The Ultimate Affinity Tool Builders guide to the Affinity suite

1. Section 1 -Introduction to the Skillshare course: Vara ageing and welcome to skill share. Now, as skill share is a project-based course, I want to start off by sharing with you what you're going to get out of taking this course with us. We're gonna be making a complete set of digital tools which includes textures, overlays, vector brushes, raster brushes, Lutz, lights, and everything in between. Now, not only are you going to be accomplishing these tools which you do not have to upload. But we're going to be applying these tools in these two projects. So these two projects that I'm showing here on the screen, that is the expected deliverable for this skill share class. So not only will you get the tool packs, but you're going to learn how to apply the tool packs value make including say this half tone brush into a project like this. Or taking the lightning brushes that you made here and applying them over to a project like this. Now, some of the downloads for this class are very large, so they wouldn't necessarily fit in the platform. So there are links to the google drive in the description for this class. There are arranged by section. And so go ahead and follow the link in the description to get the downloads because there was no way to zip them in order to put them onto the Skill Share platform. Other than that, I'm very excited about this class and I think we're going to have a great time. We're going to be building all the tools in the affinity suite that you're going to need. Now, the software that's used in this class, full disclosure. You've got Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer. Now, if you have one or the other, you will be able to accomplish 90% of all of the lessons. So you'll still be able to develop all the packs and the tools for your software. Best-case scenario, you have both. And we're going to be introducing HD filled express. So it is a free desktop software for video editing and special effects compositing that I use all the time. So I'm excited to bring that to you. And occasionally through the lessons, if you so choose, we will be utilizing a program called the vector magic, which is a paid program to vectorize. Now, if you're familiar with vectorization, you know that you can utilize the pen tool to vectorize. So I'm gonna show you how I use it. But it is not required for this class. But I wanted to kind of give you all the software that we're going to be working with in this skill share class. So if you're interested in creating a complete set of tools and creating these two projects which you can then upload and I'll definitely critique. Go ahead and continue on. And I hope to see you inside. Let's go ahead and get started. 2. What are digital tools and where do we find them : Alright folks, and welcome to this course on utilizing digital tools. Now, this is really exciting for me. This is quite frankly one of the best courses that I have ever created. And this is really the culmination of three years of working with the affinity sweet in order to develop my methods for creating these tools. So what I wanna do in this lesson is I just want to kind of show you what a digital tool is and what you'd expect. Because even if you just have a cell phone, you don't need a formal camera. You don't even necessarily even need to camera to create many these beautiful tools. So I'm going to be here with you throughout this. I wanna do a little bit of face to face with him, but I also want to show you some places online where you can go to see exactly what all is in this realm. Let's go ahead and get started. Alright folks, and welcome to our course here. This is going to be an introductory lesson on what digital tools are. Now for those that have been around a digital game awhile, you know about digital tools. Digital tools are those things that artists use to create the art that they make. So as an artist, you can always go the hard route and you can recreate affects every single time from scratch. But in order to save time, in order to make your time efficient, and also to bring in some really awesome effects that you may not think about. Digital tools are used and purchased by artists to aid in their workflow. So the first question that I get asked all the time, where to go to find different digital tools and what's out there. Because if you're going to build a toolbox and that's how I'm going to be referring to it through the course is a toolbox. You have to do a certain amount of research. So what I wanted to do, first of all, I wanted to kind of show you some of the tools that were out there. Now, in all fairness, I do not get reimbursed, compensated, or anything for any of the resources that I'm about to show you. This is how I do my research. I get no kickback when anything like this. So it's one of those things. These are sites that I like to use. People that I like to follow. Do your own research. Alright, let's go ahead and just take a look at where to get some of these resources, right? What are they? So a lot of times you'll find these four Photoshop primarily, but there are a lot of affinity ones and there are a lot that are universal. This particular person, Renae Robin, is somebody that I follow. She does a lot of Photoshop style composites, and I really loved the way that she does or fire. So you can get pre-done fire packs from a variety of artists. Now there's also something called the textures. Textures are used as an overlay on to certain images to create a certain color scheme in this area, or to create a certain field that you want. You can also get different digital tools that have background packs. I've used one in this image. So if we were to take this and now I'm gonna Affinity Photo, but it works the same in designer. And I was to clip away everything in here. This photo is just me taken against a green screen. And this is actually from a photo shoot that I did in Chicago underneath the bridge. So digital tools can be used to enhance any type of a photo and there's a ton out there. Don't limit yourself to one thing or two things. But what I would tell you is make something that you like. Now, the same thing is true for illustration artists. Tattoo Smart is a site that I like to use there I'm a tattoo artist or was at least for 20 years. I just took it out a couple years ago. And I use procreate as well as affinity. So I like to use some of their tools in illustrations. So they sell brush packs, stencils, that sort of thing. Now, you can use brushes in a variety ways. As an example, in this course, we're going to be making this half tone texture for the snake. Now, everything that we're going to use in this course, I'm going to show you how to make every single brush that I used is here. So that edge here, that texture that's vectorized. Every one of these ink dots that I'm clicking off is vectorized. Notice the edge that I just took off. Plus we've got this texture. We've got the half-tones screen that we're gonna take off. We've got the paper texture that we're going to take off. And even I've got different groups of dots leaving only this half tone brush and the original illustration. So everything for illustrators will be making to create this image. And for my photo composite layers will be making every single brush atmosphere layer like that. We'll be doing every single Mandela, every single lightening brush. I'll be showing you my entire color grading process to create the light. I'm gonna be showing you how I sharpen. Afterward. We're going to be making this texture to apply over to it, as well as how I go about getting my final color grade. So spend some time looking around at different tools. In a later lesson, we're gonna be showing you how to plan out your toolbox so you don't have to have an idea right now of what you're going to offer. You may find something along the path that lights you up and really gets you excited about it. And so the point of this introductory lesson is to show you the world that you're about to enter and get you excited about the possibilities of what you can create. Alright, let's go ahead and get onto the net. 3. What tools are we going to make and what does the pipeline look like : Alright, so we're going to be talking about workflow. We're going to be talking about pipeline now before I get into the lesson, I just want to cover with you what I consider workflow and pipeline to be. These are the steps that you're going to use and the software that we're going to use is shown here. Now, I'm going to be working primarily in Affinity Designer because with pixel, many of the tools that are available in photo are also in designer. So Designer is the more restrictive. There is no perfect pipeline. So what I want you to do is take my advice as a starting point, but certainly use it to start your own exploration of different tools and different workflows for yourself. Alright, let's go ahead and get started. All right, so let's talk a little bit about the pipeline here when it comes to digital tools. Now, there is no one perfect pipeline for digital tools. And when I say pipeline, it is a series of software and steps you take to create your digital tools. So what I wanna do in this lesson, I want to make it very specific. We can do the same exact things that Affinity Designer. Then we can do an affinity photo. But Affinity Designer deals in vector, Affinity Photo does not. So if you're tuning in for the tools that I make here, go ahead and skip to the Affinity Photo stylus and skip the vector section entirely because they are different workflows. Let me just show you an example of how I would go through and make this lightening brush. So for the lightening brush in this class, we're going to use a free program called Hit Film Express. We will go through and I'll show you all of this in the individual lessons. But I use Hit Film Express to create the lightening. Then I move it over into Affinity Photo or if many designer and I create the PNGs. And it's from these PNGs that I go ahead and create the brush back. So the pipeline is a hit film express over to Affinity Photo or Affinity Designer. Now, on the other hand, when I make textures will go through here and I'll just go to my texture section. And I will create this by hand. I'll do a brush overlay and I will scan it in. From there. I just utilize it in Affinity Designer or Affinity Photo. So the pipeline there is created in the physical world, scan it into there and a high DPI resolution, and then bring it into a program called vector magic. Let's say, where then I can go through and adjust and vectorize some of these textures. So that's my way to do this here. Now, if we're looking at, say, some of these vector projects, if we do the different snake here, let's go ahead and bring up my Affinity Designer. When I do this, I will go through and I will grab an actual physical pencil stroke or a brushstroke. So all of these that we've done are actually made by using physical brushstrokes, which then are brought in as PNGs and then are converted into these brushes. So when you think pipeline, each tool really require a different pipeline. In this class, I will be using primarily Affinity Designer. And why Affinity Designer? Because Affinity Designer has pixel persona, which means all the tools here are present in Affinity Photo. So 99% of the lessons you will be able to do in Affinity Designer. Now, can you do the same ones inifinity Voto, with the exception of a vector brushes? Yes. A 100% Affinity Photo does not like vector brushes. Okay, it doesn't work. We're also going to be using Hit Film Express. I'm going to show you how to use it filled express. It is completely free from FX Home and I love it. And then if you are so inclined, we will be using a tool called vector magic. Now, this is optional. You can always go around and do your own tracing of vector art. This is a vectorization program, not required, but I am going to show you how it fits into my pipeline. So if you like it, use it. If not, you never have to see it again. Alright, so that's a little bit on how the pipeline works. I wanted to make sure that that was covered so that you understood the software we were going to be using and why I did what I did. Alright, let's go ahead and start making some stuff. 4. Making your first digital tool : Fluoride folks and welcome to making digital tools were gonna go out and I want you to have a go and do project. Now. Now this is really early in the class. I want you to grab your smart phone or any camera, doesn't matter which camera. And I want you to go out and I want you to shoot a wall and you're gonna create your first digital texture. Now, I've gone out and I've shot one of my walls outside, right around the corner from my house. And I'm gonna be showing you how to create that in affinity. So I want you to go and do, go ahead and pause this. Go out, should've all, and then follow the steps that I give you here, coming up to create your own tool. First thing right off the bat. Alright, we'll go ahead and flip over and we'll see inside. All right folks, now I am back in Affinity Designer. You're gonna see a common theme throughout the course that I'm going to primarily be working in designer. But if you are in photo, don't worry about it. The reason I chose designer is because designer has the pixel persona, which has limited pixel capability. So if you can do it in designer, you can do it in photo. Every single tool in designer for pixel is in Affinity Photo, every single one of them. Alright, so this is the image that I went out and took just not too far from my house. I literally went around the corner and shot a wall. Not hard. Now, I want to show you how easy this is to make a digital tool. We're going to make a simple texture. You select your background layer. You come over and we're going to throw a black and white adjustment on it. Perfect. Now we're dealing in black and white. We're gonna make a texture right? Then we come over, let's add a Levels Adjustment. And now on mine, I like to have a lot of dynamics in my texture. So I will make this very much black and white right? Now you may choose to do something a little bit different. This is just my texture. So I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna make it right about here, I think is pretty good. Now let's bring the levels adjustment in. Alright, now what do you do with this? Well, you export it as a PNG. So let's go ahead and go to File Export. Lets go ahead and make it a PNG will call this texture one. Now this is a quick win here folks, this is getting you up and running immediately. Alright, let's go ahead and pop that in. Now. Grab any old picture that you think will work in affinity. They've got the stock tab up here. So you can certainly use the stock tab and you can go to peck cells on splash and have your favorites. I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna use a composite that I did not too long ago. And I'm gonna go to File Place. And now let's just throw texture one on it. Boom, just like this. Alright, now that doesn't look very good, right? Looks like hot trash. What you're gonna wanna do now is you're going to want to adjust the blend mode. I'm going to use an overlay. And you're going to want to adjust the opacity. That is pretty cool. Now, we're going to add a mask layer to this because I don't want it to obscure the face. So I'm going to brushes, I'm going to pick a soft round brush and remember with masks, black conceals. So I personally want to conceal the texture on the face. And I'm not gonna do a great job of this because this is the introduction type lesson. We assume you've got some affinity chops here. So I'm not going to spend 15 minutes going through and making sure that I hit every single finger, right? Right. But this folks is the essence of making a digital tool. This is what you're doing. All right, awesome. So now notice the intricacy and the texture that this thing ads off, on, off on. Nobody told me that I missed the middle ever face as no help at all sometimes. Alright, let's go off on and you can blend textures. If you zoom in to this image here, you'll see that I used a scratched up metal texture before I rasterized to this thing. So I'm adding a scratched up metal texture on top of this texture to get a whole texture salad here. Now, you can change the blend modes, right? We can go ahead and kick this up a notch. You can use other types of blend modes. You can use add if you want to, completely changes the look. So this gives it a completely different look altogether. And you'll see that where that paper was torn, the ad now gives us that area there where the paper was torn up, right on the side here. So that's a little bit on how to create your first digital tool. Congratulations, you've all created your first texture. Let's go ahead and get into the meat of this course so you can see all the wonderful things that Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo, and the world of digital tools has to offer. Alright, we'll see you the next one. 5. How to reverse engineer the tool: All right, let's talk toolbox here now, when you're looking at digital tools, one of my favorite ways to learn how to create new digital tools is to reverse engineer the tools that we've created. So I've created a lot of tools in this course. I'm going to reverse engineer some of mine so that you can see how to take a piece that you may have either purchased or downloaded from a free site and reverse engineered to create your own method. This reverse engineering is key. Once you determine what it is you wanna make, it helps you determine how to make it. All right, let's go ahead and get into the computer and we'll take the next step. All right, folks, welcome back to infinity. Now, I'm gonna be showing you this and designer. It's exactly the same as it is in Affinity Photo. Now we're talking about how to figure out what your toolbox should look like. What is it you're going to sell, right? What is it that you're going to make? What is it that you're going to create? And so one of the ways that I like to do that is I always do my market research and I reverse engineer things. So one of my best pieces of advice, if you are looking at making a tool set, find a good high-quality tool set that's out there. And reverse engineer how they did it. Now notice I say reverse engineer it. Do not copy it. We are not in the business of copying. Now, I'm gonna go ahead and tell on myself first. So we're going to reverse engineer one of my sets. So we're just gonna go ahead and we're just going to create any old size workspace. And again, if you're in Affinity Photo, don't worry about this. Okay. You're just following along. There's nothing you have to do here. Alright, so let's go ahead and I'm just gonna check vector brushes for two seconds and then I'm gonna show you Pixel brushes for my Affinity Photo folks. If we go to the brushes and we bring up the set that I'm currently working on here for the class. And I come down to my wood cut etch, right? So there's my brush. And if I want to know how to create woodcut. So if I wanted to go through here and apply a traditional woodcut to this, i by the brush. I then come into here and I just look at the settings. And I look at the look of it and I look at how they've created it and I say, okay, this is what I need to do. The same thing is true with things like styles. If we're creating some magic styles here. And I come up to this, notice that now if I apply the style to my line, it will tell me the blend mode, the opacity, and the type of layer effects. So what are the best ways to reverse engineer tools? Or I should say one of the best ways to create your own tools is to learn how to reverse engineer them. So if I'm going to go into the pixel persona, let's look at a more complicated brush, shall we? And again, I'll pick on myself. Alright, let's come down here. Let's look at the flame brush. Wu. Actually, let's go ahead and look at my half-tones. Alright, we're gonna go ahead and we're gonna look at half-tones here. I've got all my settings. And then your question might be, well Jeremy, What are you doing with your texture and what are you doing with your brush nozzle. So I've got a soft brush nozzle and then I've got a texture full of these little dots. So you can reverse any brush out there. Even as an example for this, we've got a flame starter pack, right? So if I come over here, I grabbed this brush and I go ahead and I just want to go ahead and lay out a color here. Let's go ahead and just grab this black and pop that into existence, right? How did I make that? Well, let's go ahead and reverse engineer. There's my size and I only have one brush nozzle. There's my texture. Pretty simple actually. So one of the best ways that you can learn to make tools is by reverse engineering others. Let me give you an example of a texture. So we come to the downloadable, which we will get to in this course. And I come over here to say overlays, right? If I come down to section six, actually, let's go ahead and go one step further. And I come down here to atmosphere. There's how I created my atmosphere, right? I've got three bands of light. So if you're looking at what makes a good overlay, that might be a way to do it. If you're looking at doing textures, you can come over here and reverse engineer some of these textures. As an example, this one was just made by folding a sheet of paper, then applying a graphite to it with a pencil. Very simple. So my point here, we're gonna be showing you how to make all of these in the class. What I would encourage you to do, again, once you find out what your niche needs to be and what you really wanna make. Go check out some cheap brushes or some cheap texture packs, or even do some research online and reverse engineer the tools so that you can learn how they're made. And then do not, do not, do not copy, make your own. Alright folks, that's a little bit on how I've learned to do this. And I hope you learned a little bit along the way. 6. How to do your market research and define your value: All right gang, and this is all about market research. Now, once you understand what a digital tool is and you know how to reverse engineer it, and you've had success creating your own, you now have to do your market research to figure out exactly what it is you're gonna make it and how to define your value. So we've included a template for it which will be covered in the video. But this is a strategic business decision. Now, if you are just doing them for yourself and you don't plan on producing packs, you may be able to skip this one. But if you're looking at producing this with the intent to distribute them in some way. This is one of those lessons the chicken want to pay attention to because this is the business side, in addition to the artistic side. Alright, let's go ahead and flip over to the computer and we'll go ahead and get started. All right, so let's go ahead and pop on over here and apply what we learned here. So what we've got here is I've got the same sites, right? So let's say that I'm looking at making some sort of a pixel brush set. One of the templates that you have in your downloads that I'll bring it up. Now this is in there's a PDF is called the builders toolbox strategy planning sheet. Now, when you use this tool, the first question you're gonna ask down below, who is your tool built for? Photographers, illustrators, T-shirt makers, as an example, who are you targeting to use your product? Then you're going to want to look who else is in your space, who makes the tools you use, what do you use? And then what is the distribution strategy? Like I was saying, third party like a design cuts through your website. Maybe you're gonna do gum road. And then how are you going to package it? Isn't going to be a kid to make a thing that bundle of brushes at themed set. What's your plan? We've already gone through that in other lessons. And so this is the sheet that I use. I put down my asset categories, distribution strategies, and then I always do my market research. What's out there for quantity, and what's the price point? Who will use it and what would they be able to make? So as I begin to do my research, I'm interested in say, making a brush set. So what I'm looking at here on design cuts, we've got 25 brushes for realistic portraits. Okay, fair enough. Now I'm gonna switch over to Excel because I'm just an Excel guy. So my first one is 25 brushes.