CGTalk - Smart Gradients possible?

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the_podman

05-14-2004, 11:07 PM

Hi. I wanted to know if it was possible to create a gradient from light to dark or vice versa or from one color to another very much the way you would use the gradient tool.....but... with photoshop creating the gradient based on the shape of the selection?

I have tried to illustrate this manually to make myself clear.

If you look at the picture below, you'll see that the shapes are unique. Instead of a strait gradient, can the gradient accually follow the shape?

http://img32.photobucket.com/albums/v97/the_podman/1.jpg

Can it be turned into something like this with the gradient tool?:

http://img32.photobucket.com/albums/v97/the_podman/2.jpg

If not, do you know what app can do this? I have photoshop 7 and CS at school. Thanks

the_podman

05-15-2004, 01:10 AM

Illustrator, CorelDRAW, Freehand or any decent vector application.

You can also try to load a selection, contract it to some value, fill with a lighter shade, contract it againg fill with a even lighter shade and repeat that until you have a good "stair" and then blur it a lot with transparent pixels locked.

01 - Shape
http://dgmedia.port5.com/tips/blend_color_01.jpg

02 - Load Selection/ Contract Selection Fill with lighter shade
http://dgmedia.port5.com/tips/blend_color_02.jpg

03 - Blur it with transparet pixels locked
http://dgmedia.port5.com/tips/blend_color_03.jpg

Cheers,
dg

JCGA

05-15-2004, 09:06 AM

Even though I hate layer styles they can be quite helpful at times. Inner glow will do exactly what you want if you change the glow mode from "softer" to "precise".

05-15-2004, 11:51 AM

Good call! :thumbsup:

You bet the can help, but for some types of shapes, gradient inner glow doesn't behave that well, forcing you to either use a vector illustration app or finding alternative solutions inside PS.

Cheers,
dg

the_podman

05-15-2004, 10:06 PM

:applause:

Excellent!
diogo girondi:
You're method sounds the easiest and quickest for me. Thanks for such a clear demonstration!

This issue has stumped me for quite some time now and I'm glad I found the solution at last!

One quicky follow up question, though:

How do I set up the pallete so that the change from light to dark of the colors is even thoughout each contracted fill?

Thanks for all your help, guys
-Rod

05-16-2004, 09:43 AM

I'm not sure I get your point correctly, my english is very bad, but I got used to use HSB sliders and Current Colors ramp in the color pallete, this way is the one I found easier to deal with shades of the same color.

I just wish there was a easier way to do that inside PS, maybe in the next version, or maybe using scripts in PS it might be possible, but I'm since I'm far from being a coder we will have to wait for some real "Guru" shows up :)

Cheers,
dg

wolver1ne

05-16-2004, 02:44 PM

To get a rough pallete you can do this. Create a rect with whatever gradient you need. Create a Posterize layer, choose whatever number. Then either group those two layers or merge them.

That's pretty much it.. but like I said, it's very rough as you don't get extremly good pallete.

berniebernie

06-02-2004, 07:11 PM

instead of waiting for gurus - go look for them:

http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?14@184.bGhackRPCZH.968464@.ef7ec95

tevih

06-03-2004, 05:04 AM

You can just fill a gradient and select with the eyedropper tool the colors along the gradient. Also, following diogo girondi's idea, you can feather the selection a bit to make it softer, and blur again afterwards. This should give you a smooth transition.

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