Why is Konfabulator "Pretty?"

[Bill Marriott]

Hi Scott,

> I was going to respond to your previous post, and I still might, but in
> short: 1) you are right, rotating an image does not produce good results 
> in
> Rev no matter how it is done, and 2) it is sometimes more work to create
> "sexy" interfaces in Rev, but it is still doable.

Thanks for your reply.... I'm glad I'm not missing something obvious.

> As far as your clock app goes, I would look at creating the various
> positions of the hands as antialiased bitmaps outside of Rev since, as you
> discovered, image rotation is not as good as it should be.  The import the
> images, and use a button to serve as a "display" for the images, but 
> setting
> the icon of the button to appropriate image at the right time:

The "frames" method of animating the hands did occur to me, but I wasn't yet 
up to the task of creating 180 images (60 each for hours, minutes, and 
seconds). Plus this would result is a huge distro -- like 500K or more just 
for those pictures.

Also, I think a really nice aspect of the K. clock is that you can set the 
color of the face and the rim to anything you like. Even sexier, the rest of 
the UI elements adapt. If you pick a "dark" background, the hands and date 
display switch to complementary tints.

Poking through the JavaScript supplied with the K. clock, I see the author 
accomplishes this with a "colorize" command applied to the PNG image. I 
think I can colorize in Rev, but this is only possible by using a blending 
mode in combination with another object. In other words, if I have a 50% 
grey PNG of the hands, to make them green I have to put a green object 
"behind" the hands and set the appropriate blend style.

Am I right about this, or is there a way of colorizing an object directly?

I wanted to try some other things, and you'll see the results of my efforts 
on that in a little while.

> IMO, getting images from Photoshop into Rev (or Konfabulator) is not what
> makes for a visually appealing UI -- it's what is done with Photoshop (or
> other image editor) that counts.

You're right of course. Someone could create junk in PS that looks like junk 
when assembled in Rev. But undeniably, the illustration tools in PS are 
pretty swift, and so you can easily do stuff like gradients and drop shadows 
and "gel" looks. When it looks pretty in PS, you run their little tool and 
you automagically have a pretty template to wire up with JavaScript. It's 
almost as if you could draw your UI with the world's best art tool then turn 
on a "coding" palette to make it come alive. I have to admit that it's 
tempting to learn JavaScript now. (But xTalk would be better by far!)

> For more inspiration, I believe Rev has a sample app gallery somewhere on
> their site.  At the risk of tooting my own horn, you're welcome to see 
> here
> for additional examples of more "dimensional" things built in Rev:
> <http://www.tactilemedia.com/samples/applications/>.

Yes, I've been to your site before and your stuff looks utterly fantastic!

Bill


"Scott Rossi" <scott at tactilemedia.com> wrote in 
message news:BFB8A4D8.28FDC%scott at tactilemedia.com...
<snip>
> Scott Rossi
> Creative Director
> Tactile Media, Multimedia & Design
> -----
> E: scott at tactilemedia.com
> W: http://www.tactilemedia.com