TUTORIAL | STYLES & TEXTURES IN AFFINITY

While I am completely enjoying scrapping on my iPad while sprawled out on the couch using Affinity Photo, I do miss me some Photoshop styles. One click, fun effects achieved. Affinity Photo does have the Fx Studio but on first look it is a little limited in comparison to PS. Perhaps some digital product designers will jump on board at some point and we’ll see style options for purchase.

Today, we’ll explore a few simple effects and learn how to save our own styles. We’ll also discuss how to add textures as a way of creating our own “styles”.

I’m going to demonstrate using a simple shape and a font because these seem to be the most common used with styles. Mirjam usually includes gorgeous matching alphas with her collections but not everyone does. So we’ll be able to make our own.

One easy Fx that can be customized and saved is a sticker, adding a small border around something. This is accomplished using the Outline option. The outside edges (the sticker part) are customizable and can be a solid color or even a gradient, which can resemble metal.

Another Fx is a Color Overlay. You could use this to create a solid color matching alpha or title work to go with a kit. To do this I would pull in either a solid paper I wanted to match or a paper with most of the colors in the kit and use the eye dropper tool in the Color Studio. To use it, you click and drag it. You’ll see almost a magnifying glass so you’ll know it’s picking the right color. You can also use the color wheel to select a color.

Another option is a Gradient Overlay where you can have varied color effects using colors you choose.

So you could create a custom color or gradient overlay to match a paper, give it a 3D effect to round the edges, add a drop shadow (outer shadow) and save the effect to use again.

To save your own Fx, you click on Styles at the bottom and then click the three line box on the pop up screen. You select Add Style from Selection. This is also the spot where you can group styles into categories. The default naming structure is numbered but you can rename them. It also saves styles into the active collection or category so if that is not what you want change it first.

Then to test it, I apply my new style to a font. Voila! It worked.

But I’m still missing my PS styles... so I start researching. I could add textures to my elements to mimic styles, even though it’s a multi step process. But where to find them? Affinity Photo has you covered in the Stock Studio with easy access to Pixabay and Unsplash (subject to their terms of use, of course).

I was able to search and access multiple cork, fabric, wood and chipboard textures. You just click and drag them onto your canvas and clip them to your shape or alpha. You can add just the texture to a kit’s word art by adjusting blend modes. And adjust the color of the effect using the Adjustment Studio if you'd like.

One tip: Trial and error shows me that color overlay and gradient overlay overrule other choices, so if you make a change and don’t see anything, toggle off the overlay just to check. Like here, I added a texture but why isn’t it showing? Turn off the gradient overlay and it’s there.

So what style will you create first?

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Stacia