Changing object's color, but preserve luminosity?

[Tsun]

I want to give my object customizable colors, but I can't find a good way to do it.



I tried making an object with an ink effect on top of my main object, but none of them worked either.

[AyreGuitar]

There's no easy way with a single object, but there's a couple of ways I can think of:

1. Have 2 objects - one is the RGB coefficient object (use a PNG with white where you want the colour to be). Then have another object ontop that uses additive and has the specular component (the white areas in your example)

2. Have a transparent object on a white background and make the specular areas of your image semi-transparent - the more transparent the whiter it will be and use RGB coefficient. Alternatively have a white object behind it if you need it to move over other objects.

[Tsun]

I can't manage to get anything other than over-saturated and contrasty results with the ADD effect.

[Edit: actually, add is okay I think?, but it still prevents me from getting the saturation I want.]

I made another image in photoshop where the dark colors equal transparency and white parts are visible, and it works pretty ok. It leaves me much less control over the saturation of the color though.



edit2: I actually found out a way, more or less. I made an image in photoshop where any color from mid-gray is black, and then goes up, and then made the black parts invisible. And then another image with the opposite for light colors. It requires 3 image files (2 of which have an alpha channel) though, which highly increases filesize and my workload.

[MuddyMole]

"Multiply" would make more sense than "Add", but really you just want a pixelshader to adjust the Hue/Saturation/Lightness - I don't know if anyone has made one already, but if not, just google it and I'm sure you'll find something that can be easily adapted to work in MMF2.

[Tsun]

But getting the bright colors to show up was the problem. I don't know any shader plugins either, maybe I should look for one.

Here's a MFA if someone wants to see how I did it. https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32968627/Recolor.mfa
It's very inconvenient though, and you need photoshop or something to make the white mask.

[MuddyMole]

See, it's really not hard to google for a pixelshader and then just create an .xml file for MMF2: http://sdrv.ms/X6VMGh

[Tsun]

Ah thanks, that seems pretty neat.
It's not compatible with flash though, which /might/ be a problem. And also Android.

I actually figured a way to make a perfect mask in photoshop, and made an action to do it automatically. Now I only need the mask object, and a flat color surface below it. Still quite inconvenient, but works.

[AyreGuitar]

Tsun - Try this example - might be a bit simpler to understand and achieve. No plugins or shaders required. Single Active with White BG of frame.
(It's funny you should ask for this as I only figured it out for myself a couple of weeks ago!)

Be careful if you try it on an Active Picture for iOS exporter as it will look greyer than it should on device (fine in an Active though!) See this thread (if registered for iOS Exporter) for more details: http://community.clickteam.com/threads/79685-Bug-257-6-RGB-Tinting-of-Active-Picture-looks-wrong-on-iOS-device-compared-with-PC

[Konidias]

I would think that example would have extremely limited use considering you need to have a white BG in order to make it work.

[GreenOnion]

HueExample.zip

Try that. It's not... Quite what you want, but ... Maybe it's useful for something else. I used the darken effect, and it almost works.

Goddamn it.

PS: Your profile picture is adorable.