Saving custom colors?

[scubado]

I recently reconfigured my computers at home and am now able to use my laptop outside and remote into my show computer. I was playing around with the control panel in the Hardware Utility and was mixing colors with my RGB floods and created some nice colors for Easter. I got back on my main computer and found fading mixed values was a pain in the a$$, especially since the screen color doesn't match the actual color outside. I found I can create custom colors in the color fade tool, but if I close the program and restart, my colors are gone. Is there a way to save custom colors?

[ainsworth]

Unfortunately, pad and pencil are the best so far.

[George Simmons]

scubado wrote:

Is there a way to save custom colors?

Have you looked to see if it's in the "Recent Tools" list?

Have you tried saving it via the clipboard?

[scubado]

I looked in tools and preferences and didn't see anything. How would I be able to save colors in clipboard? It's for saving bits of sequencing, sure it will save the colors in the sequence, but to reuse the color elsewhere you still need to recreate the color. Or am I wrong on this?

[George Simmons]

scubado wrote:

I looked in tools and preferences and didn't see anything. How would I be able to save colors in clipboard? It's for saving bits of sequencing, sure it will save the colors in the sequence, but to reuse the color elsewhere you still need to recreate the color. Or am I wrong on this?

Go to VIEW > TOOL PANEL. Some people don't like it pinned to the upper left of the screen because they apparently can't control their mouse well enough to stay away from it when they don't need anything there. But for those of us who've mastered control of our mice, the Tool Panel is a one-stop shop of goodies that you can access quickly and easily with a single mouse click. That's where you'll find the Recent Tools list I referenced earlier.

That's also where you'll find access to clipboards. Once you've used your custom color in a cell of a sequence, it becomes one of those "bits of sequencing" you mentioned, and can be saved (and locked) to a clipboard just like any other bit of sequencing.

[Tim Fischer]

I made a small animation-only sequence where I can copy frequently-used colors. Not as good as something built-in, but it works...

[scubado]

I like Tim's idea, but it still doesn't work. If you have a certain color say red=70%, gr=10% and blue=30%. I want to turn on color fade tool, my selected color doesn't import into the color fade tool. Last year, I kept colors simple, I would use equal amounts, red 50%, blue 50%, to make purple. Fades were simple to do. Working with uneven mixes isn't so nice.

[Tim Fischer]

scubado wrote:

I like Tim's idea, but it still doesn't work. If you have a certain color say red=70%, gr=10% and blue=30%. I want to turn on color fade tool, my selected color doesn't import into the color fade tool. Last year, I kept colors simple, I would use equal amounts, red 50%, blue 50%, to make purple. Fades were simple to do. Working with uneven mixes isn't so nice.

It won't go into the color tool, but it works great with the color fill tool.

Let's say you want to fade from whatever the color currently is, to a reddish color in your saved file.

1) Copy and paste the redd from your 'color palette' file to the point in your sequence where you want the fade to END.
2) use the arrow tool, and select a blank (black) point between the two colors.
3) Use the color fill tool (F key I think, been awhile since I sequenced ) and LOR will automagically fade between the two colors.

Now if you want to fade from black to a custom color, that's a little trickier, since the color-fill tool sees black as "blank". What I did was create the "minimum gray" color (1, 1, 1) and save that in my file also. I then paste that where I want the start of my fade. Then I fill between that color and the desired color (also pasted in ) with the fill tool. Do note that with LED's, even the "minimum gray" color might be noticable, so you might want to delete the start cell where you pasted that color after the fill has been added.

Sounds confusing to write - but it works well, in lieu of better color options in the program...

[scubado]

Thanks Tim, great explanation:) I was just playing some more with the color fade tool, it only stores one custom color at a time too. Something to add to the wishlist I guess. I'll work on your idea tonight. Thanks again!

[ainsworth]

The color fade tool can store up to 16 custom colors. Open the color fade tool, then choose, pick one of the 16 boxes under custom colors and build your color, now add to custom colors.

As you originally noted, once you exit the sequence editor they all go away, which is a pain.

[George Simmons]

I don't mean to be a nag or a bully, but the software DOES provide a couple of ways for you to save custom colors. If you want to wait for someone else to come along and explain it, that's fine - I'm not the only genius around here. But if anyone decides they want to learn something and start saving their custom colors NOW, send me an email or PM and I'll tell you all about it.

Happy Easter.

[kevin]

There is a great little tool called Jovian2 that is a replacement for the Windows Color Chooser (which is what is used when you select colors or create new colors).

Jovian2 allows you to create multiple libraries of colors, it will also allow you to select a color that is on the screen. I really like the libraries since I can create multiple libraries i.e. I have one for Panatone colors, one for Crayola colors, one for vivid, as well as others.

Jovian allows custom colors to be created from Color Wheel, RGB, Hue, color hex number, and others.

It also will show you the Complementa, Triadic, tints and Shades, as well as other color math for the color selected.

Works with any program that uses the Windows Color Picker, and can be edited as to which programs use in and which ones don't.

Demo available at http://www.joviancolorpicker.com/ cost is only 25 bucks.

Kevin

[MikeH]

Your link doesn't work. This one will:

http://www.joviancolorpicker.com/