My Own Experience with Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer, with Art as a Hobby

I ditched Adobe because of that ridiculous subscription model. Fortunately, I was able to get Affinity Photo. I decided to get the whole package of Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, and Affinity Publisher--all replacements of Adobe applications that once made up my childhood. I'm not willing to pay an expensive fee for nostalgia's sake. I want to save my work on my PC, not in Adobe Cloud! Anyway, it was something when I decided to experiment with both Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer.

Back then, I ditched Microsoft Paint for Adobe Photoshop. It was back when I could borrow someone's CD and install it on my PC. Right now, I'm using Affinity Photo over Microsoft Paint for the same reasons why I used Adobe Photoshop over Microsoft Paint. The incorporation of layers and the easy movability of objects made it ideal for artwork. In college, I learned to use CorelDRAW. However, I think I'll use Affinity Designer since I'm not a professional graphic artist!

One needs to take a look at what Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer are for. Affinity Photo is primarily for pixel-based drawings. Affinity Designer is for vector-based drawings. Vector graphics have an infinite scaling ability. That means I can stretch it much more than I could pixel-based photos. However, vector graphics can lack detail, something that pixels can only do.

I tried Affinity Designer and found it trickier. For one, the Vector Cropping tool doesn't remove unwated spaces in the workplace. Instead, it's all about removing unwanted spaces in the vector art, not the workspace. That means I should only use Affinity Designer if I intend to use the entire workspace.

Here's a picture I made of Lake Sohoton from Surigao. Sure, I can make this in Affinity Photo but there are some features Affinity Designer can do that Affinity Photo couldn't. I could actually use the AFDesign file version (the above photo is already converted to raster, sorry in advance) to have it stretched to bigger lengths. Affinity Photo would be more ideal for painting--such as using it in a similar way as one would draw in MS Paint.

However, if I just want to draw a jellyfish (above), I might as well Affinity Photo like I would use MS Paint. Well, except that Affinity Photo can make me do much more in making raster graphics than MS Paint ever would! I would want to make my jellyfish with an adjustable size, remove any unwanted space, and just make a pixel version. Why would I use Affinity Designer just to make that one jellyfish? It would be a huge waste of space IMHO.

Affinity Designer would be more ideal if one were drawing an isometric design. I drew some of these isometric designs simply for fun. I would use Affinity Photo IF I just wanted to draw a crab. However, drawing crabs on the rice field would be more ideal to use Affinity Designer. The same goes for the rice terraces formation that I also drew. Affinity Photo's grid wasn't working for me, when I'm trying to make isometric designs. It could be possible with Affinity Photo, but Affinity Designer can handle isometric better.

As I explored both applications, I say it all depends on the needs and wants. If I want to draw more complex isometric art, I would go for Affinity Designer, all before creating the raster version. Affinity Photo would be more ideal for playing with photographs, such as if I want to make a collage or some arts, like the 3D-looking jellyfish I presented earlier on. However, it seems Affinity Designer is forcing me to use the whole canvas or make much bigger art. I end up using the whole space, only being able to adjust the canvas size, but not trim out the whole document!

Pretty much, I've had fun with these Adobe replacements. Both products have professionals and non-professionals, in mind.

Venezuela as a Cautionary Tale on #SahodItaasPresyoIbaba, Nationalistic Pride, Welfare State Economics

The Sunday Guardian Years ago, I wrote about Venezuela's pride and protectionism , under a more "formal" style of writing compared to my latest posts. I decided to use an even "less formal" and "less academic" tone since I'm not writing a term paper. Instead, it's like how a professor and a student discuss the thesis using first person over third person, using contractions, etc., while the thesis doesn't use such tones. Back on track, I thought about the arrest of Venezuelan President Maduro can spark debate. Was it a violation of sovereignty? I'm no expert on international law. However, Venezuelans can be seen celebrating Maduro's arrest. Right now, I'm using Gemini AI and Google search to help me find some sources for this blog. It's because I don't want my blog to become another gossip central, but a place to discuss facts with my own personal opinions (making sure they don't derail the facts). I used Venezuela ...

Venezuela's Pride and Protectionism

The Telegraph Venezuela is an oil-rich country yet it's a very poor country. Somebody could go ahead and give every unthinkable reason such as "foreign investments caused it" (a blatant lie) and "It's because America had economic sanctions in Venezuela". Yet, the answer can be found in several causes such as corruption. Yet, China and Vietnam, which can be seen to still have a good amount of corruption, are far more successful. The answer also lies in one policy--economic protectionism . The very idea that a country that first world countries used "protectionism" to succeed is a lie as proven by Venezuela's ongoing crisis. A common-sense examination of one root cause of Venezuela's continuing crisis Forbes magazine mentions this in "What Do Investors Need To Understand About Venezuela's Economic Crisis?" by Nathaniel Parish Flannery on December 21, 2016: Venezuela is far and away the worst-managed economy in the Americas . Ad...

Davide vs. Mahathir: Which Lolo Should Filipinos Take Economic Advice From?

The real issue isn't that something is old or new. Instead, if something old or new still works, or doesn't work! Many modern laws are built on some ancient principles, while adjusting to the current times! The Constitution of Japan is actually older than the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines. However, it's more effective for the reasons that (1) their constitution is silent when it comes to regulating economic activities (ex., protectionist measures), and (2) it's a parliamentary system. Honestly, it's a pretty straightforward constitution compared to ours! As Mahatir Mohamad turned 100 today, I would like to raise up Atty. Hilario G. Davide Jr. once again. The problem isn't Davide's age but his unwillingness to embrace change when needed (read here ). This time, it's time to bring up a contrast between wise old people and unwise old people. A young person can be right where the old person is wrong. A young person can be wiser because he or she lea...

Filipino Manufacturing's Golden Age ENDED Because of the Filipino First Policy

Here's a picture from the Dose of Disbelief Page on Facebook. Here's something that it wrote: Filipinos once trusted locally made products more than imports. Before World War II, the label "Made in the Philippines" carried prestige, not stigma, reflecting a strong sense of national confidence in domestic production. Local products such as shoes, cigars, textiles, furniture, and food were often preferred over imports. This preference was rooted in the belief that local goods were better adapted to local conditions, tastes, and were often of comparable, if not superior, quality. This period showcases a strong historical era of consumer nationalism and thriving local industries. We need to look into the context of Filipino history If we look at the Philippine history timeline , we must account for 1935-1940, during which the Philippines was under the Commonwealth government. Independence was declared from Spain on June 12, 1898. However, there was a transition period w...

Confusing Foreign Direct Investment for Foreign Imperialism for the Bajillionth Time

I guess those fools of the Philippine Anti-Fascist League (and many of its deluded supporters) either refuse to get it or are blatantly lying. Almost every rally held by what many believe are CPP-NPA legal fronts also confuses foreign investors for foreign invasion or even foreign imperialism . Once again, do I need to say that 100% FDI ownership is all about the shares and not land ownership ? What makes it even more hypocritical is that they are actually recording these things on imported media . They're sharing their anti-FDI rants using imported devices, imported platforms, and imported social media (read here ). When I do ask them on Facebook, they say how can they take them seriously and that they're "simply forced to participate in capitalism". Did anybody (especially those they call "evil capitalists") force them to buy the expensive Apple equipment when they could've settled for Xiaomi or Huawei? A simple research on the dictionary will tell us...

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