Re: Here's a really nice one

[John Dowdell]

At 11:07 AM 5/7/98, Geoffrey J. Swenson wrote:

>Most of the

>chrome effects would be hard to do in flash. If objects were

>used to generate the effect, they would be too slow and/or

>too big and if bitmaps were used within flash, other than

>being able to reuse objects and some increased flexibility,

>the download sizes probably would be larger than his

>bitmaps.


Try a gradient... repeated black and white would do the trick. The

Transform Fill Tool can help in giving each piece a slightly different

pseudo-reflection.


(For a sky-like reflection, try a gradient that goes light blue to dark

blue, then switches sharply into ground colors at the horizon. Keep it very

plain, though... unlike 3D tools we don't have curved surfaces, and so

generic black/white detail is often the best for chrome.)


I just did a quick knockoff of one of Scott's panels in Fireworks... that

tool has the snapping, duplication, and beveling functions to make that

type of mechanical drawing. Another trick was to add some highlights with

overlaid feathered acute stars... sparklies help in defining lit edges.


You can also use partially-transparent overlays in Flash 3, to add

chrome-like reflections above a bitmap fill or such. But watch out if using

a lot of transparency... figuring out how those multiple layers should

blend together can add a bit to the costs of realtime animation. Testing

the design on a low-end clunker during work would help greatly.


jd




John Dowdell, Macromedia Tech Support, San Francisco CA US


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