Please Affinity! I Want To Break Up With Photoshop, I Just Need One More Feature

[@holywarz]

Neil, I’m a professional matte painter, and I’ve never even heard of this software. I can see where your frustration lies - I’ll join the forums and add that request. I’m very curious to test out the software!

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

It's very cool, has like 99% of photoshop's features I use plus a bunch of new stuff, and is like $50 depending on what deal you get (not per month, to get a permanent license). Definitely worth checking out, and thanks for upvoting in the forum.

[@TechnicallyTrent]

@holywarz Affinity software is very nice, and they even have an Illustrator competitor called Affinity Designer which is great.

[@brianwitter3271]

I think I upvoted this back in version 1, happy to do it again. Hopefully won't have to do it for AP3.

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Thanks so much Brian, ya, hopefully this will happen sooner than 3 :)

[@pixelandpoly]

I hope they add it! I moved to the Affinity suite once the v1 beta came out for Windows. I, too, was a very long time PS user and was not keen to be forced into a monthly sub. I love the Affinity products but some times there is a specific function that I do miss. I also don't love how cumbersome it can be to work on individual channels to do channel packing for 3d work. I do highly recommend all the products and have been very happy that I made the full switch years ago. Sometimes I think they don't add some features because of their app workflow it might be harder to implement but you would think this feature would be something possible - and useful!

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Ya, assuming there isn't something more complex going on (like an adobe patent) it seems like a feature that would work fine in their current workflow. The fact they have a very specific error message makes me think there's some other big issue, otherwise it seems like extra unneeded work putting in the error message than implementing the feature.

[@David_Kelly_SF]

Posted comment in support. Much needed! I hope Affinity listen, their products are great - they just need a little extra push. Hate Adobe since they went P2P 🤬

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Thanks for the support David! I appreciate it!

[@TechnicallyTrent]

Great video and I upvoted your post on the Affinity Forums. While I LOVE the way clipping works in Affinity Designer VS Illustrator, I agree that Photo's pixel clipping could use some upgrades. Basically the feature I want is "Alpha Lock to the Layer Below". That was Procreate's version of a clipping layer, and I used it all the time. My base layer would be my shape, and then the layers above it would be lighting and other effects clipped to that shape.

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Thanks for the upvote! Ya, I use the exact same technique you mention for a lot of graphic design as well, where I generally don't need groups. For the paintings though, groups are a must. Thanks again for the help!

[@Zeffyras]

Thank you so much for this video! I am getting back to freelancing and was thinking about what program to use instead of Photoshop. Just bought Affinity Photo, it's on discount at the moment!!!

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Awesome, hope you enjoy it, if you don't need this one feature it's very feature complete!

[@petermgruhn]

When was I in Cali... 1996, maybe. I got myself into a little good light with the people at Painter (FD, MC, DMV...I forget) so I sent a letter in with something that I thought was a genius idea. With images to explain it and everything. It was the same thing as layer clipping. I don't know if it existed in PShop at the time, or not. They wrote back, "Gee, thanks for your swell idea, but Painter can already do that." I have yet to find out how. Don't get me started on Mint Oreos. In short, good luck with your quest.

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

haha! Never used painter enough to know. But with that error message saying the feature isn't supported, hopefully the existence of the feature in Affinity is an open and shut case :)

[@Jez1963UK]

Neil, what 3D software do you now use? Blender? Or are you on an old version of 3DS Max?

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Mostly max 2022, which was the last max version I could buy. But I'm starting to experiment with blender, in fact have some videos on the subject coming out next week.

[@VRchitecture]

Also Affinity doesn’t provide any API for their suite so we can’t extend existing functionality with our own plugins/scripts 😞

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

In my time using photoshop I've never had to really extend the software, but I 100% agree, having that capability would be fantastic!

[@Zenzuke]

It's ironic I've followed your work for years and this is how I find you've got a KZbin channel, lol.

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Haha! Well glad you finally found it, and hope you enjoy the material here. And thanks for being a long term fan!

[@1DaytoDay-089]

How about using Krita, have you try it?

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

I have, found it great for painting, but not as good for photo manipulation. I need something strong in both in one package.

[@josephbrandenburg4373]

@@ArtOfSoulburn what does affinity do better in photo manipulation? I mostly use Krita for painting but I might like to learn Affinity.

[@alexanderjeongco]

Love the thoughtfulness in the comparison. What turns you off from the subscription model? Price? No need for extra support? New features not that useful? Lack of choice? Ive been exploring affinity as a replacement for illustrator, but my line of work requires a very specific niche plugin to even be feasible, and most people i work with arent even familiar with affinity. I recently did a survey for photoshop and my feedback was that I could, in general, do almost all of what I needed to do with the features available in photoshop 7.

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Thanks Alex! I actually wrote a piece many years back on the reasons I generally disagree with rental only software. www.neilblevins.com/art_lessons/rental_only_software/rental_only_software.htm In the particular case of adobe, I'd rate my highest issues being loss of control (they can just shut off my license anytime they want to), and also lack of innovation since they don't need to add new features to get people to upgrade, they get paid again and again for the work they already did in perpetuity. That said, I'm certainly not against rental as an option, and some software provides services that truly are a service (like live service games provide a community to play with you), but in the case of adobe and autodesk, the reason they did it was purely in their own best interest, not in the interest of the customer.

[@VRchitecture]

In theory you can easily find “secondhand” perpetual license for old Adobe products (from CS era) and stick to it but… 1) you wanna make sure there is a way to activate you tools offline, cause activation servers for CS2 suite were shut down a few years ago 2) last but not least - it would be great to be able to get the latest version of your, let’s say, Photoshop CS6, not those outdated artifacts from box version DVD. As an owner of 3ds Max 2016 license I tried to find the installer I need at Autodesk’s website - due to their policy only the latest version and a couple of previous ones are available for download (now it’s 3ds Max 2023-2025). Their support reaction was like “🤷🏻‍♂️”

[@VRchitecture]

In theory you can easily find “secondhand” perpetual license for old Adobe products (from CS era) and stick to it but… 1) you wanna make sure there is a way to activate you tools offline, cause activation servers for CS2 suite were shut down a few years ago 2) last but not least - it would be great to be able to get the latest version of your, let’s say, Photoshop CS6, not those outdated artifacts from box version DVD. As an owner of 3ds Max 2016 license I tried to find the installer at Autodesk’s website but due to their policy there are only three recent major versions available for download (now it’s 3ds Max 2023-2025). Their support reaction was like “🤷🏻‍♂️”

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

@@VRchitecture Activation may certainly become an issue. I just bought a new computer and reinstalled CS6 (and 3dsmax 2022) and both activated, but there's no promise it will work next computer upgrade.

[@alexanderjeongco]

@@VRchitecture Ha! Definitely experienced #2, and it wasn't even that far back. Our studio operates on adobe CC 2021 products and I accidentally upgraded too early to 2024 without keeping 2021 installed... Adobe made it very clear they want you to only use the latest by limiting past downloads to a few previous releases. We're actively paying for licenses, but they don't give the autonomy to choose which specific package to use. I didn't try contacting support, but it's annoying that I'm unable to do something so trivial like re-install a software version we're paying for.

[@abitrich]

Bad news, they've just been bought out by Canva. Expect a subscription only model to follow in due course.

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Just saw :( I guess my search will continue

[@grenoblica]

Well this is something I use daily, and I can't work without it. Why didn't they add it already?

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

The only thing I can figure is maybe adobe has some sort of patent on the feature? Although a similar thing happens all the time in node based compositing software, so who knows.

[@grenoblica]

@@ArtOfSoulburn Let's hope they do it, I want to switch to their v2

[@Hazzel31337]

good luck getting your feature

[@alapidis]

Supported.

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Thanks alapidis!

[@nicktyler2572]

I'm not Affinity user, so can't help with that, but I share your dissatisfaction with Adobe licensing. So I moved from PS to Krita. It is great for painting, opens PSD, and allows working this way you showed. But it is made a bit different there... I tried making same scene in Photoshop and open it in Krita. It opened all layers and masks, but requires few clicks to convert "clipping masks" to "inherit alpha". After that you can keep working same way, as you showed in PS. Only serious drawback of Krita is mediocre Text editing tool, and poor advanced selections.

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Ya, I've tried Krita before and it's cool in its own way, but has a few too many features I'd miss. Affinity is sooo close :)

[@RamonGuthrie]

What about Photopea?

[@Timburi]

Affinity missing the cryptomatte support is a deal breaker for me. When that arrives I say bye bye to PS.

[@deadpin]

Welp... not looking great after the Affinity news today.

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Ya, a real bummer. :(

[@sketchfx8890]

👍