Effective Chameleon Imaging

jason_the_adams

Lately I've been trying to discover the full potential of chameleon imaging and using the palettes. It's been going quite well and the panels are reaching a customizability I wouldn't have otherwise figured could have been so easy. Yet, I am having a considerable amount of difficulty effectively getting white to display in said images; here's my issue:

I understand how the whole chameleon process works, so what I've found works best to create a good looking button - for example, a metal rim button with a chameleon center - I created a bitmap image (see attached) which is the rim with a black center, and two stated chameleon buttons with the black border. The black center, especially, catches any blue and black in the red and green chameleon which would otherwise create transparency, but instead darkens the button as I predicted.

White, however, is another issue.

The white, to clarify, ends up turning into whichever color renders first in the drawing order of the image. Therefore, I've tried to avoid the use of white in my chameleon images, however I've found this is extremely difficult if I still wanted to create any sort of a beveled look - or otherwise suffice with a flat looking image. At best I've created a sort of half-beveled look wherein the black appears just fine, but the white renders as the drawn color. I realize I could use the fill color to index the button itself and use the border to draw the white for me, but this limits my capability with the buttons to a frusterating containment.

With all that said - and it will be a miracle if my rambling is understood - my question boils down to if anyone else has had such struggles with this and found any way around it. I really wish the chameleon imaging would work slightly different any pay attention to the RGB channels while acknowledging and preserving the gray channels within the image. This is would be more work for the designers, but I'm hoping by asking really nice that can be overlooked. Anywho, if anyone has any tips and/or insight on this, please do share.

Thanks!

~Jason

ccoburn

Since the Red and Green channels are the border and fill, any grey/white (which includes equal amounts of Red/Green/Blue will also fill with color.

I think you would need to create a separate graphic with a transparent area where your chamelion colors are. Then assign that as the button Bitmap and change the draw order to put the Bitmap at top. (Make sure your Chameleon mask is the same size as the overlay graphic, or it will crop the overlay since the button shape comes from the Chameleon.)

I think this would make it possible to create a full color overlay to your chameleon image. Two graphics, one layered effect.

I am about to delve into a project that will be using chameleon colors, if I come up with something else, I'll let you know.

-Charlie

jason_the_adams

I figured it out as far as beveling goes; in a more complicated graphic this method may not work, but heck, it works for my intents and purposes so that's good enough for me.

I ended up changing the highlight mode in the embossing to #0000FF for a solid blue, changed the mode to Normal and maxed the opacity, to create a button beveled with nothing but the green, red and blue channels. From there I create a cooresponding bitmap which draws underneath the fill and border of the chameleon, the bitmap has the appropriate frame, but the center is a black/white gradient which matches the shading angle of the bevel - the white side goes under the blue in the chameleon while the black goes under the black shading.

Using this method, the blue turns transparent and the white bleeds through to create the highlights, the black bleeds through the black transparency and creates the shadows, and the gradient removes any strange visual which might otherwise be created by simply drawing white where the highlights are and black where the shadows are.

I like this method better than other alternatives as it allows me to keep the graphic down to a single button while simultaneously creating the effect I'm looking for.

Hope this helps!

~Jason

jason_the_adams

This is unrelated to the above issue, but I figured it still lands within the parameters of effectively designing with chameleon imaging, so I kept it in this thread.

I was wondering if there are any differences between using black and blue within a chameleon image. Does blue in any way take from the next layer of color, or does it simply create transparency exactly the same way black does?

Thanks!