New Gradient Pane

[Stephen Barncard]

Yes, I love the gradient feature. If you haven't yet -- check out the 
fillGradient property. It's a style property and uses the 3.0 multi 
layer property structure. It's actually a property set, with lists of 
lists inside.

One can actually set most of the gradient parameters of a graphic object by
set the fillGradient of graphic B to the fillgradient of graphic A

I can imagine someone will be making a tool to get further into 
control of this object.
For instance the the only way to 'get at' the list of gradient 
"stops" is by script:

fillGradient["ramp"]
	A return delimited list of gradient  stops (see below) that 
define the layout of the of the gradient.
A gradient stop is a comma is a comma delimited list of numbers that 
specify the following values:
position			- number between 0 and 1
red, green, blue 		- numbers between 0 and 255
alpha			- number between 0 (transparent) and 255 
(opaque), if omitted it is assumed to be 255.

A simple iTunes-like ramp would be described like this:
0.01389,195,200,174
0.98610,252,253,230

there's a lot of "stuff" in here!   As it turns out, the built-in 
gradients open up new avenues of gui and gauge design.



>I just spent the afternoon getting to know the new Gradient Pane and 
>reproduced a GUI sample from online. The result? I am very happy 
>with the gradients and especially with the blending of highlights 
>and shadows and borders and fills. WOW this really makes creating 
>gradients a great part of my tool set. I used to have to go straight 
>to Photoshop and back again but now these gradients are really 
>possible in RR and fully scriptable to boot.
>Very impressed.
>Demo Skin on left and Revolution skin on the right. (Other than the 
>OS specific controls the Revolution one is awesome.)
>http://gallery.me.com/mcgrath3#100236/Picture-2033&bgcolor=black
>Tom McGrath III

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stephen barncard
s a n  f r a n c i s c o
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