Gradients and Color


Selecting Gradients

The list of names in the GRADIENTS panel is a list of gradient names. A gradient is a color ramp or palette. Click one to apply it to the screen. The current gradient is highlighted by a green outline.


Loading Gradients

Clicking the arrow at the upper right of a gradient listing will open a popup menu. The menu is a list of gradients available on your hard drive that can be loaded. Select the name to load the item into that position. To make the popup menu go away, click anywhere outside of the popup menu.


Previewing Gradients on Your Hard Drive

You can preview a gradient on your hard drive by pausing the cursor over the name in the popup menu. A preview will appear in the upper left panel of the Controls Window.


Gradient Preview Bar

Click any of the right arrows to see a preview of any gradient to the left. The animating preview will disappear if you move the cursor out of the clicked area.


Gradient Settings Panel

Click the gradient icon to open the GRADIENT SETTINGS Panel. This panel allows you to set the color speed and direction or save a gradient set.

Color Speed Slider: Drag the slider to adjust the color speed of the current gradient. The speed is defined by the number of shifts per second. It takes 135 shifts for the gradient to complete a full rotation. The left side of the slider makes the color movement go in reverse. Note: The maximum color speed is dependent on the speed of your computer.

Gradient Set Popup: If you like a certain set of gradients, you can save the set to your hard drive and recall the set at any time. You can save the set to any name that is 15 characters or less. You can load a set by selecting it from the popup menu by name. Once loaded, the set name will display in the text box. However, once a new item is loaded, the text box will display "(None)". The item that was highlighted when the set was saved is made the active item when the set is loaded.


Rainbow Bars

The rainbow bars are a way to colorize the current gradient. The gradient is "leaned" towards a color in the spectrum. Some gradients, such as "Rainbow," do not respond to colorization. A gradient actually has two sections -- a brush gradient and a fill gradient. Click within the top rainbow bar to colorize the current brush gradient with the selected color. Click within the bottom rainbow bar to colorize the current fill gradient. The popup menus to the right of the rainbow bars list color effects you can apply to the screen.


Color Settings Panel

Click the sound waves icon to open the COLOR SETTINGS Panel. This panel allows you to change the color kick setting or load a color effect.

Color Kick Slider: Drag the slider to adjust the color kick setting. Color kick is the amount of color speed shifting that occurs in response to sound. To create a back and forth motion, select a direction that is the opposite of the color speed direction.

Color Effect Popup: Color effects control how the current gradient responds to sound. You can attach a color effect to either the brush gradient or the fill gradient or both. To load an effect, select any of the listed effects in the popup menu. The default effect has the name "(None)". If you use an effect that is not "(None)", the program will run a little slower since the effects require more computer processing.

There are 4 types of color effects. "Base" effects mean that the gradient starts with a base color and then grows towards the full gradient as volume increases. "Add" effects mean that the full gradient grows towards a specific color as volume increases. "Out" effects mean that a specific color is removed from the gradient as volume increases. "In" effects are the opposite of "Out" effects. The specific color is removed entirely from the gradient and then added back in as volume increases.

Brightness: The color effect popup menus provides a "Brightness..." command. This command will display a brightness slider which enables you to adjust the brightness of either gradient.

Saturation: The color effect popup menus provides a "Saturation..." command. This command will display a saturation slider which enables you to adjust the gradient's saturation. Saturation is defined as how much color is added to the gradient. A setting of zero means that the gradient is composed of only grays.


Keyboard Shortcuts

C (Color) will trigger a change to the brush gradient color. Set a specific color by typing 1 to 120 first.
G (Gradient) will trigger a gradient change. Set a specific gradient by typing 1 to 8 first.
J (Jiggle) will update the color kick setting. Must be preceded by typing -50 to 50 first.
K (Kolor) will trigger a change to the fill gradient color. Set a specific color by typing 1 to 120 first.
O (Overall) will trigger a change to both the brush and fill gradient colors. (New feature as of 9/26/01.)
R (Rotation) will update the color speed. Must be preceded by typing -60 to 60 first.


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