crisp quality. Now let's quickly go to
a raster program and let's have look at the
exact same pattern, but as a raster file. Heading to Procreate. This is exactly
the same pattern, but this time it's in the raster program and
it's been saved as a JPEG. This time, when we zoom in, we will see that it's a raster illustration
that's composed of those elements pixels. That will mean that
the more we zoom in, the more blurry our
illustration is going to get. It's going to pixelate quite excessively
when we enlarge it. One constraint of a raster
based illustration is that we really have
to be careful when thinking about the
size of our canvas. Normally, I create my restaurant illustrations
on the canvas of at least 3,000 or 4,000
pixels square. Whereas if we go back
to Affinity here, you don't really have
to worry about it that much because when you want
to export that pattern, you go to the menu over here
in the upper left corner. You click on "export" and then you see that you have a lot of options to choose from. From the entire area, I can choose my pattern, which I named as My Pattern and then I can choose from a variety
of those files here. For example, if I want a PNG, the original size
was 4,000 pixels, but I can still change it to, say, let's do a
1,000 pixels square. So the bigger the dimensions, the bigger the end file size, you will see the size over here. Now we can share it to
Procreate, for example, to have a look if
anything has changed, if it's the pixelated or
not, just to show you. It's been exported to Procreate. Let's have a look. Importing
the file from Affinity. This is the pattern that we
just exported from Affinity. Everything is crisp
and everything is in the dimensions that we
wanted. Let's have a look. Go to Canvas, canvas information in Procreate and
then to dimensions. You will see it's 8,000 by
8,000 pixels. Let's go back. This original canvas here
was 4,000 by 4,000 pixels. So it's a huge advantage because I can just create a
pattern even on a canvas of, say 2,000 square and say I don't have an
end client in mind, but someone finds my
pattern and wants to buy it for licensing and
we strike a deal. Then maybe they want a file of, just from the top of my head, 10,000 by 10,000 pixels. [LAUGHTER] Then it's very easy. Like I said, you can go to the Export option
and you can choose the file type that
you want and you can export it in the
dimension that you want. This is the huge advantage that vector graphics has
over raster graphics. One last thing that you might want to know is
that vector graphics is commonly found in a
variety of file formats. In general, the
most typical file format for vector files is SVG, which stands for
Scalable Vector Graphics but some other commonly found
formats for vectors are EPS or PDF or AI from
Adobe Illustrator. When you click on "Export," you can also see those file types. [LAUGHTER] This is the most
common one for vectors, SVG. Oftentimes, we also are asked for an EPS file or a PDF file. That's all that you
have to know about vector graphics for starters.
5. Node Tool: In the previous lesson, we had a brief introduction
to vector graphics. Before we explore
the whole interface of our Affinity
Designer program, I just wanted to build on the lesson,
the previous lesson, about vectors and show
to you the node tool. So I want to show you
how vectors behave. We have already
discussed that they have this huge advantage
that when we zoom in or change the end
size of our document, it's not going to pixelate, so it's not going
to get distorted. It's not going to get
blurry or anything. That's a huge advantage. If I went back to my
flower and I'm on the node tool which is here
in the upper left corner, this is the node tool. When we click on
this question mark, you can see the entire menu in case you need a cheat sheet. Thanks to the node tool, we're able to edit those lines. In the raster program, once you draw something, this is that you
can maybe erase it and try to create it in new, vectors are very flexible
with that regard. You can change their shape, you can change your
mind about them. Vector curves and shapes are easily edited
using the node tool. Just like you already know, our vector consists of those little points
which are called nodes. If I click on one of them, you will not only see the node, you will also see
the control handles. This is a control handle, one side, and then another side. By moving it inside and outside, and in different directions, you can change the
shape of your vector. Say, I wanted to make
it a little bit bigger, I can drag it out. I can play with the
control handles. Of course I don't want that, but say I wanted, for example, to fix this line which is a little
bit too straight, I can move this little
node over here. By manipulating those
control handles, I can make it a little
bit rounder, for example. All I have to do is to
click on the given node. Then I can edit the
control handles. We can also delete some
points by selecting them and then hitting the delete icon
either here or here. Say I also wanted to delete, maybe this one is not necessary. I just hit the trash icon here. In this lesson, all we have to remember
is that vector curves and shapes are easily edited
using the node tool. Every vector shape
consists of a curve which has nodes on its path, which in turn contain control handles which are
very easily editable.
6. Getting Started: Fantastic. Let's get started with Affinity Designer
for the iPad. I'm really super excited. Once you open your Affinity
Designer app on your iPad, this is the interface
that you're going to see. Of course it all
depends if you have already been working
on the program, you might have a few documents or it might be completely empty. For those of you who
are just starting out, you might just have this
document with the tutorials, which is also very handy. I really recommend that
you try it out and play around with the tutorials
that are already within here. There also some sample documents so that you can go in and you can analyze a little bit how the document has
been structured. Let's hit the back arrow to get back to our main interface. Let's get familiar with
this screen first. Within your interface,
you can have individual documents or
you can have projects. In order to create a new
document or a new project, you have to click
the plus sign here in the upper right corner. Those are the two options
that I actually use the most. I either create a new document
or I create a new project. A new project, you can also
see it on the symbol here is like a folder where you
can stack your documents. Let's go back. This is, for example, an
individual document. When you open it, I just
have this design here. You can click this
back arrow to go back to your main interface. This is an example of a project where when
you click inside, there are many more
documents within it. It's a very handy way to
keep your files organized. Let's go back. It is very easy to move around your documents within
this interface, you just grab one document
and then you can move it freely wherever you want it basically, it's
very intuitive. Here I have, for example, one project where I created some of the assets for my
autumn collection. If you open it, there are a few other documents in here. If you would like to transfer
an individual document into a project folder,
then you just grab it. For example, let's
grab this flower. It actually belongs
beneath this project. You just drop it
into the folder. Now this flower is
here. It's very easy. Here you will see that I have, for example, a
bunch of documents. Those are mockups. I
would like to keep it more organized and put it
into one folder together. What I'm going to
do is hit this plus symbol to create a new project, you can directly
rename it in here. Hit "Okay." Then your
project is created. You can move it where you
want it in your interface. Now one-by-one, I can put those individual documents
into this one project folder. It's very handy. When you click on this
little hamburger menu, the three horizontal lines, you get a few options for the individual document or for
the entire project folder. You can either close it and that virtually means
that you delete it, you remove it completely. You can rename it. You can make a copy, so you can duplicate it, or you can save it
to your device. I created my logo design here, but it still says
that it's untitled. So I would like to hit
"Rename" and rename it. Now it's renamed. You can also see here directly the dimensions of your document. For example, this
document is 2,500 square pixels and you can see also the color mode
information here. I recommend that you
stay organized and tidy, and you stack your documents that
belong together into such project folders and that you also give
them proper names. When you click the question mark here in the upper right corner, you go to a very handy
Affinity Designer Help Center. This is where you'll find a whole lot of information
about the program. In case there's any
information that you cannot find on
YouTube or on Google, you can always try to find
this information here because it's very comprehensive. All the information is here. Let's click the "X" to go back. Here you have the settings icon. When you click on it, you go to the Affinity Designer settings. I don't really play
around with it too much, but I can show you
which of the settings I adjust it for my own needs. Under Preferences, you start by default under
General Preferences. For the purpose of
filming this tutorial, I switched on the
show touches option so that whenever I
touch the screen, you will see a blue
marking that will indicate where I'm
showing and what I'm doing with my gestures. If you don't want that, then you just leave it unticked. I will leave it ticked
because it will help me to explain things for
this tutorial. You might also have a
different number here. I have reduced the
undo limit to 100. You can either do
that manually or you can click on it and then you can delete the
number that you see and set it up to
something like 90 or 100. This means that you strain the
device memory a little bit less because you reduce the undo limits that the device otherwise
has to remember, I have kept my language
settings as default. My default saved location is on my iPad, but when
you click on it, you also have the option to
save it in your iCloud Drive. But this is only if you
have enough storage, which is not the case for me. Now, the interface,
the next option, I have reduced the background
gray level to 70 percent. Where I create my
Canvas there's always this background that belongs
to the program, so to say. I like it to be gray because this improves
the visibility. You will see what I mean when we create our first document. The rest I just leave out, those are the color settings. I also didn't change
anything in here. The Tools Options, I'm
also not using it. I haven't changed anything for
the Apple pencil settings. Fonts are really interesting because I also use
Affinity Designer to create creatives for
my personal branding. There was a time I needed
a few specific fonts and this is where you can upload your special fonts
in case you need it, for example, for your website, or to create any
graphics that look tight according to your
visual brand design. When I click on this little
cloud symbol and I open it, you can search for it
in the search bar, but I already have it
here in this folder. Those are the font files. You just clicked on them
and they get automatically uploaded to your Affinity
Designer library of fonts. Shortcuts. I'm not using it and we are not resetting anything. This is it. We click "Done." The little person icon is the place where you see
your account information. This is where you can
manage your account. You can sign out
of your account. When you register, you also
get some free brush sets, those are really cool pixel brushes and
also vector brushes. So I really recommend that
you register so that you can get those brushes
into your library. That's all that you have to know about the main interface. Now we're ready to
start a new document.
7. New Documents: To start a new document in Affinity Designer we hit the plus symbol and then we choose the
option new document. I change the
measurements to pixels. I leave the color mode to RGB and I usually work in a Canvas
of 4,000 by 4,000 pixel. I also select 300 DPI. This is our new document. Now let's get familiar with the interface within
this document. What I really like about Affinity Designer is that
when you press and hold this question mark symbol here it will give you the names of all the tools in
case you forget. Some of the tools
that I really use a lot is the move tool
and the note tool. Also here on the left side for right-handed people you can also change that for
left-handed people. You have the pencil tool, the vector brush tool,
and the pen tool. Those are also the tools
that I use quite a lot. The rectangle tool
that helps you to create vector shapes very fast, and the artistic text tool
where you can create text. We will also play around with
the documents settings and the Edit settings and we will be mostly working in the
designer persona. There's a designer
persona which you see as this blue affinity symbol
and a pixel persona which I use very rarely because
for pixel illustration I use Procreate and for
vectors I use Affinity. Once I create an asset I really
use the right side a lot. This is where you
change the colors, you manipulate the stroke, you can adjust the
brush settings, you can see all your layers
here in the Layers studio. Over here you save your assets, ready-made blocks
from which you can build your illustrations
or your patterns. I also use pretty much all the time the adjustment
studio here. You will also use a lot
the text to do for working with text and the
transform studio, I use it pretty much 100
percent of the time. Please do not feel
intimidated by the amount of things that you see
in the interface, especially if you're
new to the program. It all really comes
with practice. In case you have doubts what is where you can always go back to the question mark symbol here in the lower right corner. We will be working in
the vector persona. But you will notice
that when you switch to the pixel persona
your options change. However, for the purpose
of this tutorial, we only stick to the
vector persona here. You will see that when you
switch between those tools, then this little menu that
you find below your canvas, it will change and
it will give you some unique options to
manipulate your tools. This allows you even
more fine grain control over the tools that you have at your disposal and
within Affinity. On the right side you will find all your studio tools and
this is a very important one, this is where you
find your layers. Let me show you for example, let's go back another document. When I hit the layers panel you will see different layers. Those layers can be
grouped for example. We will talk about all those options here
throughout the course.
8. Move, Zoom & Navigate Tricks: Now let's talk about how you move around the canvas. To move your canvas, you have to use two
fingers on your screen. This is super useful and you might also know it
from Procreate. A lot of actions within Affinity Designer
are gesture-based. For example, if you're
familiar with Procreate, you will find that
a lot of gestures translate directly to
Affinity Designer. One example is
zooming in and out. You also use just
two fingers and you pinch to zoom in
and to zoom out. It's the same like in Procreate. You can also use a swipe
up and down gesture. You go to the navigation symbol. By holding the
navigation symbol, you just swipe up and
down to zoom in and out. Press and hold, and then move up and down to
zoom in and out. Now when you open this
navigation studio, you have even more
options to choose from. For example, when you tap
on your illustration, you can let it set to
fit within your canvas. You can also change the
view to 50 percent, 100 percent, or just go back to the fit
by tapping twice. In the next lesson, I will show you how to
select and move objects.
9. Select, Move & Resize: Let me show you
how easy it is to select and to move your objects. You just have to make
sure that you're on the move tool and then all you got to do is tap
with one finger. You will see that an
object is selected because there's a blue
mark ink around it. To select another item, all you got to do is again, just tap with one finger and that's how quickly you can
move between your objects. If you would like to
undo your selection, you click the X symbol in
the lower-left corner, and then it's all deselected. Another way to select
your object is again, staying on the move tool to press and hold outside
of your Canvas, and to drag your selection over the elements that
you would like to select. You will already see that
there's a little blue marking around the
outline of the object. You can also select
everything altogether. Just make sure that those elements are fully
contained within your selection. you can tap outside of
the Canvas to deselect. If you want to have
even more precision to select our elements, you just take one finger and
you press it on the Canvas. Now you select your
elements one by one. Each time you add an element, it joins into your
bigger selection. Still holding your one finger on the screen you can also
deselect in this way. This allows even better
precision because sometimes when we're just dragging
our selection, maybe we select
something unwanted or we miss selecting an object. If you would like to
fix that, for example, and add in this little flower
into your selection again, one finger, press
and hold and tap. Now that everything is selected, you can also move it around by tapping on the little circle
corners of this selection, you can also make it bigger. But sometimes, you will
see that in this way, you lose the original
shape of your objects. To fix that, still
pressing and holding, tap again one finger
on the screen and it will click back into
your original shape. Now you can make it
smaller or bigger. Let's go to the layers panel. Right now, all my
flowers are selected. When I click on just
this one flower, it's only selected because you will see that there's
this blue marking. You can also select
your elements by swiping in this layer
studio to the right. You can also undo that. Then you will see that
the selection changes, it becomes more gray and you can also see
the blue marking. Here you can group them. This is the grouping symbol. Now we have a group, let's make it invisible, and let's click this plus symbol and create a new vector layer. Now, let's go to
our rectangle tool and create one square. Going back to the move tool, I can put it into this corner and maybe make
it a little bit smaller. Hold your finger if
you would like to keep it square shaped. This square is grayish purple because that was the last
color that I was using. You can see all
your colors here. Going back to your layers, this is our vector layer that is a placeholder
for our element, and this is our rectangle. We can also make it
invisible and visible again. Going back to the
rectangle tool, let's create another one
and change the color. We will talk about the
colors a little bit later. But all you got to
know right now is that this big
circle is the fill. The small circle when you
tap on it, it's the stroke. If I change the stroke to purple, you will
see what I mean. The stroke is the outline
part of your elements. But let's keep it
the same color, deselect it, making sure that I'm
on the rectangle tool. If you click on it, there
are many more options. We can, for example,
choose an ellipse. If you would like it to
be a perfect circle, then you just hold it again, your finger on the screen and let's change
the color here too. So now, on this
one vector layer, we have three elements. We have the circle, the rectangle, and the square. You can also close
the layers panel. Now, I would like you to play
around with those shapes, making sure that you're
on the Move tool, I would like you to try
out those gestures, selecting more items at the
same time, deselecting. I would like to
ask you to try out all the gestures that I have
shown to you in this video.
10. Multiple Layers, Undo & Delete: In this lesson, I
will show you how to manage multiple layers
in affinity designer, as well as how to use the undo function
and how to delete. I have here five different
objects on my artboard, I have a few flowers
and two squares. I have the move tool selected,
that's very important. Once this option is selected, I'm just able to tap
on any given object that I would like to move
around or to manipulate, and it's as easy as that. You can also go to the layers panel over here
on the right side for me. You can tap on a given layer, I have the dark mode in here, it will turn into a little bit
of a lighter gray in here. You will also see the
blue selection which will help you to recognize which
item right now is selected. If you would like to select
multiple layers at a time, you have to select one layer. Then for the remaining layers, you have to swipe
to the right side. You can deselect in the same way by swiping again
to the right side. If you want to
deselect everything, you just tap somewhere
outside of your artboard. Sometimes when you're
creating a pattern, for example, in my case, and you have a lot of layers
with flowers and you would like to select all of the
layers at the same time, there's one very handy gesture, very handy shortcut that I use, 100 percent of the time
that has really saved me to be able to select
multiple layers at a time, and I'm going to show you
this gesture right now. I start by going
to the top layer, so I select my top layer, which in this case is
this coral red square. This is what I'm
using instead of my Apple Pencil, two fingers. Again, selecting the
top layer, two fingers. I tap with two fingers, and now you see that
everything is selected. Still on the Move tool, I'm able to move around everything because
everything is selected. Let's do it again,
let's deselect by tapping somewhere
outside of the artboard. Selecting my top layer, and then with two fingers down everything is selected
at the same time. Now that we have everything
selected, let's group it. You can group your
layers in two ways. The first option, once you have all the layers selected
that you would like to group is to simply choose
this group symbol, which is the symbol
here in the middle. Now we created a group and by clicking on the
arrow on the left side, you're able to open it. To be able to move around
or resize the whole group, you have to really make sure
that the whole group is clicked because sometimes you have only one element selected, and then you're
wondering why you cannot make anything
on the entire group. You just have to
make sure that you go really on top of the group, and now you can move
around the group. To remove that group, you can also ungroup it by
clicking on the same symbol, and now it's all
individual layers again. Let's select all those
layers together again, and the second option
to create a group is to pinch them together with
two fingers like so, and now we have a group. This is your group of
all the layers inside. If you wanted to
ungroup it you can also pinch it out back again, so that the group is removed, and now you have all the
layers separately as well. If I would like to undo that, if I would like to
bring that group back, you have the same gesture
just like in Procreate, you just tap with two fingers. Every time you're tapping
with two fingers on your Canvas, you're going back. If you would like to remove
one of those flowers, you go to the layer that
you would like to remove. Here at the bottom, you
have the icon for deleting. It's this trash bin that you see here in the
lower left corner. That was deleted. If I wanted to delete
this one, the same. If I want to bring it back, two finger tap on the Canvas. Of course, you can also delete the entire group so you can
delete multiple layers. Another option is to use the icon that
you see over here, it's the same icon,
it's just repeated. Either sometimes, when I'm
deleting parts of the pattern, for example, I would
like to tidy it up. I'm working with my Apple Pencil with my right hand and
then I'm selecting, and here, I'm just clicking
very conveniently here in the lower left corner and deleting the elements
that I don't need. But sometimes it's more handy when you're operating here with your right hand to just click this icon
here for deleting. This is how easy it is. So now, we know how to
select multiple layers, we know how to group
them and ungroup them, we know how to move them, we know how to delete them, and we know how to
undo our actions. Remember that another option
to select everything at the same time instead of doing this is to on the
Move tool to drag from outside of the Canvas and
select everything like so.
11. Snapping, Quick/Power Duplicate: [MUSIC] Now, I would like
to show you how to toggle on snapping in
Affinity Designer, as well as how to quickly create copies or duplicates
of your objects. Snapping is super handy
in Affinity Designer. It enables you to align your
objects in a perfect line. Say you wanted to align those two squares
in a perfect line. If you wanted to do it by hand, then it would be a
little bit complicated and you wouldn't be entirely sure if you're
doing it correctly. As a work around, you can enable here
the snapping option. You have to make sure
that it's selected. You will see this blue
circle around this option. Now having the Move
Tool selected, I position the first
square wherever I want it and then I select
the other square. Now I see those helping
lines that will help me to see if everything is aligned perfectly.
Let me zoom in. This show me the exact
alignment for my squares. Let's now select both of those squares and let's say
I would like to position them exactly in the middle of my art board. That's
how easy it is. You see the green vertical line and the red horizontal line. Now I'm 100 percent sure that my squares are in the
middle of the art board. Let's create a copy
of this flower. This is by far one of my most favorite gestures
in Affinity Designer, particularly when I'm
creating my patterns. Because sometimes I create a perfect flower and I don't
want to repeat my work, I would simply like to
create a copy fast and move it around the art board fast to create a more detailed pattern. This is super easy in
Affinity Designer, I love it. Let me show you the gesture. Let's take this flower here. If I wanted to create a copy
of this flower very fast, all I got to do is to hold
two fingers on the art board. Now I'm creating a copy till I remove the fingers
from the art board. If I keep holding it, I will keep making
copies of this flower. [LAUGHTER] See we can already create a
floral pattern in Affinity Designer just by
knowing this one gesture. Now let's go back, this is
a little bit excessive. [LAUGHTER] This works not
only for individual objects. I have the remaining
flowers here, I just have hidden
them in this group. You can copy entire groups. Let's make this a
little bit smaller. Then having had the
entire group selected, two fingers on the art board. Now I copied this one group
four times, this is great. You can also create copies
by going here to the menu, three tiny dots on top and
then hitting Duplicate. Now we created a copy, but I find this gesture
way more handy. I also wanted to show you a very handy trick with creating duplicates that
follow a certain trajectory. I'm going to show
you what I mean. It's called a power duplicate. Let's go to the rectangle tool. I will choose maybe
from older shapes, this crescent shape and I'm going to create a
crescent or a moon. I'll go back to the Move Tool. In order to use the
power duplicate, you have to go through the
menu and click duplicate. We cannot do it
through the two finger on the screen gesture. I'm tapping duplicate,
it created a copy, you can see it here
on the layers panel. Now I will create a certain
trajectory for this shape. I'm going to rotate it. There is this little
option here at the top to rotate your objects, it's this circle that goes
outside of your marking. Then I will scale it down. What I have done is
moving it to the side. I made it smaller and I also rotated it at a different angle. Now the program will
remember what I have done. By going back to the menu and clicking again on a duplicate, it will repeat this trajectory. It created another crescent
which is smaller and goes again at the same angle
that I have altered. [LAUGHTER] If you
know how to use it, this can save you really
a lot of time and it's a very handy trick in
Affinity Designer. In this lesson we've practiced snapping two objects together to align
them perfectly. We also learned how to create quick duplicates and we had a look at the power
duplicate function. Now it's your turn to practice all those gestures
and functions.
12. Transforming Objects: Transforming objects in
Affinity Designer is very easy. Making sure that you're
on the move tool, you just grab one of the
nodes here and you're able to change the size and the
shape of your object. Now, maintaining aspect
ratio is also very easy. Let's just maybe grab one
flower to show you what I mean. You can just drag
this element out of the group to put it
back on the canvas. I will say I would like
to make this flower a little bit bigger in order
to preserve the ratio. As I'm already moving the node, I have to hold the finger, one finger on the screen, and now I am able to preserve this aspect ratios so that the flower doesn't
get distorted. By moving this upper node here, I am able to rotate
my shape like so. If I'm holding one
finger on the screen, I am able to move by 15 degrees. Here it snaps perfectly
to 0 degrees,15, 30, 45, 60, 75, and 90. It's also very useful to get familiar with the
transform studio. In case you're not
sure where to find it, you can always select this
little question mark here. The transform studio is
over here, it's this icon. This also gives you
more options here, for example, this flower
is selected here. You can see the selection. If I wanted to rotate
it here by 90 degrees, I can do it directly here or 180. Let's go back to 0. We can also very easily change
the dimensions here. Switching to the rectangle here so that you can see better. You can go to the
dimensions section here and we could for example
change the height to be a perfect 1,000 pixels and
the width to be a perfect, let's say 400 pixels. This is all adjusted
and now we have a perfect rectangle with the width of 400 and
the height of 1,000. This part will be covered
much more in depth once I release my new
affinity class about creating a seamless
repeat patterns because I use this position
function all the time. But all you need to know is that you can use those functions here to position your object
exactly where you want it. Here we have the x-axis and
here we have the y-axis. x is over here, it's the horizontal line. Y is over here, it's the vertical line. Here you can choose
the anchor points. For me personally,
the way I understand that it's the starting
points so to say. My starting point or
the anchor point is this uppermost and
leftmost corner here. You can also change
it of course, but I usually keep it
at the upper left. For this rectangle which
is still selected, you can see the selection. If we wanted to position it exactly in this
upper-left corner, we would have to erase
those numbers to 0, 0 on the x-axis, 0, it's the starting point. It went back to the
starting position so to say of the x-axis [LAUGHTER] horizontally and 0 on the y-axis and went back to the starting point
also on the y-axis, which is this point here. But right now I don't want to mess up too much in your heads. I think it's way more useful when you're
creating repeat patterns. I just wanted to make you aware that this function exists here. Just to repeat, you can
change the dimensions. Let's say I wanted it to be
an exact perfect square. I can change it to 1,000. This is where you can be 1,000 percent sure that the
dimensions are what you want. You can change the
position over here, which I personally use the most when I create my seamless
repeat patterns. Here you also have the
option to rotate it, for example at 15 degrees. Here you can work on
the rotation too. The Transform Studio
also gives you the option to flip into rotates. This is also very handy. You can for example flip here to the right or back to the left. You can also rotate objects, which I also use a lot for my patterns because
sometimes I would like to repeat a flower but I don't want it to
look exactly the same. I just rotate it and I
flip it. Let me show you. Let's practice creating a copy, so duplicate two
fingers on our screen. Let's make it smaller and
maintain the aspect ratio by holding the finger
on the screen. Now, let's rotate this flower. One last thing that
is also very handy is when you go to the
alignment options, you can also align your elements through
this Transform Studio. Those are the options for
the horizontal alignment. If I click the one
in the middle, it will center it horizontally. Here we have the options
for the vertical alignment. If I click the middle option, it will get perfectly
aligned vertically. Let's delete this one. Let's do the same
with our rectangle. If I wanted it to be
perfectly centered, I can go to the
Transform Studio. We are in the alignment options. Then I align it perfectly in the center horizontally
and vertically. Those are the essential
things that you've got to know about the
Transform Studio.
13. Stroke & Fill: In this lesson, I wanted to give you a very brief introduction to what stroke and fill
is because if you're doing graphic design and if
you're working with vectors, you will certainly come
across those two terms. If we take here
our vector flower, you will see that it can be
composed of two elements. The first element is the
outline of this vector flower, and this is called stroke. The second element is the
inside filling of that flower, which is called fill,
very logically. So essentially, when you're
working with vectors, when you're creating
patterns, for example, or illustrations,
you can choose to create only with strokes, so only with the line work, or you can choose to
work only with the fill without bothering yourself
about the stroke, and then there are also
some illustrators or designers who prefer
to work with both. You can find all the
options to change your stroke or your fill in the color studio
which is here, just click on it. The first leftmost full
circle is your fill and the empty inside
outline circle which you see to the
right is your stroke. Let's have a look at this flower which consists only
of the stroke. In this example, this
is only strokes, so fill is completely empty; you will see it by
identifying this icon, which is an empty white circle
crossed with a blue line, this means there is no fill, but we do have a stroke. You can also change the
color of the stroke. There's also an option to use the so-called Stroke Studio, which is directly below
the Color Studio here. Namely, and this is
also very useful, I use it a lot of times. You can change the
width of your stroke, so you can make your
lines bigger or smaller. Essentially, you are working on the outline of your object. For example, we can make it
super delicate and dainty. Now, let's see the flower
with just the Fill. In this case, our stroke is off. It's the same symbol, it's this white circle with
a blue line going across it. It means there is no stroke. Of course, I can switch it on, then you will see we
have a red stroke here. If you want to
switch it off fast, and this is also a
very handy gesture, you just tap on the stroke and you make the move up so you touch it and you flip it up. Again, let's
activate the stroke. If you want to deactivate
it fast, you can, of course, choose the symbol
here to deactivate it. But it's a super
handy gesture just to flip it up and it's off. Now, our last example
is when we have both the fill and the stroke. This flower has a blue fill
and it has a red stroke. I can also change the stroke, for example, or I can
make it the same. Let me show you one example
when it is very handy to have both the
stroke and the fill. We are on the move tool here. You know very well
that you can resize your flower by just
dragging on the nodes. But what if I wanted to change just the stalks
of those flowers? For example, I wanted to make them a little bit thicker
or a little bit thinner. If I go to my layers, you will see that I
have my leaves and the stalks of those
flowers separately. I have my leaf selected. I go to the Color Studio, I make sure that both the
fill and the stroke are on, and then I go to
the Stroke Studio and I make it here
bigger or smaller. Say I wanted to make it
a little bit thicker. The same with the petals. I can go directly to the petals, then to the Stroke Studio, making sure that the
stroke is also on. Back to the Stroke
Studio and if I wanted it to be a
little bit bigger, then I can just
expand the stroke. Or maybe I wanted to
keep the leaves in the same color but then
the petals, stylistically, maybe I want the fill to be blue but the stroke to be red maybe. I just wanted to show you that those are the options
that you have here. You can play both with
just using the outlines, which is the stroke, just using the fill without being bothered about
the stroke and without making any small mistakes that there's maybe a
stroke somewhere here that you haven't noticed had
a different color and then you send this work to a client and they're
like, what is this? This is not entirely
green or blue. We just have to make sure that the stroke is off in this case. Or maybe you want to play around with some different
color combinations, maybe you want the outlines
to be a different color, maybe it's just your
style of working, then you have the option to
change the stroke over here. Remember about the quick
gestures, if you wanted, in this flower, to get rid
of the stroke very fast, you just make sure that
you have it selected, so sometimes, you
have to change from the full circle to
the stroke symbol, and then you flip it
up, and it's gone. You can do the same with
the fill, of course. You can either bring it back
and then we have a color, or you can remove
it by flipping up, or directly choosing
the icon here, that will mean that
the fill is empty. Those are the
essentials that you got to know about
stroke and fill.
14. Pen Tool: One tool that you might
be using quite a lot when creating vector
graphics is the pen tool. If we click on the
little question mark, you can easily find
that the pen tool is located over here
on the left side. Thanks to the pen tool, we're able to very easily edit
vector curves and shapes. All you have to do is
to select the pen tool. We can go to the Layers panel, click the plus symbol and
create a new vector layer. You can create shapes with
the pen tool by just tapping, creating our first node, and then creating a
shape out of lines. The square icon of the node implies that this
shape is more sharp. We can also change the shape to be more smooth by going to the lower menu over
here and hitting this little arrow that will show us even more options
to choose from. Then we can choose
the option to make our shape more smooth. Having selected that shape, we can go to the color studio. We make sure that the
stroke symbol is selected. Then we can choose the
color of our stroke. Still on the pen
tool, we can still, over here on the menu, change the width of our stroke. We can make it a little bit thinner or we can make it wider. You have the same option
here in the Stroke Studio. You can click on
the Stroke Studio, and then you can
choose the width over here from this menu. We also have the option to
choose the Fill directly here. So by clicking on the Fill icon, the fill option appears. In this case, it has selected the same color as my stroke. But we can either change
the color here from the menu or I go back
to the color studio. Select the Fill icon, and then change the fill. Let's change to the Move tool and put this shape away and
make it a little bit smaller. This is just an example. Let me show you how I
would draw, for example, a star using the
pen tool where I directly select No Stroke
and a particular film. I would first create
a new vector layer. Then I would go to
choose my colors. I would know, for example, that I want something
more yellow. Let's say this yellow
here, and no stroke. Now when I go to the pen tool, those preferences
have been saved. One more time, you can either
manipulate the color and set your color in the
color studio here. In this case, I
have zero stroke, no stroke, and a yellow fill. If you close this menu, you still have the menu
here below your art board, and you see basically
the same things that there's no stroke. We have the empty circle here
with a blue line across. That means there is no stroke
and we have a yellow fill. Now let's create our star. Now I'm just tapping on my canvas and creating
the shapes of my star. You will see that the fill
is created automatically. Now, for the final line, I just make sure that this is
connected to my last node. In case I'm not
happy with my shape, I can switch from the pen
tool to the node tool. Now I can just drag my nodes
to the position that I prefer to quickly edit
the shape of my star. For example, I can make
this a little bit longer. [LAUGHTER] Now let's
go to the Move tool. Make it a little bit smaller. Now let's create a copy, two fingers on the screen. Now we have two stars. Let's change the
fill of this star. I'm going to the color
studio and I'm selecting, let's say something darker. Making sure that I'm
on the Move tool. I'm positioning my star like so. This is how I quickly created an interesting star shape
using the pen tool. I would still like to
make some alterations. Just in the layer panel, I'm making sure that I'm on the right star
and then I go to the node tool and I
make a few alterations. Maybe I make it a
little bit less thin. I bring this down. This is my star shape. I will not be going into any more detail
about the pen tool. Obviously, you can
make an entire class [LAUGHTER] just on how
to use the pen tool. But I believe that for
this beginner's class, those are the essentials
that you got to know. After completing this lesson, you know how to create
shapes like that. For example, you can practice
creating such a star shape. You also know that
you can switch from the pen tool to the node tool. You know that then you can go to the Layers panel to
select your vector shape. You're able to play
around with the nodes or the control handles
to alter your shape. You also know how to change
the colors for your shapes. You can choose to draw your shapes with a
stroke or without. Also either with a
fill or without. It's really up to you.
In the next lesson, we will have a look
at the pencil tool.
15. Pencil Tool: [MUSIC] Let's have a closer
look at the Pencil Tool. With the Pencil
Tool, you can create a hand-drawn look by
drawing free hand. So you are able to
produce lines which vary in their width and in a way you can imitate as if
you were drawing on paper and you're still
creating vector shapes. Okay, so this is
the start that we created in the previous
lesson with the Pen Tool. Let's make sure that we're on the move tool, select the star. Just one layer was selected, making sure that the
entire group is selected. Let's move it a little
bit to the side and let's create a new
vector layer to draw. You will see that
the Pencil Tool is right above the
vector brush tool and the Pen Tool over here. So let's select it. Here below, you will also
get a very similar menu. By similar, I mean similar
to what we have seen in the previous lesson when we
were using the Pen Tool. For example, over here you can adjust the width of your line. You can choose the stroke. This is the controller menu. So when you click on it, you have a few
options to smoothen out your lines either by
choosing the velocity option, which is basically the
speed of how your drawing. I don't really use it a lot. I actually use the
automatic ones. So this is where
you want your lines to be super, super smooth, but we will keep it at none for the beginning
and you can also choose to draw with the Pencil Tool while using the fill at the same
time and to be honest, this is the option
that I use the most. So we will draw a
flower together. You can still choose a stroke, but I will just keep it
off and we will choose, let's say the same yellow fill. Now on this new vector layer with the Pencil Tool selected, I'm able to draw
my flower shape. This is what I meant that when you're using
the Pencil Tool, you are able to create
still a vector shape, but it has more of
a hand-drawn look. One thing that I
keep in mind is that after creating a shape
and this is just like a best practice
that I would recommend that you build on. Right after creating
my vector shape, I switch from the Pencil Tool to the Node Tool so that I can see the little
nodes of my vector and I make sure that I closed my vector and also get
rid of unnecessary nodes. So you just tap outside of the shape and you select
the nodes that you would like to get rid of and
then you either have the delete icon here in
the lower left corner, or here in the menu. Now it's deleted. By default, the beginning and the
end of our vector is a rather sharp edge. You can also change that by selecting it and
switching it to smooth. Now, the square turns into a
circle and the line is more smooth and before I create
the rest of my flower, that's why I switched from the Pencil Tool
to the Node Tool. I like to play around with my shape and then
when I'm happy, I'm moving to my next shape. But this is just a
personal preference. You can first draw all the
elements of your flower, and then you can go layer by
layer and you can clean up your vector by checking if there are any unnecessary nodes, smoothening them out, or deleting some of the nodes
that you don't need. But I would advise
that you do it right away because
sometimes you just forget. [LAUGHTER] You will
remember from one of the first lessons from this
course about vector graphics, that on our curve, we have the nodes and
they have those control handles that we can
so beautifully edit. So I can, for example, soften the curve of my vector, I can flip it in
another direction. So I just invite you to play around with those points
and the control handles. For example, here
we can make it more curvy and in case you
need an extra node, you just click on the line
and the new point is created. So as a recap, if you want an extra point, you just tap on the line and
the new point is created. If you want to remove it, you just have to drag the
selection over it or just tap on this one node and then
you hit the Delete icon. Okay, let's go back to the Pencil Tool and draw
the rest of our flower. Say, I wanted to create this shape that I will put in the
middle of the flower. So first I created the shape, then my recommendation is you go directly to the Node
Tool, you close it. Maybe you change
this beginning and ending point into a smooth one. Maybe you get rid of some nodes. You can also make it the
other way round, for example, you can select those points on the edges and you
can make them sharp, like so and then you
can change your shape. If you need some extra points, you just tap, like so. Here we have two
points for instance, I would like to delete this
one and change this one to sharp and drag the control handle here to make
it a little bit more curvy and maybe make
this one sharp too, add an extra point and
build this shape over here. Well, this is just an example. So on that shape on the layer, if I go to the color studio, you will see it
has the same fill. Now I can also change
the fill and I keep the stroke at 0 and then I'm going to the Move tool and putting this
shape over here. Let's change it to
something lighter, and let's keep drawing. We also need the stalk
and some leaves. Back to the Pencil Tool. Drawing the stalk
and the leaves. This time I'm just focusing
on drawing and I'm going to fix my shape in a minute. I created four shapes right now, the stalk of my flower
and three leaves. I have to now go
back one-by-one. Maybe select those two layers, which is the flower and the
petals in the middle of the flower and then drag it on top and then I'm going to the Node Tool
and I am fixing my shape. For example, this
one is not closed, so I have to close it and I will also change it
to a smooth shape. The rest is fine. Now this leaf, first thing, close it, it has to be closed. Maybe I'll make the
end point of this leaf sharp, like so. Close your shape. Check if you like it. If there's anything that
you want to change, maybe add some extra nodes. This is all good
and my last leaf, close it, check the shape. For example, this is
a little bit weird. Let's maybe delete this one. Perfect. [LAUGHTER] So now we have our flower which we created using the Pencil Tool. I can move it with
the Move Tool. I can make it bigger. Selecting the star. I can also position
it somewhere here. I can also duplicate it. Two fingers on the screen. [LAUGHTER] Make it smaller. Maybe one more duplicate,
one more copy. Rotate it a little
bit, make it smaller. Change the order and
put the flower on top. Practically speaking, this is our first complete
vector illustration. Now we know how to
use the Pen Tool and the Pencil Tool and
the next lesson, I will tell you a few words
about the vector Brush Tool.
16. Vector Brush Tool: [MUSIC] Let's get to know
the Vector Brush Tool. Using the Vector Brush Tool, you are able to create a hand painted look by
painting freehand, so it's basically the same
like with the Pencil Tool. It does have the
characteristics of a vector. It means that you can edit
the stroke at anytime and you can scale
it along its path. You can access the
Vector Brush Tool, right in between the Pencil
Tool and the Pen Tool. It's over here, let's select it. You will see a
very similar menu, you can change the
width of the brush, the opacity of the brush, so how transparent it is and
the stroke of your brush. Let's see what's what. Let's create a new
vector layer and perhaps change the color to something
more contrasty so that you can see maybe not the
red but maybe the brown. [LAUGHTER] You can access
different options for this Vector Brush
Tool over here. Clicking on the
question mark again. This is called the
Brushes Studio. In case you are drawing in
the Pixel Persona this is also where we'll find a variety of brushes
to choose from but right now, we're
sticking to vectors. We're in the Vector Persona. We have selected the
Vector Brush Tool and we go to the Brushes Studio. This is where you have all the beautiful brushes,
different categories. You can just move along
here in the menu. For example, those
engraving brushes, you can select one of them. You can start drawing. You can also make
your brush bigger. Over here you see how
our brush size changes. That's why maybe I'm not the
biggest fan of this brush, it's sometimes behaves
in a weird way but say you wanted to add
some texture to this leaf, then you could create this shape with this
particular brush. Let's select those and
let's get rid of them. Then you could go to that
leaf shape over here. It's this one and you can drag it on top
of it to create a mask. A mask has been created. Now this shape, let's
check the Move Tool. Now, this shape is being
contained within that leaf. I would suggest that on the
dedicated vector layer, you just choose a color. You go to the Brushes Studio, back to the Vector Brush Tool. You just go either here through
the menu or you click on the entire menu and
you choose from here. I suggest that you play
around with it because it's not entirely raster brush. Still like the path is
still vector-based, so depending on what style
of illustration you have, I think that you can still create interesting effects or textures with those brushes. I wanted to show you one
more handy thing that you can do with the Vector
Brush Tool in a way. What does it mean anyway? It sounds a little bit enigmatic but I wanted to show that
there's an option to go, for example, to your
petals over here. If you go to the Color
Studio over here, you will see that we
only have to Fill, but we don't have the Stroke. We can change that. We can select with this
eyedropper the same color and also choose the color for
the stroke to be the same. Then we can go to
the Brushes Studio, and we can go through the different brushes and we can play around
with the stroke. It's like using a
Vector Brush Tool, but on an existing
shape that was created, for example, using
the Pencil Tool, you also have the option to
play around with the edges. But for me personally, it doesn't always work because
if I go to the Node Tool, even though this shape is
close, as you can see, there's always this
weird gap which you can still try to fix with the, with the control handles. You can try to drag
them a little bit here, but then this shape is getting
a little bit out of hand. If you delete it, then
there's a gap again. I just wanted to mention
it because I think it can create interesting effects, so to say, and I do
sometimes use it. If you go to the Stroke Studio, you can also change the
width of your stroke. We can do the same with
the middle of that flower. We can select it, we can make sure that we
do have a Stroke Color. This time we can go to
the Brushes Studio and we can play around this way and see if there's
something that we like, basically, there's a lot of undiscovered things
in affinity there. There's a whole bunch
of brushes here that I also haven't
personally used before. Your job is to go in as well and to play around with it and see what effects will apply to your particular
illustration style. For example, this
is interesting. Remember about the Stroke Studio that you can go in here and you can change the size
of your stroke. Let's close it. Let's go to the leaf and
also change the color. Those are the basics that I
wanted to teach you about all the different pens
and pencils that you can use to create vector shapes. To wrap it up, first we
use the Pen Tool to create those stars then we draw the entire flower by
using the Pencil Tool, and finally, we played around
with the Vector Brush Tool. We also used the trick
using the Brushes Studio to change the shape of our stroke directly from the Brushes Studio as if we were using a Vector Brush Tool. Each of those tools
can have really a dedicated tutorial just
about using this tool. I wanted to underline
that this is just an introduction to
Affinity Designer on the iPad. Of course, there are
many more options for each of those tools
that you can learn about. However, I wanted to keep
this course very beginner's friendly and focusing just
on my personal essentials. That's why I will not be talking more about those
particular tools. Those are the most
important things that you need to
know about them, and anything beyond is moving towards the
intermediate level, which is outside of the
scope of this class.
17. Final Thoughts: Now to finish off
and to practice, that's very important, I wanted to invite
you to play around with Affinity Designer
for the iPad and use all the tools and handy
shortcuts and gestures that I taught you to create your own
simple vector illustration. Feel free to upload into
the project gallery any vector illustration that you created in
Affinity Designer. If you're a complete beginner, then I suggest that you try to create a simple
flower with the stars, the way I did in this
short demonstration. Here you really focus on
getting familiar with the interface and the gestures and playing around with
your vector shapes. Then within your project, I would like to ask you to write just a few points
about what you liked about Affinity Designer
and what was new to you, and which of the handy
little tricks that I showed to you in this
tutorial you liked the most. Now we have completed our Affinity Designer for
the iPad beginners course. I hope you do enjoy the
program as much as I do. Stay tuned for any
upcoming classes around Affinity
Designer for the iPad, because they're going
to come for sure. In order not to miss
those new classes, I am warmly inviting you
to follow me here on Skillshare so that next
time I publish a class, you get a notification
into your email box. I'm also sharing
handy tips and tricks on how I'm using
Affinity Designer, showing you some behind
the scenes of how I use the program on my
Instagram account. So if you'd like to see
more mini tutorials and behind the scenes, follow me on Instagram too
and let's get connected. I have a dedicated post on
Instagram when I'm asking, Hey, where are you
Affinity Designers? I would love to connect
with those people who like the program or who would like to learn the program
and are interested. So if you would like to say a more personal hello and connect with me over there, I would be very
happy to hear from you in the comments
section over there. Thank you for taking
my beginner's class. I hope you enjoyed
it as much as I did. Please don't hesitate
to reach out to me in the discussions forum
in case you have any questions or if there's
anything I can help you with. I'm happy to provide you
with all the answers there. Stay tuned for the next class. Remember, it's just
the beginning. Have fun vectorizing. Bye-bye.
18. BONUS YouTube: Group Thumbnails V2: Hi there, my name is Wera. I'm an illustrator and
surface pattern designer, and I also teach courses
on digital illustration. I also have tutorials on
Affinity Designer for iPad. Today, I wanted to address one very quick
question that relates to Affinity Designer Version 2. I get this question
quite a lot that after you switch
from Version 1 to Version 2 of Affinity Designer and you start creating your art, you are frustrated
because you cannot see the thumbnails of your groups. There's a super, super
easy fix for that. It's something that you have
to do just at the beginning and it's a onetime thing, and then everything is fixed, so let me show you. For example, this is a
pattern that I created recently entirely in
Affinity Designer Version 2. Let's open it up. That's the pattern. Then if we go here on the right
side to the Layers panel, you will see that for starters, especially after directly having switched from Version
1 to Version 2, you will not see the
thumbnails for your folders and it's going to be a
little bit frustrating. Because in particular, when you're working with
creating intricate patterns, vector patterns,
you tend to use, most probably like me, a lot of groups. Then if you cannot see what's
inside of those groups, it can get pretty, pretty messy. I had the same problem when
I was testing the Beta, I didn't know how to fix that and it turns out it's
very, very easy. All you have to do is here
in the upper right corner, you have to click
this hamburger menu and then out of
all those options, you select Show
Group thumbnails. Now it's all fixed and we can see what's
inside of our groups.
Weronika Salach, Art with MAGIC
