Button Highlight using Color Channel

Paul Masters wrote on 2/21/2009, 10:07 AM
According to the book, when setting a button Highlight Mask Style to Custom and Mask mapping to Color channel:
"A pixel contining any red channel component uses the color set's fill color (color 1), a pixel containing any green channel component uses the color set's anti-alias color (color 2), a pixel containing any blue component uses the color set's outline/background color (color 3), and a completely black pixel uses the color set's transparent color (color 4)."
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I have created a mask in PhotoShop with red, green and blue areas and the rest transparent. Each color area is that 'pure' color, that is 255 for the desired color and 0 for the rest. IE: R-255, G-0, B-0. R-0, G-255, B-0. R-0, G-0, B-255. This works as stated above. That isfor the selected color set, color 1 is used for the red areas, color 2 is used for the green areas and color 3 is used for the blue areas.
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However, when I add a black area (R-0, G-0, B-0) and activate color 4 - that is make A olther than 0 - say 255, all the transparent areas of the button are that color instead of just the black areas.
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Am I missing something? Or is there something I don't understand?
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How do I use all 4 colors where I want them as the text in the book implies?
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Thanks for any thoughts.
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Paul Masters

Comments

laer wrote on 2/21/2009, 11:07 AM
Sorry I don' t have an answer for you (as I'm very rusty in terms of the whole Highlight thing), but could I ask what book you are referring to? I am actually trying to find a reference to the button Highlight settings, as the manual doesn't mention it, nor can I find anything about it on the net.
Paul Masters wrote on 2/27/2009, 8:03 AM
In DVDA select Help then Contense and Index. Then select Index and key Button Masks. Select Button Masks from the list. Scroll to the bottom and click on Highlight Masks. Scroll down to #4 and it explains the Highlight mask mappng. Color channel is in the right column. (Easy to find isn't it <g>.)
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In the downloaded manual (PDF) search for Creating highlight masks. In that section it talks about the 3 mapping modes - including color channel.
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They both say the same thing and have for a number of versions.
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Thanks.
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Paul Masters
bStro wrote on 2/27/2009, 8:36 AM
Laer is looking for a description of each of the eight Highlight styles (Button Properties window > Highlight tab), not the three Mask mapping options. Neither the manual nor online Help explain them (highlight styles) in detail, but honestly I think it's easy enough to deduce each one just by trying them out. It should've been in the manual, though.

With regard to your findings while using the Color Channel mask mapping mode, I would guess that "black" and "transparent" are being used interchangeably -- though just for this instance. After all, interpreting them differently would require five "channels" -- red, green, blue, black, and transparent. I'm actually a bit surprised that they would even mention black since it's just a combination of the first three colors.

If you just use red, green, blue, and black in your highlight mask, can you get the effect you're going for (by giving color #4 an Alpha of zero)? Or do you need four colors and transparent areas as well? I'm guessing that can't be done. Far as I know, the DVD specs limit highlights to four colors, and in this situation transparent counts as a "color."

Rob
Paul Masters wrote on 3/8/2009, 12:52 PM
Black is no color (R=0, B=0, G=0) not a combination which would be white (R=255, B=255, G=255) or somewhere in between with RGB greater than 0.
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Reading your reply, I see that what I was looking for was red, green, blue, black and transparent. That is, 4 colors and transparent.

The way the text reads, it appears that you can have 4 colors, when in reality you can only have 3.
The fourth, in this case black, indicates the color of the transparent pixels. This would be needed if a transparent backgroud was wanted but the image used didn't support transparency.
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But, if the background is transparent such as in a PSD or PNG image, then an image color pixel is not required.
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That's what I have now, #1-3 for colors and #4 alpha at 0 for transparency - and a transparent background.
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Actually, I only have 2 colors. This is because there are 2 types of buttons on the menu. One is 'bulit in' to the background and has motion and the other is static text added in DVDA.
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When you 'select' the non text button, it auto activates to another page which has the motion for that selection. I don't want the selection color of the text to appear 'over' the motion. The motion indicates what will be selected whtn enter is pressed.
I was hoping for more than 2 colors for the activate overlay. That's why I was trying to use #4 / black. But I need the transparency as well.
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Oh well, I guess I will have to wait until Sony adds the extended / enhanced menu creation for Blu Ray to DVDA, or someone else writes a product I can afford.
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Thanks.
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Paul Masters