The Udemy Affinity Photo for the iPad: Special Effects free download also includes 4 hours on-demand video, 5 articles, 38 downloadable resources, Full lifetime access, Access on mobile and TV, Assignments, Certificate of Completion and much more. Affinity Photo for the iPad is a game changer. There's never been a complete photo editing software app for a mobile platform, until now. But all that power can be daunting at first, and that's where this course comes in. I assume no knowledge on your part, only that you have a copy of Affinity Photo installed on an iPad.
To say that I am an enthusiastic user of Affinity Photo would be an under statement. It is the most used app on my iPad and always a pleasure to use. I’ve been using it for client projects literally since the day it was released in June 2017. With the first update of 2018, version 1.6.7 the developers added the ability to open and save files in place. This is great because while the app has a decent built-in interface for managing files and folders that interface does have limitations. I’ve mostly been ignoring those limitations until today. By chance I was poking around the iPad Settings app and took a look at my iPad’s storage and saw that Affinity Photo was using up 22GB! I’ve got quite a few projects but expected it to be half of that. But using the apps built in method for file interaction provides no indication of file sizes so really, it’s all just guessing. Another limitation is that if I want to back-up a bunch of files, copy or move them I have to do it one at a time via the “Save as” option. Very tedious.
Using the Affinity Photo file browser to browse a folder containing 4 files
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Now, I’ve got plenty of storage on my iPad but I don’t like the feeling that if I want to move or copy my files I have to do it one file at a time. There’s no way to tag or search files either. That’s not a problem if I’ve just got 10 files. But if I’ve got 150 files in 12 folders you can see how cumbersome this can be. File management is the only part of the app that I found average. So, I decided it was time to have a serious look at how Affinity Photo uses the Files app. I’d previously tinkered with it but it seemed a bit confusing.
By default files are stored within the Affinity Photo built in storage system on the iPad. A sort of hidden storage area which only shows up in the documents browser within Affinity Photo. It’s not possible to see file sizes from this location. How do I move these over to the Files app and what are the options? There are two options for storage in the Settings, general tab: iCloud or “On my iPad”. If I had better internet I would have gone with iCloud. But given the bandwidth Iimits I have (rural satellite) I chose “On my iPad”.
To save my Affinity Project files to this Files accessible storage area I access the corner widget of the document icon in the built-in document browser and chose “Save”. The file is then saved into “On my iPad” in the “Photo” folder on iPad. After that I can open it up from the Files app using the “On my iPad” location in the side bar. From the Files app I can now see the file size and easily share the file via the share sheet or via drag and drop from the Files app to any location or to email as an attachment or Messages or whatever.
The Affinity Photo folder is very easy to spot thanks to the icon.
So, going forward, I’ll be moving my current Affinity Photo files over to this local iPad storage and will save all new files there. I’ll save in folders by project and/or client and also begin using some of the tags that I have set-up for the Files app. After a file has been saved to Files I will delete the original that remains within the Affinity Photo app storage system so as to not have duplicates. Interestingly, the way to delete a file from the application storage is simply to select the same corner widget where the Save function is, but choose Close. They really should call it Delete not Close. Now, if I then open the newer copy of the file from within the Files app and make changes I can choose the option (again, the widget is in the bottom of the file icon) to Save and then Close. In this latter case it is closed from the application but remains in the Files app as one would expect. It’s a bit confusing and I hope the folks at Affinity change the way it is labeled. Files stored internally should have the option to Delete. Files stored in the Files app should have the option to close.
As long as the files are in the “Photo” folder on “On my iPad” they can easily be opened “in place” from Files by a simple tap to it’s icon. I can save at any time and any changes I make get saved back to the file just as I would expect. Note, again, saving is done while looking at the document icon from within the Affinity Photo file browser and choosing save from the widget from the lower right corner. Files can also be nested in other folders within that Photo folder in the Files app.
What happens if I copy these folders or files to another location, for example, to the a Documents folder in my iCloud Drive? In that case tapping it does not open into the app but rather opens a preview of it in the Files app. I can then use the “Copy to Photo” option in the share sheet to send it to Photo. As long as I leave don’t use the above mentioned “Close” option I can repeatedly open it for editing. I can save changes and those changes will take place on that file. If I close it I have to reopen again via the same “Copy to Photo” option in the share sheet. So, it’s still open in place with changes saved back, but it’s opening process is slightly different.
Affinity Photo is an app I’ll be using for many years and many client projects. It is a “Pro” app. Given that, I’m hoping that the developers add an option to use the Files app as the default method for managing files. Maybe even making that the default rather than the current storage within the app’s hidden away storage. The current options that I’ve discussed above are in the app’s help pages but some of the specifics are missing. For now it would helpful if they could emphasize the option for saving out to files stored in the Files app.
Affinity user and digital artist Tinashe Rusike walks us through his process for creating a high-impact photo composition featuring Rugby League legend Jason Taumalolo in Affinity Photo for iPad.
My name is Tinashe Rusike and I am a digital artist who specialises in creating conceptual sports designs for advertising, social media, posters, trading cards and editorial design. I have worked with organisations such as Kyros Sports and Old Glory DC of Major League Rugby as well as for Rugby Union South African Springbok legend Tendai ‘Beast’ Mtawarira.
I am a massive Rugby League fan and I love illustrating the stars as heroes with super-human powers. For this tutorial, I am honoured to be working on a high-impact photo composition featuring one of the best athletes on earth, Jason Taumalolo of the North Queensland Cowboys and the Mate Ma’a Tonga Rugby League national team, who compete in Australia’s National Rugby League.
If you’ve never seen him play, Jason Taumalolo is a wrecking machine that runs with great speed and power and usually leaves a trail of carnage in his wake. In this tutorial, that is exactly what I will be illustrating to showcase how I create movement, mood and energy in my compositions using various tools in Affinity Photo for iPad.
I recorded this time-lapse video to show you my process and I have provided some written steps to help you learn the techniques too.
Step 1: Coming up with a concept
When I create my artwork, I like to get a solid understanding of the athlete I am working with. In this case, it is Jason Taumalolo who is one of the best Rugby League players in the world. He is dynamic and powerful so I want the artwork I create to reflect that. Whenever Jason goes on one of his big runs and breaks the defensive line he leaves a trail of carnage in his wake. So for my concept, I have come up with the idea of him wrecking through a downtown scene after breaking through the stadium. When planning scenes like this one I love that I am creating a fictional environment that does not exist. I am making my own rules and I want it to look unique.
Step 2: Finding photos for your composition
Alongside the licensed image of Jason Taumalolo, I will be using stock images to build up the rest of the composition. I have three free stock photo websites that I like to use when looking for stock photography for my compositions. These are Pexels.com, Pixabay.com and Unsplash.com which are accessible from Affinity Photo’s Stock panel. There is so much quality and variety on these sites, you are almost guaranteed to find the photos you need. Look for as many photos as possible to contribute to your composition because that is what makes your environment look unique. Once you have your shortlist, it helps to do a rough sketch of your scene to plan where your images will go.
Step 3: Cropping
At this stage, you want to bring most of your photographic elements into Affinity Photo and place them on the canvas. I love showing depth and perspective in my compositions and to achieve this I set up my background to include a sky, far buildings and near buildings. In the foreground is the main man Jason and then in front of him is a close up of some rubble.
Step 4: Applying darkness and colour to buildings
This is the stage when I apply the mood and colour to my compositions. In this case, I want to create a night scene with most of the colour coming from the flames in the foreground. These flames will be reflecting on most of our elements and later I will be turning them blue.
My first step was to desaturate all the elements/layers except for the flames—which we’ll get to later. I applied an HSL adjustment layer to all the elements and bumped the saturation down—anywhere between -49% to -100% is effective.
On some of the elements—particularly Jason, our main foreground figure—we want certain areas to show a little bit of the original colour. To do that you can use either the Erase Brush Tool or select the Paint Brush Tool and treat the adjustment layer like a mask layer. Set the brush to a low opacity and just gently erase the areas where you want the original colour to show through.
To transform the scene from day to night I applied a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer to all the elements. For some elements, particularly the buildings, I applied two Brightness/Contrast adjustment layers at -100% to make sure they became really dark.
For the sky, I applied the same Brightness/Contrast and HSL adjustment, then increased the saturation to bring out more of the orange.
After applying those adjustment layers to all of the objects (except for Jason, the foreground figure), the composition now has a night-time feel to it.
Now we want to add a Recolour adjustment layer to all the elements and set the Hue to 197.9, which will give everything a blue colour. This blue will become the colour reflecting from the flames.
After placing the flame image, we want to turn it blue. To do that, add a Recolour adjustment layer and give it a blue hue, then turn the Layer Option to Screen so that the black background becomes transparent. After doing this, Rasterise the layer. That will help to blend the flames into the composition. If you have details that you would like to hide or alter on your flame layer, use the Clone Brush Tool to pick up some details from other parts of the fire, then add them to any areas you would like to cover up.
Step 5: Applying building lights
At this stage, we want to add lights onto our buildings and give them a little bit of an apocalyptic, futuristic look. To do that, we need to use night-time cityscape stock photography that is a similar scale to our buildings. Place your chosen photos above the buildings, then add a Mask Layer to the images to hide all the details you do not want to show.
For the building that is furthest away, I used the Clone Brush Tool to add some additional light detail to fill in space on the building.
On the building to the left, I applied the Perspective filter to add some perspective to my lights on the side of the buildings.
On the building signs I added an Exposure adjustment layer to bring out more light, then an Outer Glow layer effect with a yellowish colour from the Layers panel.
Step 6: Applying colour and dark shadows to Jason
On Jason, we are going to apply the same HSL adjustment to desaturate him, as well as some Brightness/Contrast adjustment layers to add shadows on him. After they have been applied, we can use the Erase Brush Tool with a low opacity to blend and bring out a bit of the original colour and light. This part requires some fine art skills, as you need to judge where the light source from the fire will be reflecting on Jason’s body.
After that, I added a couple of Recolour adjustment layers—a blue and an orange one to reflect the blue fire and the orange sky—then brought out the Erase Brush Tool again and used it to erase and blend the colours on Jason on each Recolour layer.
Step 7: Applying bright light reflections
Now we add another type of light detail that I like to call the hard, bright lights. This light is a reflection from bright light sources, like the fire, that reflect on nearby objects and elements. I like to create these manually using my fine art skills and an Apple Pencil, which is one of the best tools to do this with. I used the Paint Brush Tool and then simply painted the detail that’s closest to the fire. On Jason, you can see this detail on his left side and more of it on the rubble in front of him.
Step 8: Adding movement and other blurs
Our composition is taking shape, but we need to remember that this is a sports piece and it is great to reflect the movement of sport and the athlete in the artwork.
Jason is a very powerful athlete so to illustrate the power of his movement I added debris around him. I duplicated two pieces of concrete from the debris pile in front of him, and then shaped them into smaller pieces by erasing from the edges using a Mask Layer. Then once again, using my fine art skills I drew smaller pieces of debris with the Paint Brush Tool.
To add movement to all those new elements, I applied a Motion Blur filter and then angled the blur in a particular direction to make it seem like they are flying off Jason.
Ipad Affinity Photo Undo
To illustrate movement on Jason, I then duplicated his layer, rasterised it, and added a Motion Blur filter. I then added a Mask Layer to hide most of the blur with the Paint Brush Tool and kept just a little bit of it on his left side around the rugby ball, leg, arm and head. I also added a Motion Blur filter to the ‘Bright Light Reflection layer’ I created around him.
I wanted the pile of debris in front of Jason to be out of focus, so to do that I simply give that layer a Gaussian Blur effect from the Layers panel.
Step 9: Polishing and touch-ups
This is the final stage and also my favourite. The composition has everything we want and looks great but there is a great technique I like to use to bring out the best in some of the features and effects.
Apply a Merge Visible to create a single image copy of the composition, then duplicate it so there is two of them. Then on the first merged image, select the Develop Persona on the top toolbar and click the Basic panel on the right-hand toolbar to open it.
Set the Exposure to 94%, Clarity to 100%, Vibrance to 24%, Temperature to 24% and Shadow to 6%. Select Develop to develop it and then on the second duplicate we created apply the same steps, except this time make the Temperature -30%.
What you then get is two versions of the image; one that has more orange colour in the sky and one with a richer blue tone. Note how beautiful the glow is coming out of the flames as well as the reflections. That comes from the Exposure we increased in the Basic panel.
Ipad Manual For Affinity Photo
The last thing to do is move the bluer image Layer to the top (above the one with the orange sky), then add a Mask Layer to it. Use the Paint Brush Tool and set the Opacity to 100%. This allows us to completely mask and hide the sky to expose the orange sky from the image below. Finally, mask out a little bit of Jason to give him a bit more orange reflection from the sky.
The artwork is now complete and ready to add onto a trading card template, poster or to use for social media graphics if you wish.
I hope this process breakdown was helpful to you and it inspires you to have a go at creating your own high-impact sports photo composition.
Ipad Affinity Photo
Install linux on a mac. To see more of Tinashe’s artwork, check out his website advantagelinesportsdesigns.com, Behance profile and Instagram.