Students’ Favourite Affinity Designer Tutorials

At the end of this semester I asked the Communications Technology students to share which Affinity Designer tutorials were their favourites and why.

Following are their responses.

Creamsicle Vector
https://bit.ly/2FBzSbl

This was one of the tutorials that I found on my own, and I really enjoyed it. It was a fun tutorial that involved using a lot of basic tools in different ways to create a fun illustration.

Some of the skills used were masking, subtracting, changing stroke size, and changing fill opacity.

Retro Tutorial
https://bit.ly/2JSy93I

I enjoyed this tutorial as it involved a little bit of everything and taught me about reflections and node tools. It also got me to experiment with different tools and techniques.

I also learned the importance of grouping as it becomes very messy when there are 20 different lines and none were labeled.

Cute Rooster
https://bit.ly/2JVi1yJ

I enjoyed this tutorial because the end result turned out good and the instructions weren’t complicated. The tutorial also allowed you to customize your rooster to fit the theme that you want, not just Chinese New Year.

This tutorial taught me how to make advanced shapes using the pen tool. It also taught me why I need to group my layers together.

Flat Design Castle
https://bit.ly/2QUfpAw

This tutorial was one that I found. I liked it because of it’s symmetry and simple style. I liked it because it allowed freedom but also wasn’t very vague in it’s instructions, it struck a good balance between the two.

Some of the skills learned were Duplication of vectors and how to make things look like they have value.

Volkswagen Van
https://goo.gl/nwnN5i

Image result for Affinity Designer - Drawing a van

I really liked and enjoyed this tutorial for a couple of reasons. One, it was a super fun tutorial to follow and complete. Two, it really challenged you at some points. Three, it was a fun tutorial to follow and I had a great time doing it!

Also, I learned new techniques for the program which were very cool for me.

How to Create Patterns
https://bit.ly/2CqJnXq

I really liked this tutorial because it was very easy to follow. It was very clear and concise. It also looks really cool and complicated to make when in reality it was very simple. From this tutorial I needed a lot of patience, there was lots of little lines and very exact spacing measurements I needed to follow.

Python Trace
https://bit.ly/2HIIZEt

The video does a very good job on explaining on how to do the tracing but after showing you how to do one part of the snake it skips forward to coloring.

This Tutorial is very enjoyable but very tedious because there is a lot of repeating work but the enjoyable stuff is that you can customize the colors and stripes however you want and the finished project that comes out looks really nice.

Captain America Shield
https://bit.ly/2sUUPqt

I enjoyed this tutorial because it used a wide variety of skills and showed off the many parts of Affinity Designer while showing you a tangible way to use all of them.

Some skills I used include using different types of layers and how to use the pixel persona in Affinity Designer.

Festive Christmas Fireplace
https://bit.ly/2HLlv1o

I liked this tutorial because it was the most interesting out of all the tutorials and it didn’t take that long to make and it helped that the program was so good and it made is way easier and learning how to use it and fix my mistakes.


For those that don’t know about Affinity Designer, it’s what I’ve started using in class as an alternative to Adobe Illustrator. I just can’t substantiate paying Adobe’s ridiculous subscription fees when there is a fantastic and just as capable alternative available for a one-time fee of just $50 US.

See https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/designer/ for details.

Affinity Photo Tutorials

This list of tutorials has been recommended by my students (from this master list) and is a work in progress. The order of the tutorials is somewhat random right now but will be reordered based on student feedback.

  1. Beginners – Adjustments (difficulty: 1)
  2. Beginners – Exporting (difficulty: 1) (no assignment)
  3. Beginners – Filters (difficulty: 1)
  4. Beginners – Layers (difficulty: 1) (assignment: put a logo on a picture….your choice!)
  5. Removing background from Trees (Leaves selection) (difficulty: 1)
  6. Haze Removal (difficulty: 1)
  7. How to Change Eye Color (difficulty: 2)
  8. Inpainting (difficulty: 2)
  9. Layer Concepts (difficulty: 2) (no assignment)
  10. Shadows/Highlights (difficulty: 2)
  11. Curves (difficulty: 2)
  12. Clone Brush Tool (difficulty: 2)
  13. Refining Selections (difficulty: 2)
  14. Easily Create REALISTIC Light Beams (difficulty: 2)
  15. Adjustment Layers (difficulty: 3)
  16. Mask Layers (difficulty: 3)
  17. Affinity Photo Tutorial Manipulation Effects Editing (difficulty: 5) (Note 2)
  18. How to Retouch Skin in Affinity Photo (difficulty: 5) (Note 1)

You must do all the level 1 tutorials, a minimum of 5 level 2’s, and a minimum of 2 level 3’s, 4’s, and 5’s.

Note 1: take your own picture for this assignment.

Note 2: use only creative-commons photos for this assignment. Be sure to keep the links to your sources to give credit!

Affinity Designer Tutorials

Start Here…

  1. Affinity Designer 1.5 Overview
  2. Affinity Designer Tutorial – Top 10 Things Beginners Want to Know (a great overview video)
  3. The A to Z of Affinity Designer (“This A to Z list breaks down all the tools and panels, including some useful functions and features. It includes links to Affinity’s official short video tips and descriptions of what each tool can do to help you become acquainted with this program.”)

Tutorials

This is a work in progress…

  1. Affinity Designer Tutorial: The Basics (overview video) (difficulty: 0)
  2. Basic Eyes (very basic) (video tutorial) (difficulty: 1)
  3. Modern Logo (video tutorial) (difficulty: 1)
  4. 3D Cube (very basic) (video tutorial) (difficulty: 1)
  5. Beautiful Floral Design (video tutorial) (difficulty: 1)
  6. How To Make Reflections (video tutorial) (difficulty: 1)
  7. Ketchup for Blood Book Cover (blog w/ video tutorial) (difficulty: 1)
  8. Cute Ice Cream (video tutorial) (difficulty: 1)
  9. Shopping Logo (video tutorial) (difficulty: 1)
  10. Gear Head Logo (video tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  11. Easy Flat Design Character with Shading (video tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  12. Artistic Text (video tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  13. Metal Text (video tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  14. Dog Sketch Tracing | Part 2 (video tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  15. Glossy Sphere (video tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  16. Flat Clock Design (video tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  17. iPhone Setting Icon Logo (video tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  18. Fire Text Effect (video tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  19. Cute Cactus (video tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  20. Wood Text with Reflection and Shadow (video tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  21. Pumpkin Carriage (text tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  22. Flat Birthday Cake (text tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  23. Making Galaxy (video tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  24. Lighthouse (text tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  25. Water Drops (video tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  26. Water Dispersion Effect (video tutorial) (difficulty: 3)
  27. Metal Triangle (video tutorial) (difficulty: 3)
    Note: for this assignment make sure all corners are snapped together nicely. See me if you’re unsure how to do this.
  28. Let’s make BB8 (video tutorial) (difficulty: 3)
  29. Creamsicle Vector Illustration (video tutorial) (difficulty: 3)
  30. Retro Tutorial (video tutorial) (difficulty: 3-4)
  31. Festive Christmas Fireplace (video tutorial) (difficulty: 3-4)
  32. Frankentoon PDF (text tutorial – see me) (difficulty: 4)
  33. Captain America Shield (video tutorial) (difficulty: 4)
  34. Drawing a Van (video tutorial) (difficulty: 5)
  35. Cute Rooster (text tutorial) (difficulty: 5)
  36. Python Trace (video tutorial) (difficulty: 5) (image can be downloaded from here)

When submitting your files, please prepend the level number to the beginning of the filename. As an example, “Basic eyes.afdesign” would become “1_Basic eyes.afdesign”.

New Tutorials (need to determine levels)

  1. None at this time…

Note: There are many additional AD tutorials at tutsplus.com and frankentoon.com.

BTT1O

For the BTT1O students, you must do a minimum of 8 tutorials, with no more than one “level 1” tutorial. The two that are mandatory are:

  1. Python Trace
  2. Cute Rooster

TGJ2O/TGJ3M

For the TGJ2O and TGJ3M students, you must do all the level 1 tutorials, a minimum of 3 level 2’s, and a minimum of 2 level 3’s, 4’s, and 5’s.

For the TGJ2O and TGJ3M students, you must also find, complete, and recommend one addition tutorial for inclusion on this list. Please submit the name of the tutorial and the URL via the class comments in Classroom. Be sure no one has already submitted the tutorial you are recommending.

Just for Fun

Here are some extra Designer resources you might like. They are not tutorials but are still quite inspirational.