I have been very curious about something in Ca2 as related to Affinity Designer. Hope it is ok to post this here.

In CA2 I can drag an ordinary, plain old png file with transparent background into the box where Punches reside and it becomes a shape and a curve, I believe. In my understanding it has become a vector where it was a png file before. Pure Magic!

If I then drag it out of the box and put it on an image, I can punch (boolean divide?) or punch through (boolean subtract?). The image I am punching into, doesnt seem to have to be converted to curves in CA2 for the punch to work.

I am very curious to know how an ordinary png file with transparent background can magically become a vector shape by doing the above in CA2.  Of course, I would like to do this in Affinity Designer, but I don't think that kind of magic is in Affinity Designer, lol. For a png file with transparent background to become a vector in AD, I have to trace around it and then fill to make it a solid silhouette. Is that correct?

I'm wondering if the Asset panel in AD is somewhat like that "Punches" box in CA2.

Thanks in advance!
Shirley