Smooth, satiny, curved gradient-fill effect for buttons and bars -- How to?

[Richiebee]

Firstly its essential to be viewing in 24 or 32 bit color. 16 bit just
doesn't cut it. That said, exported GIF's with only 8 bit color and 100%
dithering can look perfectly smooth even on a 16 bit display. It's an
illusion, but it works. If JPG's appear blocky its usually overdoing it with
the compression or in some cases underdoing the compression. Viewing in 16
bit color will also make them appear blocky.
Secondly, it is possible to overdo gradients and make them appear unsmooth
even on 24 or 32 bit color - if the distance covered by the gradient is
large, there is a greater possibility of this happening. If the distance
between the colors used at each end of the gradient are extreme, there is a
greater possibility of this happening.
Effects such as sharpening and some extreme color settings (contrast and
curves in particular) can make the gradients appear stepped also. It'll just
take some practice and restraint to avoid these steps in your gradient.

Gradients can be saved as styles - open the styles panel and save gradients
for successful objects. Another way would be to clone your button to get
exact copies. If you just want to change the color, I find it often makes
most sense to make the original object grayscale, then apply a Color Fill
from the Live Effects secion of the Properties panel. Hue/Saturation can
also give color to a grayscale object. This allows you to make new objects
with different colors without changing the actual fill settings. Here's an
example - [url]http://www.richiebee.ca/new/[/url] - the two buttons on the right share
the same fill and effect settings, but with different color settings
(Hue/Saturation).


Rich


--
Richie Bee
[url]www.richiebee.ca[/url]
Team Macromedia Volunteer for Fireworks
[url]www.macromedia.com/go/team[/url]
-iii<O







"Rainwalker" <Rainwalker@TheBookstore.com> wrote in message
news:t8rqgv0j9po5c9iju78a9fofghverolr5r@4ax.com...

>
> I want to make various colored navbar buttons and interface elements
> that use the smooth, satiny, curved gradient-fill effect that is seen
> all over the place now ---- Examples: Windows Media Player 9,
> [url]http://www.ultraweaver.com/[/url] and in many of the skins at
> [url]http://www.wincustomize.com/skins.asp?library=1[/url] or
> [url]http://www.wincustomize.com/skins.asp?AuthorID=552[/url]
>
> I've followed the tutorials on Ultraweaver.com with great success, but
> when it comes to making my own buttons with consistently smooth color
> ramps, I can't seem to get it quite right. So, here are my two
> questions:
>
> 1. Is there a special technique, style, or extension for making those
> curved or caved-in fills on buttons?
> 2. Secondly, once I get a button looking the way I want, how can I
> create another button for the down state in a different color, but
> with the exact same gradient? (Other than fiddling around with the
> settings for an hour!)
>
> This is driving me crazy. Any help will be greatly appreciated. I'm
> using the MX Suite.
> Thanks!
> -------- Rainwalker

[Rainwalker]

On Thu, 10 Jul 2003 22:16:55 -0230, "Richiebee" <rich@richiebee.ca>
wrote:

Thank you for the detailed answer. I'll go see what I can do with it
now. And by the way, those are some gorgeous buttons.
I appreciate your help!

--- Rainwalker