Transparent/SemiTransparent Pictures
Hi all, I want to create some scrolling text in a patch for a Help file (or some other artsey purpose ;) I'm pretty sure I'll just make the text as an image rather than using the Comment box (because the Comment box seems to resize itself and screw up the formatting... any thoughts on that too?)
I'm going to just put the long vertical text-picture into a bpatcher and provide controls for scrolling up and down, speeds, and a slider (all using the offset message to the embedded thispatcher). That part is straightforward. What I'd like to do is have several small "fade zones" towards the top and bottom of where the textbox/pic scrolls. Purely aesthetic reasons -- the text would look like it "fades" in and out at the top and bottom -- i.e., goes behind a rectangular pic with a gradient from (background color) to (transparent).
No problem to make the pics in Photoshop, and no problem using them in other programs that let you add transparent images. However, when I add them in Max it looks like there's a flat "on/off" line of transparency rather than a smooth fade. I tried GIF and PNG-24. Would I want to use a pictcontrol? or just the picture from PICT file?
Thanks!
-CJ
On 12-Sep-2006, at 6:32, Seejay James wrote:
> (because the Comment box seems to resize itself and screw up the
> formatting... any thoughts on that too?)
I've noticed this, too.
For instance, I edited a patch, added some text in 12 pt Geneva
(which is saved as "Sans Serif") and when I re-opened the patch the
text was rendered at 127 pt. When I went re-edited the file, setting
the font size to 12 pt and saving changes, the size change then stuck
and I've not had the problem with the file again. Touch wood.
I've also had problems with comment boxes changing size dramatically.
It's usually happened with copy & paste from an old patch to a new
one; after closing the new patch with pasted comment boxes (or whole
subpatchers pasted in) and reopening, the comment boxes are often
much wider (and with fewer lines). I think this is an issue with the
new window linecount messsages used in patcher files since 4.5 or so.
Again, after manually correcting the comment box size once or twice,
I can finally convince Max to do what I want. But this is
frustrating... it feels like training a dog to do tricks.
To the Support folks: I know the above is not in the form of a bug
report, but the problems are so erratic that it's impossible to nail
them down to a repeatable set of reproducable steps. If you have some
suggestions on what information would help track down these anomalies
after they've occured, I will endeavor to provide it.
-- Peter
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[lcd] is far beyond perfect - but still more "straight forward"
than using bpatchers for online help systems. :)
-110
I believe pictslider is the only object supporting variable transparency masks (pictctrl is on/off), although if anyone wants to correct me on that I'd be happy to know of any others. This is also for the knob only - not the background picture. The help file also says something about transparent backgrounds and translucent knobs not redrawing properly when moved, but perhaps a translucent knob that could not move + transparent background would do the trick. On the other hand, perhaps when the text moves it will all go wrong It's not an ideal solution but (if it works) better than nothing....
Regards,
Alex
PS - Just checked it as i realised i had a slider picture that i could use ready done, and it works! The stuff about incorrect redraw with a moving knob + invisible background also seems to be untrue. This may be something to do with a bug report i made a year ago which led to a fix for other transparency issues, and the help file may just have not been updated.
Alex Harker wrote:
> I believe pictslider is the only object supporting variable transparency masks (pictctrl is on/off), although if anyone wants to correct me on that I be happy to know of any others. This is also for the knob only - not the background slider. The help file also says something about transparent backgrounds and translucent knobs not redrawing properly when moved, but perhaps a translucent knob that could not move + transparent background would do the trick. On the other hand, perhaps when the text moves it will all go wrong It's not an ideal solution but (if it works) better than nothing....
matrixctrl also supports alpha transparency in the overlay images. Cell
spacing can yield useful effects to the mix.
Seejay James wrote:
> Hi all, I want to create some scrolling text in a patch for a Help
> file (or some other artsey purpose ;) I'm pretty sure I'll just
> make the text as an image rather than using the Comment box (because
> the Comment box seems to resize itself and screw up the formatting...
> any thoughts on that too?)
Yeah, please bang cycling to get back to the ancient behaviour which was
not resizing. I vote for a choice in an inspector to either keep the
x-size (my preference) or the number of lines (setting now, it breakes
the visual ability to read ancient patchers. Yes it breaks old
patches!!! and renders some techniques unusable like dynamically putting
long filepaths in a message box...)
> I'm going to just put the long vertical text-picture into a bpatcher
> and provide controls for scrolling up and down, speeds, and a slider
> (all using the offset message to the embedded thispatcher). That part
> is straightforward. What I'd like to do is have several small "fade
> zones" towards the top and bottom of where the textbox/pic scrolls.
> Purely aesthetic reasons -- the text would look like it "fades" in
> and out at the top and bottom -- i.e., goes behind a rectangular pic
> with a gradient from (background color) to (transparent).
Maybe this is better done as JSUI or in jitter. Keep in mind, that
programming versus pictures might need more time in the beginning, but
in the end you would never need to touch Photshop for doing a differnt
text...
Stefan
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Stefan Tiedje------------x-------
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Peter Castine wrote:
> But this is frustrating... it feels like training a dog to do tricks.
Yes this is one of the most frustrating oddities in Max for me. The only
workaround is to copy/paste replace the offending objects. Very annoying...
Stefan
--
Stefan Tiedje------------x-------
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-- _|_)----|-----()--------------
----------()--------www.ccmix.com
one thing i've wanted to do for a while is make a big semitransparent grid to overlay on some graphics like multislider, or matrix. is that possible?
at the moment i have many text lines all over the place which are always getting out of place