Beginner's Guide to Adobe Flash/Filters and Blend Modes/Adjusting Color Filters

The most broadly useful tool introduced to Flash with the new filters feature is the Adjust Color filter. Finally, you can make subtle adjustments (on an instance level) to Movie Clips, Button symbols, and text fields, without having to go back to the Color Mixer panel and change the stroke and fill colors of the original symbol. Unlike the Color control options in the Properties panel, the Adjust Color option in the Filters panel makes it easy to combine different types of color trans- formation without manually adjusting individual RGBvalues. By default, all settings are loaded as "neutral" - sliders are set to 0 so that no color transformation is visible on the selected item when the filter is first applied. Color transformations are applied for instant visual feedback as the slider controls or text values are adjusted. Filters apply on an instance level, and settings can be modified at any time by selecting an instance and choosing Adjust Color from the live filter list in the Filters panel. The following values can be applied individually or in combination to Movie Clips, Button symbols, and text fields: Brightness: Alters the RGBvalues for the original color to make it appear lighter or darker without changing the hue. The range for filter Brightness is -100 to + 100. The default or no change value is O.The numeric value that appears in the Brightness field is added to the RGBvalues of the original color to create a new shade, within the minimum and maximum values of 0 and 255, respectively. For example, a red fill (255, 0, 0) set to +50 brightness will be transformed into light red (255, 50, 50). The same red fill (255, 0, 0) set to -50 brightness will be transformed into dark red (205, 0, 0). The results of adjusting Brightness in the Filters panel are different than the results of adjusting Brightness in the Properties panel. Contrast: At the minimum contrast setting of -100, all RGBvalues are forced to 64,64, 64, making everything medium gray. The RGBvalues at the maximum contrast setting of 100 will vary depending on the original colors, but they will be forced closer to 0 or 255. The default or no change value is O.The greater the numeric difference between RGBvalues, the greater the amount of contrast. In visual terms, light colors get lighter and dark colors get darker as contrast is increased, whereas all colors are brought closer to medium gray as contrast is decreased. Saturation: Saturation can also be thought of as the intensity or purity of color. At the minimum saturation setting of -100, the image will be rendered in grayscale with no color intensity-similar to the hues found closer to the bottom of the color selection field in the Color Mixer. At the maximum saturation setting of 100, the colors will be as intense or as close to pure color as possible-similar to the hues found closer to the top of the color selection field in the Color Mixer panel. Hue: The Hue slider has a different range than the other Adjust Color filter sliders. To span the full range of the 360-degree color wheel, the slider values are from -180 to 180. The default or no change value is O. If you were looking at a real color wheel, reducing the hue value would be equivalent to moving counterclockwise around the wheel, while increasing the hue value would be equivalent to moving clockwise around the wheel. At either extreme ( - 180 or 180), the resulting color would be directly opposite the original color on the color wheel. The relationship of colors directly opposite on the color wheel is known as complementary.