changing colors, maintaining shadows

[uogecko]

Hi there - I'm building a tool that will allow users to visually change colors
on a garment i.e. right sleeve is red, left sleeve is blue, etc.

The base artwork is in Illustrator - black and white highlights and shadows
give it a 3D look but are only possible via gradient meshes.

Ideally I'd place a sleeve shape below the shadows and hilights in Flash,
change the shape's color to red, and set the shadow/hilight image to use a
multiply transparency effect.

I'm starting to realize that multiple is not available in Flash - just
transparency value control. Any ideas? Changing the transparency of the
shadow/hilight layer makes the shadows dull and the colors pale....

Thanks for your help! Much apprecaited!

G

[danielyb]

You might try rendering your hilights and shadows into a bitmap file in
photoshop with a transparent background, and saving it as a PNG file that you
could lay over your base shape. You should be able to get subtle gradients this
way. I was going to send you a sample file you could try, but it looks like
that section of the website is down at the moment.

- Dan

[uogecko]

Thanks - I think that we actually found a solution. It looks like if we use
advanced color tweening we can actually adjust the RGB values while maintaining
the dark shadows and light hilights. The only forseeable problem is dark
shadows on black - a black garment loses it's 3D look without shadows or
hilights - I think what we'll do is make a second version of the shadows that
are actually light in color that we'll switch to when the RGB values are dark.

Thanks for your help!