My first Knob Stack adventure using Affinity Designer

synkrotron · 01-16-2020, 08:00 AM

I said I wasn't going to bother with knob stacks but my curiosity got the better of me.

I wanted to utilise Affinity Designer so that I could design the knob using vectors. I find it easier to use vectors, especially at such a small pixel level.

Before I could do anything, though, I had to do some Affinity research first.

Because my stack has a total of 49 knobs I didn't want to have to come up with a design first, and then copy and rotate each knob to suit.

Affinity allows you to create a "symbol" which can then be copied any number of times around a document. Then, as long as you have "sync" turned on, you can make edits to any of the symbol instances and that change is reflected across the board.

It took a while, and I have since watched a knobman tutorial so I'm wondering if I should have used that instead. Oh well, at least I learned a little bit more about Affinity.

Here is my initial simple knob:-

And then I added 12 indentations around the outside, which is almost lost at this size:-

Quite a few "firsts" here... First time I have tried LICEcap

cheers

andy

EvilDragon · 01-16-2020, 08:05 AM

BTW there's a tool for making knob stacks called JKnobMan... requires Java but it is pretty simple and gets the job done...

https://www.g200kg.com/jp/software/knobman.html

synkrotron · 01-16-2020, 08:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EvilDragon

BTW there's a tool for making knob stacks called JKnobMan... requires Java but it is pretty simple and gets the job done...

https://www.g200kg.com/jp/software/knobman.html

Hi ED,

Yes, I did mention knobman in my original post. I will definitely have a look at that.

Although I had heard of knobman, I thought it was something that allowed you to import a PNG or similar but it does appear to work with vectors inside the software.

cheers, and thanks,

andy

Mordi · 01-16-2020, 09:09 AM

I've got something for you, synkrotron!

If you download AutoHotKey, you can automate this process fairly easily - with some scripting. It's a nifty program that can automate key-presses, mouse-inputs and a lot more.

Demonstration video

Download my script here.

Make sure to set the origin point to the center of the knob, by enabling the transform origin:

I use version 1.1.27.03 of AHK, so I'm not sure whether the latest version is compatible or not.

synkrotron · 01-16-2020, 11:38 AM

Thank you Mordi, I will have a look at that

hopi · 01-20-2020, 05:44 PM

knobman is the way to go...

takes some learning but worth it...
once you 'get it' you can do endless variations pretty fast...

lerian · 01-20-2020, 08:38 PM

Knobman comes with some pre-made projects, open them up and see what parameters are using. There are only few settings to change: steps in preferences (must be odd number), check oversampling 4x to get smooth knobs, then in the right window modify some angle (from, to), and mask from -140 to 140, and if you make pan knobs there is a stop at zero i think. Play with angles zoom, colors, alpha, stack up layers, and thats all about it. It takes few minutes to understand what does what then its a breeze.

hwhalen · 01-20-2020, 10:36 PM

I knew you couldn't resist....

Knobman:-)

uksnowy · 01-22-2020, 02:57 AM

This keeps popping up in my YT feed. Gets me every time..

synkrotron · 01-22-2020, 03:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by uksnowy

This keeps popping up in my YT feed. Gets me every time..

Yes, one had to LOL momentarily

synkrotron · 01-22-2020, 03:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hopi

knobman is the way to go...

takes some learning but worth it...
once you 'get it' you can do endless variations pretty fast...

I will definitely try it one day, I am sure.

At the moment I am done faffing with my theme and I'm now faffing with my ambient stuff instead...

synkrotron · 01-22-2020, 03:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lerian

Knobman comes with some pre-made projects, open them up and see what parameters are using. There are only few settings to change: steps in preferences (must be odd number), check oversampling 4x to get smooth knobs, then in the right window modify some angle (from, to), and mask from -140 to 140, and if you make pan knobs there is a stop at zero i think. Play with angles zoom, colors, alpha, stack up layers, and thats all about it. It takes few minutes to understand what does what then its a breeze.

Thank you for the tips lerian