Nogami
13th June 2002, 22:05
I was watching Big Trouble in Little China, and was curious how they did some of their menus. Specifically one of the bad guys (lightening) shooting out lightening bolts out at the buttons as you changed the selection.
Problem was that they were obviously using more than a 4bit image for the bolts, because they looked really good without any aliasing.
So it got me to thinking on how they did it, and I think I've figured it out. It also provides some interesting possibilities for menu design that I hadn't previously considered.
I think they're doing masking.
In other words, have the default "button state" colour on the menus set to pure black, and set the transparency so it's totally opaque. Then set the "button selected" colour so the black is totally transparent.
When the button is selected, the mask is removed, and the background image behind the mask is visible to the user to be selected as if it was just enabled.
It's a very effective way of creating buttons that look really nice without the 4 bitplane overlay restrictions that we all know and love.
It may have been mentioned before, but it's a technique which others may find useful - naturally, it works best with a black menu background (or perhaps white), but it does have applications.
N.
Problem was that they were obviously using more than a 4bit image for the bolts, because they looked really good without any aliasing.
So it got me to thinking on how they did it, and I think I've figured it out. It also provides some interesting possibilities for menu design that I hadn't previously considered.
I think they're doing masking.
In other words, have the default "button state" colour on the menus set to pure black, and set the transparency so it's totally opaque. Then set the "button selected" colour so the black is totally transparent.
When the button is selected, the mask is removed, and the background image behind the mask is visible to the user to be selected as if it was just enabled.
It's a very effective way of creating buttons that look really nice without the 4 bitplane overlay restrictions that we all know and love.
It may have been mentioned before, but it's a technique which others may find useful - naturally, it works best with a black menu background (or perhaps white), but it does have applications.
N.