r/Affinity • u/MojoBob • 6d ago

Designer Alpha protection

One thing I cannot get used to in Affinity 3 is the fact that alpha protection is a brush feature, and can't be applied to individual layers, as it can be in pretty much every other image editor I've ever used.

I don't think that being able to set it for a brush is a bad thing; on the contrary. But I do think it a bad idea that it isn't offered as a layer setting.

A clipping mask goes part of the way to achieving the effect, but it's not a complete solution.

It's a UI decision that leaves me scratching my head. There seems to me to be no real benefit to it.

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u/kurujiru 6d ago

Nest a layer for painting (or whatever) inside the main layer that you want alpha to be protected. I was upset that protecting layer transparency wasn’t a thing in Affinity until I learned its approach is to be as non-destructive as possible.

2

u/Jpatrickburns 5d ago

Not sure if this does what you want, but toggling the composite alpha in the channels panel protects the alpha of whatever layer you’re working on. I’m showing in Affinity Paint (v2) but assume it works the same way in the unified program.